I mentioned a couple of days ago to a friend that we might be ready to sell my daugher's TT-R110. A friend of a friend of a friend came and took it away already for his 9 year old son. He said he'd been looking for the right bike and they're scarce. So now we're looking for something like a CRF 125 (not the big wheel) for her first bike with a clutch. I'm trying hard to limit the number of carbureted bikes in my life so the EFI is nice even if it's a rear drum brake and a 5 speed gear box.
I guess I'm dropping a line in the water here to see if anyone has what you'd think would be a good starter bike for my short-ish 15 year old to use to follow her dad around on trails.
We had a lot of great times with her on that bike so she was a little sad to see it go:
I think the right 125 will make her forget all about it :)
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
It was pretty obvious that my daughter had outgrown her TT-R110 by the end of the summer. She was ripping around single track trails on it fast enough that I really didn't want to go any faster to keep up with her (and yeah, I'm slow because I'd like to be all done with busted ribs). So it was with sharply mixed feelings that she took her last ride on it today and then watched it drive away in the back of a 9 year old kid's Dad's pickup truck.
I'm down to just three bikes in my stable now: the 1200GS, WR250R, and the Beta EVO 200 trials bike. But no sooner than my wife snatched up all the 110 money, I had a friend calling me to tell me that the 2021 CRF 125 he bought his daughter a month ago is too small for her and would I be interested. We'll go see tomorrow if he's willing to be reasonable on selling such a new bike that's hardly been ridden.
I'm open to all referrals and suggestions on her step-up bike.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
I guess we'll find out. My daughter has outgrown her TTR110 so I went looking for a small statue bike that she can use to learn how to operate a manual tranny. All the more kid friendly 125s are rare has hens teeth around here so I went out shopping in the used Grom market and found this 2018 with 196 miles on it and got it for nearly $2K less than a new one would be OTD. That was too good to pass up.
I spent about 2 minutes describing how to use the friction zone on the clutch and immediately noticed that she was looking at the clutch lever when she was trying to pull away. Nothing to see down there - keep your eyes up and feel the force flow through you and the bike as you get comfortable in the friction zone. Five minutes later, she's got it and asking me if she can ride it all around the neighborhood. Uh, no. She's 15 and no license and we've got enough asshat neighbors in our 'hood to invoke her first encounter with the po po. I fear I'm going to have to hide the kieys to this thing when I'm not around. She's way too much like I was at 15 years old.
Now the long wait until the mini-moto tracks open back up in the spring here. We'll spend that time teaching her how to wrench on it. Good times.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
Marylander wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 7:24 pm
Yep, I've still got the ttr125 (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5317). I've got a carb rebuild kit that I need to put in it...
I may be circling back to you for your bike if she feels like she needs to get out in the dirt this winter.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
Not to get too off topic. I'm not super familiar w/ the learners/licensing req in MD yet (kid is only 10.) I think w/ a learners you have to have an adult riding shotgun? And take a mandatory 3rd party instruction? But can a kid w/ a learners permit ride a motorcycle? Or even if they have the graduated license thing? Or is one *FORCED* to own/drive a car first in MD? Most european countries, kids can get motorcycle licenses before a car license.
In short: what hoops do you have to jump though for her to legally be able to ride around the neighborhood?
Edit: Found this: https://mva.maryland.gov/drivers/Documents/DL-060.pdf
Looks like the provisional does mention the M license. So once they are 16.5yrs old and pass all the other requirements, they can ride a motorcycle during the day unaccompanied. Curiosity satisfied...
You've got to do classroom training and acquire on the road hours, with some being professionally supervised, to get a non-commerical, class C, license in MD and that's all set up for driving cars. The class C license is required before you can apply for class M, motorcycles.
My daughter is asking me all these same questions now. I think we'll get her in Driver's Ed right after the holidays and she can get her learner's permit in the spring. Sometime in the fall next year she'll get her provisional license and we'll have a motorcycle class scheduled by then. It's a couple of nights of classroom instruction then a couple of days in a lot doing all low speed maneuvering. If you pass their practical and written test in the class, they give you the certificate that you take to the MVA to get the M on your license with no further testing.
So it'll be a year before she can legally ride it on the street but we'll figure out something. Maybe we'll set up a course in a large parking lot. We'll probably either end up putting knobby tires on the Grom or by the spring time end up getting her a dirt bike so that we can start setting up the Grom for some mini-moto racing.
She wants a motorcycle she can ride back and forth to high school.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
Just another thought. Wifey started and still has a xt225. Low seat, lightweight. Fun little bikes, more than capable off-road as well.
I think here in PA the MSF uses them at their training.
and other irrelevant chit-chat 
