Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/531879
with the rear brake pedal in its tradional loca- on by the right foot peg. Fortunately, there is no clutch to deal with. These changes required some geng used to and lile bit of pracce. Even aer years of sporadi- cally riding the PW50, she was sll very much a beginner. With that in mid, we focused on teach- ing her basic techniques for safe handling of the motorcycle. Proper technique is an evolving process, especially for young novice riders on bikes with poor suspension, small wheels and short knobbies. You need to crawl before you can walk, so please don't write us and tell us that we should have insisted that they stand when going through mud or rock gardens. We're talking about a level that precedes that, but that we can expand upon. Our intenon is to keep it fun and very sim- ple with the intent of developing good habits over me. Making the training easier, we discovered a friend's daughter of the same age is also into riding. Start, Shi, Brake, Repeat. We started out by having the girls perform a shiing and rear pedal braking drill as both were new to them. We had them start off in first, accelerate and shi the bike in to second gear then downshi and slow down to a stop using the rear brake pedal. This got them used to shiing and then applying the rear foot pedal brake to slow down. They would oen take their braking foot off the peg and use their heel to stomp on the brake. Eventually they learned that they had more "feel" when using the front of the foot to gently apply the brake. Stand up (whenever possible)! When they were comfortable shiing and braking, we made them stand up aer shiing in to second gear. We then had them make a wide corner while standing. Once comfortable, we set up a few cones and had them stand up when going around them. Up hills We started small here with a focus on gaining a lile speed before hing the incline. As they grew more com- fortable, we increased the size of the hill. The concept re- mained the same--gain speed and maintain momentum. If they got squirrelly, we had them slide back slightly on the seat and put their weight over the back wheel. These bikes are not going to loop over, so pung their weight back is appropriate. Eventually we'll get to the point where they try standing up and going up the hill in second gear. Down hills Of everything we did, it was the down-hills that they found the scariest– something I can relate to. Once again we started small, hills they would ordinarily coast down but instead we had them pracce the proper technique of shiing their weight towards the rear of the motorcycle while lightly engaging the front and rear brakes. We started with them sing and then had them stand, once comfortable. June 2015 31 When it came to riding over trail junk, we started with small logs and then in- creased the size and frequency. It's a good idea to pracce sound technique on terrain the young rider is already comfortable with. Here, Cameron Knowlton demon- strates proper downhill technique on a gentle slope.