Had plans to ride with some friends Friday morning – but as is often the case with these particular friends, everyone’s plans had changed by Thursday night. 
Undeterred and not wanting to miss the great weather window we had this weekend, I figured I’d use this as an opportunity to get some quality time in with my 9 year old.
We arrived bright and early, unloaded at the visitor center parking lot, geared up & headed out. This would be Kaiah’s first ride since she figured out how to kick and shift her KLX by herself, so we were able to use Brome & Lower Brome as an engine breaking clinic.
First gear, squeeze the tank with you knees, look where you want your front tire to go, don’t tough the breaks or the throttle. Just coast down the hill like you would on you bicycle…
After the first couple of hills she didn’t even hesitate and we settled into our groove for the morning. I’d jackrabbit ahead (pre-sweeping for quads) and would stop and wait for her to catch up. I learned to ride on these same trails and was proud to watch her cruise the same downhill switchbacks that I used to face plant on! She cruised Brome, Lower Brome & Mesa like a pro, even (as she bragged) shifting into 2nd gear in some of the faster sections.
We stopped for a break and I explained the trail rating system to her, she was stoked to be doing so well on the ‘intermediate’ trails. We set off once again down Mesons trail and, being a lowly ‘beginners’ trail, she decided to run it in 2nd gear. I ran ahead a few switchbacks and waited. After what seemed like a reasonable time for her to catch up I killed the engine to listen for her bike. Nothing…
I flipped around and rounded the last corner to find her walking down the trail in my direction. As it turns out, I failed to clarify that the engine does not provide the same breaking resistance in 2nd gear as it does in first…
She came out of a sandy, downhill, outside corner a bit hot and tried to climb the embankment on the other side of the trail. There were tire marks three feet up the side of the almost vertical embankment where she collided with a dead creosote, rolled backwards off the bike onto the trail and managed to roll out of the way (like “Indiana Jones” in her words) before the bike landed on her.
This was the scene (notice her guarding her left wrist):
She complained that her wrist and knees got a bit banged up (she’s wearing knee pads under her jeans) but was otherwise fine and ready to ride on. I gave her a quick once over, dusted her off (took a picture) and tried to kick her bike. Nothing - must be flooded…
We decided to wait a bit and split a fruit bar. 10 minutes later, still no go – Damn…
I ran through the basics: Gas – Check, Spark – (OUCH) check – kill switch / ground wires – check, check, check… Hmmm… a few more minutes and still nothing.
At this point I noticed Kaiah guarding her left wrist a bit and decided to have a closer look. No swelling or discoloration, no deformity, no real pain upon palpation, then OUCH – shooting pain upon bending the hand back. After that a quick strength test confirmed her left hand was considerably weaker than the right.
At this point, a non-operational bike coupled with non-operational wrist, I decided to ride Kaiah 2-up back to the truck. In less that a mile we were able to jump on Powerline Road – that’s when I noticed unmistakable race course markings. SHIT… The lady at the entry kiosk mentioned a rally car race today and now we were on the course. Powerline is dangerous enough as it is without rally cars and I wasn’t exactly nimble with an injured 9 year old on the back… My only consolation was that I was running with the course markings, so I wasn’t worried about a head-on.
As soon as I was able I jumped off of Powerline and hit the pavement. Unfortunately I was only my only un-plated bike - fortunately there were no rangers to be found. (Had one tried to give me a hard time I suspect I would have respectfully requested for him to blow me.)
Once back to the truck, I located a sweep truck for the race and reviewed the race course with him – luckily that portion of Powerline wasn’t scheduled to be used until 5:30 pm, so I locked up my bike, splinted my daughter’s wrist and set out to retrieve her bike.
Pic of the wire splint and her styling new riding gear:
We were able to drive the suburban up Powerline (again, a bit of a sketch) to within about ¼ mile of her bike. We parked and set of for a nature walk down to her stranded KLX110. I was hoping that by the time we got back it would fire up, but unfortunately it was not to be. It ended up taking me about 45 minutes to push the damn thing the ¼ mile uphill back to the suburban…
After that, we retrieved my bike and headed to the clinic. X-rays revealed a hairline fracture of the radius just below the growth plate. Luckily it wasn’t broken through, so three weeks of a splint and she should be 100%.
Not how I envisioned the day going, but my daughter still had a blast and now feels like “a real dirtbiker” now that’s she busted her wing – not a trend that my wife cares to continue…

