Some of you may remember me others may not but i want to share something with you.

This story is a bit overdue but i wanted to share it with the people that visit where i started.

I don't really know where to start so i am going to just jump in.  Late September this kid i worked with died on his motorcycle.   First bike less than 2 months experience.  He rode an 06 R6.  At first i was like sweet somebody to go riding with then i spoke with him about riding and saw him ride just out of the parking lot of work. I instantly thought he was a new rider, and later confirmed it when i spoke to him the next day. But anywaysi decided to not ride with him ever.  Its one of my rules, don't ride with people that you think will take you out.    I told another guy that i work with that this guy was going to kill himself or severely injure himself on his bike 2 weeks before his accident that claimed his life.  We made some jokes about it along the lines of can i take a life insurance policy out on you.  I was very close to telling him "I am going to save your life,  sell your bike and grow up a bit before you ride again."  I didn't say anything because i didn't want him to take offense to it.  I highly regret this decision.  But yeah last time i saw him i said later and enjoy the weekend (there was a motorcycle festival going on for the week).  Only to come back to work on Monday  to find out he was dead.  He went into a turn too fast and couldn't hold a line and drifted into oncoming traffic.  Fortunately he didn't take anybody out with him or hurt anybody else.  That monday and following few days were the hardest day i have ever gone through.  Just thinking of what if i had said something to him about his bike, his skill, his matureity, mentality... would he still be here?   He is the 4th person i know to have passed while riding in the  6 years i have been riding and i don't want to see any more.

Jason Fava
01/16/87 09/28/06

Well there it is, nice and short.
Stay safe out there and let others know your thoughts about their riding,  it may save their life.


Thanks for your time,

Mat

 

Sorry to hear about that.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings.  I will keep that in mind next time I'm in a similar situation.  Don't feel bad about anything you did, or didn't do.  Unfortunatley, all we can do is give information and encourage people to make the right choices.  If your co-worker bought that bike, then he felt he could control it.  If you had told him it was too sell it, he'd have flipped out on you.  No good would have come of it, so you made the right choice.  It's sad that our society feels the need to scratch the SuperSport and SuperBike itch on the street.  This sets the wrong example for future riders.  I know smart, dumb, mature, and immature people who have rationalized a supersport as a first bike.     I just hope for the best, and like you, don't ride with them.

Very nice post Mat. Having something like that on your conscience is unbelievably rough; but I'm sure NO part of your coworker's misfortune was your fault. It really just is a sad reality of the motorcycle community that you've witnessed time and time again.

Believe me I know it can be hard to reach some new riders about safety and skill. ESPECIALLY any new rider whe goes out and buys him/herself a SS bike. Unfortunatly it seems that the bike boosts their egoes SO much, that everything is bound to come crashing down.

You could have told him what you meant to say; and he probably would have thrown it back down your throat. He could have gotten pissed off at you, ridden dumber out of spite and killed himself that very same evening. There's really no way at all of knowing; so it's not worth beating yourself up about. New riders act ignorant and invincible. It's hard to explain, but I was sort of the same way when I got the GS. I didnt know anyone else who rode; I hardly talked to any riders at all, but I still thought it was OK to swerve through traffic on the highway, without a helmet or ANY gear for that matter. It was just plain ignorance. Only with time and the information on various internet forums did I learn the reality of riding; such as road rash, paralyzation, and the fact that your head explodes like a watermelon when it hits something.

I used to work with a kid that had only been riding for about 2 months on his '84 Interceptor 500. I asked him how much HP the thing makes & he said somewhere in the mid-nineties. I talked with him a bit and found out that two years before that he had gone down at 50 mph racing a Harley or some crap. His front washed out from under him, but luckily he ended up in the grass and not a tree. It took him 2 years to get the nerve to fix the bike and get back on it. When we talked he had had the bike back for like 3 days.

Of course I wouldnt ride with him. However, I think only because he actually had gone down before for acting like a dumbass, he had seen the consequences of his actions and was ready to really learn how to ride. All I did for him then was tell him to check out some various internet forums like www.sportbikes.net and READ THE STICKIES. I also couldnt emphasize enough the importance of GEAR and pointed him to some sites like www.newenough.com.

I did run into him a few times while riding around town, but it was always in a helmet, hoodie, jeans, and sneakers. No gloves or even mesh anywhere. If I'm gonna take somebody into the twisties where I ride, then need to have already made the big step up in riding...

...because I dont want that on my conscience either.

The kid was 19 and had bought a brand new 600cc supersport (incidentally, the one that makes the most power, despite everything being in the very highest part of the rev range). It is highly unlikely he would have paid any attention to what you said to him regarding his safety and riding, and would have either completely ignored what you said, or pretended to listen and continue doing whatever he wants to.

There is/was a kid here at my apartment complex who bought a brand new R6S. I told him he should wear his gear all the time and to take a safety course and get his license. I never saw him once wear a helmet, pants, or even shoes. I highly doubt he ever got his license or insurance, much less took the MSF course. I haven't seen the bike in a month or two, nor have I seen him.

Like Apha said... I wouldn't put too much strss on yourself about it.  It's more than likely the response would have been "yeah, whatever... I bet my bike will smoke yours" if you had said something to him.  My brother was the same way until he went down harder than Jenna Jameson.  Fortunately he's still with me but he just didn't listen.  A bunch of his little buddies are the exact same way and just laughed at him when he dumped his FZ6.  Now they're all on thier 750 gixxers and riding like morons, burnouts at intersections, wheelies that they can't control ect.  Those kind of riders(the ones who start immature) will remain that way until they go down because they don't respect thier bikes and there's little or nothing you can do about it.

