'Ugh-OH' I bought a Honda
Oct 26, 2000 | 07:28 PM
#22
Pro Rider
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 207
Likes: 0
Wow...I go away for awhile and look what happens!!
I was about to buy a Polaris for my wife...but I got to see and hear the new Kawi 650 last Fri.nite at our club house in Minong.The Kawi reps put on a good presentation...this quad will raise the bar...
Good luck with your little Honda...sometimes less is better!!
I was about to buy a Polaris for my wife...but I got to see and hear the new Kawi 650 last Fri.nite at our club house in Minong.The Kawi reps put on a good presentation...this quad will raise the bar...
Good luck with your little Honda...sometimes less is better!!
Oct 26, 2000 | 11:35 PM
#23
Range Rover
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 162
Likes: 0
Bill,
Congratulations on your new quad, and congratulations on bringing your wife and daughter into the sport.
My daughter Julia began riding my Bayou 400 shortly after I bought it when she was 10 years old. At first the rides were infrequent and confined to the backyard and a stretch of woods directly behind our house. As she gained experience and became more familiar with operation of the vehicle, we moved the practice sessions into a larger area of woods about a mile from the house. She initially spent a great deal of time in the Bayou’s super-low towing gear as I walked beside her on the easy beginner trails. By the next summer she had graduated to first gear. (I bought the Bayou at the end of August ’95 so she didn’t spend as much time in super-low gear as you might think).
Over the next two years I had her make loops to the left, loops to the right, figure-eights, and close orbits about a point. She has gone up hills, down hills, and across hills. I had her accelerate, upshift, downshift, brake, stop, backup, and turnaround. I had her stop in the middle of ascending a hill and back down. I had her stop in the middle of descending a hill and back up. She went through brush, streams, ruts, and gullies, over logs and rocks, and between trees. She did this again, and again, and again while I stood there next to her encouraging, instructing, and critiquing. I also taught her my most favored technique for riding over difficult unknown ground, i.e., get off the bike and cover your proposed route on foot first. That way you will know what you are up against and you will know how to proceed with the best chance of success and the least probability of risk.
After three years of practice and drill, Julia was doing very well on my Bayou 400. But it was obvious that, due to the added up front weight of the X1-F Superwinch and mount, the heavy steering on the 400 was taking its toll on her physical stamina during long training sessions. I knew that if she was going to continue to ride, and not become discouraged by the amount of effort required to ride, I would have to acquire a quad with lighter steering.
After serious consideration of who besides my daughter would ride a second quad, I concluded that a 300cc 4x4 would be the perfect all-around machine to occupy the second slot in my stable. I decided that a Honda TRX300 or Kawasaki KLF300 would fill the bill nicely. Good used quads are expensive, and are few and far between. I had little idea when I began my search that I would spend 8 months searching the want-ads before I finally found one worth buying. In July of ’98 I finally found what I had been looking for, a clean, reasonably priced 300cc 4x4 in good condition. Coincidentally, it turned out to be a Kawasaki Bayou 300.
The steering on the air-cooled, winchless Bayou 300 proved to be significantly lighter than that of my liquid-cooled, winch-equipped Bayou 400. My daughter was all smiles as the lessons again began in earnest. She had all of the basic riding techniques down pat, and she had a good grasp on many of the advanced riding techniques. I now concentrated on building up her stamina for long rides. For the next 8 months right through the Winter of ’98 we practiced whenever we could.
During one practice session we were riding with about five other riders including a man and his 13-year old son. Young “Bobby”, who had been riding about twice as long as Julia, was riding a Yamaha Warrior. At the top of a long muddy hill-climb, it was necessary to pass between two closely spaced trees to clear the top of the hill. Bobby’s Dad cleared the hill with no problems, but Bobby got stuck on the slippery tree roots between the two trees. John on his Lakota was behind Bobby. When Bobby got stuck, John managed to keep enough momentum to go around him. Julia was behind John and she stopped on the hill when Bobby got stuck and John slowed to make his cut to the right.
