Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
- Messages
- 51,246
- Reaction score
- 8,247
- Location
- Huntsville
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Friday
Howdy,
So a few months ago I got an unexpected PM from another TWT user telling me about an offer too good to refuse... As you might expect, that kind of kicks my radar into gear and makes me wonder what is going on. I was offered a used Honda XR80R... for free. Of course I immediately wonder why someone wants to give me a free bike and what might be wrong with it 
I was assured that there was nothing major wrong with it, the few minor issues would be fixed, and the bike would even be delivered! The only condition was that I post up pics of the kids enjoying the bike. I can take pics and who doesn't want a free bike that is in good condition!? What is really amazing is that for a few weeks prior to this I had been thinking about Sarah needing a bigger bike because she was getting cramped on the XR50 she had been riding!! The timing could not have been better! So I agreed!
Life gets in the way and various things came up in the coming weeks that prevented the deal from going down as soon as we were hoping. However, things eventually worked out, Snoopster donated some space next to her bike in the back of her truck, and her and Rainmaker met the owner and picked up the bike for us. She keeps her bike in our garage so it was on the way for her 
The kids were EXCITED and wanted to ride it NOW! 
Daniel was bummed that Sarah was getting a bike he could not ride on his own, but he is still too short. Sarah can reach with one leg and hold it up. Daniel still fits the TTR-50E but Sarah was getting pretty cramped on it or the XR50. So for now, this bike is for her... and me! 
2003 Honda XR80R
For a ten year old dirt bike, this bike is in great shape! Snoopster gives me all the extras, user guide, Clymer manual, and 50 feet of new header pipe fiber wrap. It has an after market exhaust and the header pipe has no shield.
It fires on the first kick and idles great! I take it for a spin around the bike yard just to get a feel for it. Then I take Sarah riding around the yard for a bit. She LOVES it! But she is a bit intimidated by the height and the fact that this bike has a real clutch, unlike the TTR50 and XR50. Anyway, it gets dark real soon so we put the bike away.
A few days later, I apply the fiber wrap to the header pipe. I've never done it before, but it was real easy. A few days after that, Daniel and I head out back to do some riding. He loves for me to chase him around the yard. After doing it on my KTM for a bit, I switched to the XR80R. As warned in the instructions, the new wrap smokes and STINKS. But it does work. While hot to the touch, it is not an instant skin/pant burn as would happen with the bare header. The smoke and stink eventually go away after about an hour of chasing Daniel all over the place.
So finally... This afternoon after church Sarah wants to ride. I had been talking to her about how the clutch works, how to find first and neutral, how to find the friction zone, how NOT to wheelie, how to slowly feed in the gas, how to brake, etc,... It is hard not to overwhelm her with information. So we just head to the backyard and I explain that before she even tries to ride, we'll just experiment with the friction zone.
First, I put her on the back and we talk while I ride around the yard. I have her watch my hand and let her feel the bike start to move as I let out the clutch. I get her to listen to the sound of the engine as I start to slip the clutch. I show her how the engine can rev like crazy but the bike won't move so long as the clutch is disengaged. I show her how to make slow turns while letting the engine rev and using the clutch to control speed. Then it was time for her to do it...
First some posing
We get her helmet on, get the bike started, and then she climbs aboard. Since she can't reach the ground with both feet, I hold the bike up for her and we practice just slipping the clutch at idle until she gets the feel for the start of the friction zone. I have the idle set just a tad high so that the bike is not as likely to stall if she doesn't feed in the gas soon or fast enough. I also have her start in second gear. First is REAL low and I don't want her having to worry about shifting right now.
After a few minutes of playing with the friction zone, she's ready to try riding. I steady the bike and cover the clutch with my hand over hers so I can grab it if she lets it out too fast. I talk her through slipping it out and feeding it the gas to get the bike rolling. The bike moves a few feet... and she is away!! Our arrangement is that when she is ready to stop, she'll come toward me slowly and yell, "STOP!" I'll grab the bars and ensure the clutch is disengaged. As she moves away, I grab the camera.
She makes a big loop to the other end of the yard, executes a nice turn while keeping her eyes up and looking through the turn, then comes back toward me. "STOP!" She slowly coasts right up to me, already having the clutch in, and I grab the bars and cover the clutch. I show her how to do the thigh on the seat with one foot down, but she is still a bit nervous about that, so one thing at a time. I ask if she wants to go again. She does, but wants me to get her pointed in the right direction. I get her oriented and steady her for the next attempt. Once again, she pulls away with no problem and this time does 4-5 loops around the yard before deciding to call it quits... before I got any video! 
