Hello fellow riders. Guess what..?
I have still not ridden my motos. NOPE. Actually, I did take my dirt bike for a “down and back” after I picked it up from Dreyer Powersports the other day. The Man Trip is ONE WEEK AWAY, and everyone involved is excited. The numbers continue to grow. I believe we are up to eight now.
Wednesday was a scorching 60 F, and there were several bikes on the road. Not mine, however; it was painfully sitting in the garage collecting dust. You see, ever since my son, Van, started school, my moto time has been limited. Have no fear, I am bound to make up for lost time once the season warms up.
Well, on to my fantastic blog. As many of you may have heard, the Consumer Products division of the government has put a stop on sales for all ATV/dirt bikes built for children under 12 years old. This is a result of the government requiring toy makers to dismiss lead. Lead is bad, and lead in toys that children chew is bad. Lead on a motorcycle is not bad. It’s a motor vehicle. If your child is chewing on the engine of a motorcycle, you’ve got bigger issues than him actually digesting lead.
Here is a link to a news special on how dealers are “dealing,” ha, with the ban on ATV/dirt bikes.
So how does this affect me? It really doesn’t because I have a hunch that by the time Van is able to ride an ATV or a dirt bike, this will be resolved. Between avid riders, manufacturers and the AMA, this will all be resolved, for sure. The sad part is that the government enforced a law without considering a huge issue (powersports). Or even worse, the government didn’t use “good” judgment and simply exclude ATVs and dirt bikes once they realized the mistake.
Remember the picture form last week’s blog with Van wheeling the motorcycle? That may not happen until he is 12!!!
I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine the government enforcing this for much longer.
Another update … I used the GOPRO Camera at Fast Times karting center here in Indianapolis. Here is a link to a clip. Click your mouse on the static image to start the video. It gets good a couple laps in:
On another note, my brother picked up a sweet helmet. Its rated PG because A) It’s a graphic B) it’s not in full color and C) There is ZERO nudity. Here is a graphic.
Jarrod
A couple of weeks ago I went up for a ride on my dirt bike at my best friend’s parents’ place. It was really only the second time that I had been on a dirt bike since probably around 1990. I’ve spent a lot of time on dirt in four-wheelers and go-karts but not motorcycles. It was so much fun. I have a clip in the blog of Phil shooting me riding around his course with his vholdr. Unfortunately, this is the only video that I am able to show because the others were corrupted!!
http://www.vholdr.com/node/5515
You can check around my profile and see a little bit of other footage, but it really isn’t that great because the clips freeze up.
Kind of a bummer, but I promise that I will show a few other vids before the winter sneaks up on us. A quick, funny story, though.
The day before we loaded the bikes up, we were screwing around, without gear on, popping wheelies and getting excited for the next morning. Well, I have a 2004 RMZ 250, and Phil has a CRF 230. My bike has a bit more torque than his, so it’s much easier to pop wheelies. Well, I got off my bike and let him take a crack at the Suzuki. By the time I turned around, he was doing a wheel stand and fell of the back of the bike. I cried it was so funny. Thankfully he didn’t get hurt, because I really wanted to ride the next day.
So the next morning, we arrived at his parents bright and early. The ground was still covered in dew, and the trail or track that he had created was covered in grass, which makes it awfully slippery.
After about an hour of riding, we finally burned enough of the grass away so that we had some decent grip.
Another joy of having a race bike is that I get to kick-start it rather than pushing the starter like Phil. Let’s just say I learned my lesson when we went trail riding in a river bed. It’s no fun kick-starting every time you stall going through big rocks, loose boulders and sharp inclines. I am just not experienced enough on my dirt bike to have that much control. I am not at the point where I can anticipate what all of my controls are going to do before I do them.
Regardless, I had a lot of fun! This Saturday we are heading south for a long ride. We’ll be sure to have the camera on …
Jarrod
It’s an off week for the IndyCar Series, and my family and I decided to utilize this time to take a trip to our ranch in Wyoming. Over the past eight years, I haven’t spent much time out here between school and the race season grinds. But since I have a family, it’s great to be able to come out to the middle of nowhere and play in the wilderness.
My Out of Office e-mail reply was supposed to read:
“Thank you for your correspondence. I will be out of the office and in the mountains until Tuesday June 17th. Internet connectivity and reliable cellular service is questionable, so please excuse my inability to respond quickly.”
Well, while I was gone my mailbox was overloaded, and my O of O won’t work. I guess it really hasn’t been a big deal since it’s an off week and a lot of people are taking a day here and there to spend time with their families.
Here are a couple of pictures of our trip. It was snowing here the first two days, and there is still enough to make a snowball or two!
Even while I have been away, we have been trying to figure out what type of dirt bikes we need to get out here. Like I said, with the family it’s really nice to be able to come out to Wyoming and spend time together with ZERO stress.
While we were picking up a Polaris Ranger, my brother Kyle and I test rode an ‘02 KTM 550 dirt bike. We though that it was a little tall for trail riding and was a little too expensive for our uses, so we passed. Kyle is determined to get a couple of bikes out here for the next couple of years.
Maybe next trip we will have a few pictures of the new rides. My mom and baby’s momma keep telling Kyle and I, “The dirt bikes won’t be that much fun out here….” What do they know? They aren’t going to be riding them!
Jarrod