Standing up?

My wife just started riding this summer. She noticed that most of us that she rides with, stands up. She asked if she should do it. I told her it would be good to learn. Now, I she hardly sits down! I think that it is good to learn right off the bat.

I think you should get her up some, as soon as possible. I went through the same thing with my sons, and it seemed that the longer I waited the really push it, the harder it was to get them( one especially) off his butt. I had to push him to just stand for a few seconds, finally it took.

Second time out might be a little quick but soon.

Let her know why it's important, then let her try at her own pace, she'll learn a lot by watching you guys and will try it when she's comfortable.

I would concentrate on turning and looking ahead at were she wants to go, body position while seated , rolling the bike under her and throttle control.

Do lots of figure 8s


But don't make the whole ride a lesson, have fun

My wife started riding in September and has been out 6 or 7 times. She attempted standing the second day she rode. Although she is not real comfortable standing yet, I think it was good to get her to try it as soon as possible. That's my .02. ;)

I agree with getting her to try standing as soon as possible too. It took me a bit to get comfortable with standing, but I know I ride better when I do stand.

Plus, it helps you learn to keep your feet on the pegs on the ugly stuff.

Start early!

The first time I rode with the Stevens boys, that's all I heard was "Stand up, Lou!" That was this past Spring after only riding for about 8-9 months. Now, It's uncomfortable not to stand. As with anything else, practice until it becomes reflex.

I taught my son how to keep his feet on the pegs better by charging him a penny for each time I saw him take them off when he really shouldn't have.

Only problem was, at one of our breaks, I told him he owed my $5.00 and some smart aleck told me I owed him $2.50! :eek:

The sooner the better. Once she has teh basics down, encourage her to do it. It'll be easier now than later.

main thing

is to try to teach her the correct way first then she won't have to many bad habits to change down the road. Not to mention its plain safer to ride correctly, more control over the machine.
But if she is in the herky jerk clutch mode and throttle response is shakey then for sure get that down first. make sure to have her practice in a figure 8 pattern to get both right and left turns down good, using the clutch etc.
as that gets better have her practice panic stopping in a standing position so that when she is going to fast in the future (and she will) she will know how to stop!

:scream:

Wardy, good advice buddy. Gospeedracer, it is important to realise that when a rider starts riding for the first time ever, it can all be very confusing when you add too may 'things to do' at once. So, if you have worked on the basics and they are in her head (make a judgement yourself, not what she says) then go ahead and add a few more things for her to practice. its always best to start as early as possible, otherwise change can be difficult especially when it comes to standing on the pegs. This is pretty much what everone has said, but i would like to add that her riding future is pretty much in your hands. Please do your best to teach the correct techniques to her, and make sure she does them correctly until they become instinctive. This will ensure that she will be a better rider in the future, and a safer one, which is something people sometimes don't realise. Correct rider education = fun and safety. Way to go! Also, bad habbits always pose a problem to the new rider and most of the time, they don't realise they are doing something wrong until its firmly planted into their grey matter. Bad habbits can be difficuld to rectify in the future, so prevention, like always, is better than cure.
Keep us posted on her progress.

Being an old schooler...(ok no jokes)....I learned to ride sitting down. We used to take old rat street bikes and modify them for the dirt and we had those comfy seats. :)
Like Wardy explained, it's better to start out correctly than it is to change later. I was lucky and had an experienced motocrosser explain to me how to ride correctly before I got too old to teach new tricks. What convinced me of the standing position was the "center of gravity" thing.
Explain to your new rider the properties of gravity and how the lower the center of gravity on a dirt bike, the better control we have. This is best explained and demonstrated on a nice flat turn with lots of deep, loose dirt.
(this method is for folks who already think they know how to ride, not neccesarily a beginner, but the explanation of it may help a newbie)
Hit the turn sitting down...unless the rider is lucky and hits it right they will do one of two things...high side or low side. It's hard to find the middle point when sitting because when you are sitting your center of gravity is higher so you either lever over the top, or you have to bring the bike too far sideways and wash out low.
With our feet on the pegs, we have lowered our center of gravity to the lowest possible point on the bike. At this point it's the leaning of the bike that is the key. Even if a washout or a highside is likely, one can compensate easily while on the pegs. Now when you are seated with you leg out for counter balance, you can still keep the center of gravity low by "weighting the outside peg". An A rider may look like he's sitting on the edge of the seat, but he will have very little weight there....it will be on his outside peg.

Start 'em out correct and they will have fewer problems with this down the road.

You're on the right track and have gotten some good advice. I just went through this with my 11 year old boy (now 12). He took to his new bike pretty well, but seemed to be content with a sitting approach. This was fine when we were just goofing around on easy trails. When it came to the rockier and steeper climbs, he would sort of freeze up and not want to proceed. It turned out that this was the appropriate time to encourage him to stand. He took to it very quickly as soon as he saw that it gave him the control he needed to conquer the obstacle. And of course by that time he had some basic mastery of all of the controls.