Do I encourage my son to ride?
 

I'm sure there are many of you that have had to deal with this one. I would be interested to hear what you have to say.

If you can get him a little single cylinder bike to ride in a field yes.
I have two kids, a son and daughter. My son is completely inept with anything mechanical and drives like a badly programmed robot. he has no feel whatsoever. My daugter`s driving flows. However I would worry if either took up motorcycling. there you have it, a completely unscientific response from a parent :)

My oldest two sons both are not intersted in motorcycling but the third is. I do not encourage it because it has to be his own choice. To be honest, I would like it very much do do some touring with one of my sons but I don't tell him now.

He is driving a 50cc moped now. I did buy him a good helmet for his 18th birthday, a week ago, and if he buys a motorcycle, I'll get him some good protective clothing and I'll try to teach him to drive safe.

A tough one I know. We have 8 children between us and as they were growing up most of the boys showed an interest in motor biking. We didn't encourage it and they moved onto cars (3 of which were written off in their first few weeks of driving). However our youngest daughter asked for a CBT course for her 17th birthday. We didn't argue with her or try put her off, we just ignored her at first hoping it would go away, but it didn't. So we booked her into the Harley Davidson riding school at Builth Wells on the basis that we could at least give her the best possible start. After the course she then of course wanted a bike. So shortly afterwards a chineses 125 cruiser joined the fleet. She rode it nearly every day for about 9 months through all weathers commuting to 6th form through very heavy traffic on the A6. There were a couple of incidents, but not serious and I'm sure she benefited from them. She went back to Rider's Edge at Builth Wells for a 6 day course ending with taking her test on her 18th birthday, which she passed. She had the bike with her at university on her first term last autumn, but has left it at home this term since she didnt' think she'd use it much thru the winter.
I still wouldn't be as keen to help any of the more impetuous boys at the same age, but our daughter has made a very good and competent rider and at the moment she is not on a very powerful machine. I feel we gave her the best start we could, she is sensible and I think the risks to her on the road could be just as great if she were riding a push bike.
Would I encourage it - no. but we did everything we could to help her be as safe as possible.

In the end it always boils down to this, you can hopefully point them in the right direction, but eventually you have to let them go, like teaching them to swim or ride a pushbike.
ie do what you think is right, and hope for the best.

How well do you know your son ?
What is your opinion of his maturity and commonsense ?
If he is a well adjusted kid with a functioning brain in his head ,then why would you not encourage him to ride ?
You enjoy motorcycling don't you ? Then why would you deny him that pleasure ?

Familiarisation with a small machine off road is great for instilling bike control .Road based training is also essential these days [IMHO] .

Good luck .

"You enjoy motorcycling don't you ? Then why would you deny him that pleasure ?"


Thanks for your thoughts.
I managed to aquire many thousands of miles experience at a time when the roads here in the U.K. were relatively safe.
The problem is exactly that I don't want to be selfish and deny him the pleasure but his rookie years would be full of danger.
I can also remember how stupid, reckless and lucky I was as a teenager.
I think I could never deny him but do I encourage him?

You are absolutely right, my suggestion was intended for him to get some bike skills safely before roadcraft as in my view putting a beginner on teh road is a bad idea.

If he wants to ride then help him do it the right way. My parents were dead against me riding but I did it anyway - it would have been safer and easier if they had known!
How about getting him interested in trials riding first?
The bikes (twin shock or mono) are reasonably priced and he'll learn incredibly useful bike handling skills away from the hazards of the open road.
Who knows, if you're worried about him riding on the road, he may find he prefers trials anyway!

When my former girlfriend made her license her father commented she would be lucky if she lived to be 25. Impressed her a lot.

Maybe you can bribe him: Get your license after your 25th birthday and get the bike of your choice for free! :)

Until 4 months ago I hadn't ridden a bike since my KH250 in 1979, which I crashed 3 times.
I'm now 46 and just bought a bike for economy. I gave it a lot of thought; was I going to revert to my power happy days of my late teens.
I normally drive a Discovery 200 Tdi, 0-60 in about 20 seconds, I rarely get close to an accident, and if I do I'm generally far enough away to avoid it before it happens.
On the bike things are different. I still have the same "safe" awareness as when driving the car, but, in the 4 months I can think of at least 10 close calls.
In my opinion a bike rider needs to have a mature mind. Although I do travel at greater speeds on the bike, more than half of the close calls have been at speeds less than 60, within the limit at that particular incident.
Although I do get a thrill from the speed, I don't take risks, but I still seem to get closer to potential accidents.
I conclude; if one is to drive a bike in a potentially dangerous way then they'll probably be the same in a car, the car just offers more "life" protection.
I'd like my son to drive a Discovery, but as it has a 2.5 litre engine the insurance is ridiculous.
Kevin

I see a guy every wednesday doing his weekly shop with his tractor. I am pretty sure he is a retired farmer, and looks like father christmas. with his shopping in the box on the back. Both road tax and insurance is cheap for agriculteral vehicles, so what he is doing makes a lot of sense.

Simple... don't discourage him and see where it goes. You started somewhere.

John

step by step
 

I am in the same position but my view is a bit different, I am riding and travelling for the past 20 years on motorcycle and when people said that bike are dangereous I reply that its not completly the thrue.Now that my son ride I am a bit worry about him but one of the thing I learn is to traine and be prep for all events so my advice to all new riders is to get to learn to ride off road first and maybe attend some advence training camp (MX/trial/ADV). the danger are present but you do built reflex wich can save your butt another time on road , it is also much slower than road bike and after dishing yourself few time on the track or trail you start to think more than you speed.

Hendi

Don't encourage, but don't discourage either
 

I'm in a slightly more difficult situation; having lived most of her life with me and travelled on the back of my bikes, my step daughter now says she wants a bike for her 17th birthday. I have had enormous pleasure from motorcycling and would happily get her the bike and Compulsory Basic Training (1st stage tuition for non UK readers). The following stages would be up to her (I'm not rich), and she would be subject to rules I would set. Her mother is OK with this, BUT we also have to consider her father and he is unlikely to be so keen. For the moment it looks as though she will have to wait until she is independant of both him and me.

I don't think I have "encouraged" her toward motorcycling, but she has seen the pleasure her mother and I get from motorcycling and come to her own conclusions. I would certainly never discourage her interest.:nono: