My wife, son(13), daughter(16), and I have been riding together since the kids were five. We have gone through the whole XR50, TTR90, CRF 80, TTR 125 thing. We do alot of riding all summer as time permits as we have approximately 20 miles of trails basically out our back door. Also we are blessed with our location as we are close to the ANF, majestic, mines and meadows, and manyther trail systems. No one ride stands out as all are great times. Probably one of my boys great memories is this Christmas when he got his WR125.
Ah yes, a bike for Christmas! Did you put it in your livingroom like I did ? Sometimes hard to do but makes for a good special effect!!!
JC KID; normally the wife doesn't initiate the riding, especially off road. Good Story! Yes, it seems the hardest most difficult days stand out.[Afterwards] HA! I hope your dad keeps riding, your husband doesn't have a choice,right?
This is a great thread. All my group are married and moved off. Never rode with fam, they had no interest. Being single my whole life left me wide open for a lot of things so amongst other things I did some MC Coaching for State Parks for at risk kids etc... Every so often somone will give an invite for a "weekend" ride that's family oriented. It's nice to see them all riding and doing the riding things. Getting new bikes and gear for Xmas and Birthdays- that's cool stuff. It's important for our sport of choice, just like most non-indoor sports that get either none or negative press, that others "catch the bug". They are our voice of riding's future. Pass the Torch to everyone you can.
Got a call from my "nephew" yesterday, he wanted to go riding. Yay! Last time we rode was at a camp out last year, he was 13 years old, about 5' tall and on his YZ85. He wasn't much into loop rides but more of keeping it close to camp sort of thing, out 'n back stuff. His pop don't ride much due to work so...he's been hitching rides with his buddies to the track and stuff. I didn't know so... Since the hi-trails and access to same are either a giant mess or closed from slides and snow I was all over it. He told me I'm in for a surprise as he's now on his dad's old 1993 WR250 Yamaha. That bike is pretty fast, I've ridden a lot. It's a good, wicked fast mount for off-road and XC. He want's to know more about XC, want's me to teach him stuff, train him and he wants to start racing desert. Holy cow, info overload! I was pretty surprised! Got to his place, he's now 14, 5'5" tall, gear in hand and ready to go. He's all "I'm way faster than the last time we rode, old man..." smirking away. I'm like "OK, sonny, let's see what ya got". I had the Orphan in tow ('07 TC250) as the tank is bigger, it's fully armored and it needed some seat time. So I loaded up his bike, we hit the road, made our spot, sun is out, dirt is fluffy and perfect from the rain. Epic once in 10yr desert conditions. He's pumped, I'm pumped. No one is out. The freakin' desert is all ours. And.... His bike wont run. Great. Pull down the carb, full of green goo. Neato. 45 mins later I got it running, tuned up, ready to rip. We take off and we are slaloming between head high bushes, the traction is off the hook and we are clicking up through the gears, drifting, hoiking mingers, just totally getting into the ether with these totally epic conditions. I give a glance back and he's glued to my tail. I gas it, grab another gear and start trying to loose him by really carving tight lines, doubling back, going down two gears then trying to get back on his tail. He's stuck to me good and we are just whipping it through the bushes like giant Jack Rabbits. This is going to be a good ride. After a bunch of goofing off and cross-country riding I find this little single tack I like to ride. It's on the back side of a small mountain and it rolls along the alluvial fingers with dips, drops, surprise post-crest turns, tight G-outs, more drops and lots of rock. You can get some speed on this thing but it has plenty of "gotcha's" that will result in a seriously broken body, bike or both if you get too much into a rhythm. I warn him, he's OK with it and we check out. It goes on for 10 miles or so and I stopped 3 times to look back and he was never more than 20 seconds behind me- he said just to stay out of the roost! We finished this, came back in on it, did some climbs and one big rocky climb that's a brute in dry weather. He sat down the whole way up, cleaned it too. After we got down I had him take the lead on the way back. More cow trailing, slaloming between bushes on the pan with radiator shrouds filling up with creosote (mmmm the smell of it cooking on the pipe ), and roosting each other with primo desert pan-fluff. I was having trouble keeping up in the faster stuff and had to wait for a line change or some tricky stuff to get by the lad. He was keeping me honest, big time. When we got back to the truck he told me "my goal was to [pass the old man]". We used to joke about that when he was really young. Well, he did. Mission accomplished. I used to ride this kid on the tank of the very same bike he was thrashing me with when he was still in diapers. Full circle and, I could not be prouder. Got me a new riding buddy and, he's family. I'm gonna spoil him rotten. He's gonna be the next Ricky Dietrich, mark these words. Here's the one stop we made for a pic on his cell phone, up on Ol' Rocky Top. Damn near the tallest thing around there too.
