Ride a 4-stroke 250.
Spent most of my time over the years riding on "hard packed" dirt.......
Now I'm riding on a "soft" track that gets rutted. I'm going there deliberately so I can learn how to ride on soft terrain including the rutted corners.
As you can imagine - this is a bitch for me. I have to relearn everything. I feel like a newbie dumbass on the track. 
Embarrassing.
I've gotten much better over this summer - so that's good, but I SUCK in the soft and rutted corners.
My problem is "body position" entering and going through the corner - but I can't seem to fix it. Tried a hundred times. No luck.
Sometimes I fall over and crash. Most of the time I'm SLOW and spinning the rear tire exiting the turn.
I try and get up on the gas tank and weight the outer peg when entering the turn and rutt - but I can't seem to do it right and my balance is all messed up. Often I lose the rut and come out of it and crash or shimmy side to side. My lean is all messed up to.
It's a disaster.
Signed. Shittshow in Chicago........
Suggestions?
Like anything, practice makes perfect. Take your time. Start slow and build up speed. Make sure you are looking ahead and don't look at your front wheel or the rut.
Would help a lot more if you had video… but where are your eyes looking?
My eyes are looking at the stupid rutt............
Yes - that's a problem. I know I'm suppose to look ahead.
but isn't it ok to look at the rutt when I enter it? And then once in the rutt - start looking ahead?
No. Looking at the rut is throwing you off from the start
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Yea post a video. We can tell you 100 different ways to do it but we don’t know what level you’re at what you’re doing right or wrong.
How ever far ahead you are looking you probably need to look farther.
Try a gear higher. If your running out of power halfway through the rut that will cause problems
Don’t try too many things at once. Keep it simple
You didn't happen to race at Casey Illinois last weekend did you? Those ruts were nasty.
If he did, those were expert level ruts. The whole track looked rough, everyone I spoke to said it just beat the hell out of them all day, even a few of the pros.
If those ruts are what you're measuring yourself against, that's a brutal yardstick.
Everyone is trying to take the inside of every corner. This makes all those deep ass ruts. If you're not a rut master...just find an outside line and do your thing. Slower... probably... but much faster than picking up the bike after eating shit.
I also suck at ruts…should start a support system for folks like us. I know I could run around a rutted corner faster than I can get thru with my bike..
Get a Suzuki
I'm far from expert - but for me i find i can enter the rut with good pace and thru the center am ok but things go south on exit. What helps me is a point of contact - ie, get my inside foot back on the peg as soon as possible and on the gas with weight shifted to rear wheel. If u wantch Pro's their feet stay on the pegs or get back on the pegs quick. Also with tight ruts/corners it's even more important to stay standing into corner until apex.
Those ruts handed me my ass on a platter. Stalled it more in one moto than I have my entire life, the corner after the triple and finish line corner in particular.
Sit more neutral/center of the seat in the corners. Don't scoot way up front on the seat. This was my problem for years was sitting too far forward on the seat. Then i sat dead center of the seat and it was night and day difference. Watch Dylan ferrandis, He sits pretty far back on the seat. Leg up high, and lean with the bike
Yup, he nailed it. Look about 40 ft ahead of you, and not directly in front of you. The body goes where the head goes.
40ft ahead is ridiculous lol
Many local track corners are only 40ft total from entry to exit. Sometimes less. Just look about a bike length ahead of where you are. 7-10ft is the general rule of thumb.
Ok, but I thought Im supposed to pick the rutted BEFORE entering it. Right?
I watch the pros and they always pick a rutted as they enter the corner.
Pit Row
Nobody here can tell you how to hit a rutted corner. Watch some YouTube videos on it and go practice. The only way you will get better is by riding ruts. From now on every single time you hit a corner pick the deepest rut there. Every time. Force yourself to hit them and not be intimidated by them and before you know it you'll have them down. Not many can hit ruts perfect 10/10 times so don't beat yourself up if you climb out of a rut here and there. We all make mistakes. But like I said. Get in a rut every time. Never avoid them if you want to get better with ruts
I’m no pro by any means but I’ve found when I enter a turn standing and go through the motions from standing to sitting around the apex of the turn it helps me dramatically. If I enter sitting it’s usually a shit show 🤪
The track I was at yesterday was ripped sooo deep.
Some of the ruts from the guys that were flying couldn’t even be ridden at slower speeds.
“I suck “
Were my exact words to my buddies that weren’t there!
But I wasn’t the only one, several people left in the ambulance
What track?
More roll speed, less braking into the rut. Think about riding the rut entry and mid-corner, not getting on the gas.
Yeah good point...
All the pros enter the rutted corners standing, then sit once they're in the rutt.
I often get lazy or tired standing and so I enter some rutted corners sitting. That said, even when I enter standing it's still typically a bad result. My body is often leaning to the inside corner instead of being on outside corner and weighting the outer peg.
Someone told me to turn my outside knee inward and press against the bike and that would result in weighting the outer peg. I need to try that.
Well said. Good advice. Agreed
That's what I've been doing every time I ride now. Most guys take the outside line because it's rutt free and easy. I only take the inside rutted lines because I SUCK and need to get better. That said, it's tiring 😫
Keep shredding! 🤜🤛
Beat me to it
This is way I was going to stay. Take a few times trying to just coast and be steady. Roll the throttle on don’t stab it.
Smooth is fast in rutted corners and you can’t be smooth with the brakes binding everything up.
This has shown up a few times in this thread and I’m a believer in it. Stand up further into the entry than you think you need to. This settles the bike and lets you look further down the track. Standing puts your head about a foot higher than sitting, so motion seems less intense and you can see further ahead. Don’t sit until you’re past the chop.
Look where you want to go not at the rut.
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