drop to the seat and put their feet down at some point. We
emphasized it's best to stand when possible. Aer they got
used
to the sensaon of going over mulple small logs straight
on, we graduated to rocks and roots which are almost always
angled. Again, we had them stand, weight back but over the
bars. We started with short tracts of roots and rocks and
moved up to slightly longer secons
Starng a flooded bike.
Kids are going to p the bike over. Once upright, if the bike is
difficult to start, we had showed them to kick start the bike
with the throle wide open. Note that our bikes will only start
with the transmission in neutral. Obviously it was easier to use
the e-start of the TTR 90 over the kick start PW 80. Regardless,
we had them try both.
Our instrucon was specific to our riders' skill sets and situa-
on: entrly level nine year old girls, so it was essenal that we
handle them with kid gloves. The earliest days of riding are a
delicate me for those new to the sport and have the greatest
potenal to permeantly discourage new riders. Our aim was to
introduce them to entry-level riding techniques that provide a
foundaon to enjoy the sport. Anyone who remembers the
road to their current skill set knows it was an evolving process,
one that required fine tuning over the years.
June 2015 33
