My wife rode before we had kids. She's had several street bikes and dirt bikes over the years, but hasn't really ridden in more than 10 years other than maybe a quick putt around the yard. Oh, and one day on her XT225 a few years ago on dirt roads. She never did much off-road riding and hadn't gotten past the newbie/novice stage. Anyway, she's been saying that she might like a trials bike for a while now, but then when I try to get her to make a choice, she decides she's not ready. At the world round in TN, she mentioned it. The following weekend at an event in OH, she mentioned it again. She knows that she wants a vintage bike because she thinks they look cool and they have seats. She doesn't want to compete, but wants to be able to play ride, especially now that our older daughter is getting pretty good. After a bunch of looking around and talking, she think she wants a TL125. I have a loaner lined up for her to check out. In the meantime, I wanted to strike while the iron was hot and get her on something this weekend. I borrowed my brother's TY350 and she rode a bit in the yard. It went well and she's ready for more. That was the first good thing today...
My 9 year old daughter is really getting into riding, but her 7 year old sister has expressed no interest. She's been afraid - and afraid that she can't do it. She hasn't yet learned to ride a pedal bike and really hasn't tried. If she can't do something the first time she tries, she immediately writes it off as too hard. We tried the PW50 once last year and she couldn't grasp the concept of throttle control - it was either off or WFO. So she decided motorcycles were too hard.
At the event in OH last weekend, she watched her sister and a bunch of other kids have a lot of fun competing. She told us at dinner that night that she was ready to learn to ride. This afternoon I dug out the PW50, drained the old stuff that used to be gas and put the training wheels back on. After about an hour of throttle control practice with me standing in front of her and then riding on the back, she spent another hour or so riding around on her own. She didn't set the world on fire, but she's starting to get it. Even better, she asked if we could ride again tomorrow. She was so proud of herself...
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old dual sported XR250R
scorpa SY250 trials
some other crap
I know your feeling. My 5 year old hasn't wanted to touch his little OSET bike since he had two little crashes last year. He has similar issues with not liking to do something if he can't do it perfectly the first time. But after both bribes and threats I got him riding a bicycle for the first time today. I'm pretty excited, I hope I can get him putting around on the OSET by the end of the season.
J&J wrote:Awsome! Get ready to start buying bigger bikes..... Jacob's 13 & outgrows bikes faster than shoes which are bigger than mine now
No kidding! The 9 year old (10 tomorrow) needs a bigger bike and bigger boots. Fortunately, the 7 y/o still thinks hand-me-downs are cool. I probably don't have too many more years of that...
old dual sported XR250R
scorpa SY250 trials
some other crap
My wife decided that she was going riding Sunday. Unfortunately, the weather turned sour and it looked "iffy" at best. We loaded up and headed up to my parent's place to drop off our younger daughter who isn't quite ready for prime-time riding yet. I left the decision to my wife and 10 y/o daughter and they decided that we should go in the rain.
We had a couple of technical issues early on with my brother's TY350 that I borrowed for my wife, but they didn't seem to discourage her. I got the bike sorted and away we went. We avoided some of the more challenging stuff, but did do a couple good trails with some technical stuff. Everyone did great! We rode for about an hour when the storm intensity picked up and the thunder and lightening seemed bad enough to make it smart to call it a day. My wife and daughter were not ready to quit. Another great day!
I picked up the loaner TL125, but it wouldn't run and I ran out of time. I'll get that running for her to try and we'll see what shakes out. She's thinking she might even like another TTR125/XR100/etc. I'm hopeful that she goes with a trials bike, but I realize that she's never going to want to compete and just wants to trail ride. I can live with that.
Now I gotta source a couple of bikes...
old dual sported XR250R
scorpa SY250 trials
some other crap
motojunky wrote:Now I gotta source a couple of bikes...
I was kinda looking at TTR125's for my wife/daughter combo as well. Check out Craigslist for sure, I saw multiple TTR125s in the past week, several around $1k and several well under...
_________________________ StretchRide 04 KTM 450 EXC-G Racing 06 Honda XR650L
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