Mr. T's Terrible Tale

[SteveM]

Mr. T's Terrible Tale

Tuesday - I'm picking up brake pads at my local Honda dealer. The sales guy, a friend, is discussing financing with a potential customer and his wife. They are an Asian couple in their mid-30's by my reckoning. He seems a bit hesitant about the length of the loan, but she says, "Don't worry about it, just get your toy. You deserve it. You're a hard worker, a good husband and a good dad, just get it." He decides to get a motorcycle.

...He didn't seem or sound very experienced, but that could be deceiving.

Thursday - back at the dealer for oil and filter. Chat with my friend and learn that Mr. T was all over the closeout deal on 2008 CBR1000RR's and was picking it up tomorrow.

Saturday - I swing by to show off the new tank on my VFR. Mr. T inspired no confidence in anyone when he came to pick up the bike with a flashy new ARAI lid. He was qualified to ride it because he had passed the MSF course. The dealer personnel tried to convince him to let them deliver it to his house, but he insisted that he would ride it home to show his wife and that they would return later to pick up his car. Pressing on, the salesman at least convinced him to let them take the bike to a nearby open lot so that he could get a little more comfortable on it before heading into traffic.
They take the bike to the lot, Mr. T follows in his car. He's looking shaky as they leave him there.

20 minutes later, with 4 miles on the bike, Mr. T arrives holding the keys, mumbling something about too much throttle and then too much brake.
We go look at the bike. The entire right side is thrashed. The frame is deeply scratched, muffler ground through creating a hole, all plastics destroyed. The Arai is also trashed and Mr. T probably wounded both his body and his ego.

The CBR1000RR is many things, but "a forgiving learning tool for inexperienced riders" is probably not one of them.

By virtually forcing him to take it to the open lot, they probably saved his life.

[MotoFreak]

Tough lesson to learn...glad to hear that the boys at the shop did the right thing.

[Rambunctous]

Mr T should have joined NESR's and asked about getting his first motorcycle. He would be having a blast today on his new EX500 or something similar and talking about getting some more experience and doing a trackday.

[SteveM]

Mr T should have joined NESR's and asked about getting his first motorcycle. He would be having a blast today on his new EX500 or something similar and talking about getting some more experience and doing a trackday.

When I heard this yesterday, I remarked to my friend that we run into this very often on NESR and the good advice generally runs along the lines of,

"You will almost certainly drop your first bike, and you may crash it as well. Buy something that won't be heartbreaking when these things happen."

"Buy something that you can learn to wrtench on a bit."

"Plenty of solid, used bikes available for reasonable money."

[netra709]

I bet he used all that power though.

[SteveM]

I bet he used all that power though.

Better to have used ALL the power for one millisecond than to have never used it in a hundred years.

[Rambunctous]

And now his wife will be making him sell it.

[ZX11D]

And now his wife will be making him sell it.

That is if he didn`t already sell it to the insurance company.

[SteveM]

The best case scenario for him is probably for the insurance compay to total the bike and pay him enough to cover the loan. At that point he's rid of the bike and hopefully not too much poorer for the lesson.

If they don't total it, it will get fixed and still be his. Considering the $2500 discount he got when he bought it, he will not be able to sell it for anywhere near his loan balance.

He'll be a lot worse off if it isn't totaled.

[NeverlosT]

Was Mr. T wearing all of his gold chains at the time? Because I can imagine that altering the handling of the bike a lot.

[SteveM]

Was Mr. T wearing all of his gold chains at the time? Because I can imagine that altering the handling of the bike a lot.

The gold chains may have raised the center of gravity, contradicting Honda's efforts at mass-centralization, thereby upsetting the delicate suspension settings and causing the crash.

Or, "I pity the fool who hops on a CBR1000RR after 8 whole hours of MSF parking lot drills."

[BusaKing]

a perfect example for tiered licensing

[Slyder]

The salesman convinced him to go ride it around a parking lot...but couldn't convince him to buy something smaller, used, older ? (there was no mention of this in the OP)

Tiered licensing nothing, how about some store policies to prevent sales people from being greedy? Pretty sad when you care more about a commission than someone potentially turning themselves into a red stain in the road.

I'd have told him straight up that bike was not for him...and I would have explained why. If it cost me my job, so be it. I'd be happy knowing I possibly saved a life. Or two.

