Girlfriend won't do down hill, advice, tips please

[JasonJ]

No CJ, I dont. There are a few girls that ride up there but none that ride bikes. I would like her maybe to ride with Squeeky girl next time they make it to Paragon, but she is not ready for the Paragon side yet and has yet to do any group riding. Im hoping we make some real progress with these hills Sunday as its really the only week point keeping her from really enjoying the whole trail riding experiance.

 

[MDA]

Wow, this sounds familiar in a lot of ways. My wife rides an RT100 and really likes the size. She finds the bigger bikes intimidating. The supension is the bikes weakes link (no pun intended). Depending on finances, we may upgrade her to an TTR125 next year.

With that being said, yes the bike is very capable of the terrain Jason is describing. Its a confidence issue. Not a bike issue.

My wife had issues with downhills as well since she has vision problems in one eye. She does not perceive depth as well as most people. That makes her loose confidence going downhill (uphill is fine, she can climb 'till the cows come home). I taught her as best as I could with my limited riding experience how to maintain control on decents. We practiced on various slopes and conditions.

With that being said, visibility appears to be the biggest deterent to your wife's hill climbing/decent skills. Tough situation since you want to help her overcome her phobia, while not pushing too hard. I know I would really be dissapointed if I ever did anything that made my wife loose interest in riding with me. I really enjoy our time together on the bikes.

I would say that the best advice I have seen so far is to see if she is willing to spend some time practicing this skill with you. Find a reasonable and familiar area and walk the uphill/downhill section together a few times. Discuss downhill techniques and make sure she is comfortable with how she should approach such an obstacle. Then its a matter of having her try it several times. I know I feel a lot more comfortable riding in an area where I know what to expect ahead of time. When I first started riding I was affraid that I would launch myself over a hill like what you described. If only I knew then how much throttle you actually have to give it to do that, he, he. It may even help to have her stand at the top of the hill and watch you take her bike up and down a few times.

The long and short of it is, she has to be willing to work on this skill. Don't push too hard....

Best of luck with this....

-Mark-

 

[JasonJ]

Thanks again to all for hints and advice.
Mark you hit the nail on the head man.
My goals for my sweet Kerry for the weekend:
1) Practice and master the (large whoop) size hills to the point of confidence is so that she can ride an unfamiliar hill without knowing what is on the other side.
2) First group ride.

