Posted On: June 22, 2005, 8:46 am CDT

Posted By: Rob

As a rider with 30 years of experience it amazes me that a kid with a motorcycle learner's permit can walk into a motorcycle shop, point to the latest 1200cc race-bike-with-street-legal-rating, say "I want that", and have a dealer actually sell him one, toss him the key and say "Y'all be careful now". First bike, something capable of nudging 200 MPH? First gear easily exceeding 60 mph in a heartbeat? No wonder they crash. And, lots of them die.

It does not suprise me that these "crotch-rockets" are the most crashed motorcycles, that the insurance is the highest, and that these things are stolen more than anything else. The industy advertising is shameless promotion of speed, speed, speed. These are testosterone strokers, nothing else. I took a GSX out for a spin, hit 150 mph on the on-ramp to the highway, and decided that it really had no purpose in my life. Kids, wife, and awareness of mortality won out over advertising numbers on a web site. Now, if I only had daily access to a race track.....no SUV's to dodge. :)

What the motorcycle industry needs is a concience. ("Hey Dad, it's only a 600cc bike" , never mentioning that Pops is about to put his kid on a bike capable of 140MPH!!) And maybe the riding community needs to think about classes of licenses to allow new riders to "grow into" these rocket bikes. Being a conservative I cringe when I suggest these things, but the industry needs to be given a dope-slap to save our kids lives! They are only doing what the market demands, yet somebody, anybody, needs to get things under control. Enough is enough.