Nice story, although I'm troubled that your nephew was in diapers at 7 years old. I was hoping to get out riding with my nephew in the fall, but his girlfriend blew up his top end, so hopefully we'll get to do it this spring.
He was also eyballing the Husky. He want's the new TC250 for track riding and a WR300 for XC. His eye's are waaay bigger than my wallet.
Yeh- thanks for the heads up, took a second to sink in... it was a 1993 WR250. Two-stroke. See if I can dig up the pic of the alge in the carb. Sorry for the typo, I'm kinda wooped today.
I was scratching my head like, huh? Oh!!!...duh, wrong year...hehehehe. Good catch. Better dig. Thanks man fer keeping me on my toes. I need a nap....zzzZZZzzz....
95% of my riding is just me and my 15yo son, and if I ride with others he is usually along as well. My younger son (11) has a bike but just isnt into it, but that's ok. I always will have a bike for him if he wants to hit the trail. Here he is on his last ride on his KLX 110, he now has a TTR 125. My older son on his KDX 220 in Moab.
I read your 1st post about how you liked the thread but didn't have any family that liked to ride & I didn't know what to say. What can you say? I did think you had a great attitude about the Family Thing. Nieces & nephews Are Family & buddy it looks like you hit the jackpot! I can tell your real happy as well you should be. Don't you think you should take it easy on the boy? For someone that a year ago barely ventured out of camp, that seemed like one heck of a ride! Did he crash a lot? Anyway, that was a heck of a change from your 1st to 2nd post & I am happy for you. You may have a family riding partner for life! Let's hope so. Don't burn him out! HA!!
95%Now that;s togetherness! I really like that 220.IN my opinion it';s the perfect bike for that age.
Good point and I was cautious at first. But he kept riding up my tailpipe rev'ing the motor as if to say "faster old dood!" He never once dabbed, tipped over or ate it. It turned into a battle and I'm so stoked it's beyond words. He's really good, quick and, only 14! He's been closet-riding for about a year and he was right, I was "suprised".
"Closet Riding". Good word! I hadn't heard of that before I quess HE has & you have no choice but to go faster! You better start training & riding more because before long He WILL be leading. Are you going down hard or easy? It's not a bad thing. Been there done that. They still like for me to lead though because Grandpa knows the way. Once I missed a turn going hard on some real tight trails & hit my brakes & tipped over.[nothing bad] & I hear "PaPaw did I make you do that? Sorry! Not good for the ego., but you have to know that your teachings helped make them that fast. When they DO make a mistake I can say"I told you, YOU NEED TO; & go on with the lesson. PAYBACK
It's a real boost for me. I was pretty burned out and all but quit riding. Yup- getting back on the pedal bike, cuz he wants me to train him there too, and lifting weights so I can try and hang with these whippersnappers endless energy. I've also told him not to get too cocky- I've showed him everything he knows, not everything I know...mental edge, keep 'em guessing, etc. Ya know. He's smart, ask questions and listens. It's gonna be good clean tit-fer-tat on the trail like it was with my old riding buddies. Pretty stoked here by gum.
Got him to do some snow riding yesterday. This has been a great new hobby for him and another thing for us to do later. New gear for him but still riding the 24 year old bike. I hadn't ridden in snow for a while but ready to give it a go. I have 3 huskies and this one has the biggest rear tire.
That Honda is as reliable as they come.Great novice bike & yours ain't too bad! What year & size is it? Looks great!
