News Article - Motorcycle Accident in SD

wow, i guess that he was on a Gixer?

just goes to show ya gotta show a bike respect or it'll bite you.

 

Son of a beatch. I hate to see people die, but this is the perfect example of squid(if he truly was a new rider going 100).

 

All hear say if you ask me.. Sorry to hear this thou. hard way to learn a lesson.

 

People got to chill out on the bikes.

Restraint no longer exists.

BZ

 

A lot of folks I speak to almost flip out when I suggest to them that they should consider becoming bikers. It turns out that those who throw a fit know/ have known people who have died or been seriously injured on motorcycles. In all the cases mentioned to me, the traumatic experiences involved young folks (under 25) who bought "bullet bikes" as soon as they figured out how to operate the controls and decided to wring out their new bikes. I doubt that they took the MSF, or that they were wearing the proper gear.

In the other state in which I used to live (Tejas), I saw a dude on a bike on a very busy freeway under construction with very narrow lanes. He was in the left lane by the construction barriers coasting along at 80mph. For gear, the dude had on sunglasses, a button-down shirt, and shorts. I used to throw a fit remembering it, but now I simply let darwin handle it for me.

When I was 14, I witnessed (actually saw it happen) a Range Rover plow into a guy sitting parked on his bike by the sidewalk. He hit the dude and bike on the left side. The Ranger was chattering away on his cell phone. I saw the dude's helmet !!SLAM!! into the ashphalt. The cyclist was lying on the road having spasms while everyone waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Although I did a lot of stupid things in my first car at ages 16-18, I have never underestimated how mangled one can get by being reckless on a motorcycle. There's a big difference between a car with a seatbelt and a bike.

I believe that with the younger crowd, everything boils down to peer pressure, and trying to determine who has the biggest bike and balls. It's very unfortunate.

 

New riders need actual training. Even experienced riders benefit from training. I don't know if it's the manufacturers, the dealers or the government who ought to be responsible for getting people into classes, but right now no one is taking responsibility, and people are killing themselves and others when they could just as easily be having a good ride.

I responded to an accident scene a few weeks back where a guy tossed his Harley in a curve that was tighter than he realized. He could have made the curve if he'd known how. Even if he lost it, his girlfriend might have lived if she was wearing a real helmet instead of one of the toy helmets that the fashion police make them wear.

I'm sad to hear about a young man dying; but it makes me angry because so often it's just unnecessary and preventable.

Get real training. Wear real gear. Have a good ride.

- Paul in MI

 

Three words apply here:

GRADUATED MOTORCYCLE LICENSES

'nuff said.

 

Exactly, unecessary and preventable.
That is the shame of it all.

 

Isn't there something like a graduated motorcycle lic in England (like VT mentioned)? I've 'heard' that you can't get a bike over 450cc's (?) until you've been on a smaller bike for some number of years AND you're over a certain age.

 

I have to agree. Other countries limit the size motorcycle a new rider can ride, and the more instances I see of things like this the more I think that's not a bad idea. Sellers have absolutely no compunctions about selling a 150mph bike to a kid that has never even sat on one before. There is nothing to prevent this from happening except the rider's own sense of responsibility and mortality, and let's face it: We were all young at one time and absolutely KNEW we were invincible.

I was talking to a dealer once last year. He said a kid came in wanting to buy a Kawi ZX-10. young guy, first bike, zero experience, lots of daddy's money. The guy I was talking to tried to sell him into something smaller but the guy wouldn't have it. They did sell him the bike, he barely made it out of the parking lot. When they got to the shop the next morning that bike was wadded up in a ball that a wrecker had dropped off. The kid was wadded up in a ball in the morgue.

Salespeople work on commission. I have asked myself whether or not I'd honestly turn down sales if I were one. I haven't found an answer I like yet.

 

Years ago in college I worked part time in a bike shop. I would hear people making odds on whether buyers would wreck and how long it would take. I also watched Gold Wings being sold to litle old men that could barely hold them up. I don't know the answer, but I'm beginning to see some wisdom in graduated licenses. But then again, doesnt that start us down to road to size and speed restrictions? There are lots of people out there that think we shouldnt be allowed to ride at all........just too dangerous

 

It is sad to see something like that happen, but it happens far more than any of us realize. And while I may have wondered about some type of restrictions for the motorcycle industry in the past, this current political debacle reminds me just how much things get screwed up when the govt gets involved.

And then on the flip-side I wonder if a government organized program limiting riders to smaller cc's for any unknown amt of time would actually deter many of the squidly types? I have a feeling it might just work. Many of them seem to be impulse buys anyway, like another wrote above, peer pressure, feelings of invincibility. Young-uns run out and buy a bike and hit the highway doing top speed runs before the insurance cards have cooled down.

Maybe somone should put up a poll and let us vote on it.

Vs

 

That should hold true for any motor vehicle you drive. Funny thing here in BC. We have graduated licenses for cages but not bikes. Politicians. Just WTF do they know.

 

When I first started riding, about age 14, I rode the hell out of what I had, went as fast as I could go, but I started on a Honda 65, graduated to a Honda S90, then a Honda 350, etc.

But now no one wants to start with a learner's bike, they want big and/or fast right off the bat. When I was accelerating full throttle with my '71 Bonneville (in '73) it took a measured amount of time to hit 100 in fourth gear, now the bikes will sometimes hit that speed in second in just the blink of an eye. The margin for error is very small with a bike powerful enough to accelerate that quickly.

I think the tiered license's time has come, much as I hate to say it. And let's face it: the US licensing system is ridiculous. I can drive nothing but a VW beetle for 20 years, buy a 40 foot motor home and drive it off the lot the same day with no need to prove that I can operate that behemoth. Totally insane.

 

I agree with graduated licences but more inportant than that is i think more needs to be done to earn the licence.

A road test is not enough, the test should be include a skill portion.
this means a person would have to learn to ride the bike. because I fiqure that 75-90% of riders could not pass the skill portion of the test. and new riders would never pass it.

Alberta has a skill test...but it is optional(you can do the road test or the skill test....no one chooses the skill test(I did because the course i took included it on the last day)

I prefere this to restrictions, because i see no problem with a newer rider taking the time to get training buying his 1500 nomad, or other bike.

as a seperate issue are the gsx-r's and cbr's...those things are just to fast.
----------------------------
As for the dealership, i can say when i bought my VFR as a new new new new rider, I already knew i wanted the vfr. Still i was shown both the gsx-r and cbr 600's. Upon finding out i wanted an 800, the pushed me towards the 1000's because they where close in cost. I asked "do i need a 1000" the answer was it's faster...

a friend who bought a GSX-R I also saw the same thing, he would talk to sales and they would show him the sx-r's and cbr's in both the 600 and 1000 flavors and little else. That is what we wanted but showing him something else would have been nice. He does like my bike for how smooth it is.

On a posative note i was at a bike show and was looking at bikes for my buddies GF. He was looking as gsx-r's and cbr's(same guy as above) so she was looking at them as well.
The sales guy talked to us and eventually took her over to a smaller 500 suzukie V sport bike that had half the power.
I was impressed as he actually sized her up(she was short, very short) and found a bike that matched her inseam and riding wants. She was comfortable on the bike and liked it.

I hate to say it but when a 20 year old walks into a dealership to look at sport bikes...995 of the time they are looking at super sports.