Both goals accomplished!!!! got up and were on the trail by 10:15! Took her to her familiar woods trail circuit that starts off the power lines where the hills are that go over the earthen wall. Like was suggested, I didnt tell her where we were going or what we were doing. We rolled up to the hills, I parked my bike and took off my gear and told her the plan. She was nervous but ready. We walked the 3 hills and then I talked her though what I wanted her to do. I put a rock down the hills where I wanted her front tire and showed her the drill on her bike wich gladly hauled my 200+ butt up and down the hills. I must say for what the bike is the front suspension is very stabel and soaks up the rocks with out deflecting.
The first 5 tries or so on the smallest hill where shakey and I had to grab the bike a few times as I stood on the top of the hill. Then she started to get it, the front wheel was making it over but not enough to keep the bike from being able to roll back. Her throttle control got better and better as she attacked the hill and her braking got better and better untill she started getting it.
Bingo! I saw the light come on and someting amazing happened. She started getting pumped and having a good time! We drilled the smal hill back and forth untill she was perfect, driving up the hill, putting the front wheel over the crest and far enough down that the bike was just at the point of going down the hill instead of wanting to roll backwards, complete stop, feet down, then feet up and off down the hill. Then we went to rolling over the hill with out stopping untill it looked good. We moved to the next hill that was the biggest and it took her 2 tries and she was on it! We did the stop and go drill untill it was right and then she wanted to do it non stop. She was elated, stopping on the top of the hill and pretending to do FMX tricks, I belive it was some sort of Lazy boy Cordova variation :) . Then to the 3rd hill that was not quite as high as the 2nd but more technical as it was a turning hill and one side had a stepping face, the other side and a nice big tree root embeded on it and I did not clear the bigger of the rocks off it or the approach like I did the first two. She mastered it right away. She was so stoked she wanted to learn to to a skid turn as she calls it. Just where you kinda do a 180 foot down dounut to turn the bike around. It was hard with the little bike! She started trying it but then rang her shin on the foot peg pretty hard. We have to get her some boots yet :( . Nasty bruse but she was ok. We rode back to base and then got ready for a group ride after a good break. The ride group started getting a bit large and some nuckle heads on Banshees showed up, so we decided to take our own ride, me Kerry and my buds wife who is just getting back on a quad after a nasty fall and injury 2 years ago. We went out and had a great time, it was slow for me and I had to hit every puddle I could find to help keep big blue cool, as my buds wife was SLOW, but I thik that helped Kerry as she belived she was the slowet rider on the earth. Kerry also climed a coal silt hill that his wife would not. The only thing was at some points she was so slow the RT was bogging out a bit and needed to be rung out. We tried a new trail I have never been on and had fun, Kerry came around a turn that ended with a rutted mud hole and at the last second she decided she did not want to be in the rut she was in and tried to cross out of it into another line. Whoops, she went down in the mud kinda hard and got a good knock on the shoulder. She was more scared than anyting but took a minute and crawled out of the mud and realized she was ok. Lesson learned in the mud, if your in a rut, ride it through. We turned back and she was very happy and having fun despite have some mud in some unpleasent places :) . The trail crossed over the rode we were taking and climbed up a good little 4 foot wall type hill and she wanted to try it. Go head I told her. Whats on the other side she asked? I dont know, I have never been down there I told her I could see over the hill pretty well from on the WR and it look clear. She rode the hill perfect, stopped, took a look, and right down, she came back over it and even cauth a little wheelie action! we rode back and after she calmed down about what a great time they had she started in on how much she loves her bike again and was all hugging it and cleaning mud off it :).

what a cool day, I didnt even care that I was going slow I was having fun watching her get in the groove and have more fun than I have ever seen her have on the bike. Thaks again for the great advice. Lori you da Girl. Some day maybe we can all ride with you and Dave, that would rock! Well, ok, I said some day.

 

[JasonJ]

Oh yeah, even in my long post I forgot to say I also threw her a surprise paragon style rocky washed out down hill like Lori suggested. I went first but she froze at the top. I waved her down saying no big deal, come on. She inched a few times and refused. I got off and walked up and showed her the best line. I told her the hill is only as hard as the best line, not the worst line witch was what she was looking at, a rocky V wash out that went down the middle, to eaither side was fairly clear. We talked about it and I offered to take the bike down for her, she finally decided to try it win or loose, she made it fine with good rear brake control and decent speed once she finally comitted, put her feet up and went with the flow.

 

[E-Ticket]

Congrats to both her and you!

Two biggies:

-- get her all the protective gear that you can. Being able to fall/crash and get up laughing is a HUGE help... both physically and mentally

-- continue to keep it small and easy. I know, I know... it may drive you a bit crazy... but it's ALL about repetition and confidence.

Spend the time and money now -- reap the benefits for years to come.

Cheers! - rb

 

[LoriKTM]

Good job, Kerry and Jason! :thumb:

Jason, I'm glad you had the patience to give Kerry the repetetive practice she needed.  Now that you have the "key", I bet you'll see amazing progress in Kerry's riding.  She has more confidence (and fun!), and you know what techniques work best to teach her.

Definitely need the boots!  That was my FIRST personal item I ever bought for dirtbiking.  Borrowed helmet, borrowed gloves, but boots had to be sized to fit. 

What size are Kerry's feet?   I have an old set of Fox Chameleons that are size 5, fairly worn but free if you want them.

