First Time on the Honda CRF250L in the Woods: A Father/Daughter DRZ400S/CRF250L Dual Sport Adventure

You ready to ride the big bike? Wow. Pretty. Pond. It's a lot cooler right now than it was the last time I was here. Let's see if she's got her dad's sense of direction. Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Dorkside. I am the Dork of the Road and today Lil Dork and I are going out exploring in the woods on our Dual Sports and she is going to ride the 250L for the first time in the woods. Thanks for coming along. That's right everyone. I am the Dork of the Road and I want to be your internet riding buddy. So please consider subscribing and don't forget to turn on those notifications so that you know when I post awesome new Dual Sport adventure shenanigans just like this. So we're going to load up and head up there and I'll see you in the woods. Here we are. Here's Lil. How are you feeling Lil? Are you ready to ride the big bike? I'm going to crush it like a boss. You're going to do a great job. Show us what you look like on it. There it is. It fits her good. She doesn't know it but it totally does. Totally works. So the 250L it's officially yours now. You're transferring it over. I forgot to charge my Sena so we won't be able to talk to each other. So this will be an interesting ride today. We're just going to take it easy. Explore some forest roads. I'll show you a couple of cool spots I know that are easy to get to and then we'll see how we feel. Okay? Let's roll. You alright? You got to watch that uneven ground kid. It's going to get you up here. Okay hold on. You're probably going to need my help. It's okay. She's been down before. Hit the kill switch. You broke my mirror. Here let me take the front. You get the back. I'll steady it. You ready? Okay. Yeah. Especially if you're going right foot down because it's just a little lower right? Yeah. Alright well that's a good start to the video. This thing's heavy. Why'd you get such a heavy bike? Okay. It's good. What'd you learn? You can't get on anything gravel. Well it's also just farther to the ground than you expect. So the leaning side to side is a weird feeling but your foot will hit and catch. You're plenty tall. You're as tall for this bike as I am for this one. Stopping and starting is going to be the hardest part. So you're good? Yeah. Okay. Don't get all shaky on me. We'll be good. Feel good? Yep. You got it. You got your first drop out of the way. Yeah. That's the hardest thing. Put your feet up. Put your feet up. Look out! Car! Car! You're psyching yourself out right now. Ugh. You got it. Just don't psych yourself out. Alright. So a little trouble on the uneven ground. I think we got some confidence issues. She hasn't ridden the big one in a while. That's why we're taking it easy today. So she's going to be fine. She's plenty tall for it. She just doesn't trust it yet. It is heavy. She can't pick it up by herself. So that is a disadvantage in an area where a 125 or something might have been a little nicer. But we're going to see how she does. I bet by the end of the day she's feeling great. Just got to get a little confidence is all. Mirror's all funky now. That's good. Got to get your drops out. So that was two drops. So it's good to just get that out of the way early. In my opinion. So I'm letting her set the pace today. We're just going to putter on some forest roads. Get a feel for the big bike and how she feels on it. How confident she is on continuing to ride it. It is a smidge tall. And I understand the fear of getting your feet down on uneven terrain on a tall bike. And you got to remember she came from the 110 where she could almost put her knee on the ground. It's a lot less stable feeling. She's not used to being up on her toes. So here's that waterfall spot that you may have seen in the snow adventure video. It's not a great camping spot. Because look, that's all there is for tent setup and stuff. But it's a beautiful location. I just don't like how close it is to the road. Do you guys remember what it was like when you first started riding off road on a tall bike? It was intimidating as hell for me. Constantly just felt like I was going to fall over or slide out. She's got an advantage in that. There's real good tires on there. And a 250L is a smooth bike. Easy to handle. It's forgiving in the shifting. It's not super powerful. Not going to rev out on you. So at least she's not dealing with that. She's only dealing with the slow speed. Getting your feet down and stuff. But the 110's gone so it's this bike or the BRAS which has got less of this too tallness to worry about. That really becomes a concern. But I don't think it's going to be. It's just like the DRZ. When I was first looking at bikes, the DRZ height intimidated me a ton. I thought for sure that's too tall for me. I'm not tall enough. Disregarding the evidence of lots of other average height people riding it. Once I got on it, and it's a couple inches taller than the CRF, but after I had a bunch of experience when I got on this, I realized it was no big deal. I don't even hardly notice it. But I had to build that confidence. Looks good on there though. Fits her well. Look at the angle of her knees and stuff. It's not way too big. She's in a great position. I'm not really sure how to tell her I want to stop. Other than just pulling up in front of her and doing it. I want to stop. Wow. Pretty. Not bad looking view. How you feeling? Good. I just want to look at the view. It's pretty. I'll get you a decent view. It's very pretty over there. Wow. Jefferson's looking good. There's the kid. There's Lil. We're going to keep going up a ways. I'm sorry I can't talk to you. I wish I could. I can tell you when I want to stop, but I just passed you to show you what we're doing. I don't want to honk and make you feel like you have to stop all weird. Where I can, I'll try to get ahead of you when we have to turn or whatever. Beautiful view number one. Here comes the child. So we're going to try to get to the pond from the hidden pond video from last October, November. It's not the one we went to in the last video with her. This one's on the other side. It's the not the beaver pond. It's like a rock quarry I think that's filled