My son is 11 and is ready to roadrace , getting 2nd thoughts........

I always wanted him to follow in my footsteps , now the time has come and I am getting cold feet......
He has been riding since he was 1 .We practiced every day this week after school and he is now fast.....

NSR 50

Now you know how your parents feel! Sux doesn't it?

Difficult but rewarding. Every time I send my son out on the track,, I'm filled with pride that he wants to do what I do, and scared that he may fall, miss that gap on the 80ft triple, have the motor I built seize at the wrong time and cause him to go down and get tangled with other riders, or some other problem, Those thoughts are fleeting, just parts of a second long, but they are BIG in my mind. I focus on his riding, the sound of the bike, planning what will be done when he is don with the moto, or after the enduro. It's something worse when we are racing enduros or scrambles at the same tome, in different classes. I know he is out there someplace, and have to really focus to keep from being distracted from just riding my ride.

Prep your son well (sounds like you have), prep the bike well, set him loose. The anguish you feel for his safety is fleeting the joy you feel from seeing him ride will last forever.

Just wait 'til he gets married! I still have night sweats.....

I understand, seeing my daughter first twist the grip and ride straight into a barb wire fence caused a whole range of emotions in me as I ran that way...mostly of the doubt and regret variety.

Hmmmmmm, motorcycling is indeed dangerous. Have you looked at the stats of injuries in other sports? From my experience having kids do both, the risk is no greater than any other organized sport.

1st of all lets be clear,, it's not a sport unless you can die doing it.

2nd of all life is dangerous, walking home from school, walking to the corner store, riding a bike to the local movie theater, all have risk..Manage the risk... there are bozos every day in school that tempt my son to get high.. go have a few beers at lunch, ect. thus far he has chosen the outlets we have provided him,, he gets high on the track, gets a rush railing a berm, has a blast toping out at a hill climb on a double step up after a tight right hand turn.

Riding on the track,,, road race or dirt, closed course off road is a manageable risk I can except.

im jealous. my kids are 10 and 11. I bought them a ttr110e last year and they both rode it once. They will not touch the thing. I have to ride it around the neighborhood every now and then hoping that someday they will take interest.

Thanks for all the good advise , it loooks like we will be running the Texas mini GP series. And I will run a race or two on our xr100 motard while we are there..

http://www.tmgps.8k.com/

Well , he took home 2 2nd place trophies in his first race and no get offs........2 or 3 close calls tho........he had a great time.

He moved up to two first place trophies this past weekend on his new bike , another NSR 50......

Bubba Shobert
Kevin Swantz
Collin Edwards
Ben Spies
New Mikey (Vintage Mikeys son)

I have been passed by all the Haden Brothers and Ben Spies on a YSR!

Yes, yes, yes. way to go. Don't worry, Pop, he will fall, but he'll get up, too.

Larry
VFRrider

I raced against Schwantz in his first roadrace ever , Aquafest 1983........

Very cool! Looks like he's having fun...that's the most important part.

Vintage Mikey said:

I raced against Schwantz in his first roadrace ever , Aquafest 1983........

Click to expand...

For some reason, that reminded me of the time my dad told me he played tennis against Jimmy Connors in high school. It went like this:

"Wow, Dad! You played against Jimmy Connors?"

"Yes, son."

"Did you beat him?"

"No, son."

TexBiker said:

Very cool! Looks like he's having fun...that's the most important part.



For some reason, that reminded me of the time my dad told me he played tennis against Jimmy Connors in high school. It went like this:

"Wow, Dad! You played against Jimmy Connors?"

"Yes, son."

"Did you beat him?"

"No, son."

Click to expand...

Pretty much how it happened with me........

Good job on those 2nd places!

If this is how you've chosen to spend time with your son don't worry about it one bit. Just the fact that ya'll are spending time together is worth the inherent risks. Well known that time is the most valuable thing you can give your kids. If you think he won't cherish every time ya'll loaded up the bikes and headed off then you must not know how many times I've tried to relive the ONE fishing trip my dad took me on before he left.

Which would you regret more?

-the fall that he can pick himself up from
-the falls in life that are harder to dust off from: drug use, lack of motivation, poor schoolwork, never achieving anything or getting to hear you tell him how proud you are

Sounds like you're dodging the big bullets, and nothing is guaranteed. I have to tell my wife constantly that our daughter can't learn how to ride her bicycle if we're not willing to take the chance she'll scratch up her knee. That analogy always works because my wife didn't know how to ride one until I bought her one for the first birthday we were together and taught her. She realized she'd missed out on 20yrs of two wheeled fun due to overprotective parenting.

Way cool, keep up the encouragement and let him watch the videos and comment "his self"