Top Gun India Adventure Riding Academy Review

Which school?

It’s called the Top Gun India Riding Academy and Vikrant Ghate runs it. Now, even though this was Top Gun’s first adventure riding school, the team behind it has been running riding schools for a while. The Vortex Racing Academy at Kolhapur to develop track oriented skills being case in point. 

For the adventure school, Top Gun brought in Bret Tkacs. Now, for those not in the know, Bret Tkacs has been riding and training people on adventure bikes for over 20 years. And that means he has seen every possible rider type, rider error, and rider excuse there is when it comes to riding big bikes off the road. And, of course, in 20 years, he has honed the curriculum to the point that it works for beginners and experts alike.

Which bike?

I rode the Ducati Multistrada 950. But, it was an interesting discussion that got me there. In short, this is what happened.

I asked Ducati for a bike. Given the type of school I was attending, they insisted I take the Multistrada 1200 Enduro. I vetoed it obviously; the bike is just too daunting. I wanted the Desert Sled instead; it’s lighter, more manageable, and there was less to break if I dropped it. 

And so, we arrived at the Multi 950 instead; as the Hindi saying goes – “Na tera, na mera”. Sure, there might be more to break on this bike compared to the Desert Sled, but, given the lower seat height and more manageable weight against the 1200 Enduro, the 950 would work just fine.

What I learned?

The 950 did work fine. In fact, its 200kg plus weight actually accelerated my learning curve on the dirt. 

Day 1

The first thing I learned about riding ADVs is that you don’t ride them like you do dirt bikes; something I did almost all the time. The thing is dirt bikes are light, nippy and easy to wheelie. ADVs on the other hand, are heavy, powerful and well, not the most agile.

And so, we started with the basics.

We spent sometime riding around the track to understand how our bikes behave on slippery and dusty terrain. Then, it was time to get our riding position corrected, both while sitting and standing. The important thing here is to keep your weight as much at the front as possible and don’t hang on to the handlebar. Grab the tank instead. This is the only way the bike is free to do its thing on dirt and stay the right way up. 

Next up, was all about balance. On a tall and heavy adventure bike, balance is crucial. And, it is especially true at crawling speeds when you don’t have the gyroscopic effect helping you. So, to better understand the balance point of the bike, we walked around it holding the most fragile bits on the bike and tried not to apply any force to keep it upright.

Then it was time to apply the balance theory on the move. And to do that, we rode as slow as possible without putting the feet down. This, of course, is only possible with good throttle, clutch and brake control. And, applying them all together, but in varying quantities. This helps when you are tackling tight trails. But, as I learned (or didn’t), it’s not the easiest skill to master.

Day 2

Day two was more about honing and applying the skills we had learned in a real world situation. So, even though the day started with some slalom exercises, the idea was to remind us to focus on balance and improve our vision. 

Then it was time to take on some obstacles. Loose mud, some rocks and even tree branches. And just so we understood the best way to use the clutch and throttle together to avoid wheelspin on the slippery stuff, we were made to stop in the middle of the obstacles and then power out slowly. 

Finally, we had the show-off drills. Riding with one leg on the seat, followed by moving both legs to one side of the bike, riding with no hands, riding with one hand and one leg, and then getting on and off the bike like we did on tall cycles when we were kids. The latter was the result of us kids not being able to swing a leg over and reach the ground. 

Now, show-off though these drills might be, but there was learning there as well. Riding with no hands, or one hand and one leg, or with one leg on the seat are all done to build the rider’s confidence in the motorcycle’s inherent want to stay balanced. The rest helps when riding through tricky trails especially when you’d want both your legs firmly on the ground to keep the bike from going down. Of course, none of it comes naturally, but the idea is to do it often enough for it to feel right. 

Do I recommend it?

Well, before I attended this school, I thought riding around on my Impulse on some easy trails was all I needed to take on any ADV on any trail and on any adventure. And that might be true to some extent, but the way I’d approach an ADV, and the adventure associated with it, will be different now. 

I will be more confident; I will probably attempt more challenging trails; and I would hopefully know what to do when things start to go downhill on an adventure. So, if you own an ADV, our recommendation would be to go back to school. And from what we have experienced at Top Gun under Bret Tkacs’ guidance, this school does work. The only catch is that at Rs 18,000, it it is anything but cheap. 

Photography by Kapil Angane