If You’re Not Crashing…
Abigail wants to ride all the time. Lu, not so much.
I told Abigail she could ride after Jiu Jitsu last night. Lauren asked if she had to. I said no she didn’t have to, but asked if she would if I bought her a milkshake. She was blown away.
“Really? You’d do that?”
“Sure. I ‘ll get you a milkshake if you try and ride a little.”
“Deal!”
Honestly I was going to get them milkshakes anyway. It’s kind of my thing now when they do really well at Jiu Jitsu, and last night they did. They both fought really hard and got all kinds of hot and sweaty.
Back home we put on the gear and fired up the bikes. Lauren was first. She said she was going to just do some laps around the garage and that was about it. I said sure. Whatever you’re comfortable with.
It didn’t take long before she was going around the front flower bed, then all on her own around the house too.
Abigail got on and promptly dumped it in the slick mud.
I told her mud’s a tricky thing with dirt bikes. It’s also what makes them really fun. The more you ride, the more you’ll learn to feel the rear wheel slide and control it in a way that you don’t crash. It’s super fun and challenging all at once.
Surprisingly Lauren kept riding, then she got excited. She started yelling that she was using the foot brake (very hard with dirt bike boots). Then she started yelling that she was using the foot brake while standing up! So much progress.
It ended with the picture at the top. She was going to do another lap around the house when the bike got away from her. It looped out, hit the tree, then tried to climb it. She was perfectly fine, so we shut down the bike and stood next to it like a trophy. She was so excited.
The bike itself got a little messed up. The throttle is now stuck or not working freely. Something is obviously binding the cable. I’ll take a look at it tonight or tomorrow night and we’ll be good to go for the weekend.
I told them to be prepared. We’re doing brake and turning drills this weekend. They’ll be skilled riders in no time.
– b