melensdad
Well-Known Member
Yesterday Dasha got suited up in my wife's protective gear and we went out for a ride. Several low speed rides up and down the mile long road we live on. She is not only a world class saber fencer but she's also a skateboarder. Being a skateboarder she understands the lean-to-turn concept and she ended up being a good passenger. Wearing a Cardo Pack-Talk intercom equipped helmet we were able to chat back and forth so she was learning while riding in the rear position. We did 1 straight line run up to 60 and then back down, but most of riding was in the 20-30mph speed range.I have a Russian girl living with us temporally. I was her fencing coach when she arrived in the US for high school and she has traveled to several national and international tournaments with my family. She will be starting at Notre Dame in August and is staying with us until we move her into her dorm.
Today I'll be giving her a ride on a motorcycle. It will be a first for her. She says she wants to learn to ride too.
Since mine has a Dale's Rack instead of a back seat, she'll get a ride on the back of my wife's NC700x which has the factory seat set up. But yesterday evening we went over all the controls, pushed them out of the garage so she could get a feel for the weight and controls, etc. Maybe she'll get a little lesson on my wife's bike after the ride? She can flat foot that bike and didn't have any problems pushing it around the drive.
I promised her mom that we'd stay on our local road, its about a mile long, dead end, very little traffic, one wide sweeping turn. It will give her a taste of what its like but this girl is one of the best saber fencers in the country right now, she was a top recruit for the Notre Dame team, and has defeated a US Olympian at the last competition so I can't really take chances with letting her get hurt. So her first ride on a motorcycle won't be zooming through traffic!
Upon returning to the house I parked in the front lawn. I have a couple hundred feet of flat treeless lawn. We went over all the controls again. I set her off on a slow speed straight line. We repeated the simple straight line about a dozen times. She dropped the bike in the grass on its side a few times when coming to a stop. Typically onto the right side. A bit more instruction and I got her to tip her head left, while extending the left leg out, and keeping the right foot on the brake. Once she got that figured out she was managing much more controlled stops without drops.
She did ask me to take her out on the 'real roads' and I declined. Her mom gave me permission to ride on the private road we live on, nothing more. We will see if she is granted permission to take a longer ride today. If no permission arrives we will still likely repeat what we did, giving her a bit more practice in the lawn too.