Late 2018, after breaking his quasi dirt jumper, our youngest son bought a new and appropriate frame to handle the stress of all his antics. The above photo was his first attempt, namely transferring components, Since then he's added disc brakes, a strong rear wheel, blue pedals, and recently some purple bling to his handle bars. He's put his bicycle through the ringer in the past year, going with friends to a public jumps course, made new friends there, and I unfortunately had to take him to ER with bloody face once - and hopefully only once - because he had a concussion.
His passion lately has been being a member of all three seasons of running sports in high school. It's been great to watch him grow comfortable within this group as he entered his senior year. I've noticed that he hangs out with both sets of friends who often overlap. As a parent, who's known since he was an infant, that he was a mover, and in his toddler/elementary school years we paid him to run laps outside around our house - in the snow also - until he took to doing it without payment as a personal challenge and part of his daily routine. It's funny how children's personalities can develop at a very young age. His current thing is wanting to go to bike school after graduation.
Because of watching our youngest son grow, create, experiment, his enthusiasm for dirt jumping, attending fat bike demo days with me, renting downhill bikes with friends, has influenced/introduced me to dirt riding. And I think the comfort of riding Kingdom Trails last summer has sealed the deal.
I must have my own off-road machine.
Very exciting! One unplanned ride in the Colorado mountains with a couple of friends hooked me. I learned that my love of the outdoors and my lollygagging ways work quite well away from pavement. Off-road machines are transcendent devices. Looking forward to updates and details!
ReplyDeleteI'll get a NEW mountain bike (as opposed to the otherwise classy older ones ;)) probably sometime later this year. It will have to pass our 18 year old's scrutiny, ha ha.
DeleteCool -as a an ex high school distance runner it warms my hart to hear this, my daughter has returned to Gymnastics as a junior and I am happy she gets to hang out out with some cool young ladies. Its fun that bike tinkering has rubbed off on your youngest.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I guess we did something right by not driving him everywhere... He commutes to school also on an old Raleigh 10 speed, even in the winter like me :) That poor drive train though.
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