Anyone who has children, who you raised to be independent thinkers and productive contributor’s to society, can relate at some level of this story.

Last year when my son turned sixteen years old, some kind of clock started ticking. Very similar to that well-known maternal clock a lot of us have had when it was time to start a family.

Only, this clock was more of a timer, that resonated very loud and very annoying, tic tic tic.

With every tic, I feel like time is running out. And it was or is, before I knew it my son turned seventeen.

For his seventeenth birthday, my son asked for a motorcycle safety course for his birthday present.

I know what a lot of you maybe thinking, are you crazy to allow your teenage son to ride a motorcycle?

The thing is I started riding when I was nine and my son started riding his dirt bike when he was ten. Now he wants to be properly licensed. We agreed to it because of our love of riding.

Now back to the annoying timer, tic tic tic.

The way I’m looking at it, is more quality time with my son.

Also, part of the agreement is he will only be able to ride his bike with his dad and I.

Another part of the agreement is the type of bike.

Yes, I know all bikes are dangerous, but we as parents refused to allow him to get a crotch rocket (which is what he wanted.)

At first, he balked at this restriction but quickly changed his tune when we said “our way or no way”.

And a big factor was he didn’t have to wait on getting a bike until he could save the money to buy it himself.

My husband and I were looking to get some form of ADV (Adventure touring or duel sport) even before my son asked for the motorcycle safety course.

The Saturday my son was at the motorcycle safety course, my husband and I went shopping for dual sport motorcycles. Usually, we gravitate towards the higher end expensive type of motorcycles and this time was no exception. When we first started shopping that is exactly what we did, until we did the math. When you are purchasing three motorcycles maybe a $14,000 ADV is not the correct path.

At first we had our sights set on the Honda African Twin but during our research and shopping I found the Kawasaki KLR 650. I just liked it way better than all the other bikes that we were looking at and the price range for two bikes was equal to just one African Twin.

My son passed the motorcycle safety course with flying colors.

The following week we started our negotiations with Good Times Kawasaki in Sacramento. By the following weekend we purchased three new 2017 Kawasaki KLR 650’s.

My family, we have a motto, “A family who rides together, stays together”.

My husband and I both felt that annoying timer, tic tic tic, slow down and not tic quite so loud when we decided to get the three bikes, so we could all ride together.

Enjoy the Ride…