RR: Mid Morning ride w/the Lil’ Bear

[DBD]

08:50 we get our drinks ready, toss on the shorts for me and the sweat pants for the lil guy, he is white like his mom, like ghost white and the sun scorches him easily. I put on my helmet and shoes and we head out to the garage to get the carriage and Stinky ready, fill tires hook up to bike adjust the harness for a single rider (I usually have both kids).

We then start off down the driveway and I am hearing some serious rub between the caliper and rotor, hmmmmm, I did not check the bike after my last ride, dang it!! I hate Shitmano XT hubs!! ( I need to lace up my old Hadleys) Into the stand and off comes the wheel, tighten the hub up (needs to be done ohhhh every few weeks or so) slap the wheel back on and we are good to go.

We start off riding around the streets (no through traffic in our neighborhood) and movin' pretty good down some of the hills and the little guy is laughing his ass off and screaming, “More hill!! More hill!! Hahahahahaha!!” So we then head on over to Corriganville.

I keep seeing an area that should have access so I decide to give it a try and yes, there is a trail head their AND the carriage just barely squeezes through. Bad thing, I have yet to climb a dirt hill with the trailer but I have been doing a bit of cardio to help shrink my fat butt so I give it a go. Short and sweet we made it up with no problems and the lil’ guy is asking to “Go more up.”, hahahaha I say and he laughs at me (he is only 2, well, almost 3).

Now we are in the park so we start to descend a small hill and he starts off with the laughing again so I head on over to a small 7’ drop that can be rolled fairly easy and ask him if he is ready. He says, “Yeah yeah yeah!!” so I head on over and down and as he crests the top I hear him yell, “weeeeeeeeEEEEEEEE!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Again!!”
I tell him we will but first lets ride around a bit and he agrees.

We ride up along the wash where there are some small rock in the ground to ride over so we do that and the lil Bear says, “Daddy? Look, rocks. Look, rocks.” So I turn and look at him and he points to the boulders on the hill side and says, “Go ride rock. Go ride rock.” Not right now I said to him because he IS only two and I do not think the carriage hitched to the Stinky would work very well on a 8 to 10 foot drop.

Off we go again and he spots some single track and says, “Daddy that way. That way Daddy.” Unfortunately it was a bit to narrow for the carriage so we had to pass on that as well.

We ride some more and he sees what I know is there, a perfect jump/drop. Small, about 10” but fun for a two year old. He asks for the rock to be ridden so I do and he starts laughing and saying “Woooooah! Woaaaaahh!! More! More!” So we did it a few times.

Now we are at the back of the park near the train tracks. It was kinda funny ‘cause there were some workers and someone else who “looked” official and as I came over the small rise in the trail all they saw was a Freeride bike heading towards a NoNo and got looks on their faces like, “Is this guy really that dumb to try this WHILE we are standing here?”. Then they saw the carriage and smiled and said something to one another, then turned away. I thought it was funny.

So now we head back, it is a slight descent with some rocks to bounce off of, some ruts and bermed parts on the trail with out any vegetation on it. I asked the little guy if he wanted to go “Zippy Fast” or nice and slow. He relied, “Nice zippy” so I figured he wanted to go fast.

Zzzzzziiiiip through the gear, smash the pedals and of we go. Getting a small amount, 6” or so, of air on the small rocks, sliding the carriage a bit in the corners and racin’ over the ruts. All I hear behind me is, “WooooooooooHahahahahahahahahahahWeeeeeeeeeeeee!! WooWooo UhOh!! Weeeeeeeee. Faster faster!!”

Fortunately we were two of 4 people in the park and the others were in the parking lot so we had the trail to our selves. We did 5 laps then the first “roller we did another 4 times and then headed home for some grub.

We also did not bring the camera and this was the little guys first real time out in the dirt behind the bike and not just on a smooth road/path.

I think next time I will hook up the camera so I can see his expressions. I do know every time I turned and looked his grin was from ear to ear.

[denmother]

Pictures next time, PLEASE!!!!!

[DBD]

Originally Posted by denmother

Pictures next time, PLEASE!!!!!

Yeah, I realized the camera was still in the pack which I did not bring since I put all the other gear in the back of the carriage.

[OldDogDan]

Man, that sounded great! I used to take my kids out in a trailer too. Had to get 'em sunglasses to keep the dust out of their eyes. They used to ask me sometimes to make it fishtail...one time they started shrieking...I looked back, and the trailer had gone up on one wheel and stayed there at about a 45 deg angle while I rode along! I made them promise not to tell mom.

[DBD]

Originally Posted by OldDogDan

Man, that sounded great! I used to take my kids out in a trailer too. Had to get 'em sunglasses to keep the dust out of their eyes. They used to ask me sometimes to make it fishtail...one time they started shrieking...I looked back, and the trailer had gone up on one wheel and stayed there at about a 45 deg angle while I rode along! I made them promise not to tell mom.

As for the dirt, I rigged a frame fender onto the front of the trailer and I always put the screen down as well but yeah, the kids love that stuff.

Because the little guy had such a blast I am going to build up a set of wheels for it using some leftover single tracks and have my brother in law help me modify the suspension to use some old fox coil overs instead of the leaf springs that are on there now. We shall see.

[nomad]

That was such a cool story . Reminds me of when my kids were little. Going for an adventure with the little ones is just magical