Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/531879
Yamaha PW 50 be- cause she was five years old back then. I went with the PW 50 largely because it came with training wheels and in- cludes a throle limiter screw that allows the parent to control how fast the motorcycle will go. Being able to limit your child's speed alleviates a huge amount of stress from those early rides. I literally set it on walking speed and walked next to her unl she asked that I sit with her. Another plus with the PW 50 is that it is just powerful enough for the both of us to ride it. Fortunately, I am 5'8" and not a heifer, so we both fit. We began with me sing behind her and controlling the throle and steering while pung around a small field. We then started working the throle together with my hand over hers. Eventually she got the hang of accelerat- ing and slowing down. We started by going in a straight line and then stopping in front of Mommy. In a short me she understood how to accelerate, slow down and stop. Success! Next we began working on steering. We moved over to a dirt road that happened to have sev- eral pot holes. When she figured out that it hurt my bu every me she careened into a pot hole, she aimed for every damn pothole she came across, which consequently improved her steering and throle control. At least she found it amusing. Keeping it fun and not turning it in to a training session was essenal for us. Right about the me I couldn't take the bu pain any more, she got bored with me on the bike and kicked me off. She then took an inter- est in tailing me while on my mountain bike. She got even beer with steering and throle control while chasing me down. Eventually, the training wheels came off. By this me, she already knew how to ride a bicycle, so ditching the training wheels was an easy transion. This is where the throle limiter screw really came in handy. I again set it at a walking speed unl she was comfortable with braking and turning without the training wheels. Be- tween the bikes inability to go fast and her protecve gear, I only had mild heartburn during these inial les- sons. With her behind me, I'd speed up, slow down and turn. And before too long, she was buzzing around the yard and competent with turning, accelerang and slow- ing down. We would pracce starng and stopping drills, too. The PW 50 isn't well suspended so we didn't do any- thing with going over obstacles that were lager than a couple of inches in height. For the most part, I told her to avoid the big bumps. She would oen go months without riding and we never pushed her. As a result, we kept the PW 50 unl she was too big for it. This worked out well because the taller she got, the more confidence she gained zipping around on the now too small PW50 which caused her to like it more. She got to the point where she would kick the start the bike herself, pull it off or li it on to the kickstand and rip around the yard on it with complete confidence. Finally, she asked for a bigger bike. This is when things got fun! As you may have read on page 18, we purchased a Yamaha TTR-90 for her next bike. The bigger wheels, more powerful motor and improved suspension opened up a whole new off road world for her but there was more she needed to know and learn. Her PW 50 had a three speed auto- mac motor with front and rear hand brakes. The TTR by contrast is a three speed manual transmission 30 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com