Bobby was completely stuck. The hill was steep enough, and the mud covered tree roots were slippery enough, that even with John and his Dad pushing and pulling on his Warrior, Bobby couldn’t clear the hill. John told Bobby and Julia to back down the hill so Bobby could try the hill again. From a position only about 25 feet behind Bobby, Julia promptly backed all the way down the hill to the bottom where I was waiting my turn. Bobby didn’t move. In all of the time that he had been riding, his Dad had never really bothered to really TEACH him how to ride so much as he had just SHOWN him how to ride. John later told me that even with he and Bobby’s Dad holding on and easing the Warrior down the hill, Bobby was still gripping the handlebars with white-knuckle fear.
Later that evening after the ride when John and Julia and I were having dinner, John asked Julia how she had backed down the hill so easily when Bobby proved incapable of backing up so much as an inch. Julia just rolled her eyes and in an exaggerated fashion told John, “Dad always makes me back down the hills”. What she was referring to of course were the many practice sessions when I had made her stop part way up a hill and back down. A large part of her training sessions were concerned with what to do when things don’t go the way you planned. For Julia that day out on the trail with Bobby, “contingency riding” was second nature. When the Spring of ’99 rolled around there was no doubt in her mind, or mine, that she was ready.
In April of ’99 Julia and I and the Eclectic ATVers, a select group that included Tree Farmer, headed to Cochranton, PA for the World’s biggest OHV run. The AHPA Poker Run draws riders from all parts of the United States. That April there were over 6,000 riders queued up to ride three different trails. The Eclectic ATVers rode Trail B.
Mostly because of traffic tie-ups, it took all day to ride the 35 tough, muddy miles of Trail B. At one point the trail descended into a broad, steep-sided gully with a small stream at the bottom. The trail followed the stream to the far end of the gully, and then exited the gully up two small hills that were not as steep as the rest of the gully. But blocking the exit was a guy on a 2WD Warrior who couldn’t get enough traction to make the first hill. We waited and waited as the Warrior rider tried the hill again and again, only to fail on each attempt. Doug Blackburn ran out of patience, turned his Bayou 300 4x4 to the left and made a run up the very steep side of the gully. Julia followed on her Bayou 300, and I followed on my Bayou 400. None of the other Eclectic ATVers, or any other riders, attempted the steep side of the gully. I finally used my towrope to pull the Warrior out of the gully and allow the rest of the riders to proceed.
In April of 2000 Julia and I again rode with Tree Farmer at the 2nd Annual Quads-On-The-Rocks ride at Tasker’s Gap in Virginia (see the feature article of 8-15-99 for details of the 1st QOTR ride). QOTR II was followed the next day by the Little Fort Trail Ride, also held at Tasker’s Gap. Both days we rode about 33 miles over some of the roughest, rockiest terrain you can possibly imagine. We also made a pass up Tasker’s Run, the rockiest place on the whole mountain (and a place that during QOTR I former trials bike champion Gordon Banks referred to as “pretty challenging”). I managed to make it up Tasker’s Run without getting stuck. Julia got stuck four times (this is no reflection on Julia – I got stuck three times on my first trip up Tasker’s Run behind Gordon Banks during QOTR I – it is difficult piece of technical riding). But each time she was able to get unstuck by backing up and taking a slightly different line.
Julia has successfully ridden some of the toughest terrain there is, and has done so in an exemplary fashion. Many adult riders have praised her skills and her riding style. But she is still a kid and should have adult supervision when she rides. Just as I hope your daughter will have adult supervision even after she has been riding a while.
Did you ever wonder why so many teens and young “adults” (18 to 22) seem to commit a disproportionate number of obviously stupid acts? Lack of experience is certainly a factor, but more importantly recent medical investigative studies have shown that the frontal lobes of the brains of teens and young adults are still growing during those years. These studies have shown that this incomplete cerebral development is directly associated with the individual’s ability to adequately assess risk.
