First some background: I love to ride dirt bikes. I raced motocross when I was younger. I still have two bikes. So I was thrilled when my son asked for a dirt bike for his eighth birthday. Here's a photo of us at the dealer picking it up:
http://www.lakecityhonda.com/photo_d...p?photo=208949

The story:
Anyway, it's Saturday afternoon by the time we get it home and the boy wants to ride really bad. So I go over some basics, like shifting and brakes and such and tell him he should practice some fundamentals like starting and stopping. Well, he does that for about 30 seconds and then takes off riding around the back yard. He's doing pretty well for a beginner just riding around the back yard in first gear and he's getting a little more confidence and speeding up some. So after about 10 - 15 minutes he's starting to think that he's a pro and he's riding all over the property and up and down a few small hills etc. But at this point he hasn't had to do any stopping or real tight turns or such. I’m starting to think that I should stop him and make him work on the basics for awhile. He's a disaster waiting to happen.

Right about then, he rides around the front of the house and across the gravel driveway. His front wheel hits the gravel and slides a little, and then his back wheel hits the gravel and slides a little more. It looks like he's going to go down, but alas, he ends up upright...and pointed straight at the garage. He panics, doesn't know how to control the bike, and he rides, at full throttle in first gear, right into the garage...where my vette is parked.

I'm standing in the back yard behind the house and I can see this whole thing happen because the back door to the garage is open. I seen him go whizzing in and then I hear lots of banging and crashing sounds. What goes through my mind at that instant is "yeah, of course, why not". According to Murphy's Law, this is exactly what should happen. It's perfect Murphy logic: the most expensive birthday present that I have ever bought would naturally be used to destroy the most expensive car that I have ever bought.

After I stop pondering the perfection of the irony,I run into the garage and find that the bike is on it's side with the back wheel, and a trash can, wedged under the front of the vette. The bike is still running and the rear tire is making a black mark on the garage floor. Fortunately, he swerved at the last second and ran into the trash cans and not the vette directly. The rear axle had poked a hole in one of the cans (they're plastic) when it hit and the bike drug it along until the bike ran into the go-kart and went down. The trash can got between the bike and the car and kept the bike from eating a hole in the front of my vette. There are some very minor surface scratches on the underside of the front. It's pretty hard to see unless you know its there. It's nothing compared to what it could very easily have been.

By the time I get the bike turned off and looked over at the kid (he was standing when I got to the garage) his eyes are filled with tears. "I'm never going to ride that bike again" he cries. To which I replied "Bull ****, you are going to go out to the back yard and practice starting and stopping, RIGHT NOW".

He learned his lesson. He decided that maybe he would practice the fundamentals for awhile.

 

Great story. Glad no one was hurt and the rides fine. He'll be a better rider for it. and laugh about it when he's older.

Sounds like when my mom was learning to drive the family car. When she was done we had a tunnel instead of a garage.

Thanks for sharing. Cheers.

 

That's pretty funny there, Riley!
Glad the boy wasn't hurt. And you're right, get back on that horse.
If after he finds out what it's all about, and he doesn't like it, then fine. But if he does, back him 110%.