Younger Son's First Ride

A couple of weekends ago, our youngest son got to go on his first ever motorcycle ride. My husband and I had many discussions over whether or not to let him ride on the back of one of our motorcycles. First, we would never let him on the back unless he was wearing the proper gear. Then there was the "risk" factor.

He has begged us many times to ride with one of us. My bike, at the present time, isn't set up to take passengers. My saddle bags are hiding the footpegs and I don't have a sissy bar. Plus, the passenger seat (if you want to call it that) is a joke. It's awfully uncomfortable and the upgrade really isn't much better. There's not many choices of upgrade seats for a Yamaha V-Star 650 custom. You know what I mean when, anytime you look at any type of upgrades for a motorcycle, you can hear the cash register's ca-ching ca-ching.

We decided to let him ride along on short, local jaunts around town. Bill & I have been all over town checking out the gear for kids and there's not much to be found for kids who ride cruisers. There is the most important helmet and we did find that. But for armor jackets and leather chaps, there isn't anything. There is loads of gear for kids who ride the small sport bikes on trails, but that stuff isn't the same. We have looked at the small sizes of women's jackets, but Lee wasn't with us at the time. He is just about 12 years old and is very skinny and small for his age. When he puts on a waist pack for hiking it just drops to his feet (lol).

We get all the gear we can find for our son and go out to find stuff on my scavanger hunt list. In a previous entry I gave some of the details of this scavanger hunt that my riding group (Mountain Shadow Riders) is doing. My son is decked out in his helmet, very thick winter coat, heavy pants, and gloves. Did he have fun. Bill first took him on a short ride around home. My son loved it, so off we went on the scavenger hunt.

Scavenger Hunt Pic - Focus on the Family

Our first stop was Focus on the Family. My son did very well getting out to that. Next stop: Garden of the God.

Scavanger Hunt Pic - Garden of the Gods

Here's my son and myself at Garden of the Gods. To the left of us is my husband's Honda Nighthawk. He has been great about being my photographer for most of the scavanger hunt pictures.

My husband and son at the Garden of the Gods

After all that riding we went and got ice cream. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful ride around Colorado Springs. We are so lucky to have places like Garden of the Gods, other regional parks, and the Pikes Peak region at the edge of our city. Our son was a bit tired after all that. His only complaint was that his arms got tired. Bill said he giggled lots and was happy as can be riding on the back of his motorcycle.

Now I'm hinting to my husband that we need a Honda Goldwing, so our son can be more comfortable on longer rides. Let's just say the look he gave me let me know that that ain't goin' to happen any time too soon (sigh). He would love a Goldwing, or something like it, but the cost is putting us off for the moment. I'm sure many of you understand what that's all about. So for the longer rides, sadly, our son must stay home. He just wouldn't be able to hold up. Well, he's almost 12 and before this mom realizes it he will be able to ride his own (YIKES!!).

Safe Travels in Your Part of the World,

Betty