- Joined
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- First Name
- Scott
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- Friday
So I've posted stuff here and there about my kids, Sarah (18) and Daniel (16) recently getting their motorcycle licenses. I thought I'd collect some memories here as one big report and then just keep adding to this thread as the adventure continues. What follows is a bit of backstory, ride reports with pics and videos, etc,... to get us up to the present day.
Sarah got an early exposure to bikes... In fact she attended her first bike night when she was only one week old and her first pie run when only six weeks old! Daniel and Rachel had similar experiences. They started out on dirt bikes as kids at 7 and 5 on a Honda CRF50 I snagged while making a deal on a KTM 530 EXC. They started out with the training wheels with me on the back letting them either steer, do the gas/brakes, or all the above until I thought they could do it without the training wheels. They just rode around our back yard and I worked with them on basic skills. Sarah gravitated toward the Honda CRF50 and Daniel a Yamaha TTR50E I found a few months after getting the Honda. Rachel (14) also started on the Honda at about 5 years old. She rode occasionally over the years, but the bug never really bit her quite like the other two.
One of my favorite memories is of Sarah and Daniel riding around in the back yard. When they first started, I did not allow them to shift into higher gears because I wanted them to focus on being able to do the basic controls before adding speed. Of course Daniel ripped around the yard rapping out his TTR in first gear while Sarah putted along so slow she'd almost fall over. Eventually, she got better and I decided to let them try out second gear. Daniel took to it like a fish to water. Sarah was not so confident. Daniel saw her riding slowly with her bike shuddering. He pulled up along side her and yelled, "It is a lot smoother and faster in second gear!" To which she sternly replied, "I AM IN SECOND GEAR!" She was always telling him what I said, "It is NOT a race!" Of course in his mind, it was ALWAYS a race!!
Sarah and Daniel actually got a private dirt riding class on the 50s because all the other people canceled at one point or another in the days before the class and the instructor agreed to go ahead and do it with just the two of them. They never really got to rack up huge hours on the bikes, mostly just doing some rides on my parents property on trails we had cut through the woods on the back 7 acres of their land (here, here, and here). Both of them started riding on the back of my 1200 GS when they were eight (Sarah's first ride, Flower hunt with Sarah, Daniel's first ride). It was not long before Sarah tried an XR80R that was donated to us by another TWT member, but that didn't really turn out as planned She decided she wasn't quite ready for a clutch and that become a chase bike I used to follow them on their rides rather than riding my much larger KTM 530 EXC behind them. Shortly after that, Sarah got a Honda CRF110 which we got just in time to attend a great weekend with other TWT members at a nearby dirt park. Everyone had so much fun with that weekend we decided to do another! All the riding got Rachel in the mood so she started wanting some seat time as well. Daniel was getting taller so we got him a Yamaha TTR-110E.
I always wanted to spend more time with them getting to ride their bikes, but it just seemed like there were always other things getting in the way, their schooling, my work, other stuff... you know, life. I did manage to take Sarah on a big week long adventure trip through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado in 2016 with Joe "Jfink", Roger "Rsquared", and Phil "ToeJam". We later did a nice trip up to Donnie's place in Arkansas in 2017 which was so much fun Daniel and I went back up a month or so later for a TWT Father/Son weekend of riding with other fathers and sons. After that, the bikes pretty much sat in the garage or an enclosed trailer until I sold them last year, along with the trailer. However, when Sarah was about 15, a 2017 Yamaha XT-250 popped up on the forum for sale. We visited the sellers, did some test riding, and eventually bought it. The thinking was that I would use it to teach her to ride on the street here in our small neighborhood so she could get her license when she turned 18. Then Daniel would use it... That never really panned out because of, well... more life. I did manage to take Daniel on a great adventure trip to the Smoky Mountains in June of 2019 with Roger "Rsquared" and his son, Mason. It was a blast. BUT... then Covid hit. Everything got turned upside down. Work got crazier for me after my Dad retired, so even the riding with them two up on the GS happened less and less frequently. Dad passed away in March of 2022. Riding really seemed to get pushed to the back of the line. So the XT250 spent a shameful amount of time just sitting the garage... waiting... in the dark... with my unridden KTM and GS.
Daniel turned 16 in August of 2022. He got his driver's license. Around the new year, it was really bugging him to see the poor XT-250 just sitting in the garage. So I let him ride around the neighborhood with me while I coached him on how to ride it. After a few sessions where he did really well, I decided we could venture out of the neighborhood and we did a short 20 minute ride on nearby FMs. That got him HOOKED! The next weekend we did a longer ride of about 150 miles on local dirt roads and he did great. Then I told him we should not be doing this because we had no insurance on him and it could get ugly if there were an accident. He immediately decided he wanted to do the MSF class and get his license. I asked Sarah if she was interested in doing the class with him and she agreed. They took it in early February and both passed. Sarah had her license the following Monday morning, but Daniel still had to do the road test since he was under 18. We got that knocked out later in the week. Now they were both legit, ready, and eager to ride! Being the cautious Dad I am, I still made both of them do some riding around the neighborhood to work on mastering the basics of controlling the bike, clutch control, panic braking, balance, u-turns, etc... And then we ventured out.
Our first outing went great. The drill was to get home from church ASAP and try get on the bikes in time to get out to Iola for BBQ lunch at Mallet Brothers. They decided who would ride the XT-250 first and the other rode with me on my 1200 GS. I let them lead at a pace they were comfortable with and I hung back so as to not make them feel like they were being pushed from behind. I watched them and communicated via Sena 20S communicators, letting them know what to expect and how to deal with it in real time. If I saw a mistake, I could tell them what to do immediately to correct it before it got out of hand. I cannot over stress how important and useful it is to be able to communicate in real time! Anyway, after that first outing, both of them were checking weather apps to see what was in store for the following weekend because they wanted to make sure we could go riding It turned out that the weather was even better and we did get to go riding!
