THE FLYING KIWI

Riding skills guru, KTM Adventure bike monster and Kriega ambassador, Chris Birch, is an eight-time New Zealand Enduro champion, three-time Roof of Africa hard enduro winner, and has finished on the Red Bull Romaniacs podium seven times, including winning the whole thing in 2010.
Based in Thames, New Zealand, he has successfully competed in the world’s biggest enduro races including Erzberg, Red Bull Last Man Standing, Hell’s Gate, the International Six Days Enduro, and both the World and European Enduro Championships. Birchy is also New Zealand’s most successful Dakar Rally competitor finishing 27th overall, and second in the Rookies class, in 2012.
The 43-year-old’s Say No To Slow classes and video tutorials have improved the off-road riding of motorcyclists all over the world. His films, like A Long Way for a Bush Coffee and Mud Bath Mountain each have over two million views on YouTube.

We managed to get him to stay still long enough to answer a few questions for us.

You’ve competed in the toughest off-road events in the world, is there one day that stands out for brutality above the rest?
I would say the toughest single day was day two of the Roof of Africa, I think in 2009. The organisers had not ridden the complete route before, they had ridden sections, hiked some and ridden some on donkeys, but had never done a full run on a motorcycle. They told us it would take around six hours. I won the day by about 45 minutes and it took me 10.5 hours. Towards the end I was destroyed, cramp everywhere and full tunnel vision. It was pretty much dark as I crossed the finish line, and many riders slept in the mountains with the baboons. Good times!

What’s the favourite bike you’ve ever ridden or raced and why?
I’m a shocker for this. Normally my answer is whatever bike I just got off of, but I really wish I had kept my Romaniacs-winning KTM 300EXC, but I couldn’t wrangle the cash.

Any complete nightmares you wish you’d never slung a leg over?
Many many years ago I raced in the UK on a Husqvarna 250. It was during the time when Husqvarna was owned by the Cagiva Group [before BMW, then KTM bought them] and they were not doing good. That bike was a total dog. I was living with my aunt and uncle and my workshop was their wood shed. Single light bulb, freezing cold. I’d spend hours out there trying to prepare the bike perfectly only for it to fall apart in some new and exciting way come race day. I’d say it was the only bike that’s made me cry out of pure frustration.

You’ve ridden and raced in over 30 countries. Assuming New Zealand is your favourite, what is your next favourite country to ride in?
Romania, America and Lesotho would be my top three.

You transitioned from racing to instructing. Including your video instruction schools, how many riders do you think you’ve taught since 2007?
I couldn’t guess, but it’s got to be over 10,000 plus all the Say No To Slow subscribers. It’s pretty incredible to see it go all over the world. It’s cool to be able to help all these people around the planet.

Not expecting you to give away the secrets of your schools, but is there a recurring fault you see in riders that you aim to eradicate?
Number one for me is body positioning, especially standing position starting from the toes all the way up to your nose. That’s a really important fundamental.

What is the best piece of riding advice you can share?
Boring answer: practice! Actually, focussing on working on your technique and weaknesses. Just like you would on any other sport.

You’re a two-wheel superhero, but when was the last time it went wrong for you and why?
Almost daily, ha ha! Like a muppet, I lost a Cardo communicator two days ago, I forgot to download the GPS track yesterday, life is a constant challenge.

When you were a teenager, could you imagine taking a 1.3-litre, 160bhp bike up gnarly mountain trails and making it look kind of normal?
Probably not, but for some reason I always liked the look of the big bikes. I used to think a Cagiva Elefant was the coolest bike on the planet, even though I was riding a trials bike at the time.

Super-skilled riders like you and the mates we see in your videos make riding big twins off-road look easy, but it’s really difficult for the majority of riders. Do you think lots of current riders end up with bigger, more powerful bikes than they can really handle?
I think people rush on to their dream bike too soon, for sure. I often get people asking if I think they have bought the wrong bike and my answer is, No, you just bought your third bike first.

What’s left near the top of your bucket list, from a motorcycle or career point of view?
I really want to do some more singletrack riding in America. The Tour of Idaho is definitely on my list. Racing goals are pretty much ticked, but there is always new and exciting things to do and places to go with motorcycles.

What is the best piece of life advice you’ve ever been given?
That I would make a bad engineer and that motorcycles are going to take me nowhere. That was the school careers advisor. I’ve never forgotten that!

Kriega partnered with Birchy to make a special edition Tool Roll and Pocket.

Find out more about Birchy’s popular Say No To Slow riding school videos at https://saynotoslow.nz/