Bike and Tyke

The fathering has to come way before the grandfathering. Mine is just about over. I tried to provide those experiences I mentioned in the previous post to my own children. Alas, they were so few and so far between. I wish I could have provided so much more. The bike above was my ride when we lived in California, an '86 Yamaha XT600. It was a really good machine. So good that they are still building them. The 2006 model has many improvements, but you can see the heritage. There are many similarities. I used to take the kids up into the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains for long rides. Note the piece of PVC pipe wired to the frame beneath my daughter's shoes. Little pegs for little feet. We used to have a regular date. After a nice ride we'd go to TCBY for frozen yougart. With sprinkles, of course. She would invariably fall asleep on the way home. I got some strange looks at stoplights with this tiny child in her big helmet, laid out over the gas tank out cold.