Last Call: Ride Share Edition

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Give a kid a ride and you’ll thrill her for a day, teach her how to ride and you’ll thrill her for life.
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day.  It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.
Image: Overbold Motor Co
 

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  1. stigshift Avatar
    stigshift

    Best starter bike ever. No need for extraneous tattoos or specialized, brand logo clothing. Also dead reliable. Also the brand most likely to seen ridden by people wearing appropriate safety gear. Good Dad.

    1. Garrett Michael Avatar
      Garrett Michael

      you mean a gixxer one thooooousiinnnnnn with flip flops and a muscle tank isn’t the best starter bike/appropriate safety gear!?!? I’m kidding. And I would invite anyone to punch me in the face if I actually called them “gixxers”….

    2. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
      dead_elvis, inc.

      Short sleeves, no gloves pictured…
      Still pretty damn great. My 5 year old nephew loves anything with a motor, especially motorcycles, but my sister & BIL are dead set against him ever going for a ride with me, even if I get him a helmet & some gear. Their looks of consternation any time he sits on my bike, stationary, is pretty funny, as are the next few days of endless chatter from him about when HE gets a motorcycle.

      1. Garrett Michael Avatar
        Garrett Michael

        short sleeves, no gloves/ presumably taking a picture with his left hand!?!? “kid, work the clutch. Dads got a picture to take…”

        1. 0A5599 Avatar
          0A5599

          Based on the angle, possibly a helmet cam.

          1. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
            dead_elvis, inc.

            And quite possibly taken at 5 mph. ATGATT is an ideal. This gets a pass, since we know jack shit about the situation.

        2. stigshift Avatar
          stigshift

          I said it was the brand ‘most likely’. Not that these people are ultimately equipped.

      2. stigshift Avatar
        stigshift

        I said it was the brand most likely to be seen with people wearing safety gear. Not indicative of this picture.

  2. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Mom started to teach me how to drive by letting me operate the shifter from the passenger’s seat. This, as it should be, was more a lesson in how to operate a car. Hearing the rev of the engine, seeing the clutch leg move… these were my initial clues as to when to shift. Where to shift? Up? Down? Mom used to call them out, but as I observed the world outside the windshield I could anticipate what was needed when, ahead of Mom’s prompts. That was learning how to drive a car; seeing it as part of a system in which it needed to be properly arranged to interact effectively.
    She only ever let me ride on the back of the Suzuki, but at that point I was in 2nd grade. Odd thing about Mom’s motorcycle regimen: She wrapped one of my fat Dad’s belts around the both of us, but with me on the back, like a papoose. I asked her about it later on, and she said she felt that in a crash, she’d rather know I was tied to her than flying off into God knows where. I thought about pointing out that being tucked in front she might better have been able to protect me (and, you know, I could see what the hell was going on!). Two things stopped me: One, it’s fun as a teenager to realize your parents can be wrong; Two, whatever makes the driver feel the most confident is worth a million compared to what’s logical.
    (Mom also taught me to hold the car on a hill, at a light, by balancing the clutch against the engine. For the duration. Sometimes Mom is just flat out wrong.)

    1. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
      dead_elvis, inc.

      Your mother rides motorcycles? COOL. What was the Suzuki in question, if you can remember?

      1. Garrett Michael Avatar
        Garrett Michael

        I hope an RE5

      2. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        Someone asked me one time if I was a “Mama’s Boy” (they were kidding around.) I took stock and replied along the lines of, “Well, Mom drove muscle cars, had tattoos, and rode a motorcycle… so in that respect yes. But! As of right now I haven’t stolen a police cruiser, so no, not a Mama’s Boy yet.”
        It was a Suzuki GT185. There was one being traded around San Francisco in the ’90s, and I dearly wanted to buy it for dear ol’ Mom as a joke, but finances, and distance, were against me.

        1. Garrett Michael Avatar
          Garrett Michael

          I do enjoy an old Suzuki two stroke street bike. In fact, give a listen to the next False Neutral podcast, as I’ll be talking a little bit about my 1970 Suzuki T350 Rebel!

    2. Garrett Michael Avatar
      Garrett Michael

      My mom drove a ’66 Ford Ranch Wagon when I was growing up (she still has it actually) and the bench seat was large enough–and she small enough–that she could slide all the way over towards the drivers door and let me drive while sitting right next to her. I was about 8 when she started letting me drive the car next to her. Its funny how things like this, and being belted to your mom on the back of a motorcycle would likely land a parent in jail these days…..

      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        Freaking everything fun I remember about being a kid would result in a lawsuit these days. I do realize the kids that were lost to unfortunate accidents are not here to tell the other side of the story. You could probably write a Young Adult fantasy series populated with ghosts who have Lawn Darts embedded in their heads, or who can never touch ground because they were ejected from a pickup truck bed. For now, the survivors are attesting to the better memories!

      2. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
        dead_elvis, inc.

        You can still buy purpose-built harnesses for kids riding pillion.
        http://themotogrip.com/moto-grip-jr/

    3. stigshift Avatar
      stigshift

      My Mom, who just turned 77, just drove my Miata last month. She hadn’t driven a clutch in nearly twenty years. Never missed a beat. She saw the car and said ” Jeffrey! I want to drive that Miata!” Only she can call me Jeffrey and get a positive result…

  3. jeepjeff Avatar
    jeepjeff

    A dear friend of mine has a 15 month old who is just starting to talk. She calls cars and planes “broom brooms” (she has trouble with the ‘v’ sound in vroom). I have been told in no uncertain terms I am not to take her on my motorcycles when she’s older. (I do intend to respect that. They are actually dangerous.)

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      My first word was car, “Auto”, something that my mum didn’t take lightly considering what the normal first word is. Or so I’m told. My girl, now 5½, used to be super-fascinated with bikes, too. Shouting out every time we saw one. She had 21 miles one way commute to kindergarten her first year…

    2. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
      dead_elvis, inc.

      Does her mom drive a Bolbo, or a Saav?

  4. GTXcellent Avatar
    GTXcellent

    My 6 year old son isn’t a real big motor head, and is actually fearful of loud exhaust – but he does like snowmobile rides (and Ranger rides, and tractor rides)
    This winter when we were on a ride around the woods, I MADE him drive. At first it was almost sobbing about how he was afraid. Calmed him down, explained again how I was sitting right behind him, he can start off slow and go slow. He mustered all his courage, and tried it…about 3 miles later he stopped and was crying. Asked what was wrong and he said that he really wanted to keep driving, but his hands hurt too much! Looks like I may have to look at getting another sled for him next year.
    Now his little brother on the other hand….only 2 years old and I can already tell I’m going to be in trouble with that one.

    1. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
      dead_elvis, inc.

      Are you riding this year? I’ll be rolling through ND around that time (VT-WA roadtripping in an old RV in June, taking a more northern route than I-90).

      1. Tanshanomi Avatar

        No, I’ll unfortunately be on an airliner that day.

        1. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
          dead_elvis, inc.

          That’s rarely better than anything else. I’d love to meet some Hoons on the road.

          1. Tanshanomi Avatar

            If you can, you should hit the International Peace Garden. It’s in this beautiful little range of wooded hills in the middle of the planes, and a pretty cool place to visit.
            http://www.google.com/maps/place/International+Peace+Garden/@48.8674635,-100.1265977,77145m/

          2. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
            dead_elvis, inc.

            Thanks! I’d planned on a Canadian section for some of the eastern part of the trip. The slog across I-90/80 between the NYS Thruway and west of Chicago is entirely joyless.
            Plains are best crossed by planes.