LETTING GO

Reprinted from Tennessee Chapter “F” Newsletter

Written by Wayne Roberts

            My daughter is now riding her own motorcycle, and as a father, I am proud and worried at the same time.  Before she could have a motorcycle, Nina and I required her to take the Motorcycle Safety Course.  She did well on the written part, but not the clutch and gears part.  So she now is the owner of an AUTOMATIC Suzuki 450.  She began her riding making laps back and forth on the residential road at our home.  You can imagine me standing in the road watching her beginning steps.  She got a little bored with my “coaching.”  I also borrowed from the CCHS library the old motorcycle videos and she studied them also.  Next Nina and I on the Goldwing, and Beth on her bike, rode the back roads.  Pinson, Blue Goose Road, and the Enville road viewed our caravan.  Now, she wanted to be on her own!  She rode to work on the bike.  Of course, dad followed closely behind.  As the dad, it is hard to watch as her bike stalls in the middle of an intersection with traffic all around.  Simple things you learn over time also have to be learned by Beth.  If the motor starts to die, give it some gas.  She also had to learn to put your foot down quickly or the bike will fall over in the parking lot.  It also will fall down if your shoe is caught in the kickstand.  Her latest lesson this week, is that if you got to work on a nice sunny day, it may rain when your shift is over, and you have to ride in the rain.  She is doing well and I hope the next lesson is to enjoy a nice long ride to someplace nice to visit.  I still worry and pray she will only make half the errors I did.