Why We Ride Page #8

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Wind in your

face, bugs in your teeth.

That's how you tell a happy motorcycle

rider, how many bugs in their teeth.

I love riding, it's just the

best feeling in the world.

When your children are young,

you have a chance to shape their world.

You get to tell them what's

cool and what's exciting.

Family time is always good, and

when you're in the desert barbecuing at night,

hanging around the fire pit at night,

that's always fun. That's always good times.

When a child rides, the whole

family is involved in motorcycling.

Riding motorcycles, for my son,

is more than just having fun.

In our home it is

an absolute tool

for every single avenue

in his life.

If he doesn't do well in school,

he's not gonna ride.

If he's not polite,

he's not gonna ride.

I use it as a parenting tool.

I don't know how else

I could have taught them what

they've learned on their motorcycle,

as far as challenging

themselves, and working as a team,

and handling success correctly,

and handling failure.

It's affected my kids'

eating habits.

Now he's wanting

to be a racer, so he's like,

"I'm not gonna eat that,"

you know, I'm like,

"Wow, that motorcycle is

changing his eating habits at 13."

It changed my life,

it has to change a kid's life.

My dad gave lessons

all the time to kids

all over the world

that wanted to ride a bike.

I think parents,

for the most part, are scared

of what's gonna happen to their

kids if they ride a motorcycle.

You can't just get on the

motorcycle and be a perfectionist.

Educate people to how

much fun it is to ride.

You can do a lot of things

to make it as safe as possible.

- Get him the right gear.

- Rider education classes.

The biggest thing you can do

is get 'em the right training.

We've recently started a

MiniMoto school for little guys.

A miniature, legitimate,

road race machine.

These guys

are, like, five years old,

and they are just so jazzed,

and they have race face.

I mean they...

they're going for it!

Creating safer riders

is gonna be good

for the industry,

because it keeps riders

in the industry longer.

I felt like a lot could be done with

MiniMoto racing here in the States,

to make it more known and make it

more of a way of life for people,

like it is over in Europe.

I just wanted to contribute

to the road racing scene.

If you give

kids a playground

where they can learn these

skills while they're playing,

in a racing competition or

a school or whatever you have,

an event, then the whole sport

will grow even more.

That's the best way I've

actually observed the kids improve.

Last one that we did,

the kids were blown away

with how much fun they had

and how much they learned.

It's so much fun to ride

a motorcycle.

Parents that are

involved are really jazzed,

and everybody wants

to make it grow.

Getting kids on

motorcycles is one of the coolest,

coolest, coolest, coolest

things that there is.

When I was growing

up, my favorite place was Indian Dunes.

They just don't have

places like that anymore,

and you know what, we need to

find someplace like that.

We need to recreate that feeling so we

can, you know, turn it onto our kids.

Back in '98, a stunt buddy

and I, Jimmy Roberts,

we looked at each other and said,

you know what, let's put on a race.

Let's put on a Grand Prix

like the old days.

Let's call it

"A Day In the Dirt. "

When we started A Day in the

Dirt, we wanted it to be fun.

- I love Day in the Dirt.

- You're so excited because you're going to go there,

you're going to have fun

with all your friends.

Before the truck

stops, the kids have jumped out,

running to go see what

the track looks like.

We're talking about

a Grand Prix track.

We're talking about

a good three-mile track.

So these kids humping around

and they come up and they ask

the tractor drivers

what's going on.

It's Grand Prix style racing,

where you don't actually go out

of a gate, it's a flag start.

A lot of guys

are out there, it's a big race,

a lot of people are watching

and, you know,

when you line up on the gate,

you got 20 guys to your left,

20 guys to your right, it

gets a little nerve-racking.

It doesn't

matter if you finish in 27th place,

as long as you finish in

front of your friend, you won.

Kids don't have to

worry about who's gonna win,

or who's gonna lose, or who's

gonna make the hole shot.

All these kids,

all of them get along.

Somebody's gonna win

and somebody's gonna lose,

but they're gonna come off,

and they're gonna shake hands,

and then they're gonna go roll

around in the dirt again.

It's really

cool to seem them out racing

and how good they are

at such a young age,

and even if they aren't good,

just seeing them out on the track

going two miles per hour they're still getting

out there and they're still going for it.

The last lap, you are

so tired because you get the white flag,

and you're like, "OK, just one

more," and you give it all you got,

and then when you see that

checkered flag, you're like, "Yes!"

They have a race at Day

in the Dirt called the Wild Child race.

It's really cool, 'cause you do a

lap and then your partner does a lap,

and every time you come in

you've gotta switch a wristband.

My dad helps me and then

Trevor's dad helps him.

I'm kind of nervous when Trevor comes

in and it's my turn, and it's like,

"OK, gotta do this, gotta do

this, just gotta do your best. "

It creates a

friendship between the two racers,

a bond that they'll have for the

next 30 years that they'll remember.

"I raced with Johnny in

that one Wild Child race. "

On Saturday night,

you have this big party,

and everyone goes out and they

just have fun no matter what.

Every year

we end up meeting new people

and just keep building

our family, of moto.

I'll be there just as long as

Day in the Dirt's there probably.

Probably have to bury

me out there.

Hopefully my kid

will take it over.

We have a passion and we share that

together and there's nothing like it.

Teaching your kids

how to do something that you enjoy,

and then seeing them enjoy it,

it's priceless.

I just think it's the best experience,

like a father-son riding day.

You can talk about the track

with your dad,

and he knows what you're talking

about because he's riding with you.

We don't

have the most money in the bank,

but, uh, we have

the most memories.

The day that Scout was born,

I found out

that I had advanced

breast cancer.

It was a tough battle,

just surviving.

And my husband said, "Is there

anything that you want to do?"

And I said, "Actually, I wanna

go on a motorcycle ride. "

And I was going through chemo,

and I was really, really sick.

And I just needed to get out of the

house, and I couldn't be around people...

...because my immune

system was so weak.

And he got me up

and he got me dressed,

and he put me on the back

of his bike,

and he rode me to the beach.

It was one of the absolutely

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