Shoot the salesman--------

[old-n-slow]

I can't find the thread bashing salepeople for selling performance bikes to beginner riders. Perhaps it was pre-hacker days. Anyway I found an interesting tidbit that I wanted to add to it.

Time for a new thread I guess.

"It was incredibly easy," said Sean Veilleux, 18, of Wesley Chapel, north of Tampa, who crashed Dec. 7 -- the day he bought his bike without a job, a license or rider training. "A couple of days earlier, Circuit City turned me down for a TV. . . . The guy from Suzuki called me back a few hours later and told me, `We'll approve you for anything. You can ride anything you want.' "

Veilleux briefly considered buying a 1,300-cubic-centimeter Suzuki Hayabusa, one of the world's fastest motorcycles. He financed a GSX-R750, just a tad slower than the Hayabusa, for $12,500.

"Nobody wants to start off on a dorky little bike, you know," said Veilleux, who ran into another unlicensed rider when he flipped and broke his arm in three places. "That's the reason you get the bike. It's cool, it's fun, and it's fast."

Statewide, illegal riders such as Veilleux account for about half of the crashes and up to 66 percent of the deaths in the 15-to-24-year-old age bracket in 2003, records show.

"At the time, I was thinking, `I don't want to go and get my license now because I don't know how to ride, and I don't want to fail it,' " said Veilleux, who crashed two minutes into his first ride. "So I was thinking I would ride around and learn how to ride it."


That's funny....... but sad

http://harleychatgroup.com/index.php?na ... pic&t=6803

[V4underme]

It's really sad that bikes are sold to such folks, but equally as sad is the lack of brains exhibited by the people doing the buying. Oh well, I was 18 once, too.


Related story from my area... young man, 18 or 19, wants to buy his first bike at a Honda dealer just across the state line. They refused to sell him the used CBR600 he wanted and tried to get him interested in a VLX or Spirit 750. He left and came back to a Honda dealer in my state where he bought a brand new CBR. He made it out of the dealer parking lot and wrecked it a block down the street making a u-turn while going too fast. I was talking to the first dealer about my bike and I asked him about the accident. He was well informed of all the details as the kid brought the bike to him for repairs since he lived in that town.

What's just as sad is these incidents aren't limited to the younger generation, either.

[boingk]

that sort of stuff is really sad, especially when you look into the riders mentality. its always something along the line of ''i wanna be cool and have a really really fast bike!'' hahaha, how cool do they look in a hospital bed with various injuries, and a wrecked bike to boot? here in Australia, if your on a learner or provisional permit (so..first 15 months) you cant have anything over 650cc or with more power than 150 kW/t power to weight ratio (figured with fuel and an 80kg [170lb?] rider). oh well, i'm sure it still happens to people all over the place. makes you wonder what they really did expect...

[oldnslo]

The big thread we had here got hacked, which is too bad, because it got a bit intense. I guess you can pick any member of the party, whether it be salesman, dealer, or industry in general, but the buyer's savvy or ignorance will ultimately determine at least a general outcome.
To all those who buy Busas or the like as a first bike, thank you, it helps as an object lesson in what not to do for those who really want to learn how to ride. There's a good chance, choosing the superbike first bike, that you will probably be through riding within the first year after scaring yourself to death, and your bike and gear will be for sale as a lot. Or, there are other alternative results having to do with hospitals, funeral homes, and cemeteries.
Yes, we know some do survive, but it really is learning to ride the hardest possible way with the worst possible learning tool you could choose.

[old-n-slow]

Furthur to the initial post:


Veilleux, who flipped his bike in December, hopes to get a license and ride again.

Still undergoing physical therapy for his injuries, the teen is not sure how he will pay off about $11,000 owed on his wrecked motorcycle.

"Honestly, I was only on the bike for like two minutes, and it was just incredible. I loved it; it was such a rush," he said. "And the thing is, I didn't experience half the power on that bike."

Doesn't appear to have learned much eh?

[iwannadie]

doesnt sound like he will have any money or the credit to be able to buy a performance bike again though, and if he does he will be worse off than this time. kid should quit while hes ahead

[High_Side]

There is a 19 y.o. kid in really bad shape in hospital from crashing his gixxer-thou here in Calgary the other day. I feel for him and his family, and the owner of the parked cage that "took him out"

[Mag7C]

Statewide, illegal riders such as Veilleux account for about half of the crashes and up to 66 percent of the deaths in the 15-to-24-year-old age bracket in 2003, records show.

So that's why we get a bad reputation...

[TechTMW]

It's just like alcoholism ... those countries without official drinking ages are also those with the lowest rates of alcoholism ... get em started young, and they know how to deal w/ it responsibly !!!

so ... I Blame THE PARENTS!

Parents should see that every kid should be on a 50cc trail bike by age 6, and work their way up from there !!!

[pyropig]

That was my thread, It was pre-hacker days, it was called the moral dillema of selling motorcycles.