She was nervous when we started, but I reminded her of how well she rides the other bike and that once she was rolling this would be no different. She did great! The reach to the clutch is a bit long and the pull is a bit hard for her, but she will get it. Then I'll work with her on shifting gears. I think what makes me most proud is how well she listened the explanations and how she executed the steps flawlessly. It did wonders for her confidence.
Well, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! I found Rachel and Daniel sitting on the couch watching a Curious George video and shooed them out the back door. Sooo... Daniel decided he needed to ride. He has pretty much claimed the TTR50 as his own and Rachel rides the XR50. Rachel wanted to ride as well, but one of the wheels on the moose training wheels had come apart Fortunately, when I bought the TTR50, it came with a set of Moose training wheels as well. Since Daniel has long since moved on from those, I swapped one of the wheels and we were good to go. But first I shot a few pics of Daniel riding. Once I got on the XR50 with Rachel, I was WAY to busy hanging on for dear life to be taking pictures! Like Daniel, her throttle hand only has two settings... ON and OFF! So I ride with her to steer and cover the throttle/brakes in case I need to override her actions.
Daniel likes to ZOOM the length of the ditch across the front yard and try to jump the drive way by riding up the hump next to the culvert... Yeah... it makes me cringe a bit, but he never misses.
I showed him how to zig-zag along the length of the ditch to get used to swerving the bike and also shifting his weight because of the slope of the ditch sides. We watch for traffic since we are on the edge of the road (very little traffic anyway).
A tiny bit of air under the front wheel!
Rachel get's impatient for me to get her bike going
Daniel helps her gear up while I fix her bike
We spend the next forty-five minutes chasing each other around the yard, around the trees, through the woods, down the ditches, and over the driveway. Near the end, Rachel was finally starting to show that she grasps the concept of part throttle 
I REALLY need to get the little throttle stop screw back in before I turn her loose on her own. Then we have to work on that whole looking where you are going and looking where you want to go thing... 
I finished up by letting Daniel ride on the back of the XR80 for a few "hot laps" around the back yard. It was a great chance to really show him the importance of body position when turning. He wants to lean like a road bike instead of pushing the bike down, but he is getting better at it. I also took the opportunity to go ahead and talk with him about the clutch while we were putting around. Then after a few ZOOMS across the yard, we parked the bikes for the day. While putting away the gear I lost track of the number of times he told me how much fun he had riding on the back of the XR80!
All in all, a great day with the kids! 
So a few months ago I got an unexpected PM from another TWT user telling me about an offer too good to refuse... As you might expect, that kind of kicks my radar into gear and makes me wonder what is going on. I was offered a used Honda XR80R... for free. Of course I immediately wonder why someone wants to give me a free bike and what might be wrong with it I was assured that there was nothing major wrong with it, the few minor issues would be fixed, and the bike would even be delivered! The only condition was that I post up pics of the kids enjoying the bike. I can take pics and who doesn't want a free bike that is in good condition!? What is really amazing is that for a few weeks prior to this I had been thinking about Sarah needing a bigger bike because she was getting cramped on the XR50 she had been riding!! The timing could not have been better! So I agreed! Life gets in the way and various things came up in the coming weeks that prevented the deal from going down as soon as we were hoping. However, things eventually worked out, Snoopster donated some space next to her bike in the back of her truck, and her and Rainmaker met the owner and picked up the bike for us. She keeps her bike in our garage so it was on the way for her The kids were EXCITED and wanted to ride it NOW! Daniel was bummed that Sarah was getting a bike he could not ride on his own, but he is still too short. Sarah can reach with one leg and hold it up. Daniel still fits the TTR-50E but Sarah was getting pretty cramped on it or the XR50. So for now, this bike is for her... and me! 2003 Honda XR80R
For a ten year old dirt bike, this bike is in great shape! Snoopster gives me all the extras, user guide, Clymer manual, and 50 feet of new header pipe fiber wrap. It has an after market exhaust and the header pipe has no shield. It fires on the first kick and idles great! I take it for a spin around the bike yard just to get a feel for it. Then I take Sarah riding around the yard for a bit. She LOVES it! But she is a bit intimidated by the height and the fact that this bike has a real clutch, unlike the TTR50 and XR50. Anyway, it gets dark real soon so we put the bike away. A few days later, I apply the fiber wrap to the header pipe. I've never done it before, but it was real easy. A few days after that, Daniel and I head out back to do some riding. He loves for me to chase him around the yard. After doing it on my KTM for a bit, I switched to the XR80R. As warned in the instructions, the new wrap smokes and STINKS. But it does work. While hot to the touch, it is not an instant skin/pant burn as would happen with the bare header. The smoke and stink eventually go away after about an hour of chasing Daniel all over