Risk assessment is something mature adults take for granted. And it is something that allows them to instinctively avoid high risk situations. Neither my daughter, nor your daughter, is yet fully capable of accurate risk assessment. It is our job as parents to ensure that they receive the appropriate theoretical and empirical training to develop that ability.
I would hope that you had planned on doing more than just showing your wife and daughter where the throttle, brake, and shift levers are, and then invite them to ride along after you.
In fact the primary reason for this long-winded screed is to encourage you, and every parent whose child wants to use machinery that requires adult judgement to operate, to give your child the serious training that their ultimate safety depends on. It can only benefit them and the sport in the long run.
The ATV Safety Institute's ATV Safety Course is a good place to get started… if you're over sixteen! In what had to be one of the more bizarre telephone exchanges I've had, I went around and around with the guy from the ATV Safety Institute over my then 13-year old daughter's inability to take the course because she was not yet sixteen. I told him that if safety were truly the number one item on their agenda, it wouldn't matter how old the child was.
When Julia finally turns 16 next Summer she will have been riding for 6 years already. And she will have already ridden in some of the more difficult places. But do you know what? Shortly after she turns 16 she'll be enrolled in the Safety Course. Will she probably already know most of what they will teach in the safety course. Probably she will. But safety training is an on-going process, it never hurts to keep current.
I don't know what stature your daughter is, but mine has always been tall for her age. At 15 she is now just a shade over 5' 8" and 125 pounds, so the Bayou fits her like a glove. But even if your daughter is petite, with proper disciplined training I know she'll have as much fun on your Honda Recon as my daughter does on my Bayou 300.
Army Man
Congratulations on your new quad, and congratulations on bringing your wife and daughter into the sport.
My daughter Julia began riding my Bayou 400 shortly after I bought it when she was 10 years old. At first the rides were infrequent and confined to the backyard and a stretch of woods directly behind our house. As she gained experience and became more familiar with operation of the vehicle, we moved the practice sessions into a larger area of woods about a mile from the house. She initially spent a great deal of time in the Bayou’s super-low towing gear as I walked beside her on the easy beginner trails. By the next summer she had graduated to first gear. (I bought the Bayou at the end of August ’95 so she didn’t spend as much time in super-low gear as you might think).
Over the next two years I had her make loops to the left, loops to the right, figure-eights, and close orbits about a point. She has gone up hills, down hills, and across hills. I had her accelerate, upshift, downshift, brake, stop, backup, and turnaround. I had her stop in the middle of ascending a hill and back down. I had her stop in the middle of descending a hill and back up. She went through brush, streams, ruts, and gullies, over logs and rocks, and between trees. She did this again, and again, and again while I stood there next to her encouraging, instructing, and critiquing. I also taught her my most favored technique for riding over difficult unknown ground, i.e., get off the bike and cover your proposed route on foot first. That way you will know what you are up against and you will know how to proceed with the best chance of success and the least probability of risk.
After three years of practice and drill, Julia was doing very well on my Bayou 400. But it was obvious that, due to the added up front weight of the X1-F Superwinch and mount, the heavy steering on the 400 was taking its toll on her physical stamina during long training sessions. I knew that if she was going to continue to ride, and not become discouraged by the amount of effort required to ride, I would have to acquire a quad with lighter steering.
After serious consideration of who besides my daughter would ride a second quad, I concluded that a 300cc 4x4 would be the perfect all-around machine to occupy the second slot in my stable. I decided that a Honda TRX300 or Kawasaki KLF300 would fill the bill nicely. Good used quads are expensive, and are few and far between. I had little idea when I began my search that I would spend 8 months searching the want-ads before I finally found one worth buying. In July of ’98 I finally found what I had been looking for, a clean, reasonably priced 300cc 4x4 in good condition. Coincidentally, it turned out to be a Kawasaki Bayou 300.
