How to motivate ungrateful son.

Well, really, he's fine. He's been doing some riding with a buddy and having fun. Not as much fun as I would have though, but fun for him. I suspect that what I'm learning is that we do have differences in taste and opinion. What is fun for me is NOT necessarily fun for him. I'm trying to come to terms with that. Just because I love bikes, doesn't mean he has to, and he might not. BUt what we as parents want to instill our values in our children. I love bikes, SO the values I am willing to instill in my children relate to motorsports. I'm not a camping dad, I'm not a fishing dad. I'm a race dad. My idea of roughing it is a hotel without a pool. And the closest thing I want to experinece to fishing is holding a Fillet of Fish sandwich at McD's.

Like I mentioned above, He doesn't know what he's been missing. A lot of the cashy things he could have been presented with over the last year, he has not been presented with.

I agree with what most of the people are saying. I will also add that if you don't try many different things, you MAY never have the opportunity to find out just what it is that you are looking for.

What if you make your child save up money to buy his or her own bike, so they respect it and appreciate it. What if this takes from the time they are 12 till they are 15. And whey they get it, they find out they don't like to ride (even though they thought they might) and now have wasted 3 VERY important development years of their lives. These are also years that they didn't get to try skateboarding, snow boarding, skiing, BMX, flatland, Mtn biking, musical instruments, or develop skills in reading and writing.

We've got a Yamaha Warrior 4 wheeler. He and his buddies rode the crap out of it. I blew a front rim on it (tring to do some trials stuff) and it's been sitting in the garage ever since. Now, My inital reaction was that "no son of mine is gonna ride quads because he's to lazy or timid to ride 2 wheelers well". "It takes no real skill, compared to a 2 wheeler". "If your gonna learn to ride, do it right". Hmm, Now, looking back, maybe I should have gotten the 4 wheeler fixed right away. Because I don't enjoy as much it doesn't make it wrong. What if 4 wheelers were his thing?

He's a good kid and eveybody likes him. So maybe it is that I need to bend once in a while. =0)

That doesn't mean give in, it means examine the situation more carefully. Wanna mtn bike? Lets see some miles on that old one first. That kind of thing.

I think he's better. He's also older and making better decisions in general. I think he is strarting to notice that his stuff is generally pretty good, and most of his buddies stuff is a shade rougher. I think he is starting to understand maintenance issues better too. He'll tease his buddies about blown fork seals and growing wheat on your air cleaner, and he knows how to do the work, and they come over and work on bikes at our place, or they all meet up here and go ride. I'd rather see five or six 15 year old boys hanging out here at home and wrenching in my garage than the alternatives. We keep the fridge in the garage stocked with soda, help out where required and it seems to work out pretty good. He's got a good group of freinds, we are pretty lucky.

I picked up a ragged out 1982 XR80 ($100), and we have been working on it. Got it running the other night, and he and his buddies put 2 tanks gas through it on Saturday, and they had a blast. Needed some more carb work, so I told him to pull the necessary parts off the bike, then pull the carb and fix it. They got right in the middle of it and are having a great time.

Finding what motivates him is tough. School is important to us. His grades crap out, no bike. To counter this, we told him make the honor role and pull some serious grades this year and there's an XR50 in it for him. THAT has been a HUGE motivator. He showed some progress report thing to us tonight, and he's pulling an A in English, and an A in Science. Looks like I'm gonna be buying an xr50 down the road. ;) Don't kid yourselves, he will have earned it. And I will be quite proud to give it up. (been wanting to trick a 50 for myself too. XR50's aren't as fun if there is only one... heheh)

I'm pretty happy with him right now, he's a good kid, and more importantly, a good human being. He's got a good heart.

-Bob