Don't forget the brakes

I spent many years riding motorcycles in the fields a large irrigation canal (when empty and dry) behind my parents home. My oldest brother owned a Suzuki 400 motorcycle and allowed us to ride it (far more often than he was aware). My younger brother and I had a blast on it and literally beat the tar out of the thing. I now ride a 1983 Honda CB900 street bike and owe my life to many of the lessons I learned on his dirt bike.

My younger brother and I once tried to teach one of my sisters how to ride. We taught her about the throttle, clutch, gear selection, kick starter (we started it for her). We helped her learn how to gradually increase the engine speed by rotating her right wrist backwards while gradually letting out the clutch with her left fingers. Several (many) attempts later she began movement forward without killing the engine causing us to re-start it for her. Oh, we chose the relative safety of our back yard because it had a lot of grass and no cars.

We learned at that moment that a new rider on a relatively powerful bike could bring the front wheel off the ground with a little too much throttle. This action is quickly followed by a firm grip on the throttle...and a little more throttle to the now roaring 400cc engine. With feet dragging on the grass, full open throttle, front wheel 3 feet off the ground and a scream louder than the engine, the rider accelerated quickly away from our now gaping mouths. Veering slightly left and then slightly right across the soft grass, she zoomed past a very hard clothes line post and into a large and very stickery bush.

As the engine sputtered to silence, it's frame and rider hidden deep in the bush, two teachers looked quickly at each other. Should we crawl into the now silent and stickery bush, or do we run and hide so that she could never find us. We chose to crawl in and help the now scratched and bruised older sister because, after all, she knew where we lived.