the place. So finally... This afternoon after church Sarah wants to ride. I had been talking to her about how the clutch works, how to find first and neutral, how to find the friction zone, how NOT to wheelie, how to slowly feed in the gas, how to brake, etc,... It is hard not to overwhelm her with information. So we just head to the backyard and I explain that before she even tries to ride, we'll just experiment with the friction zone. First, I put her on the back and we talk while I ride around the yard. I have her watch my hand and let her feel the bike start to move as I let out the clutch. I get her to listen to the sound of the engine as I start to slip the clutch. I show her how the engine can rev like crazy but the bike won't move so long as the clutch is disengaged. I show her how to make slow turns while letting the engine rev and using the clutch to control speed. Then it was time for her to do it...First some posing
We get her helmet on, get the bike started, and then she climbs aboard. Since she can't reach the ground with both feet, I hold the bike up for her and we practice just slipping the clutch at idle until she gets the feel for the start of the friction zone. I have the idle set just a tad high so that the bike is not as likely to stall if she doesn't feed in the gas soon or fast enough. I also have her start in second gear. First is REAL low and I don't want her having to worry about shifting right now. After a few minutes of playing with the friction zone, she's ready to try riding. I steady the bike and cover the clutch with my hand over hers so I can grab it if she lets it out too fast. I talk her through slipping it out and feeding it the gas to get the bike rolling. The bike moves a few feet... and she is away!! Our arrangement is that when she is ready to stop, she'll come toward me slowly and yell, "STOP!" I'll grab the bars and ensure the clutch is disengaged. As she moves away, I grab the camera.
She makes a big loop to the other end of the yard, executes a nice turn while keeping her eyes up and looking through the turn, then comes back toward me. "STOP!" She slowly coasts right up to me, already having the clutch in, and I grab the bars and cover the clutch. I show her how to do the thigh on the seat with one foot down, but she is still a bit nervous about that, so one thing at a time. I ask if she wants to go again. She does, but wants me to get her pointed in the right direction. I get her oriented and steady her for the next attempt. Once again, she pulls away with no problem and this time does 4-5 loops around the yard before deciding to call it quits... before I got any video!
She was nervous when we started, but I reminded her of how well she rides the other bike and that once she was rolling this would be no different. She did great! The reach to the clutch is a bit long and the pull is a bit hard for her, but she will get it. Then I'll work with her on shifting gears. I think what makes me most proud is how well she listened the explanations and how she executed the steps flawlessly. It did wonders for her confidence. Well, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! I found Rachel and Daniel sitting on the couch watching a Curious George video and shooed them out the back door. Sooo... Daniel decided he needed to ride. He has pretty much claimed the TTR50 as his own and Rachel rides the XR50. Rachel wanted to ride as well, but one of the wheels on the moose training wheels had come apart Fortunately, when I bought the TTR50, it came with a set of Moose training wheels as well. Since Daniel has long since moved on from those, I swapped one of the wheels and we were good to go. But first I shot a few pics of Daniel riding. Once I got on the XR50 with Rachel, I was WAY to busy hanging on for dear life to be taking pictures! Like Daniel, her throttle hand only has two settings... ON and OFF! So I ride with her to steer and cover the throttle/brakes in case I need to override her actions.Daniel likes to ZOOM the length of the ditch across the front yard and try to jump the drive way by riding up the hump next to the culvert... Yeah... it makes me cringe a bit, but he never misses.
I showed him how to zig-zag along the length of the ditch to get used to swerving the bike and also shifting his weight because of the slope of the ditch sides. We watch for traffic since we are on the edge of the road (very little traffic anyway).
A tiny bit of air under the front wheel!
Rachel get's impatient for me to get her bike going
Daniel helps her gear up while I fix her bike
We spend the next forty-five minutes chasing each other around the yard, around the trees, through the woods, down the ditches, and over the driveway. Near the end, Rachel was finally starting to show that she grasps the concept of part throttle I REALLY need to get the little throttle stop screw back in before I turn her loose on her own. Then we have to work on that whole looking where you are going and looking where you want to go thing... I finished up by letting Daniel ride on the back of the XR80 for a few "hot laps" around the back yard. It was a great chance to really show him the importance of body position when turning. He wants to lean like a road bike instead of pushing the bike down, but he is getting better at it. I also took the opportunity to go ahead and talk with him about the clutch while we were putting around. Then after a few ZOOMS across the yard, we parked the bikes for the day. While putting away the gear I lost track of the number of times he told me how much fun he had riding on the back of the XR80! All in all, a great day with the kids!
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Good times; enjoy.