I had a coworker die earlier this year. He was an experienced road racer and very experienced rider. He too drifted into on comming traffic and hit a truck at over 100 mph. The affliction isn't just for the young and inexperienced. Year before last I tagged the bumper of a car OK it was a stand still speed. Last year I almost dumped the yamaha in a grassy ditch ... OK in my defence I wanted to make a U turn and what I thought was road was actually leaves and the damn yamaha just slid 90 degrees under power and brakes and power were both useless. I somehow powered myself down hill at the bottom of the dithc and slowly climbed up the other side, ended up on graven and got back to the road.
Cool.
Srinath.

Starting out stating that you are concerned for their safety should get them to, at least, start to listen.

It's not your fault.  He sounds like he might have been a Darwin nominee.

good to see you around these parts again Mat with one t....

Life is full of 'what if' moments. As you get older your life will fill with more and more weighty regrets. The key is to learn from it and next time not hesitate to reach out to a new rider or a rider in obvious need. I agree that he wasnt likely to listen, and then thats pretty much all you can do is put it out there. what they do with the info has nothing to do with you.

RIP your co-worker...and his family.

dont even sit on it for one min.  im new to riding and if it wasnt for this site and all the advice from everyone i would done the whole "yeah yeah at least my bike can smoke your" curse at you and walk away   but im glad that i have people who have been riding longer than i have to talk to and ask questions. my moms sister died on a bike, the driver lost control and she was thrown from the bike was in the hospitol for about 1 month till she died so its hard enough to get my mon to let me get a bike but she knows im old enough to make my own decisions and i really wanna get one, I also wanna try to calm her nervse a bit by trying to learn as much saftey tips as i can also wanna take a class.

This thread touches me. I live in Orlando, FL which is probably squid capital of the world behind LA or some Cali city.

I see about a dozen riders a day. In about one year of riding I've only seen maybe three or four with full gear. 90% of the riders are helmet t-shirt and flip flops.

I tried to join a local meetup.com group for Orlando Cycle Riders (OCR). I was really open minded and I didn't go in with any judgements. It didn't take long to realize it was full of squids. Various threads about busa vs ZX-14 or whatever it is. Drag race meet ups. A left a few weeks later.

Don't blame yourself when other people choose not to take the proper safety pre-cautions and wind up dead. All you can do is try to help them and try to get them to wear gear, take MSF, and set the example. If they don't, it's not your fault.

RIP your co-worker.

... I did not post this on here but it seems this is the thread to do it on. I work at Cycle Gear and almost every day sometimes more than 5+ people come in, usually young or inexperienced riders. I don't think the curve for this has changed over the years but it has gotten worse recently with bikes going faster. They come in, new bike 6K+ spend as little and I mean like 150-300 max on gear if you can convince them they need protection... don't take an MSF, don't listen to any reason what so ever... I was leaving work Saturday, it was raining lightly out all day but was starting to dry up. Guy comes in, makes a b-line for me, and strikes up a conversation. First thing he says, his brother just died on a bike two weeks ago and his wife wanted all the motorcycles gone, turns out his brother was a racer of some type and had a malfunction on the street... He asks me to go outside and look at the bike his sister in law gave him...  2002 R1 extended swing arm, TURBO  , and if you can believe it nitrous... I asked him if he ever rode before, not seeing a jacket, helmet, gloves ect. on him or on the bike. Nope... just around the block two or three times "i'll never take it over 50 or on the highway" Ever take an MSF... No. I politely asked him to take a serious look at leaving the R1 at the store and get a ride home, take the MSF next week then decide if you still want to ride. He gave me the "natural" speech and I told him that I thought I was going to be the "one" also until my low side. We walk inside, I was starting to get a feel for him, he was pretty nice, we started to talk about gear and he told me the helmets were to expensive, jackets to hot, gloves were ok but not what he wanted... I offered him 25% off if he would get at least a helmet of some type, jacket and gloves which he would need for the MSF. Nope. Well he said good bye and walked to the bike, started it up and rode off. I got off 25min later.. Headed my usual route home, 41 south.... On the left side of the road in the middle of 3 lanes of traffic stopped I see someone giving CPR to a guy laying in the street... I initially thought it was a cyclist who had been hit by a car, NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION TO TRAFFIC SIGNALS HERE!!! but then I saw the bike, recognized the guy laying in the street... I never got his name, I justified continuing home as it looked like he was being helped to the best of his ability. It may not have been his fault but if he had gotten at least a $50.00 MR2... SOMETHING... it may have helped. I have been beating myself up for just driving by over the past few days. Its hard to talk to people every day that take no consideration to logic, safety, anything when you have at least some appropriate ability to assist but thats the way it is. I wish we could take the keys away from people we know will do harm to themselves on a bike until they get training or stop being stupid but we cant. I understand some of what your going through... Don't look to far into it, if any lesson can be learned its to do everything possible short of breaking the law or an inalienable right. Ride safe and please dont let this discourage you from continuing to ride...

Wow, people don't understand how fast some bikes are and how fragile life is!

Untill this morning i forgot to mention another very important piece of info.  He was riding with a few of his friends.  Not sure, but its my hunch that they were moving at a pace well beyond his level and he was trying to keep up.   If thats the case those were some real good friends...

I took this as a big lesson learned, I could really care less of what they (being the new rider) think of me for telling them my thoughts.  I would just hope that if i ever run into another 'kid' like jason that they would listen to my story and take a step back from their ego or whatever is driving them, and look around.

People like Jason do deserve to go down but death should not be that first step in learning.

Yeah man, there's really no reason to dwell on it.  Sure it sucks but you end up what-if-ing yourself to death.  Just remember the only thing you'll need to know about the word IF... IF your Aunt had nuts, She'd be your Unkle.