GalaxyBlue
Well-known member
Off topic..
Welcome back scooter! It seems you were gone for a while!
Welcome back scooter! It seems you were gone for a while!
At the dealership i bought my fjr,and gold wing from a young man the week prior had purchased a brand new r1.He was'nt ready to ride it so he had a friend who was supposed to be seasoned rider come to the dealer to pick it up.at the exit the young man released the clucth to aggressively popped straight out across pacific coast highway,flipped the bike witch was then crushed by an on comming truck.The young man was not hurt to bad,the bike was gone.the dealer had let him take the bike without a insurance binder.Now the war of liability is on.even though they have known me at this dealer for some 10 years and i have bought several bikes from them,they made me walk my bike to the end of the dealerships property and drive off from there.they had melowed out after a couple months when i went back in for the wing. Im not sure if this is true but i think in calif.you have to be 18 to ride a stalion,but at 16 or 18 you can ride a bike that will go 150+ miles an hour.I dont know i have 2 teenage boys.They have been riding dirt for years,and thanks to crap like the metal melisha they take chances that i dont feel comfortable with and have spent some time off thier bikes and sitting on thier helmits because of it.They ask me when they are gonna be aloud to drive street bikes.I have told them when i feel they show the right respect.Sorry didnt mean to go on so much but this kind of story is close to home and makes me very sad and mad......It's entirely possible, and I'm not too proud to say I've done it myself, that as a new street rider, when making the turn, if he had too much speed, he could have panicked and forgotten to let off on the throttle. The thing that saved me (again, speaking from experience as a VERY new rider at the time a few years ago) was pulling in the clutch (thank you MSF). It wouldn't surprise me in the least to have someone pop the curb and get tossed.
Terrible tragedy...
Thanks for the insight Rene. There have been a lot of good comments whether dealers should refuse sales to unqualified riders. I think they should but I don't how the dealers could determine who is unqualified and lets face it, the dealers and their salesmen have a serious conflict of interest. The dealers have to make sales to stay in business and salesmen working on commission have to make sales to pay the bills. They both should realize that their future lies in long term customers, not one sale to a customer who will probably have an accident and never buy another motorcycle. I just wish there were more entry level bikes available so when a new rider walks into the showroom and wants to buy a high performance 600, a salesman could offer some viable alternatives.I would get the 1st time street riders wanting GSXR750's and 1100's (this was the early 90's). Most I could talk out of those bikes and into GS500's or maybe Katana 600's if they had to go new, or the used bike 'O the day, stressing the "Two kinds of riders" theory.
I can't see this as happening unless, as in this case, the buyer rides the bike home. For a simple purchase there's no need for a tag or a D/L much less an M endorsement. All such things deal solely with the operation of a vehicle on a public road. If the rider is only going to use it on private property they don't have to tag it or have a D/L. At that point, insisting that the buyer comply with state regulations that may (or may not) apply turns them into an agent of the government.About all I would expect a dealership to require would be a scoot license/endorsement.
EXACTLY!Jeez, how 'bout a little common sense on the part of the buyer. Once again, we are not expected to be held accountable for our own stupid actions.
I think this is priceless and I hope he thanks you for it.I am currently coaching my brother-in-law on his first bike, an SV650(great bike BTW). So far he has only ridden it with me following behind. He also has taken the MSF class, and also made the comment of how different riding on the street is compared to the class. It has been a long time since I have been out riding with a complete beginner, but I see his improvements every time we set out. He always asks how he doing in terms of skill level, and my response so far has been 'don't worry about how fast your going, ride your own ride and just get some miles racked up'. Instead of riding long straight roads, I have been taking him along technical stretches of highway, so he can get used to curvey roads at a controlled pace. So far I think it is working out well.
After each ride we talk about how different situations played out and after 600+miles, he is just starting to use all of the controls without thinking about what he is supposed to do next. There has also been one situation of target fixation and he is realising that his eyes must always be looking up off the road in the direction of where he wants to go.
Even though riding behind someone who is at times going at a pace which is putting me to sleep, I know it is helping him gain confidence and I know he appreciates it. There is definetely a venerability during the first few thousand miles.
Training that involves real world riding is a definate plus for a beginner compared to a parking lot, but I'm not sure you will see this happening anytime soon in the US.
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