What Have You Done Lately???

[GETMETOCA]

To support Women in this sport!! :thumb:

As Winter is upon us and a new season brings forth opportunity to give back, I am pondering how I can help get other females interested and sustained in this sport.  I'm planning to box up and ship some of my old gear (gloves, knee guards, jersey, goggles) to a freind of mine who lives in Georgia.  She and her husband have expressed an interest in getting some dirtbikes and trying it out!  I'm very excited for her.  

Girlrider and DoubleBlip come to mind (Nicole Bradford and Kerrie Brokaw) and their all-women's off-road class held two years in a row up in Oregon.   A great atmosphere to teach new women riders the basics.

I know many who have taken the time to teach your wives, girlfriends, or daughters how to ride

Others have donated "hand-me-down" gear to get a new female (or newb riders in general) started up and safetly protected.

Some of you have the patience and skill to provide a lesson or two in basic bike maintenance.

I also remember a friend writing down www.dirtrider.net on a piece of scratchpaper and suggesting I "check it out"  :worship:



So lets hear it!  What have you done to promote and support women in this sport!!???

 

 

[gospeedracer]

Well, I've been preparing a dirtrider 'care package' of sorts for a friend of mine. She bought my old RM before I moved away from Santa Barbara and unfortunately she and her boyfriend recently split up so she's at a bit of a loss as far bike maint. goes. I plan to put some odds and ends such as spare levers, jets, grips, some specialized tools, as well as some spare gear together for her to help her on her way to bike maint. independence. I've also been encouraging her to go to the Reno ride which she is now on board with since she really wants to meet other female riders. :)

Does that count?

 

[GETMETOCA]

Originally posted by gospeedracer
Does that count?

Of course! :aj:

I just thought of Dads like MX547 and how he supports his daughter Kendall by being an awesome Pit Dad and driving her to all those races across a variety of states.  That's pretty cool and very supportive.   Plus, you can tell he's really proud of her!  :thumb:

 

[XR3J]

I got Claire and Rachel an XR50 for Christmas!
Jerry

 

[NVR FNSH]

speedie, think you could send a parts care package to GETMETOCA's personal mechanic? I hear he needs a few additional hours per day to maintain his bike, his wife's bike and their chef's bike :p

Brian

 

[Michelle]

Well, I've been totally selfish. I went riding last Sunday with a friend, her son & daughter but I didn't ride with the other two women who were along. In the morning I'd been cutting trails with the guys - the other two women are real beginners and were happy sunning themselves (the rest of us were trying to find somewhere to cool off, not get hotter).

On Friday my friend & I are taking the kids out riding again, then on Saturday another friend & I are entering a two-man harescramble.

I'm still thinking of ways to get more women to not just ride with their kids & let the guys have a turn (talking real little kids here). With events we organise, us girls get stuck on sign-on & if we do get a chance to ride, it's a split-decision to go. We try to get each other to go out for a decent ride, but both of us then feel guilty about the other sitting back there.

Speedy, how about putting Eric Gorr's book in there? For myself, I found it totally useful & gave me more confidence to look at stuff & learnt heaps. I don't do much mechanicking anymore, but as Henk & I share the KDX & the TTR doesn't need much doing to it, I don't consider that anything to feel guilty about either (okay, so I do, but I'm happy if I know what's wrong with the bike, even if I wouldn't have a clue how to fix it). I'd be happy to pay, if you could sort out with Eric where to send it?

As for getting other women interested, taking time out to talk to them, to ride with them, to laugh with them & listen to their stories when they're learning, seems to go over big. I do remember not knowing any other female & how absolutely stoked I was to finally meet someone else who rode. It's just hard now as I've got riding buddies at all sorts of levels & am still looking for someone who'll push me along, too (most are learners, but of differing ability/drive). The one I'm racing with Saturday is only a bit slower than me & we've got her son to thank for organising us even riding together (I'd always thought she wouldn't ride without her husband along, little did I know ;))

 

[Smit-Dog]

Well... let me think.... :think:

Last spring I talked the wife and young daughters into going to "Rites of Spring", an annual off-road dirt bike fest held the first weekend in May (900 riders). Normally when it's the boy (age 9) and I, we sleep in the 6x12 enclosed trailer. With 5 of us for the weekend, we brought the family tent. This was my wife's first dirt bike weekend experience.

It was cold at night. Freezing cold. 28° cold. Scraping ice off the bikes in the morning cold. So cold that even with jeans, sweats, and a winter coat on under sleeping bags, my wife spent a few hours in the middle of the night in a running car trying to warm up. None of us got much sleep that night. :(

Our accommodations night #1: http://community.webshots.com/photo/70518046/72141219SgfyEQ

The second night a friend was good enough to offer up the "garage" section of his FunMover RV for us to sleep in. With a space heater cranked, we slept a little better the second night. Overall, the wife was less than impressed with the dirt biking experience!

