My neighbor and his first bike… - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

DrBob · 04-24-2009, 03:46 PM

One of my neighbors is a good looking, professional African-American with a ‘Born Again Christian” plate on the front of his Ranger. Nice guy, very polite, always eyes my motorcycles as he goes in and out of the drive.

The other day he came up to me and told me he had just purchased his very fist motorcycle, and wanted to know if I could sort of explain the controls to him when it was delivered, as he had never touched a motorcycle before. He had pics on his camera phone, a Suzuki Katana in “arrest me red” with graphics.

I was friendly and polite, thinking “Why the hell would you buy a motorcycle if you don’t have the slightest clue if you like them or not?”, and also “Nothing good can come from showing him how to operate the bike, as he will just try and ride it and probably get hurt.” Oh well, his choice, and at least he did not get a ‘busa for a first bike. He did sign up for the safety course, to start in two weeks. OK, so he is not a total fool, just overanxious to get on two wheels. I can relate.

A couple days later I came home from work and it was sitting in the drive, having been delivered by the dealer (in GA they have to deliver the bike on a trailer if you do not have a motorcycle endorsement). It certainly was flashy, in perfect shape, only about 1000 miles on it, with a custom seat, ISO grips, and lots of ‘bling’ from the original owner. The graphics are a wrap, not paint, which turns out to be a good thing. All in all it is a nice looking bike, pretty comfortable, and certainly more mild mannered than a GSXR..

Two days later the right side is scratch up, the turn signal shattered, and the mirror busted. He started it up in the drive, flipped up the side stand, and was making ‘vroom vroom’ with the throttle when he accidentally popped the shifter down into 1st. The bike shot out from under him, dumping him on his butt, them fell over onto its right side and skidded down the drive. Ouch.

He is clearly heartbroken, and swears he will not touch it again until he takes the MSF course. I tell him the name of a good shop; he drops my name and they hook him up with the parts he needs at a discount, and even find the graphic wrap he needs to fix the plastics.

Two days after that I notice the bike is not in the drive anymore. Hmmm…must be at the shop getting the graphics repairs.

Nope.

Someone stole the bike the night before. He just noticed, and the cops had not yet arrived. The cop is absolutely flabbergasted that my $20,000 Harley, antique shovelhead, SV650, and Intruder 800 are sitting 20 feet away, untouched for the 4 years I have lived here, but this guy’s sportbike vanished after 4 days. I jokingly tell them to watch EBAY and see if the bike or those fancy graphic-wrapped plastics come up for sale, as clearly the thief was targeting a sportbike with fairings or he would have taken my SV650 also.

So anyways, that is the sum total of my neighbor’s experience with motorcycles: 1 week of ownership, 1 wreck, 1 stolen bike, and probably 18 inches of riding.

Bummer.

As a ray of hope, an officer was riding around and got a LoJack signal from a farmhouse last weekend. They raid the place, and find a chop shop. 12 complete sportbikes and 6 others in various stages of disassembly sitting in the garage: the guy is buying stolen sportbikes from the Decatur/ South Atlanta area and selling them as parts on EBAY. I told my neighbor, who is going to call the cops and the insurance company so they can check and see if his pretty red Katana is one of the recovered bikes. I sure hope it is.