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Riding Journal
Generation 4: The "Cubs"
Both of our boys (born 2002 and 2003) love motorbikes. Both attended their first Cambridge-Hamilton Toy Run in utero and have the badges to show for it.My wife frequently rode on the back of the bike when she was pregnant with our first child but less frequently with our second as we had an infant to consider. She only got to go for rides when we could find a baby sitter.
Not long after our first boy, Taliesin, was born, my wife wrapped him in a shawl and held him on the tank of the LS400 while I gave the engine a couple of revs - he grinned like a maniac!
He went for his first post-natal ride in a baby harness on my chest as I rode slowly around the lawn.
Taliesin's first post-natal ride.
Our second boy, Tangwyn, also had his early motorcycle experiences (both in and out of the womb) on the LS400 - so if the boys grow up with a marked preference for single-cylinder bikes, I shan't be surprised.
Our daughter, Inverness, was born in March 2006 before the Toy Run so she missed out on the fun of kicking daddy in the spine from Cambridge to Hamilton. But she did get a badge for that year for accompanying my wife and the boys to the finish point in Garden Place.
I didn't have a functioning motorbike during the time Inverness was in the womb so, unlike the boys, she had no pre-natal exposure to motorbikes. She did, however, have her first ride on my XT225 at the age of 4 months and seemed to be quite happy with it.
The boys both got plastic Tri-ang ride-on trikes when they were young. Tangwyn, got a Tri-ang "AT Trike" for his first birthday.
He couldn't yet walk but he was crawling and scooting around the house in a "walker". The AT Trike is wide and low to the ground so I figured (quite correctly) that he should be able to sit on it and propel himself around on it. He took to the trike like a duck to water and was able to keep up with his brother.
We gave Taliesin a different Tri-ang ride-on trike, this one taller and narrower and styled more like a motorcycle. He used to race around the veranda and slide the back end out on the corners.
When I still had a functioning LS400 and we were living out of Hamilton near Tauwhare, I used to give the boys slow rides around the lawn with them sitting on the tank safely between my arms. When I came home from work each night Taliesin would hear the bike and come running out to meet me. I'd have to stop at the gate and lift him onto the tank and give him a ride into the garage or he'd kick up a fuss. If it was raining and he wasn't able to get his ride between the gate and the garage, he'd raise a storm of his own.
The DVD "Quest for Victory" (a documentary of ELF's involvement in motorcycle sport) got played a lot at our house - the boys kept requesting it.
I decided that Taliesin's trike was more of a hindrance than a help as it was tipping up onto two wheels as he tried to lean it around the corner - it would be much better, I reasoned, if it only had two wheels like a proper bike so it would lean properly.
As it was only blow-moulded plastic, it took only a hacksaw and a sharp knife to cut a slot in the back wide enough to accommodate one of the rear wheels. I then shortened the axle so it was only a little wider than the body of the bike and reassembled it with one of the rear wheels inside the slot I had cut.
This was much better. Taliesin was able to corner properly and would get up to speed, lift his feet to coast and then lean it around the corner. It's a testament to how robust the Tri-ang trikes are that it withstood the punishment Taliesin dished out to it despite having a significant chunk of the body cut away.
Since the age of two, Taliesin has been quite clear on what he likes in the way of motorbikes - thanks to the "Quest for Victory" DVD that showed nearly every motorcycling discipline from GP through MX to the Paris-Dakar Rally and Trials riding.
Taliesin used to ride his modified Tri-ang ride-on up onto a tyre lying on the lawn and bounce up and down like the trials riders on the DVD.
At age two, if you asked him if he liked GP or MX, he'd reply "MX" without hesitation.
He used to love standing astride the bike and lifting the front wheel up or pushing down on the handlebars to cause the back wheel to rise to do wheelies and stoppies (or, as the cubs called them, "whee-yies" and "doppies"). Tangwyn would perform similar "whee-yies" on his AT Trike.
"Whee-yie" - our budding Trials rider shows his form.
Later, when Tangwyn was bigger, I bought a second trike the same as Taliesin's and modified it in the same fashion so they each had a proper "bike."
By early 2005 we had been given a fixed-drive child's bicycle for Taliesin to learn on. It was fitted with training wheels but every time he tried to lean around a corner he'd tip the bike up onto the training wheel, the rear wheel would lose contact with the ground and he would fall off.
In the end I figured he'd learn much faster if I took the training wheels off. He fell off a few times - fewer than he did with the training wheels on - but persevered and learned how to ride the bike without training wheels. He was two, going on three.
13 March, the day of the 2005 Cambridge-Hamilton Toy Run. Me with the boys - Tangwyn (1) and Taliesin (2). Both are wearing their Toy Run badges on their jackets.
Ever since they were born, if I attended the toy run, then so did the boys. They were not big enough to accompany me on the bike (and after I blew up the LS400 I was catching a ride on the back of a friend's bike if I attended at all) but the boys would be taken to the finishing point in Hamilton and would throw some toys into the truck and be given a Toy Run badge each if we could afford them. They were told that the toys were to help young children who were sick and they were very pleased to be helping other children.
