Kids and classics: the motorcycle

On a nice Saturday afternoon in the spring, it is nice to fiddle around with your motorcycle. I do drive outside the weekend crowds. I am my own boss and decide on which day my Sunday falls. Sometimes I have two Sundays a week.

A neighbor next door comes up the garage path with her son

The boy is completely under the spell of motorcycling, the buuv 'had told me before. But then he didn't dare come close to my motorcycle. Or with me. The child always looked at me completely mesmerized when I left or arrived.

But now he was ready to be very close to a motorcycle. The boy stood in full worship beside my motorcycle. And whether he wanted to sit on it? "Jaaahh" he sighed.

Then you see that we, as motorcyclists, have quite some skills

This way we can get on by swinging one leg over the buddy. For Nick, that was not yet due to a definite lack of centimeters in length. But stepping through a footrest? That seemed like an option. It turned out to be cunning to put the left foot on the support. The first approach had turned out to be that the upcoming motorcycle hero had landed on the buddy backwards. A kind of 'tribute to Dik Trom'.

That wasn't going to be him

Once, with some help, landed on the buddy of the motorcycle, the scaled model of a motorcyclist managed to reach the handlebars. When I moved the steering wheel carefully, the great mate said he thought it was getting scary. Look, I always have that behind the wheel of my motorcycle! That's why I usually drive as fast as possible and with my eyes closed. Then I'm over before something happens and I don't see it.

I explained that approach to the proudly beaming young mother

She only half believed it. She was not a motorcyclist herself. She had been riding a horse. That is also more a girl thing. Yet? My dear son, who had become more researched with solid ground under his feet, was explained that he had to stay away from exhaust bends and mufflers.

I told him something that I found out after painful experience: if you touch something unknown, do it with the back of your hand. If it is hot or under power, then you minimize the consequential damage and stay with a sincere one "AU !!!"of "G ** far !!! ".

Because I wanted to do some shopping, the introductory session was stopped. But Nick wanted to keep watching how I drove away. He waved at me like no fellow motorcyclist has ever done. Maybe that's so good. After all, it is not awkward for us to keep one hand on the wheel.

After shopping I walked back to my good workhorse satisfied with a full backpack and a baguette in the neck opening of my T-shirt. A full backpack and a baguette are just as safe as CE protectors in an expensive textile outfit.

The other approach

A mother of about the same age as my neighbor and a toddler comparable in terms of height kindly warned me that I was very unsafe. Her husband also rode a motorbike and was not allowed to leave the house without being properly dressed for a safe fall. In the meantime, her daughter looked scared at my bike.

I agreed with the young woman

Because if her husband was about her age, then he was a pretty young motorcyclist. A species that we must cherish. And if the daughter on her hand was second or third leg of the motorcyclist, he had all the responsibility to be careful.

I waved my leg over the buddy and nodded reassuringly at my worried conversation companion. My good motorcycle started with its distinctive, dull, hum. The daughter held her hands to her ears and looked genuinely scared from her open eyes.

The future

I have no talent for clairvoyance and a pinlock does not work as a crystal ball. But I still think that my neighbor boy and the girl in the parking lot of the mall will not become a motorcyclist m / f.

And in the meantime the mother of a local primary school has already reserved a ride in the sidecar for her son. By the way, she also wanted to take a tour with her…