The steering on the air-cooled, winchless Bayou 300 proved to be significantly lighter than that of my liquid-cooled, winch-equipped Bayou 400. My daughter was all smiles as the lessons again began in earnest. She had all of the basic riding techniques down pat, and she had a good grasp on many of the advanced riding techniques. I now concentrated on building up her stamina for long rides. For the next 8 months right through the Winter of ’98 we practiced whenever we could.
During one practice session we were riding with about five other riders including a man and his 13-year old son. Young “Bobby”, who had been riding about twice as long as Julia, was riding a Yamaha Warrior. At the top of a long muddy hill-climb, it was necessary to pass between two closely spaced trees to clear the top of the hill. Bobby’s Dad cleared the hill with no problems, but Bobby got stuck on the slippery tree roots between the two trees. John on his Lakota was behind Bobby. When Bobby got stuck, John managed to keep enough momentum to go around him. Julia was behind John and she stopped on the hill when Bobby got stuck and John slowed to make his cut to the right.
Bobby was completely stuck. The hill was steep enough, and the mud covered tree roots were slippery enough, that even with John and his Dad pushing and pulling on his Warrior, Bobby couldn’t clear the hill. John told Bobby and Julia to back down the hill so Bobby could try the hill again. From a position only about 25 feet behind Bobby, Julia promptly backed all the way down the hill to the bottom where I was waiting my turn. Bobby didn’t move. In all of the time that he had been riding, his Dad had never really bothered to really TEACH him how to ride so much as he had just SHOWN him how to ride. John later told me that even with he and Bobby’s Dad holding on and easing the Warrior down the hill, Bobby was still gripping the handlebars with white-knuckle fear.
Later that evening after the ride when John and Julia and I were having dinner, John asked Julia how she had backed down the hill so easily when Bobby proved incapable of backing up so much as an inch. Julia just rolled her eyes and in an exaggerated fashion told John, “Dad always makes me back down the hills”. What she was referring to of course were the many practice sessions when I had made her stop part way up a hill and back down. A large part of her training sessions were concerned with what to do when things don’t go the way you planned. For Julia that day out on the trail with Bobby, “contingency riding” was second nature. When the Spring of ’99 rolled around there was no doubt in her mind, or mine, that she was ready.
In April of ’99 Julia and I and the Eclectic ATVers, a select group that included Tree Farmer, headed to Cochranton, PA for the World’s biggest OHV run. The AHPA Poker Run draws riders from all parts of the United States. That April there were over 6,000 riders queued up to ride three different trails. The Eclectic ATVers rode Trail B.
Mostly because of traffic tie-ups, it took all day to ride the 35 tough, muddy miles of Trail B. At one point the trail descended into a broad, steep-sided gully with a small stream at the bottom. The trail followed the stream to the far end of the gully, and then exited the gully up two small hills that were not as steep as the rest of the gully. But blocking the exit was a guy on a 2WD Warrior who couldn’t get enough traction to make the first hill. We waited and waited as the Warrior rider tried the hill again and again, only to fail on each attempt. Doug Blackburn ran out of patience, turned his Bayou 300 4x4 to the left and made a run up the very steep side of the gully. Julia followed on her Bayou 300, and I followed on my Bayou 400. None of the other Eclectic ATVers, or any other riders, attempted the steep side of the gully. I finally used my towrope to pull the Warrior out of the gully and allow the rest of the riders to proceed.
In April of 2000 Julia and I again rode with Tree Farmer at the 2nd Annual Quads-On-The-Rocks ride at Tasker’s Gap in Virginia (see the feature article of 8-15-99 for details of the 1st QOTR ride). QOTR II was followed the next day by the Little Fort Trail Ride, also held at Tasker’s Gap. Both days we rode about 33 miles over some of the roughest, rockiest terrain you can possibly imagine. We also made a pass up Tasker’s Run, the rockiest place on the whole mountain (and a place that during QOTR I former trials bike champion Gordon Banks referred to as “pretty challenging”). I managed to make it up Tasker’s Run without getting stuck. Julia got stuck four times (this is no reflection on Julia – I got stuck three times on my first trip up Tasker’s Run behind Gordon Banks during QOTR I – it is difficult piece of technical riding). But each time she was able to get unstuck by backing up and taking a slightly different line.
