how do i get my wife to ride a little harder?

[pomanridin]

my wife had a ttr125 great bike to learn on. the suspension was too stiff. she sees me going over whoops skipping across the top. she felt with more power and better suspension she could do better. got her a kx 85, she loves the power, she says she feels that it is available, loves the suspension, loves the weight. but she does not know how to ride a 2 stroke. she bogs it down so much that oil comes out of the silencer. how do i eccourage her to rev higher without discouraging her? i never degrade her ability as she was able to ride her ttr very well but then too she never gets the concept of reving the bike high.

 

[ChopperDave]

Bigger rear sprocket to gear the bike down? That would help keep the rpm's up without a great deal of speed. Encourage her to learn the powerband and to stay in or near it.

 

[velosapiens]

she bogs it down so much that oil comes out of the silencer.

those bikes spooge like crazy even if you rev them. my gf has a kx100 and i just don't worry about it.

in fact, i advise you to not worry about it and just shut up. make sure your wife is enjoying herself and let her have fun without trying to get her to ride the way you would.

mw

 

[pomanridin]

the problem is not trying to get her to ride like me, if you read the post, SHE is complaining. i also wrote taht i never get frustrated with her.SHE ask why oil comes out of her silencer, and i really dont want to tell her its cause your going too slow, so i am asking for help in trying to get her to ride the way SHE desires. what pointers can i give in a kind way?

 

[LoriKTM]

Take her somewhere there is sand. Not too deep, but not wet and flat, either. You HAVE to rev up a bike to get it to move through the sand.
Mud works, too. Good luck!

 

[Jonala]

If sand is not available find any small incline. Have her stop on the incline. In order to get the bike going she'll have to slip the clutch, rev the motor until it produces enough power to get going. Once she masters first gear try second.

Then explain this is the same techinque that she needs to use to exit turns or power sapping conditions. I used this lesson with my nephew, it works. Good luck.

 

[ledkat]

You have just described why I love four-strokes and avoid two strokes. I can ride hard, but when I want to putt around a bit I want to be able to do so without my bike being tempermental :laugh: . Plus, doesn't a four stroke make much cooler sounds :nod: ?

 

[Chili]

If you spend a little time jetting the small KX's properly for your location and the rider you'll never see another drop of spooge from the exhaust.

 

[05chevyz71]

Just a thought?

Are you sure it's her riding and not just the brand of oil?

I recently had a problem with a new RM125 spooging real bad and me and my son ride it pretty hard. I was burning YAMALUBE and just switched to MOBILE Racing T2 and the spooge problem is now gone. Try using a Fully Synthetic oil and see if that helps.

 

[firecracker22]

Plus, doesn't a four stroke make much cooler sounds :nod: ?

Nope.

 

[DWreck]

If you spend a little time jetting the small KX's properly for your location and the rider you'll never see another drop of spooge from the exhaust.

Good advice. If she's not riding it in the powerband you can get away going a little leaner than normal with out doing any harm. Also as Z-71 said some oils definitely spooge less than others. I also recommend Mobile Racing 2T or something similar.

 

[Gazza2005au]

if your missus isnt scared of the speed only the loud pitch noise of a 2 stroke (loud noise = blowing up to chicks)tell her to wear ear plugs she will over come this problem in no time

 

[ellandoh]

fmf Q silencer

 

[bbbom]

My son never got his 60 or his 80 into the powerband until he started going to the MX track and racing. From following myself & my boyfriend on our CR500's on the trails for several years, he didn't know that the bike was supposed to SCREAM.

After a few trips to the track and some practice, he figured it out and the bike screams everywhere he goes now.

We also gear his CR85 down for the trails so he doesn't wear the clutch so bad. We gear it back up for the track so he doesn't lose the speed.

Try a smaller front sprocket, it's the cheapest and easiest mod you can make.