Undeterred and not wanting to miss the great weather window we had this weekend, I figured I’d use this as an opportunity to get some quality time in with my 9 year old.
We arrived bright and early, unloaded at the visitor center parking lot, geared up & headed out. This would be Kaiah’s first ride since she figured out how to kick and shift her KLX by herself, so we were able to use Brome & Lower Brome as an engine breaking clinic.
First gear, squeeze the tank with you knees, look where you want your front tire to go, don’t tough the breaks or the throttle. Just coast down the hill like you would on you bicycle…
After the first couple of hills she didn’t even hesitate and we settled into our groove for the morning. I’d jackrabbit ahead (pre-sweeping for quads) and would stop and wait for her to catch up. I learned to ride on these same trails and was proud to watch her cruise the same downhill switchbacks that I used to face plant on! She cruised Brome, Lower Brome & Mesa like a pro, even (as she bragged) shifting into 2nd gear in some of the faster sections.


We stopped for a break and I explained the trail rating system to her, she was stoked to be doing so well on the ‘intermediate’ trails. We set off once again down Mesons trail and, being a lowly ‘beginners’ trail, she decided to run it in 2nd gear. I ran ahead a few switchbacks and waited. After what seemed like a reasonable time for her to catch up I killed the engine to listen for her bike. Nothing…
I flipped around and rounded the last corner to find her walking down the trail in my direction. As it turns out, I failed to clarify that the engine does not provide the same breaking resistance in 2nd gear as it does in first…
She came out of a sandy, downhill, outside corner a bit hot and tried to climb the embankment on the other side of the trail. There were tire marks three feet up the side of the almost vertical embankment where she collided with a dead creosote, rolled backwards off the bike onto the trail and managed to roll out of the way (like “Indiana Jones” in her words) before the bike landed on her.

This was the scene (notice her guarding her left wrist):

She complained that her wrist and knees got a bit banged up (she’s wearing knee pads under her jeans) but was otherwise fine and ready to ride on. I gave her a quick once over, dusted her off (took a picture) and tried to kick her bike. Nothing - must be flooded…
We decided to wait a bit and split a fruit bar. 10 minutes later, still no go – Damn…
I ran through the basics: Gas – Check, Spark – (OUCH) check – kill switch / ground wires – check, check, check… Hmmm… a few more minutes and still nothing.

At this point I noticed Kaiah guarding her left wrist a bit and decided to have a closer look. No swelling or discoloration, no deformity, no real pain upon palpation, then OUCH – shooting pain upon bending the hand back. After that a quick strength test confirmed her left hand was considerably weaker than the right.

At this point, a non-operational bike coupled with non-operational wrist, I decided to ride Kaiah 2-up back to the truck. In less that a mile we were able to jump on Powerline Road – that’s when I noticed unmistakable race course markings. SHIT… The lady at the entry kiosk mentioned a rally car race today and now we were on the course. Powerline is dangerous enough as it is without rally cars and I wasn’t exactly nimble with an injured 9 year old on the back… My only consolation was that I was running with the course markings, so I wasn’t worried about a head-on.
As soon as I was able I jumped off of Powerline and hit the pavement. Unfortunately I was only my only un-plated bike - fortunately there were no rangers to be found. (Had one tried to give me a hard time I suspect I would have respectfully requested for him to blow me.)

Once back to the truck, I located a sweep truck for the race and reviewed the race course with him – luckily that portion of Powerline wasn’t scheduled to be used until 5:30 pm, so I locked up my bike, splinted my daughter’s wrist and set out to retrieve her bike.
Pic of the wire splint and her styling new riding gear:


We were able to drive the suburban up Powerline (again, a bit of a sketch) to within about ¼ mile of her bike. We parked and set of for a nature walk down to her stranded KLX110. I was hoping that by the time we got back it would fire up, but unfortunately it was not to be. It ended up taking me about 45 minutes to push the damn thing the ¼ mile uphill back to the suburban…
After that, we retrieved my bike and headed to the clinic. X-rays revealed a hairline fracture of the radius just below the growth plate. Luckily it wasn’t broken through, so three weeks of a splint and she should be 100%.
Not how I envisioned the day going, but my daughter still had a blast and now feels like “a real dirtbiker” now that’s she busted her wing – not a trend that my wife cares to continue…