Julia has successfully ridden some of the toughest terrain there is, and has done so in an exemplary fashion. Many adult riders have praised her skills and her riding style. But she is still a kid and should have adult supervision when she rides. Just as I hope your daughter will have adult supervision even after she has been riding a while.
Did you ever wonder why so many teens and young “adults” (18 to 22) seem to commit a disproportionate number of obviously stupid acts? Lack of experience is certainly a factor, but more importantly recent medical investigative studies have shown that the frontal lobes of the brains of teens and young adults are still growing during those years. These studies have shown that this incomplete cerebral development is directly associated with the individual’s ability to adequately assess risk.
Risk assessment is something mature adults take for granted. And it is something that allows them to instinctively avoid high risk situations. Neither my daughter, nor your daughter, is yet fully capable of accurate risk assessment. It is our job as parents to ensure that they receive the appropriate theoretical and empirical training to develop that ability.
I would hope that you had planned on doing more than just showing your wife and daughter where the throttle, brake, and shift levers are, and then invite them to ride along after you.
In fact the primary reason for this long-winded screed is to encourage you, and every parent whose child wants to use machinery that requires adult judgement to operate, to give your child the serious training that their ultimate safety depends on. It can only benefit them and the sport in the long run.
The ATV Safety Institute's ATV Safety Course is a good place to get started… if you're over sixteen! In what had to be one of the more bizarre telephone exchanges I've had, I went around and around with the guy from the ATV Safety Institute over my then 13-year old daughter's inability to take the course because she was not yet sixteen. I told him that if safety were truly the number one item on their agenda, it wouldn't matter how old the child was.
When Julia finally turns 16 next Summer she will have been riding for 6 years already. And she will have already ridden in some of the more difficult places. But do you know what? Shortly after she turns 16 she'll be enrolled in the Safety Course. Will she probably already know most of what they will teach in the safety course. Probably she will. But safety training is an on-going process, it never hurts to keep current.
I don't know what stature your daughter is, but mine has always been tall for her age. At 15 she is now just a shade over 5' 8" and 125 pounds, so the Bayou fits her like a glove. But even if your daughter is petite, with proper disciplined training I know she'll have as much fun on your Honda Recon as my daughter does on my Bayou 300.
Army Man
Oct 27, 2000 | 05:11 AM
#24
Thread Starter
|
Pro Rider
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 2,275
Likes: 1
Armyman,
Your advice is taken in a serious manner.All to often we see injuries that could have been avoided in the ATV world.
Most new ATV riders know very little about navigation and the safe riding practices of ATVs.My daughter and wife have both ridden both my Sportsman and Xplorer,however,I would not dare let either out of my site.These are two very huge and heavy quads.My daughters inexperience's showed with a question to me one day?
Dad,she asked,Why did you get rid of the Sportsman shortly after buying the Xplorer if you knew you were going to get me and mom a quad?[You and I both know the answer to that]I explained to her that a quad should never be in control of the rider,the rider should allways be in control of the quad,I than explained the weight and handling characteristics of different quads ect.
I have some area behind my home to,and my daughter is doing excellant with the gearing so far.I will take her out to practice in a more technicle area this wk end.Your practice points are well taken and I will have her work on certain technics this wk end.
In Michigan,where im from,if you plan on riding the trails,you MUST have a ATV safety certificate [on you] if you are under the age of 16.So taking the ATV Safety course is a givin.It is just a one day course and my curosity has me wondering how much the kids can really absorb with a one day course?Thanks for your concern,
Bill
Your advice is taken in a serious manner.All to often we see injuries that could have been avoided in the ATV world.