in some honestly. You get a good view of the ridge as we come around. I'm guessing she's not looking for that. It's pretty. Look at that. It's cool right? Pretty cool. Okay, I'm losing her now. She doesn't want to stop. It's a cool view up here though. We should stop. Oh my god the mountain over there. It looks amazing. Let's stop and look at this. The mountain looks really good right now. I don't want to miss this. You know what I'm saying? Good. Good job. You got it. You're crushing it. We're about to go down around Dork Mountain actually. Feeling like climbing up there today? This is not terrible. You can see Washington I think. I might be one of the three sisters. Yeah that's Jefferson. Pretty cool huh? Crushing it. Crushing it. How you feeling? Better. Yeah? I saw you going over some bumps and stuff. Doing that on purpose? No. I'm going to try not to fall off this. You got to practice not waddling so much. Once it starts moving just put your feet up if you can. You're just second guessing it. But then because your foot's down you'll go slower. You really just need to trust the momentum. The bike will go forward if it wants to. Just give it a little more gas and roll. It's funny once it becomes muscle memory how much easier the clutch and everything is. But at first it's so unnerving just to get used to it. There we go. It's getting better though. You just have to practice. You just have to practice to get the muscle memory. And once you've got it down you don't even think about it. There's a big rock. This is our first time other than in a parking lot riding a bike with a clutch. And of course I started around the biggest heaviest one I could find. I've been up there. Guess what? Dead end. Most of these side roads are dead ends. There's a truck up there. I'm going to slow down. There it is. You're good. I just saw that truck. And I didn't know if they were going to be coming down this way. So your speed is fine. I just didn't want it to surprise you. We're going to follow them. We're going this way. For a ways. So just try to stay right. You're cutting those corners pretty sharp on the left sometimes. Okay. Alright, well I'll follow you. There's a view up here around this corner if I'm remembering right. Not terrible, huh? Not terrible. She's going off without me. None of that. None of this waiting for Dad. It's not this one but it's the next one I think. I think. It's that one. I'm pretty sure. 90% sure it's that one. So this is the road to the pond. It's pretty easy like this. Almost the whole way and then there's a little tiny steep part at the end. Not crazy. Down steep or up steep? Up steep. It's not super steep. It's just steeper than this. We can stop at the bottom and look at it if you want. Okay. It'll be fine. You're just going to have to give it a little more gas and climb. It's not a bad road. At least it wasn't when I was here in the fall. And there's a really huge flat spot at the top so you don't have to stop on the hill. You'll ride all the way up and then the pond is right there. So let's just take it easy down here. You want me to go first? I'll go slow. I think you're fine but I'm not going to push you because I know you're feeling a little shaky so let's just putt down here and see what we see. I can always ride ahead and scout things too if I need to. This is actually a fun road. At least last time I was here it was. Hopefully no one's camping up here. That would be funny. I don't know how well known this spot is. I'd be surprised if it's buried. I only know it because I found it on the Google Maps and worked backwards to try to find a road that led to it. It's doing real good. I think she's going to get better really fast. I'm confident. She's just got to get it. She has that gear where she kind of trusts herself and just goes but she's not in it yet. I'm trying to put myself back into my brain a couple years ago and think about what's intimidating and scary because I definitely don't even process that stuff as much anymore. As your skills improve things are just you just have confidence and so you don't waste brain power on things you know that you can easily overcome. You've got to be sympathetic, sensitive. Help her through the sketchy parts. This isn't too bad. It's a little rocky. I'm on this side. I'll get on this side. But this pond up here is really cool. At least it was last time I was here. I think this is the hill at the bottom. So there's a nice flat spot at the bottom. We'll stop and evaluate if we want to climb the hill or not. Good? This is it. You're good? This will be the worst hill that she's climbed. But she's good. We're going. This is going to be... When she makes it she's going to be very proud of herself. That was the hard part. Hard part's over. No one's here. That's really good. Oh man. This is way grown up from when I was here. Oh, it's super high too. Wow. This is not a bad spot at all. Compared to the way it looked when I was here last time. Neat. You did it. You crushed it. How'd that feel? It was a little loose and a little steep but the motorcycle just does all the work. You crushed it. Awesome kid. Awesome climbing. Let's take a break. You did good. You did great coming up that hill. Okay, well this is the pond. It's a lot cooler right now than it was the last time I was here. It looks a lot neater. I'll get you one last look and then we're going to go down the steep hill. Little dork's doing great. No mishaps after the beginning. It's pretty up here. I know the video doesn't do it justice but gotta love exploring. Can you turn around here? Plenty of room. If you just let it roll... Okay, maybe I'll just won't get on until you're turned around. So, Lil did a little number here. I just noticed this but this thing is bent in. This gash is new. This is new. But it's bent in so far the lever will not fit inside of it anymore so we're going to have to take this off and bend it back in a vice when we get home. So she's going to be real careful not to drop it right here because that'll snap that lever off. You can't even read the words anymore. I always drop it on that side too because this side's way messed up compared to the other. Nothing to it but to do it. Worst case you drop the bike and we can't