Greets to all...

[ImEazy]

Alright, I'll break the ice. I'm a middle aged single Dad of two. Have been
for almost eleven years, my wife passed away in Dec. 95. I always wanted
a dirt bike when I was younger. My Dad gave me the cycle bug when I
was real young. He had a Harley and a few dirt bikes him and a friend
built. I was lucky enough to have one of those homemade looking
minibikes. It was fun for a while. When I got older I ended up owning a
few street bikes. I still own a Buell to this day. I shopped around the web
for quite a while before deciding to purchase My GY and my kids 125's. I
bought all three from the same person on ebay. All arrived in pretty good
shape, with all three mising the shifters and a hole in the GY's seat cover.
The seller was more than happy to send me a new seat and three shifters.
I got all three bikes for $2270.00 to my door. Trust me if I could have
afforded name brand bike I probably would have, but that just wasn't the
case. So for the price of one I got three. I couldn't be happier. My kids are
pretty happy as well. I finally got my son out last night and taught him how
to use a manual clutch. He did real well. Stalled it a few times, lifted the
front wheel a couple but after about ten minutes was starting and stopping
real well. A couple of vids of him if ya care to see.

http://www.eazys.net/GY200/D1stride.mpg
10.87 MB
http://www.eazys.net/GY200/Dylan.mpg
7.14 MB

I was very proud. Now I got to get my daughter to give hers a try. Maybe
tomarrow. I enjoy my GY alot as well. Having it titled and plated here in
N.E. Ohio is a added bonus. I have rode both on the streets and some
trails that I found locally. This bike does just fine for both situations. I
no intentions of really off roading this bike. I have a profile with pics and
mods that I have made to all three bikes over on ThumperTalk if you care
to check it out.

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/member.php?u=81659

It's a pleasure to meet everyone. Plan to stick around and learn and share
as much as I can. Thanks to the creator of this board.

[culcune]

"welcome" (you have been around long enough on the yahoo groups to not be considered brand new). I am glad to hear the family connection with the bikes.

[ImEazy]

Originally Posted by culcune

"welcome" (you have been around long enough on the yahoo groups to not be considered brand new).

Thanks. You might be thinking of someone else. I have only been to the yahoo groups a couple of times. I keep forgetting my yahoo id. :?

Originally Posted by culcune

I am glad to hear the family connection with the bikes.

All is going well too. I taught my son to shift gears while riding. He catches on real fast. My daughter on the other hand is a whole diffrent story. I did get her out on hers the other day, but it was a lot harder to explain things. She doesn't seem real interested in the idea of using the clutch. I did teach her to start and stop and she only went around the yard twice and that was it. I even tried pleading with her to no avail. I can't wait to get to an open area where they can have some room to ride without running into something. All in all we are making progress. That's a good thing.

Thanks again for the welcome. To everyone else welcome to you all from me as well. This is a nice place to hang out. 8)

[dlunt]

That clutch thing can be a hard thing for some people. I freely admit that when I started with a clutch around 10, I was awful.
When we got my son, 10 at the time, we found one that uses the old Honda "trail" engine and 4 speed without a clutch. My mom had a Trail 90 that everybody loved to ride. It was just a 'hoot'!
My son's MX100 is the same way. I love to hop on it and ride around! It would get blown away if you were racing, but is great for our purposes.

Do you know anybody that might have a clutchless bike that your daughter would be able to try a few times? This might help her enjoy the experience without having to think about how to use the clutch. Once she gets the "bug" the clutch will be worth learning.

(Side note: My sons bike has a rotary transmission. Yuck. I keep waiting for the time he is doing about 40mph and thinks he is in 3rd gear instead of 4th. Click into neutral. Hmmm must have missed a shift. Click into 1st...extreme revs and then Kabloooey! New engine or bike time. Oh well that is why we bought a $600 bike in the first place )

[frostbite]

I've recently been going through a similar experience teaching my wife how to use a clutch. However, I'm teaching her on my Fourtrax 300ex. Learning a clutch on an ATV is much easier than a bike, fewer things to manage at the same time. I also find learning on softer soil (e.g. sand) helps ( perhaps not on a bike though...) If they dump the clutch its less likely they'll get thrown or spooked. Its also easier on the clutch.

Once she masters the clutch on the ex we can move on to bikes.

I need an excuse to buy another Lifan.

[ImEazy]

Originally Posted by dlunt

That clutch thing can be a hard thing for some people.

Yeah I know. I caught on real fast on a friends old honda 75 as a kid.
She has her mothers way of thinking. I tried to teach her to drive a
standard shift car when we first met and she didn't want nothing to do
with it either. Her words: Why drive a standard when I can buy an
automatic. LOL

Originally Posted by dlunt

Do you know anybody that might have a clutchless bike that your daughter would be able to try a few times? This might help her enjoy the experience without having to think about how to use the clutch. Once she gets the "bug" the clutch will be worth learning.

Nope, I don't know anyone around here that is even into bikes. I bought
the manual clutch versions for them as I wanted to teach them the right
way to do things so when they get older and decide to get a bigger bike
they'll have the knowledge.

Originally Posted by dlunt

(Side note: My sons bike has a rotary transmission. Yuck. I keep waiting for the time he is doing about 40mph and thinks he is in 3rd gear instead of 4th. Click into neutral. Hmmm must have missed a shift. Click into 1st...extreme revs and then Kabloooey! New engine or bike time. Oh well that is why we bought a $600 bike in the first place )

Man I cross my fingers that day never comes. That would be a bummer.
My kids 125's have the standard 1 down 3 up. I enjoy riding them around
the neighborhood just as much as my GY.

[ImEazy]

Originally Posted by frostbite

I've recently been going through a similar experience teaching my wife how to use a clutch. However, I'm teaching her on my Fourtrax 300ex. Learning a clutch on an ATV is much easier than a bike, fewer things to manage at the same time. I also find learning on softer soil (e.g. sand) helps ( perhaps not on a bike though...) If they dump the clutch its less likely they'll get thrown or spooked. Its also easier on the clutch.

Once she masters the clutch on the ex we can move on to bikes.

I need an excuse to buy another Lifan.

I imagine teaching someone on a ATV would be alot easier. I used to have
a Polaris when the kids were smaller but it was an automatic. I think the
best thing I could do is take them to a big field somewhere and let them
go. With my yard being so small I think it intimidates them. Too many
things to run into (garage, fence, couple trees). Thought about taking
them to the trails I found but not sure that three bikes running around
would be a good thing? I'll figure something out.