 

[bikepilot]

I think a lot of it is just that she isn't used to a bike that's made to rev and doesn't want to hurt it. First, whenever its a good time etc, explain that the little 2-stroke is designed to work best when reved up pretty high, give her an example of what it should sound like by riding it around or even reving it in neutral with her sitting on it. This helped my wife quite a bit. Also, if there are any other girls on small 2-strokes for her to ride with she will probably be much more open to learning from them than from you. Do your best to find wide open riding areas where she can get comfortable with the rpm and power output without worrying about threading through trees and such.

Jet the bike so it runs well, don't worry about engine damage, as long as you are playing with the low end jetting (pilot, air screw, needle) you will not be able to cause damage regardles of how lean you go. Even with proper jetting these bikes will spooge a little in my experence (my wife, sister and mom all ride or rode small 2-strokes for a long time, my sister got very fast and won the championship for our district, my mom and wife are a bit more cautous). They just don't seem to get hot enough to stay clean when ridden at very low rpms all the time. Wipe it down with a rag after every ride and replace the packing in the silencer often so it doesn't get too noticeable and discourage her.

A quiet silencer is probably a good idea, it makes things much less scary to a newish rider. Lower gearing often helps too as it enables higher rpms at lower speeds. A flywheel weight can help too. I have found that even a 12oz weight doesn't make a drastic difference, but it does tame the hit a bit making it easier to wind it out and still maintain control. My wife rode her bike (03 KX100) a few times without the weight, then I added a 12oz weight and she found it noticeably easier to ride, but still plenty fast.

cheers

Don't expect her, or anyone to become a great rider overnight, it takes time, some more than others. Make sure that the point of going riding is always to have fun, not to get fast.

 

[lilgirl]

Do you ride different trails all the time or the same ones?

I definitely don't feel comfortable going very fast/revving high on trails I'm not familiar and ride much faster on the ones i do know well. Consequently, as i get more comfortable with the speed on the known trails i'm sure that flows over, to some degree, to the unknown ones as well.

I also ride alot slower when I'm not getting alot of riding in.

 

[dirtbikr99]

Have her get on the back of your bike and show her how you get the bike into powerband and also how you scream it with out hard to the bike. Then go somewhere with flat ground drive your bike around in an small over track just to set up two berms. Then have her ride the small oval track, tell her to fan the clutch on the way out of the turn and scream it in first till she feels the bike stop producing power then switch into second with out letting off the throttle much at all. Have her keep going around in the small oval and everytime she comes out of the turn she will feel more and more comfortable riving the bike out more.

 

[firecracker22]

Did that work for you? I always HATED riding on the back of the bike--hard to hang on, can't concentrate on what the other person is doing, and the other person can't ride normal with a rider on the back, either. I've also talked to lots of people who hated riding because they got dumped off the back of one. I wouldn't recommend that.

 

[Moto'n Mama]

You wont catch me sitting on the back of anyones bike!

.....Also, if there are any other girls on small 2-strokes for her to ride with she will probably be much more open to learning from them than from you. .....

.........Lower gearing often helps too as it enables higher rpms at lower speeds. A flywheel weight can help too. I have found that even a 12oz weight doesn't make a drastic difference, but it does tame the hit a bit making it easier to wind it out and still maintain control. My wife rode her bike (03 KX100) a few times without the weight, then I added a 12oz weight and she found it noticeably easier to ride, but still plenty fast.

Riding with or even around other girls I found to be a big help - especially when I started out. I was always a little afraid of the guys but never of the girls - no matter how fast they were. I really watched them and tried to learn from them first and formost.

Lowering the gearing and the flywheel weight definatly made it easier to get into the power band and stay there - it doesnt seem to hit sooo hard (which tends to make me back off and not stick to the power band.) Much easier to maintain control - or at least it feels like I have much more control, there for am much more confident. My KX100 has plenty of power - suffient tourque to ride in the mountians up steep hills and such. I can keep the thing pretty rapped out now - I get better and better with every ride.

One thing my husband told me that helped me out tremendously was to listen to the other bikes (the good riders who stayed in the power band and shifted at the right moments) then try to make my bike sound similiar when I'm on it.