I am new to this whole dirt biking thing, but I wanted to help get our family properly set up. So I watch the Facebook yard Sale sites (they have amazing deals pop up) and our local KSL Classified ads waiting for something that will fit our family. There are 6 of us, Casey and I, our two sons Cooper-13 and Orrin-11 and our two girls Mercedes-10 and Allyson-8.

It would be nice to be able to outfit us all with brand new bikes, but with six of us, it makes for a really big investment, especially when we know that, I for sure am going to wreck my bike and already have done a few times. The joys of learning to ride.  The kids seemed to pick it up fairly quickly for the most part, but I am a little slower at this. 

I was watching for a good deal on bikes, we currently have a bike for each of us, but want to upgrade my son’s 1988 Honda CR80 2-stroke. It runs really well, most of the time, but tends to go through a lot of spark plugs.  We have had the carb rebuilt and adjusted and it still is happening.  We decided to keep our eyes open.  That is when I came across a 2003 Suzuki 110 4-stroke.  Now if you know bikes, you will know right away that this bike is smaller than the 80, but with my limited knowledge I got really excited that I found the bike we needed.  I called Casey and told him to meet me to look at the awesome bike I found.

We meet to look at the bike and the sellers pull out the bike and my heart plummets. WAY to small for my tall 11 year old son – Orrin. But it is very clean, no leaks, no rips on the seats or broken plastics.   We recently had bumped Mercedes, my 9 year old, up from a 2005 Honda XR70 to a 2000 Honda XR100R. It was just a little tall for her and she couldn’t start it on her own; which is an important thing to be able to do, when learning and stalling out fairly often. So we figured this bike would actually be a better fit for her.

We started it up and it ran pretty good, so I drove it up the street only to have it stall on me when I turned around.  I try and start it up, try again, and again and I just can’t get it to start. I ended up having to coast it back down the hill back to Casey and the owners.  It was actually a pretty fun riding little bike it took off really fast and was a comfy ride.

At this point we know the bike needs the carb cleaned at the very least.  But they were only asking $1000 for it and it was in great condition otherwise.  After a little negotiation, we end up getting it for $900 knowing we would have to put some money into it. 

Now this may not seem like that great of a deal, but after looking at what is currently available and the outrageous prices some people were asking, (it is right before Easter weekend and Spring Break-and we have amazing Sand Dunes nearby) we figure this was a great option for us. 

We brought the bike home and it fits Mercedes great. We took it to a friend of ours that works on bikes, so he could look over the carb.  After pulling it apart Kevin found out the carb was completely gummed up.  He soaked it over night to try and get it cleaned up, but after several cleanings, it was not salvageable. We had to get a new carb and Kevin had it quickly put back together. All said and done we ended up out of pocket about $200.00 for the time and parts. This may seem a little high for a carb clean, but let me explain a little about our friend Kevin. He can’t work due to a back injury, and so we take our bikes to him, he is great with carbs.  He has done a lot of work for us without charging us, so when he does actually charge us, we give a little extra.

Buying a new bike is always an adventure, but at least this time wasn’t as bad as some of the other bikes we have purchased in the past for a great deal and then resold the next day because it wasn’t really that great of deal after all.

Things we learned:

1. Always test drive the bike!
2. Make sure the bike is really the size you are looking for.
3. Bring cash, people are a lot more willing to negotiate on prices when cash is right in front of them.

We had been planning to work in our Garage today. We moved to a new home about 2 months ago and still don’t have all of our belongings moved over yet. The plan was after picking Orrin up from a math placement test, we would hit Home Depot and get the stuff to build shelves for our belongings to be moved over.  Just after dropping off Orrin for his test my brother Jeff called and that was the end of our good intentions.

Instead we headed to Moto Frugal, a local dirt bike store/repair shop. On our last trip Mercedes rolled her bike down the mountain and did some pretty good damage to her handle bars, and Orrin’s bike the 1994 Yamaha YZ80, ended up with a flat and cracks in the rubber of his tire. We got all the parts and headed home to get it all fixed.

I had to leave for a few hours, so while I was gone Casey and the kids changed out the handle bars and front tire, only to find out that the rim has a crack in it that we didn’t notice before.  It will work for today, but definitely something we need to change in the future.

We met Jeff about a mile or so before Little Moab https://goo.gl/maps/LNUa1hEA3Em and parked at a turnout of Chimney Rock road. The great thing about this area is that there is a lot of area to ride. You can park anywhere along the road once you get past the private property.  (Please don’t park on private property, it just makes the property owners upset and then they try to get the area shut off for riding.) There are a lot of turnouts and parking areas, today was nice because there really wasn’t very many people out there today.

It was a little on the chilly side, about 50°F so we all were wearing jackets or an extra, long sleeve shirts to help with the wind. But the sun was shining and it was actually pretty nice going.

My brother brought his side by side, and two of his kids, Finley 7 (almost) and Hudson 12.  We introduced Hudson to the 2000 Honda XR100, he had ridden dirt bikes before, but nothing with a clutch. We let all the kids ride around where we were parked for a bit; it was nice since it had a hill in the middle and an area to ride all around.  Hudson wasn’t quite ready for the clutch yet, so we let him ride the 03 Suzuki DR-Z110.

