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We had a rough week with the sudden death of my cousin and Mary having pneumonia and in and out of the ER, but in the middle of it all we managed to have some fun.
"He JUST turned 4 they said, he is too little they said..."
I bought a CRF50 with training wheels...I think they are more like outriggers than training wheels. Cleaned the tiny carb, put some fresh fuel in it, repaired and straighted the training wheels and limited the throttle. I brought it home on Friday along with some pants, a jersey, gloves, helmet and googles (as he calls them).
Apparently it is a really good thing they are on there as it will be at least another year before he can even hope of reaching the ground.
Day 1:
I tell him to roll on the throttle, on and off, on and off, on and off. I want him to figure out the stop and go only....oh yeah, that lasted about 2 minutes...he was begging it to go faster. I watch him as he turns the throttle and looks at the rear tire, watches what is happening when he presses the rear brake, pays attention to how we started it etc. You could see his little head calculating the whole thing. He rode for about an hour before it started getting dark.
Day 2:
Up and at it at 6:30 am (he slept with his Answer jersey on!) and proclaiming that the sun is out and it is time to ride! He figures out a few more things like shifting his weight, drag the rear brake and throttle in the corner to create a roost. Laughs then looks at me like 'oh oh, I might be in trouble'. Day 2 was when he took is first fall, the training wheel hit the fence post spun him around and launched him off. He was trying to get back on before I could even right the bike. Later he hit the huge rocks in the back yard and when I explained that you have to go wider around there so the training wheel does not hit, he informed me that 'not the training wheel grandma, I'm going up there jumping'. Oye.
Day 3:
It poured buckets all morning and he decides that he wants to ride again. I let me know it will be all muddy and he is completely unphased. I truck him to a friends so he does not totally ruin my yard and the kid has a blast in the mud and has to throttle through some deep ruts. Comes home COVERED in mud!
He is hooked! Now I need a dirtbike...how cool is it to go dirty riding with your grandmother?
disclosure: I know he does not have boots and that is a priority that I am working on, the bike has outriggers and the chance of him getting his foot crushed is damn near not existent. His boots are on order though.
Let the fun begin!