To be continued...
Sarah got an early exposure to bikes... In fact she attended her first bike night when she was only one week old and her first pie run when only six weeks old! Daniel and Rachel had similar experiences. They started out on dirt bikes as kids at 7 and 5 on a Honda CRF50 I snagged while making a deal on a KTM 530 EXC. They started out with the training wheels with me on the back letting them either steer, do the gas/brakes, or all the above until I thought they could do it without the training wheels. They just rode around our back yard and I worked with them on basic skills. Sarah gravitated toward the Honda CRF50 and Daniel a Yamaha TTR50E I found a few months after getting the Honda. Rachel (14) also started on the Honda at about 5 years old. She rode occasionally over the years, but the bug never really bit her quite like the other two.
One of my favorite memories is of Sarah and Daniel riding around in the back yard. When they first started, I did not allow them to shift into higher gears because I wanted them to focus on being able to do the basic controls before adding speed. Of course Daniel ripped around the yard rapping out his TTR in first gear while Sarah putted along so slow she'd almost fall over. Eventually, she got better and I decided to let them try out second gear. Daniel took to it like a fish to water. Sarah was not so confident. Daniel saw her riding slowly with her bike shuddering. He pulled up along side her and yelled, "It is a lot smoother and faster in second gear!" To which she sternly replied, "I AM IN SECOND GEAR!" She was always telling him what I said, "It is NOT a race!" Of course in his mind, it was ALWAYS a race!!
Sarah and Daniel actually got a private dirt riding class on the 50s because all the other people canceled at one point or another in the days before the class and the instructor agreed to go ahead and do it with just the two of them. They never really got to rack up huge hours on the bikes, mostly just doing some rides on my parents property on trails we had cut through the woods on the back 7 acres of their land (here, here, and here). Both of them started riding on the back of my 1200 GS when they were eight (Sarah's first ride, Flower hunt with Sarah, Daniel's first ride). It was not long before Sarah tried an XR80R that was donated to us by another TWT member, but that didn't really turn out as planned She decided she wasn't quite ready for a clutch and that become a chase bike I used to follow them on their rides rather than riding my much larger KTM 530 EXC behind them. Shortly after that, Sarah got a Honda CRF110 which we got just in time to attend a great weekend with other TWT members at a nearby dirt park. Everyone had so much fun with that weekend we decided to do another! All the riding got Rachel in the mood so she started wanting some seat time as well. Daniel was getting taller so we got him a Yamaha TTR-110E.
I always wanted to spend more time with them getting to ride their bikes, but it just seemed like there were always other things getting in the way, their schooling, my work, other stuff... you know, life. I did manage to take Sarah on a big week long adventure trip through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado in 2016 with Joe "Jfink", Roger "Rsquared", and Phil "ToeJam". We later did a nice trip up to Donnie's place in Arkansas in 2017 which was so much fun Daniel and I went back up a month or so later for a TWT Father/Son weekend of riding with other fathers and sons. After that, the bikes pretty much sat in the garage or an enclosed trailer until I sold them last year, along with the trailer. However, when Sarah was about 15, a 2017 Yamaha XT-250 popped up on the forum for sale. We visited the sellers, did some test riding, and eventually bought it. The thinking was that I would use it to teach her to ride on the street here in our small neighborhood so she could get her license when she turned 18. Then Daniel would use it... That never really panned out because of, well... more life. I did manage to take Daniel on a great adventure trip to the Smoky Mountains in June of 2019 with Roger "Rsquared" and his son, Mason. It was a blast. BUT... then Covid hit. Everything got turned upside down. Work got crazier for me after my Dad retired, so even the riding with them two up on the GS happened less and less frequently. Dad passed away in March of 2022. Riding really seemed to get pushed to the back of the line. So the XT250 spent a shameful amount of time just sitting the garage... waiting... in the dark... with my unridden KTM and GS.
Daniel turned 16 in August of 2022. He got his driver's license. Around the new year, it was really bugging him to see the poor XT-250 just sitting in the garage. So I let him ride around the neighborhood with me while I coached him on how to ride it. After a few sessions where he did really well, I decided we could venture out of the neighborhood and we did a short 20 minute ride on nearby FMs. That got him HOOKED! The next weekend we did a longer ride of about 150 miles on local dirt roads and he did great. Then I told him we should not be doing this because we had no insurance on him and it could get ugly if there were an accident. He immediately decided he wanted to do the MSF class and get his license. I asked Sarah if she was interested in doing the class with him and she agreed. They took it in early February and both passed. Sarah had her license the following Monday morning, but Daniel still had to do the road test since he was under 18. We got that knocked out later in the week. Now they were both legit, ready, and eager to ride! Being the cautious Dad I am, I still made both of them do some riding around the neighborhood to work on mastering the basics of controlling the bike, clutch control, panic braking, balance, u-turns, etc... And then we ventured out.
Our first outing went great. The drill was to get home from church ASAP and try get on the bikes in time to get out to Iola for BBQ lunch at Mallet Brothers. They decided who would ride the XT-250 first and the other rode with me on my 1200 GS. I let them lead at a pace they were comfortable with and I hung back so as to not make them feel like they were being pushed from behind. I watched them and communicated via Sena 20S communicators, letting them know what to expect and how to deal with it in real time. If I saw a mistake, I could tell them what to do immediately to correct it before it got out of hand. I cannot over stress how important and useful it is to be able to communicate in real time! Anyway, after that first outing, both of them were checking weather apps to see what was in store for the following weekend because they wanted to make sure we could go riding It turned out that the weather was even better and we did get to go riding!
To be continued...
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