We probably won't be down to Paragon until after Dirtweek, but maybe Kerry will be ready for a little Paragon by then! :)

 

[JasonJ]

Size 5? Man thats redicously small! She is, uhhhh,, size 5 :) . Thanks for the offer Lori, that rocks, Ill run it by her! Not that they would be, but they are not pink are they? She hates pink and almost smacked the guy at the dealership when he tried to push pink girls riding pants on her. Gotta love that girl!
BTW, she asked me how I got the idea to drill on the hill, as if I could not have come up with it on my own!!!! Hehehe
So I spilled the beans and told her I asked you girls. She was a bit embarressed but I think it was the right thing to do. Maybe I can get her to pop her head in here some day and say Hi. Ill put some picks of her up and thow the link in here when I DL em from the cam then of her on top of the mighty hill. :) .

 

[Michelle]

Way to go Jason & Kerry (esp. Kerry hehe)

We'd love to meet Kerry. Tell her not to be embarrassed, but I guess she should be proud that you were concerned enough to ask other women. Tell her that if she ever needs cheering on to just post here & we'll do our best to help.

She should definitely be proud of herself for having conquered a hurdle. We'd love to see pix but hills are never done justice in photos. Thanks also for the update, that's always appreciated (even if sometimes we don't say anything) :)

 

[LoriKTM]

Jason,

Sure, have Kerry join us here if she wants.  Let me know before she signs up, and I'll remove this thread so she doesn't see any of your smack talk about it taking her 1-2 HOURS to get ready to go dirtbiking! :p

The Fox boots are a size 5, MEN's- probably fit a women's size 6 or 7.  Too small when I bought em, but I didn't know better and stuffed my feet into them for a while anyway.  They also seem to have shrunk a bit since then, with all the water crossings.  And they're BLACK, not pink. :moon:

Whoever decided that making pink riding gear for women must have been determined to set the whole thing up for failure.  "No, there's no market for women's gear.  See?  We produced a whole bunch of this pink gear, and NOBODY bought it!"  Ah---DUHHH!!

 

[TheJunkMan]

I guess james stewart is in the market for pink zebra striped gear! LOL

 

[Superman15555]

My girlfriend has been "riding" a dirt bike for maybe 2 years. I taught her to ride in the back yard on a 70s style 2 stroke dirt bike. She picked it right up as she dirves stick just fine. I got her a 92 RT 100cc Yamaha last year for $100 and put about $100 into it to get it in great shape. She loves the little bike and has refused sevral offers from people to buy it for way more than I have into it but she will not have it. So I know she wants to ride, I never forced her or pushed her to ride dirt bikes, Im just not like that. So anyway, her confidence and speed are starting to pick up to the point I took her out of the kiddie trails where I had been riding with her out into the larger riding area. Right away I saw her strenghts and weeknesses.
She is great in the hard pack and rokey trails. She is good with the clutch and shifting.
She is still too slow. Too slow she is not carring enough speed to ride over obsticles, she is bouncing off of downed trees instead of rolling over them and last but worst.
She dose not want to go down hills! She started out not wanting to go up hills either but now she will climb most of what she has to, but when she gets to the top of a peaked type hill, like even a 6 ft "wall" type hill where you go up and right back down, she stops! Usally just before the front tire crest the hill, and then she falls over and slides down :( . I keep trying to tell her if your scared, stop at the top of the hill AFTER your front tire is over the crest and the bike is level on the top of the hill. Stop and put your feet down and take a look if you want, but she will not put that front tire over. She says she is scared becuase she cant see what is on the other side of the face of the hill. There are alot of these type of 6 to 25 foot hills in the riding area and getting her around them is almost impossible. I spent alot of time with her riding the same loop with a 4 ft, 6 ft, and maybe 8 ft berm type up and down hill right next to each other. (we use them as jumps) trying to get her to work up to the bigger hill. She dose the gradual 4 ft all day as she can see over it. She did the 6 ft once and ditched the 8 footer like twice before refusing to do it. Our last ride was the best yet, she did great and we were covering some ground, testing and adding to her skills. We rode to a rivene. In all honesty it was about a 30 high maybe 50 foot wide rivene but with flat tops on both sides, the trail was straight clear hard pack. Straight down and right up the other side. I knew the bike can do it but you really have to be aggressive with it in 2nd gear as its only a 100cc bike but itll climb a tree if you wind her up in 1st! Anyway she declined to do it, I was disappointed but did not have a problem going back. Latter in the ride we came to a 12 foot wall hill. It was tricky becuase you had to come up a rocky power line hill, turn hard right, up the hill and it corkscrewed down to the left around a gate, the down side was not steep at all though and I offered to take her bike up. She said she would try it. She took to short of a run on it and just did not give it enough gas and over she went. I had to go up and kill the bike for her. She was ok and not to shaken but we took a few minutes.
What do you think I can do to get her to be more aggressive on the hills?
There are silt hills there that are about like sand, I was thinking of having her just keep hitting one of them, they are like sand so its not to bad if you fall, you just kinda slide down in the sand. She has said she did not like riding the soft coal silt though.
Any ideas?
She has said she will not ride a group ride untill she feels she is a bit faster and won't be embarresed by a 5 year old on a PW 50 for not going up a small hill. I really want to take her on group rides as I think that is a very enjoyable aspect of the sport.