They also enjoyed the large number of bikes at the events.
In 2006, just after Taliesin turned 4 we took him to the BMX track at Minogue Park in Hamilton. I chased him around the track, helping him up the hills.
Other people practising on the track were treated to the spectacle of a 42-year-old man sprinting around the hilly, twisting track after a 4-year-old on a tiny bike, yelling encouragement and pushing him up the hills.
Unfortunately his bike was not really suitable for the purpose as the fixed drive meant that the pedals would spin too fast for him to keep his feet on them when he went downhill and he couldn't get his feet back in place as he slowed going up the hills.
He fell off often but kept on trying.
The next day, we tried him with a larger bike that was capable of free-wheeling which solved the problem with the pedals but he couldn't get on or off unassisted. On this bike at least he was able to pedal up all but the three highest climbs on the track and his falls were all low speed - he'd barely crest the top at a crawl, topple and was unable to get his foot down to prevent a fall.
We bought him helmet and pads for his knees and elbows and some 7-year-olds down at Minogue Park were impressed that he could negotiate the BMX track at his age.
My sister gave us a smaller BMX bike that could free-wheel and he could get on and off it, which was a lot better. He was able to start when he desired and the pedals didn't "take off on him" going down the hills but the smaller diameter wheels meant that he found it difficult to climb the same hills he had crested with ease on the larger bike.
Tangwyn suffered a set-back in his own riding by breaking his leg just before Christmas 2005. The six weeks in a plaster cast and having to learn to walk again meant that he couldn't practise riding and progress beyond the modified Tri-ang ride-on.
Once Tangwyn was walking and riding his modified Tri-ang ride-on again, he would accompany Taliesin around parts of the BMX track, propelling himself up the whoops and smaller hills and rolling fearlessly down the other side.
Ever since Taliesin demonstrated that he could negotiate the Minogue Park BMX track on an over-sized bike, I figured he had displayed sufficient handling skills to learn how to ride a motorcycle and I researched various available models. Unfortunately most were too tall for him.
I even considered affixing an electric motor and associated electronics to one of the bicycles. I have sufficient knowledge of electric vehicles to make up the system but I could see no way of mounting the motor and batteries to the bike that was not beyond my mechanical and metal-working abilities. In order to make even basic modifications to the bike's frame I would need the services of a competent welder and metal worker.
As at early 2007, Taliesin was more than ready to learn how to ride a mini bike and Tangwyn's riding skills on a bicycle were improving - the 4th Generation of bikers in my family was well on the path.
I bought a toy electric motorbike for the kids to practise control of a powered vehicle. The top speed of about 3km/h was a lot slower than the speeds the boys could attain on their unpowered bikes but they seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.
At around 3km/h the bike does not attain balance speed and so relies heavily on the integral training wheels to keep it upright. The boys have great fun riding it up and down the footpath outside our house.
On the 15th of February 2007 Inverness, not even a year old, had her first ride on the electric motorbike and thoroughly enjoyed it.
While the toy electric bike was good for teaching the cubs the basics of starting and stopping a powered vehicle, it was incapable of going fast enough for them to ride properly.
I bought them another electric motorbike, this one capable of 18km.h and not fitted with training wheels. After a couple of short rides holding onto the boys (while they learned not to rip the throttle open and learned to slow down), I took them down to the Common by the lake to practise.
The cubs with their new bike. Tangwyn, aged 3, on the left; Taliesin, aged 4, on the right.
As Taliesin was experienced at riding his push bike at speed I just fastened his helmet and let him "go for it". Of course, he promptly got speed wobbles and fell off going in a straight line. He was unhurt so he got back on, fell off again and was OK until he tried to corner.
Within half an hour he had the bike pretty much under control and was starting, stopping and cornering as if it was his bicycle.
Enjoying the thrill - Taliesin under power.
As Tangwyn cannot yet ride a bicycle, I held onto him while he did a couple of circuits around a tree.
After three trips to the lake, Taliesin is quite confident at riding up and down hills and around the play area. He has also mastered mounting and dismounting sequences to ensure he can safely get on or off the bike without accidentally triggering the throttle. Tangwyn is making steady progress with his riding and I am able to release my hold on him for longer periods - although I do keep my hands poised to grab when he topples.
The older cubs on their bikes - taken on one of our training days.
Inverness, too, has been showing great promise. Since before one year of age, before she could even walk, she would climb up on the seat of her motorcycle-styled rocking chair and stand there; feet on the seat, hands on the handle bars - a budding stunt rider.
We have still to get her the Tri-Ang "AT" ride-on trike that we had planned to get for her first birthday but she has been making great progress with the smaller electric motorbike. She can just manage to get her foot forward and down enough to press the foot button to get the bike moving. Her steering needs some work but she's not doing too badly for a one-year-old.
Inverness showing her form on Training Day - she's going to be a terror in her teens.
She also shows a great interest in bikes and was quite excited to see the bikes racing past on the Moto-X track when we went out to Kimmy's Moto-X Park. She was clapping and saying "buh, buh, buh" as if she were trying to say "bike".
Further developments will be added later.