Our accommodations night #2: http://community.webshots.com/photo/70518046/72141981DslyGE

So in planning for the Rites of Spring 2004, I booked one of the resort's new cabins. Heat! Shower!, Heat! Beds!, Bathroom! Heat! I think the wife may be warming up to the idea of going again. Time does heal all wounds... :thumb:

Accommodations this year! http://www.whiskeycreekmichigan.com/img/95.jpg

Also got my 7 year old daughter riding now... http://home.comcast.net/~wcsmith/Kenzie.jpg

 

[srellis]

I spent the following over Thanksgiving weekend -
(This was just for me. My boys and my husband raced two classes each.)

Pit Pass to Cycle Ranch MX Park for 4 days - $40.00
Pit Bike Pass - $10.00
Entry fee for ONE Race - $75.00
WML License to enter - $25.00
AMA License - $39.00

Chance to ride in a WML race...even though I came in LAST ...

PRICELESS :laugh:

 

[bbbom]

Let's see, to support women in this sport I have worked my butt off to be able to control my little pink bike when the snow melts! ;)

To support rider's in general, I have been going to meetings and more meetings and more meetings and writing letters and more letters and more letters and setting up more meetings and more meetings and more meetings and reading email after email after email and reading article after article after article.

I think I need one of those excercise bikes with the computer on it so I can read while I work out. Guess I'll just have to stick to printing out the info & reading it on the regular cardio machines - that's one way to really get your cardio endurance up. Reading the crap from the greenies makes me speed up the pace as I get more and more upset with their garbage!

 

[E-Ticket]

uhhh..... :scream:

We congratulated my brother on getting a dirtbike for his son.

And then we immediately started *leaning* on him about getting one for his daughter (equal time you know....)

And he did! :yeehaw:

Oh, and I am buying a new bike for the wifey-poo --- even though her current one works just fine.

Good. I think I can now step out of the "gunsight" :confused:

 

[mx547]

Originally posted by GETMETOCA



I just thought of Dads like MX547 and how he supports his daughter Kendall by being an awesome Pit Dad and driving her to all those races across a variety of states. That's pretty cool and very supportive.

could you convince her of all that for me, please? yes, i'm very proud. i remember when i was her age, how cool i thought everyone was that raced (i didn't get to). i wonder if any kids think that about her? it's kinda weird. it never scared me when she was little and racing. now that she's getting bigger and faster, it's getting scary to watch her. i'm not sure i could handle the guilt if she ended up like me.

we've talked another girl into trying her hand at racing. we've known her for a couple years from the local riding place but she hasn't had the nerve to try racing. her first race will be this saturday nite. hopefully, it will be a good experience for her and we'll have another lady in the women's class from now on. she asked me if she could just follow kendall around--if she could keep up with her. :)

 

[Pvt Joker]

I took the entire family camping at our first enduro. Rode with my two year old daughter on our 50, she just LOVES riding.

My wife actually sat on and rode the fifty for about 5 minutes. That might not seem so special but it's the first time she would EVER EVEN SIT on a motorcycle. My son rode up and asked me how the heck did I get her to do it.

Now we're looking for helmets for the two year old.

I'm starting small but working on doing my part.

 

[mdkuder]

I took my 8 yr old son and my ?? yr young wife riding on new years day, it rained but we rode anyway. My wife had a great time she only rides on rare occasions, no not because of lack of opportunity either. Except for the rain (well and the fact my bike got a push back to the truck to end the day) we had an excellent time!!!

 

[mx547]

one more thing i was proud of: kendall raced an arenacross last month. she was the only rider in the women's open class so she got first place by default. she got a three-foot tall trophy, then gave it away to a nine year-old girl who had come to watch her race. :)

(bragging)

 

[SFO]

Maybe not lately...

I didn't tell her how to ride.
I gave her better gear than she would have bought herself.
I believed she was tougher than she thought she was when she wanted to quit.
I made sure her bike was as perfect as I could make it.
I didn't treat her like a "girl", I remembered she was/is my friend.
I also have a bunch of surplus gear to donate, Mighty Aphrodite, if you are the current depository...

 

[CJ Rider]

Way cool, SFO! :thumb:

 

[Lissa]

My three little sisters and the little '01 TT-R90 that I bought them for x-mas two years ago. All three can ride and enjoy doing so. I only taught them praise and the 'easier way to do it' method. The youngest is a certified card carrying 'moto-junkie'.
I used to organize a 'just the girls' ride, but it has been hard to rustle up that many ladies as of lately. Anymore it seems its just me and the boys. I've done more for the riding community as a whole then just helping the girls. It is the girls though and especially the mothers of the girls that need help understanding that they too can ride. It's all a matter of being properly taught. That I never had when I started so I always make it a point to spend a little extra time with a newbie making sure they feel comfortable.

 

[mx547]

we had 18 ladies in the women's open class at the first round of the oklahoma state championships. the most we had last year was 8. srellis and my daughter kendall were there.