Tiered licensing will probably never happen in this country. Less stupidity and more responsibility on the part of the shops selling the bikes is far more feasible. When I bought my 1k, the sales fool, I mean man, took me out to it, and literally said "you probably know more about it than I do" and that was that. I shook my head as he walked off.

[ssg]

At least this way the dealership gets another sale

[SteveM]

An adult customer arrives with his mind set on the deal he wants. This is not an 18 year old kid.

I will be interested to hear the reaction to this from some of the members here who actually sell motorcycles for a living.

I actually talked about this at some length with my friend. The customer knew exactly what he wanted, even if he didn't know exactly what he was getting. He was going to sdave that $2,500 there or save it somewhere else, but he wasn't interested in looking at anything else.

I would suspect that if salespeople had to "qualify" customers based on more than their ability to close the deal, many salespeople would soon find themselves unemployed.

Also, there's a difference between an inept sales-fool (your experience) and someone who's been doing the job quite well for 15 years but doesn't consider himslef the all-knowing moral arbiter of what everyone else "should" do (my first hand knowledge).

Tiered licensing might not ever happen, but if it did, one positive aspect would be that it would force importation of more appropriate beginner motorcycles. In this case, if the buyer wanted new, which he did so he could finance at a low rate, and he wanted a sportbike, then his other option in the Honda showroom is the CBR600RR. Would that really have been a substantially better option?

[Awesome]

Give 'em 500 for the bike.

[aLive]

You can't really fix stupid. If the salesperson explicitly explained that a 1000cc racing machine is not the most appropriate beginner bike and that there are far better starter options, then the salesperson did everything within his power to protect his customer. If the buyer is dumb enough to ignore all the advice and still wants to put his life at risk - it's his choice, his life, his money. If the sales person kept his mouth shut and just wanted a bigger commission, then he's a prime example of a sales asshole.

[Rambunctous]

Maybe his MSF course should discuss appropriate first motorcycles as part of the classroom.But maybe they did. Hopefully he gets his bike fixed and rejoins us.

[breakdirt916]

sad story, but unfortunately it's one that I've heard before...especially this time of the year.

I've become so jaded by the "new-rider-gets-fast-bike-and-dumps-it" story that I don't usually recommend motorcycling to new people I meet, who are excited that I have one (ok, well technically three)

[Doc]

Maybe his MSF course should discuss appropriate first motorcycles as part of the classroom.But maybe they did. Hopefully he gets his bike fixed and rejoins us.

We do... in the MSF I teach.

[SteveM]

We do... in the MSF I teach.

Teaching does not equal learning. I teach a whole lot of important stuff that some students are convinced will never apply to them or that they'll never need.

Short of saying, "You will kill yourself immediately", it just bounces off some.

[markbvt]

Maybe his MSF course should discuss appropriate first motorcycles as part of the classroom.But maybe they did.

I'm pretty sure the MSF course I took did.

Trouble is, there are so many people for whom image is paramount, and they just have to have the bike they think will make them coolest. For some, this is a CBR1000RR, for others it's a Harley ElectraGlide, but luckily there are some who are smart enough to realise that whatever they first get probably won't look quite as pretty by the time they're done with it, so they get a used starter bike. Shame Mr T didn't belong to this last group.

--mark

[Doc]

The only reason I didn't get a new crotch rocket for my first bike was that I couldn't afford it.

Thank god I couldn't and gained the smarts and ability (limited) over the years.

[SVRACER01]

im for tiered licensing. blaming the salesperson for doing his job is like blaming schools for your kids being fat. its called taking responsibility for your actions. even if the sales person told him he wouldnt sell him the bike because of his inexperience he either wouldve gone somewhere else or to someone else.
tiered licensing wouldnt necessarily eliminate all the problems but i truely think its a good idea to start small. hell...i had been riding for over 10 years before i bought my first "big" bike, i went through 3 600s and a 650 before my 1k.

[Degsy]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.337 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Tiered licencing will never be a reality in the usa. The smallest bike harley sells is 883CC. End of story. Who do you think is a major sponsor of the MSF? I tought a Harley Riders edge class this weekend and 4 of the students have new harleys waiting at home. 3 of them dropped the buell blasts we use in the class.