We got everyone ready, Jeff in the Side by side with Finley, I was on my 08 Yamaha TT-R230, Casey-98 Kawasaki KX250, Cooper-01 Kawasaki KX 100, Orrin- 94 Yamaha YZ80, Hudson – 03 Suzuki DR-Z110, Mercedes – 2000 Honda XR100, Allyson – 05 Honda RF70.

We had never ridden this specific area before as a family. Casey and I used to bring our Jeep out here years ago, but that was a different type of adventure. We just picked one of the trails randomly and headed off. Jeff stayed in the back, because side by sides kick up a lot of dust and he wanted to play around as we were headed up.  Everything was going great Casey was up front with the older kids I stayed back with Ally.  We were going along fine and then started up a long steep hill.  We all got down to first gear and worked our way up,  Ally and I were a little behind everyone else, we came upon Orrin, he couldn’t get his bike to go up the hill, it kept dying on him. 

Jeff caught up to us and helped me check out his bike.  Casey showed up a few minutes later and we found out that the shifter had been smashed in so that the bike wouldn’t shift into first gear. I continued up the hill with Ally so we could be with the rest of the kids waiting for us.  After a few more minutes Orrin drove the side by side up the hill and Casey and Jeff worked on the bike. 

It was determined we needed to go back to the truck to fix the bike before we continued on. Which was actually ok, I rode ahead on the trail a little further and it turned out to be a little more difficult than our youngest riders were ready for, possibly me too J. We all headed back to the truck.  After the experience of Cedes rolling down the hill, we reminded the kids to all stay in first gear and do not try and keep up with anyone else, just go the speed they are comfortable in. We made it down and back to the truck without any issues!  Yeah!

Casey and Jeff were able to fix the shifter so it would go into first gear, but then noticed that the clutch was not fully disengaging, so even though we could now shift, it wasn’t releasing all the way, so it wasn’t really much good to ride. We put that bike aside and let the kids play around on the hill right where we were parked.  Hudson was able to get on the XR100 and learned to use the clutch and was riding great!  Finley wanted to learn to ride too, so Jeff got her on the CRF70 and helped her take a few rides on it, she isn’t good enough to go long, but definitely starting to get the hang of it.  The bike was a little too big for her, since she is pretty small Jeff would be better off getting her a 50cc bike to start with.

It is much better to get a bike they will be comfortable on, rather than something bigger, so that they will enjoy riding.  If your kids/family don’t enjoy the ride they won’t want to go back out.  Once they are comfortable on the bike, bump them up to something bigger.

We loaded all the kids up again, and had to rearrange a little since we were now one bike short.  Ally and Mercedes rode in the side by side with Finley and I was driving, Jeff rode my TTR-230, Hudson on the DR-Z110 and Orrin rode the XR100 and everyone else was on the same bikes.  Jeff was having fun on the dirt bike, we are trying to get him to love them so he gets bikes for his whole family. Yes, we are a little sneaky!

We headed over to Little Moab, this is a great area for Jeeps and crawling on it, there wasn’t any over there today, which is a little unusual.  The kids all wanted to play on the rocks.  When we got there they girls ran all over the boulders and had a great time, the boys rode circles around us.   Cooper’s bike tire was getting a little low on air, so he decided to try out my TTR-230.  Can’t believe how big that kid is getting!   He rode it just fine. 

We ran around the rocks for a while, and Jeff tried to crawl over them in the side by side, but didn’t want to burn up any belts so he didn’t push it too hard.  We stayed around for about 45 minutes just playing and then decided to head back.  The girls in the side by side wanted to get muddy, so Casey drove them and Jeff took his KX250 and I rode my TTR-230. 

When I finally caught up to Casey and the girls they were already covered in mud and laughing their heads off.  They found a mud “puddle” about 100 feet long and 30 feet wide and maybe 1 1/2 feet deep.  They rode circles through the puddle sending mud flying everywhere!  We switched out a few kids and let Orrin get muddy too.  Casey also ran his KX250 through it a few times and sent the mud sailing! The kids loved it and Casey was the biggest kid of all.  

We got back and loaded up the bikes and luckily had a few blankets in the truck to put over our seats.  The kids loved it!

Things we learned:

1. Check bikes before heading out for any damage.
2. Send someone ahead to check the trail on steep trails, to make sure it is going to be ok for all riders.
3. Check air in the tires before riding.
4. Pack blankets to sit on, you never know when you might find some mud.
5. Bring an extra change of clothes.
6. Do not force riders on bigger bikes than they are ready for, sometimes they just need to warm up a little and then they can move up when they are comfortable.

This is a really neat area to go ride.  There are trails all over out here, we barely even scratched the surface and we could easily have spent a lot more time out there.  During the summer it does get crowded, but it was really nice today.

How we liked it:.

Casey 3.5 Star

Amber  4 Star     

Cooper  (13)   4 Star

Orrin (11)    5 Star

Mercedes (10)   4 Star

Allyson (8)    3 Star 

Jeff     5 star   before the mud,  3 Star after the mud (he didn’t like having to wash his side by side-in fact even a year later he complains about the mud-sorry Jeff, but it was fun)

Hudson (12)   4 Star

Finley (7)     5 Star    before the mud, 3 Star after the mud, she didn’t want to be covered in mud.