 

[04kdx200]

Right, don't know what that last post was about, but GREAT! I bought my (now wife) a little kawi quad. She has a blast on the thing, we have about 3 miles of trail behind the house, and she can rock the first mile of it........ the little (220 Bayou) quad can't make the rest of the trip. But has some 4-6' walls, and lol, "gravity cavities" and she wouldn't ride them at first, but she wanted to see what all of the rave was about in the trails. She's pushing me to get her another (bigger) quad. She's been on a klx 110, tried to turn and stuffed it, I ran scared as h***, but she got up laughing, and took off! She said she's affraid of big bikes right now...i.e. crf 150. But I say, take your time, with a smile.

 

[JasonJ]

Thats great KDX. I did alot of work on my girl's RT 100 and took it out for a trail "hot lap" . Around here Rocks and hills are the order of the day "Paragon" . When I start going in 3rd and 4th gear I " 6'2" 205 lbs " really start pushing the limit of the little bikes front end and feel like Im on the edge of control/wipe out. The point being , even though she feels great on the littel bike, riding it in the envolope I want her to achieve reminds me that it is much more difficult to ride a little bike fast than it is to ride a big bike fast. That being said, its much harder to ride a big bike slow. And so the paradox plot of skill and equipment is like big X on a graph. Its hard to leave that confort zone. But I have no problem running at 20 MPH and hitting the trails to share some really awesome outdoor quality time and seeing stuff most people just don't or can't get out there and see. Of corse, some of the really awesome views come at the top of the hardest trail :aj: . But perhaps that is the carrot at the end of the stick, or the experiance reserved and deserved for the well honed rider? Hmmmmm, Im going to do some Yoga now and meditate on the issue.

Oh yeah,
:p
LOL.

 

[Alaskan_h230_gurl]

I just started riding last month, and around here (washington) there are a lot of unexpected hills on the trails, and a lot of them last for a long ways.. What my husband did, was I would follow him on the trail, a couple seconds behind, and after i saw that he could do it.. i had no choice but too... and once you are on the trail it would be "dumb" to turn around.. so i would just "nut up" and do it.. Now nothin scares me.. (yet) :nener:
I think you should ride rough, and let her suprise herself at how great of a rider she is. I was having a rough time at first bc i am short for my bike, but we went to capitol forest (acclaimed scarriest place to ride in wa) and I had the best time ever just trying to keep up, and by the end of the day i felt like a pro rider. My friend kind of let his gf be the decision maker on where and how they rode, and although she has been riding for like.... 6 mo. longer then me.. i have become a more advanced rider bc my hubby didnt really give me the option. Im glad for it though.. so maybe if the other things suggested didnt work, you can try just making her follow you! :) Last weekend i tried to go up this hill that just went straight up! I fell down it about..... 3 times.. atleast... But I made it.. and I think coming down is the easiest part.. just tell her to lock up the back tire, and go :) I have fallen a lot (normally going up) it doesnt hurt too bad.