Wife is on a Scooter

[misterprofessionality]

How old is she? Can she drive a stick?

she's 30. Sadly, we've got no opportunity to teach her how to drive a manual car. You can't rent them, and we don't exactly have a social circle full of people with manual cars who would let her borrow one. Without the car to drive, there's just no way for her to learn that. I can, so I could teach her if I had the vehicle, but there's just no opportunity. This is actually kind of tragic because she really wants to see if she likes driving a manual Mini (Minis are really meant to be driven manual, and she's got an Automatic now).

I'm just so darn proud. I got her on a scooter rental finally, after spending about 6 months teaching her to ride a bicycle properly. she kept the bike up, learned to pull away and stop reliably, and learned some turns by looping around culdesacs and taking apex rights and lefts at intersections.

I also got stung by a wasp while following her on my own scooter. good times.

Point being, the lady can now pilot a two-wheeled vehicle in the most basic sense. We're debating getting her her own cheap chinese 50cc that she can ride into the ground before the new Super Cub hits dealerships, but i can see the spark is lit. she's already got "engine eyes" and keeps pulling up information on a Vespa GT250. She's not quite ready to learn transmissions yet, but that's why I want her to get a Super Cub, so she can shift without having to manage a clutch. Am I making a mistake keeping her away from transmissions for a while?

Yes, if you teach her with a clutch it will be harder but in the end better for her because it will be much more natural.

I taught my daughter how to drive a car with a manual transmission. She may not always drive a manual but she'll never forget how to.

my fear is that there's too big a difference between learning a bike and learning a car to give her so much to worry about. a car isn't going to fall over on its side while you're distracted with learning how to work the clutch. on top of that, like i said in the OP, she only just learned how to ride a bicycle this year. she'd never ridden one as a child. it might be hard to imagine, but think about how your perception of balance would change if you had never ever learned to ride a bicycle. learning how to ride a motorcycle suddenly becomes much more complicated. I watched this poor girl fall off a ruckus the first time she tried it, and i didn't even think that was possible for an adult. My theory is that once her sense of balance and throttle control are at the place where they're fully natural and engaged, she can start fiddling with her left foot and left hand.