I'm the father of five. The four older kids are all off the payroll and living life in their lane throwing off grandkids these days - 4 of them. My youngest just turned 17 this summer and is a high school senior so we're in the middle of the college search process. She's been riding dirt bikes with me for the past 3 years or so starting with a TTR110. This is a great bike to learn fundamentals. It's an auto clutch but has quite a bit of spunk and when she started riding the snot out of it we upgraded to a KLX140G - 5 speed real dirt bike with full size wheels but small frame with a low seat.
Gracie hugging her TTR!10 and saying goodbye to it:
The KLX140G, not much more power than the TTR110 but it's a real dirt bike with clearance and longer suspension travel yet her feet still reach the ground.
She really developed a lot of confidence on that bike and this past weekend up in PA I was riding as fast as I wanted to go to keep up with her!
So now we're to the moment where she wants her motorcycle license and mom is not at all down with that - at first. Gracie has been asking me questions about the BDR and adventure rides I do - multi-day trips, camping, and riding forest roads from state to state. So I explain to my wife that our 17 year old daughter is really excited to spend time, perhaps days at a time, with just her Dad doing something that they both love to do. How many Dad's can make that boast? She was reluctantly won over amused by how our daughter had me wrapped around her little finger. I scheduled Gracie for her motorcycle licensing class the first week in October and I signed up to do it with her.
Obviously this means we need to be searching for a street legal dual sport/adv type bike but there's on pretty big constraint. She's 5' 1" with short legs. That KLX is a little tall for her and she's learned to cope with that but she's terrified that when she's on the street she's going to drop it at a stop light and need help to pick it up. So I do what I do and geek out in front of the computer for hours and determine that the proper bike for her first street legal set of wheels is a Yamaha XT250:
No dealer within 200 miles had one, new or used. 2013 and later are FI bikes so I eventually found a couple private sellers and settled on that 2019 with 400 miles on it. The owner is 64 years old and can't ride anymore and just never rode it much in the 3 years he owned it.
We went riding up in PA this past weekend hauling our two bikes on a 3 rail Kendon and I told Gracie that we had to make a stop before we got to the trails. I surprised her by pulling up in the driveway where this XT250 was sitting. I've spent the week sorting it out for her. It was still a little tall so lowering links and sag set she's able to get her tip toes down on it and rode it for the first time yesterday. Now the problem is going to be keeping her off of it. She lit up when she saw that the bike had passenger pegs so those were the first thing that hit the parts box. No rides for friends and told her that, just like the 60 hours she had to put in to get her driver's license, she's going to have to put in time riding with Dad out in the sticks before she gets to go off by herself on it.
Gracie hugging her TTR!10 and saying goodbye to it:
The KLX140G, not much more power than the TTR110 but it's a real dirt bike with clearance and longer suspension travel yet her feet still reach the ground.
She really developed a lot of confidence on that bike and this past weekend up in PA I was riding as fast as I wanted to go to keep up with her!
So now we're to the moment where she wants her motorcycle license and mom is not at all down with that - at first. Gracie has been asking me questions about the BDR and adventure rides I do - multi-day trips, camping, and riding forest roads from state to state. So I explain to my wife that our 17 year old daughter is really excited to spend time, perhaps days at a time, with just her Dad doing something that they both love to do. How many Dad's can make that boast? She was reluctantly won over amused by how our daughter had me wrapped around her little finger. I scheduled Gracie for her motorcycle licensing class the first week in October and I signed up to do it with her.
Obviously this means we need to be searching for a street legal dual sport/adv type bike but there's on pretty big constraint. She's 5' 1" with short legs. That KLX is a little tall for her and she's learned to cope with that but she's terrified that when she's on the street she's going to drop it at a stop light and need help to pick it up. So I do what I do and geek out in front of the computer for hours and determine that the proper bike for her first street legal set of wheels is a Yamaha XT250:
No dealer within 200 miles had one, new or used. 2013 and later are FI bikes so I eventually found a couple private sellers and settled on that 2019 with 400 miles on it. The owner is 64 years old and can't ride anymore and just never rode it much in the 3 years he owned it.
We went riding up in PA this past weekend hauling our two bikes on a 3 rail Kendon and I told Gracie that we had to make a stop before we got to the trails. I surprised her by pulling up in the driveway where this XT250 was sitting. I've spent the week sorting it out for her. It was still a little tall so lowering links and sag set she's able to get her tip toes down on it and rode it for the first time yesterday. Now the problem is going to be keeping her off of it. She lit up when she saw that the bike had passenger pegs so those were the first thing that hit the parts box. No rides for friends and told her that, just like the 60 hours she had to put in to get her driver's license, she's going to have to put in time riding with Dad out in the sticks before she gets to go off by herself on it.
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