get it out of here and we have to leave it up here. Yeah, I'm kidding. It's a joke. You got it. You got it, daredevil. Hot rod. You got this. More gas. Just don't let the clutch all the way out if you're worried about speed. It feels like I'm not turning it. It's weird. Oh, yeah. It's jammed. I thought you had the clutch pulled in. I did but you made it all loud. Yeah, this is it's on the throttle, you see? But that's dangerous because it's not going to close. So you have to manually push it down. You've been riding with it like this the whole time? I don't know how to fix that at the moment. That's bad. I'm glad you said something because that would take off with you. Let's just put it over there in the shade. I'll try to maybe hit it with a rock. I'm going to try to bend it back out. Okay, well we've got to do a little triage because she's got a stick and throttle which is a really big problem, especially for a new rider that's caught. That's a little better. It's a little better already. I just need to buy you a millimeter or two. It's mostly working but it may not every time. The problem is I'm hitting the plastic when I need to be hitting the metal. I think that'll get you back but you've just got to be careful. The other alternative is just take it off. I just don't know if I have an allen key. It's two different sizes too. I've only got what's in the stock tool kit for the DRZ because the Honda comes with nothing. I think you're okay. This will get you down. Just if it ever starts to go crazy on you, like stick, then you pull the clutch in and kill the bike. The trick is if you just push it forward that's the best thing. Well, I was clever how you got me to turn the bike around for you. That's fun triage in the woods. I love a little roadside mechanic-ing. Also, I need to add some allen keys to my kit because these handguard issues, that's the first thing to happen when you drop the bike. It's okay because sometimes a rock will do the job. Keep your weight back. Use the rear. You can let the engine brake too if you keep it in first. You won't go very fast. You'll be fine. This is a very short section. And it's nice and flat at the bottom. Yeah, I'm not worried about going down. I'm worried about going up. Just stop at the bottom if you're really worried, but you're not going to be going very fast. I'll follow you but not too close, okay? So let that be a lesson to you. Anytime you drop it on the throttle side you gotta check that throttle free play. This gets pretty steep. Use the rear! Yeah, she's not using her brake much. Rear! Use the rear! There you go. She's got it. Okay, we're halfway down. That's good. Okay, okay. I'm way more nervous when it's her than it is when it's me. Seriously. This is butthole puckering, nerve wracking. She's got it. She's got it. We made it. No problem. She's ten times better than I fear she is in my head. Good job! So we probably should head back with that throttle issue, I think. I don't think we should be spending any more time up here than we need to. I think it's okay. And if we could switch bikes I would, but I don't think she can ride this. It's too tall. I don't think the power would be a huge concern, but definitely taller. And that's her biggest fear right now. Biggest issue, really. That's the hardest part of this whole road. We're golden after this. So I'm going to have to pull that hand guard out and try to bend it back in a vice. Just worry about that throttle sticking on these tight corners and the sides are not... It's either going in the woods or you're going off a cliff. So there's not a lot of room for error. So we're headed down. Pop back to the truck. Good practice, good first attempt. All told, a little trouble at the beginning, but nothing crazy here. She's not even looking to see if there's cars coming. But that's a concern. CRF's definitely been through worse, but man, hand guards indispensable. That right one in particular has been dropped on a ton of times. It's pretty right here. It's kind of gorgeous. Kind of gorgeous. Big valley. Big gutter dad's sense of direction. Does she remember which way we came in? Oh yeah. She's got it. She's got it. She knows. I didn't tell her which turns to take. She's navigating out on her own. Nice. This ridge is gorgeous. I've got to get my drone up there. I know the perfect place to fly it off from too. Big rock in the road. It's like you're on top of the world up here. Pretty amazing. Cool little meadow. Beautiful rocks. This is the other side of that ridge. This is pretty. Very pretty. This is a rock pit. Rock lobster. Alright y'all. We are very close to the truck. Like I said low key adventure. Lil's just getting her feet under on the 250L. Very proud of her. She's done a very good job. Had a little bit of a rough start. A few mishaps there at the beginning. But otherwise she handled that steep hill and back down it with aplomb. She's doing a great job. I think she's going to build confidence quickly. The 250L is going to be good for her. I just want to thank you for coming along on this ride with us. If you want to see me ride with Lil more leave it in the comments. She reads the comments too. So if you've got any words of encouragement or advice for her that would be really cool for her to read in the comments. And we appreciate you for sure. If you liked the video, if you enjoyed it for one second or you want to encourage Lil to keep pushing and getting better then maybe if you wouldn't mind hit that like button. When you hit the like button it tells YouTube that the video is worth recommending to other people and they do so it really helps the channel out a lot. So I appreciate that support. And if you want to go above and beyond with your support and really help make future motorcycling content happen get access to exclusive pictures and other perks think about becoming a patron like these fine folks. Thanks patrons. You're my favorite. You're my favorite. But for now and as always I just want to say thank you very much for watching and please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you. Cool waterfall. Weird campsite. We made it. She's going over the roughest on purpose. Awesome. Way to go kid. She's feeling it. She's feeling it. I can tell.