I understand it has no meaning for you to take an off road class without a fully loaded RTW bike. But I would not recommend that for someone who never went off road riding.

For a beginner, my recommandation is to take an off-road class with a light bike (enduro racing schools are great):
- You take a class to learn the techniques on how to attack offroad obstacles and terrain.
- It is much easier to focus on learning the techniques on a light bike.
- you can drop the bike as many times as needed.
- less chance of injuries while going through the beginners mistakes.
- you build your confidence a lot quicker.

After the class you will know what to do off-road. Take your big bike without luggage and go practice. When ready, put your luggage on and practice again.

Also, i don't see any problem dropping a bike, it is part of the game. Knowing when it is time to get off the bike is important too.


Patrick

Hello

Ok, so you didn't skip my comment, so here comes more blasphemy, I'm even gonna insult the holy grail of offroad riding.

What do you learn in those trainings on light bikes?
Proper techniques on how to ride an empty light bike.
All that riding in standing position and lots of "ballet".
I did a training, 15 years after my first sandtracks and my RTW, at the most famous BMW akademie in southern Germany "BMW Hechlingen", even Brad Pitt was there.
Don't know what other places teach, but almost nothing of what I learned there is of any use to me for riding my loaded bike on "offroad tracks".

I never had any training before my first encounter with loose road surfaces, actually my first "adventure like that" was 1996 on the Alcan-Highway on my Kawasaki ZG1200 Voyager, 350kg bike + myself + luggage.
Mile after mile of road construction, from fine loose sand to stones of the size of oranges.
I had read in a book about offroad riding that you have to stand up and speed is your friend, fortunately to my health, standing up was not possible on that bike.
So I had to deal with the situation while seated.
Some years later in OZ on a XT600E I tried the standing up thing again, as read in a book (or later learnd in the BMW course).
Once I was in the soft gravel my bike did what it is supposed to do, moving freely between my legs, until I fell hard after a few seconds.
Took me a while to realize that the luggage moved the center of gravity towards the back and up, making it nearly impossible for the bike to what it is supposed to do according to the philosophy of standing-up-riding an empty bike.

In short, since then I don't stand up on my loaded bike, never (only a few times when there is a bump to big for the suspension of the bike to handle).
Finished the trip in OZ, Tanami-Road, Gibb river road, Birdsville track and some more less famous tracks, great fun, no more falls on that trip.
Years later followed my 2 year RTW with no big falls, just a suicidal roo that took me out on tarmac.


I'm not the fastest on the sandtracks, I can't pull off cool drifts in corners, but hey I never needed that, so honestly there is nothing I can learn from those offroad trainings, in regard of riding my loaded bike, that I haven't learned by myself.
My advice to beginners is, forget that ideology of riding a loaded bike like a empty light bike when in reality you have to learn how to deal with your setup, learn to ride your bike seated, you can't be standing the whole day anyway.

That is and was no option for me.
I live in Switzerland, there is absolutly no legal gravel road on a level where one could learn something.
How many miles do you need to learn riding from the first training to when you are ready to start a trip with your fully loaded bike setup?

And finally, I advice everybody not to fall, just a sprained or broken wrist can happen by even the smallest fall, and has a huge impact on your trip.

sushi

__________________
My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere