seruzawa

After all, sportbikes are the safest, right?



Maybe he took the "Eddie Griffin Safe Driver Course".



But, damm. Why do people have to do this? I feel sorry for the guy, but more for the family who have to suffer with this.



Maybe in the future the dealer will think twice about selling a bike that could have won GPs just a few years ago to a newbie..... yeah sure, you bet. I'll bet it won't be long until the lawyer start suing dealers for doing this. They sue for everything else.

__________________
"Make no mistake, Communism lost a big argument - one we know today as the 20th century."

josiandjames

This is not very surprising. In the '60s I worked for Carl Donelson in St. Louis putting new BSA's together. A kid would come in, buy a BSA Hornet and a week later the tow truck would bring it back, totalled. The kid would be dead. How to deal with this problem? Tiered licensing with engine size limits for novices.

Buzglyd

Many moons ago, a close friend of mine died on a motorcycle. He was riding a small displacement dual sport and wearing a full-face helmet. He rolled out of his driveway and at about 15 mph realized his kickstand was down. While leaning over to put up the stand, he veered toward the curb, bounced into it, and hit his head square onto a telephone poll. His necked snapped, and he was dead.



Two friends were once out exercising: one jogging, one riding a bike. A drunk driver mowed them both over. One died. The other is paralyzed.



Another friend was in the desert riding dirtbikes. He hit a berm at high speed and flipped off. His neck snapped on impact and he died. I spoke at his funeral.



When I was 30, I close friend of mine died of cancer. We used to ride motorcycles together...............................

The_AirHawk

The article didn't say anything about the actual cause of the crash. It very well might have been the same outcome on a beater '71 Honda CL100 (my own First Motorcycle).



There is nothing but the ominous tone of the article that implies the power of an R1 had anything to do with the death of the pilot, other than merely being the bike he died while riding. No estimated speeds, no mention of helmet-usage, no mention of alcohol or drugs, nothing to say whether or not an automobile forced him to evade ......(on a 1/2-hour-new moto he was not yet familiar with) in such a way that caused him to strike a curbing and sent him airborn into the utility pole at 35mph



The article also doesn't specify this was his first bike, either. Only the first ride on a new bike. At 26 years old, he might very well have had as much as 11-years of street-riding experience under his belt.



All that said, I'm sorry to read of this. I grieve for his family, and feel a sense of loss that another is unable to continue riding among us.



Godspeed, Anthony Thompson.

__________________
Parfois, on fait pas semblant
Sometimes, it's not pretend
Oderint Dum Metuant
Let them hate so long as they fear
политики предпочитают безоружных крестьян
Politicians Prefer Unarmed Peasants
Nothing to see here, Citizen. Move along now...

Buzglyd

Hey well logic never stopped the Safety Nazis before.

The_AirHawk

A moto-friend of mine related a story to me of his then-best-friend in college; who, upon noticing that it was about to storm - went outside the dorm to rollup the windows in his car. Moments after he left, there was a flash and thunderclap. Everybody commented on how close that one sounded, and wondered aloud about the building being struck by lightning (or one of the tall trees surrounding it).



After a few minutes, the rain started coming-down in earnest, and my friend wondered where his buddy was - the car was parked in front of the building. He looked outside, saw his friends car - and the fact that the windows were still down........ and that's when he noticed him laying on the sidewalk, dead. He'd been the path of least-resistance for that bolt of lightning that had frightened everyone.

__________________
Parfois, on fait pas semblant
Sometimes, it's not pretend
Oderint Dum Metuant
Let them hate so long as they fear
политики предпочитают безоружных крестьян
Politicians Prefer Unarmed Peasants
Nothing to see here, Citizen. Move along now...

Gritboy

Too much machine with too little experience. Sad, but them's the breaks.

Kreb_Cycle

Sure is too bad some young dude who wanted to ride died after buying a cool bike.

__________________
He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms—one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the thought police, the stability of the Party depended. - George Orwell _1984_

Aero_Doc

When I started to take lessons many yrs ago, the instructor had a poster on his wall with a quote from Wayne Gardner along the lines of emphasising that twisting the wrist is easy, but learning to stop a bike isnt; so leant how to control a bike at very slow speeds before learning how to ocntrol them at high speeds.



Here in Aust newbies can only get upto 250cc bikes for their first year before attempting to kill your self on a more accommodating machine.

__________________
Life is too short so ride with a smile

Aero_Doc

Sad life experiences - do you still ride?

__________________
Life is too short so ride with a smile