Most new ATV riders know very little about navigation and the safe riding practices of ATVs.My daughter and wife have both ridden both my Sportsman and Xplorer,however,I would not dare let either out of my site.These are two very huge and heavy quads.My daughters inexperience's showed with a question to me one day?
Dad,she asked,Why did you get rid of the Sportsman shortly after buying the Xplorer if you knew you were going to get me and mom a quad?[You and I both know the answer to that]I explained to her that a quad should never be in control of the rider,the rider should allways be in control of the quad,I than explained the weight and handling characteristics of different quads ect.
I have some area behind my home to,and my daughter is doing excellant with the gearing so far.I will take her out to practice in a more technicle area this wk end.Your practice points are well taken and I will have her work on certain technics this wk end.
In Michigan,where im from,if you plan on riding the trails,you MUST have a ATV safety certificate [on you] if you are under the age of 16.So taking the ATV Safety course is a givin.It is just a one day course and my curosity has me wondering how much the kids can really absorb with a one day course?Thanks for your concern,
Bill
Oct 28, 2000 | 05:26 PM
#25
Pro Rider
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 1,917
Likes: 0
ArmyMan, I understand where your coming from, but I somewhat disagree with what you said about the teen-young adult part. I've been riding since I was 7, started out sitting in front of my dad on our TRX125. No telling how many miles I've driven sitting on the gas tank of a non suspended honda.. But the lil thing was an awesome quad. Then, I graduated to my Polaris 300. Another awesome quad, still on it's 1st belt, and 1st plug, and it's 4 years old. Then, my dad decided to get a new Sportsman 500.. Totally awesome machine. Like I said, I've rode since I was seven, but now, I'm 15, and I'm racing my Banshee. Now I know you mean the people that go out, and buy the fastest quad they can afford, and don't know jack about riding! There's a guy I know that needs a honda 125, but he's going to get a 2001 400ex next week. I agree with you, we need more people like your daughter. Ya know, since us "youth" are considered the leaders of the future.. we need go get all the people we can into riding.. maybe the life of our sport depends on it???
Oct 30, 2000 | 12:21 PM
#27
Range Rover
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 162
Likes: 0
J. C. Baloun,
Your sarcastic comment belittling the rigorous riding and safety training my daughter received in the course of learning how to ride does you no credit, and it sets a bad example for the many impressionable youngsters who participate in this forum.
A lack of parental concern with safety and a lack of involvement with what their children were doing led to tragedy here in western PA about three years ago.
Identical twin boys were being given a high school graduation party by their parents at their home in the country (Indiana, PA). There were many friends, relatives, and neighbors in attendance. According to the newspaper article, these two young men had been riding and racing dirt bikes since they were small boys. Some time after dinner, at or near dusk, they decided to put on a riding exhibition for their guests. Both boys climbed on their 125cc dirt bikes and began blasting up and down the trails behind their house. Neither bike had lights, and neither boy wore a helmet.
After a few minutes in the dark they became separated from one another. Each turned around and headed back towards the party at a high rate of speed. Listening to the two bikes wind through the gears, their parents, relatives, and friends watched with a growing sense of horror as the two boys approached the party from opposite directions. Apparently, neither boy saw the other. They collided head-on without ever even touching the brakes. One boy was killed outright, and the other sustained injuries that put him in a coma. The papers carried the story of the boy’s mother keeping a bedside vigil in the hospital for several weeks. Then the story became old news and faded out. I don’t recall seeing a story about what ultimately happened to the boy in the coma.
Mr. Baloun asks what I am so proud of? I will tell you:
I’m proud of the fact that I made my daughter practice certain riding maneuvers until she could execute them in her sleep. I’m proud of the fact that I always made my daughter wear a helmet. I’m proud of the fact I’m not keeping a vigil at the hospital bedside of my comatose daughter. I’m proud of the fact that I’m not standing beside her casket in the funeral home asking myself over and over again why I hadn’t kept a closer eye on what she was doing.
