Can 9 HP be fun?

[Pittsdriverwes]

I guess we'll find out. My daughter has outgrown her TTR110 so I went looking for a small statue bike that she can use to learn how to operate a manual tranny. All the more kid friendly 125s are rare has hens teeth around here so I went out shopping in the used Grom market and found this 2018 with 196 miles on it and got it for nearly $2K less than a new one would be OTD. That was too good to pass up.

I spent about 2 minutes describing how to use the friction zone on the clutch and immediately noticed that she was looking at the clutch lever when she was trying to pull away. Nothing to see down there - keep your eyes up and feel the force flow through you and the bike as you get comfortable in the friction zone. Five minutes later, she's got it and asking me if she can ride it all around the neighborhood. Uh, no. She's 15 and no license and we've got enough asshat neighbors in our 'hood to invoke her first encounter with the po po. I fear I'm going to have to hide the kieys to this thing when I'm not around. She's way too much like I was at 15 years old.

Now the long wait until the mini-moto tracks open back up in the spring here. We'll spend that time teaching her how to wrench on it. Good times.

[802Mike]

Funny, I had a dream last night that I was riding a pocket rocket.
I'll probably live vicariously through my grandkids and one of these may be in their future.

[aviator]

Wes, I have seen some squids ride these in my neck of the woods, and am just intrigued. Would be nice for a ride, just for the fuck of it. But I think from a safety standpoint, it like the MB Smart car. Too tiny and whatever they claim, too insecure on a 75 MPH highway if you get involved in a wreck.

[Captain Howdy]

9 hp would be a lot more fun if added onto 175 hp

[Pete_Tallahassee]

I bought a Honda 50 for my girls when they were young. It had the centrifugal clutch so no "learning" was really necessary. I'm kinda in the country/suburbs so they could ride the neighborhood with out the po po showing up. After a very few years they all quit riding it. I will admit to not pushing it as the wife did not approve. She didn't like the BB guns either.

[Pittsdriverwes]

I bought a Honda 50 for my girls when they were young. It had the centrifugal clutch so no "learning" was really necessary. I'm kinda in the country/suburbs so they could ride the neighborhood with out the po po showing up. After a very few years they all quit riding it. I will admit to not pushing it as the wife did not approve. She didn't like the BB guns either.

Parents are so protective these days and look at what we've done - a mostly useless generation that can't hang a TV on the wall or knows on some level that motorcycles might involve some consequences - something they've never had to deal with. I've seen the quote recently, don't remember where, that automobile manuals used to include how to set the timing and valve gaps and now the most technical thing in them is a warning to not drink the battery acid.

Now, all that said, I'll never push my kids into something "dangerous." I made it available to all of them to get their pilot's certificate and took them flying but never pushed it. It's the kind of thing that can end badly for someone that isn't all-in on it and "doing it for dad" isn't that. I think the same way about motorcycles. My daughter came to me and as long as she's really focused on learning and doing it right I'll support it but never push her to do more. And, if there's any maintenance or repairs to do on it, I'll be watching over her shoulder and not doing it myself (which BTW, is really hard emotionally to do).

She's already heard my friends asking about mini-moto racing and came to me and asked, "Dad, I noticed you have a one piece set of leathers for track riding. Do you think I could get something like that?" Now that'll test mom's feelings about this whole motorcycling thing.

[802Mike]

My daughter used the term "helicopter parent" once when I commented on a mother that
stood over her little girl and wouldn't let her pet the pony in the petting area at a local event.