I’m proud of the fact that she is a safe, careful, competent, and considerate quad rider. I have no doubt that she will become a safe, careful, competent, and considerate car driver and motorcycle rider as well.
Perhaps if Mr. Baloun were to ask that same question of the parents of the boys who collided head-on in the dark, while wearing no helmets and while riding bikes with no lights, he might get a different answer. Do you think they would feel sorry for the “abuse” my daughter put up with from her drill sergeant-like father? Do you think they would tell you I’ve over emphasized training and safety? Do you think they would say that by constantly monitoring my daughter’s performance and her attitude towards training that I have prevented her from reaching her full potential? Do you think that the boy dead at age 18 reached his full potential?
Thank you for your timely reply Mr. Baloun. We all need periodic reminders of the true importance of rigorous safety training, which, however unwittingly, you’ve so succinctly supplied.
Army Man
Your sarcastic comment belittling the rigorous riding and safety training my daughter received in the course of learning how to ride does you no credit, and it sets a bad example for the many impressionable youngsters who participate in this forum.
A lack of parental concern with safety and a lack of involvement with what their children were doing led to tragedy here in western PA about three years ago.
Identical twin boys were being given a high school graduation party by their parents at their home in the country (Indiana, PA). There were many friends, relatives, and neighbors in attendance. According to the newspaper article, these two young men had been riding and racing dirt bikes since they were small boys. Some time after dinner, at or near dusk, they decided to put on a riding exhibition for their guests. Both boys climbed on their 125cc dirt bikes and began blasting up and down the trails behind their house. Neither bike had lights, and neither boy wore a helmet.
After a few minutes in the dark they became separated from one another. Each turned around and headed back towards the party at a high rate of speed. Listening to the two bikes wind through the gears, their parents, relatives, and friends watched with a growing sense of horror as the two boys approached the party from opposite directions. Apparently, neither boy saw the other. They collided head-on without ever even touching the brakes. One boy was killed outright, and the other sustained injuries that put him in a coma. The papers carried the story of the boy’s mother keeping a bedside vigil in the hospital for several weeks. Then the story became old news and faded out. I don’t recall seeing a story about what ultimately happened to the boy in the coma.
Mr. Baloun asks what I am so proud of? I will tell you:
I’m proud of the fact that I made my daughter practice certain riding maneuvers until she could execute them in her sleep. I’m proud of the fact that I always made my daughter wear a helmet. I’m proud of the fact I’m not keeping a vigil at the hospital bedside of my comatose daughter. I’m proud of the fact that I’m not standing beside her casket in the funeral home asking myself over and over again why I hadn’t kept a closer eye on what she was doing.
I’m proud of the fact that she is a safe, careful, competent, and considerate quad rider. I have no doubt that she will become a safe, careful, competent, and considerate car driver and motorcycle rider as well.
Perhaps if Mr. Baloun were to ask that same question of the parents of the boys who collided head-on in the dark, while wearing no helmets and while riding bikes with no lights, he might get a different answer. Do you think they would feel sorry for the “abuse” my daughter put up with from her drill sergeant-like father? Do you think they would tell you I’ve over emphasized training and safety? Do you think they would say that by constantly monitoring my daughter’s performance and her attitude towards training that I have prevented her from reaching her full potential? Do you think that the boy dead at age 18 reached his full potential?
Thank you for your timely reply Mr. Baloun. We all need periodic reminders of the true importance of rigorous safety training, which, however unwittingly, you’ve so succinctly supplied.
Army Man
Oct 30, 2000 | 03:08 PM
#28
Pro Rider
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 282
Likes: 0
I believe that that Honda dealer mentality is almost everywhere right now. It has something to do with them being able to sell every stinkin' machine that they make. I'm not saying that one quad is better than another, but the market is on fire and they don't have to deal on models that are sure things. In a couple years when the market starts cooling off a little bit things might be different.
