So I was out for a cruise down my favorite twistie this afternoon when I noticed a sportbike had all of a sudden appeared right on my tail (BTW,the road I was on has severe curves and elevation changes). He must have been going at least 100mph before he had to slow down behind me. As we approached an uphill right hander he full throttled it and passed me. Just after he past me I could hear his rear tire losing contact with the road. I started to slow down and while doing so he totally lost control of his bike and was thrown off of it into the side of a rocky hill. His bike flipped and broke into many pieces just missing my car. I must say the MINI performed great in this emergency situation and allowed me to avoid the bike as well as traffic from the rear that apparantly didn't no what was going on. Anyway, watch out for these guys on sportbikes, they are so fast ,sometimes they can seem to just appear out of the blue and use your car as part of thier obstacle course.

 

Was the guy on the bike OK?

 

Oh sorry,
I did stop to check it out. He seemed okay but I think he was fronting a bit due to his embarrassment.

 

I'm glad you're both OK!

 

Sounds like another case where the bike outperformed the rider. People really need to realize that just because they can afford a fast bike doesn't mean they should buy one.

 

faster the better. gods way of weeding out the idiots.

 

I ride a sportbike (not like THAT) and have to admit that we have a bad reputation.

Sort of comes from that anybody with a minimum wage job can afford a bike that can outperform just about any car this side of F1.

Sadly, 90% of the riders cannot.

 

Thank you for the greatest statement I've heard in a while. Last Sunday, some F'ing tool went past my work, which is on a busy 4 lane highway, on a crotch rocket doing at least 120. I saw him for maybe half a second in front of my building. Later that week, I think I saw the same guy fly around a turn and start tailgating some SUV in front of him. If that was me in that SUV, I would brake checked him and been peeling biker off my truck for a week.

 

My Dad used to own a Honda dealership, and as a salemen he always used to advise first time riders to buy the 500 or 600 cc sportbike versus the 1000 or 1100. Not many listened to him and he even saw a few drop the bike or crash before making it a mile from the dealership. Some people don't learn...

 

What a horror story! You were so lucky not to be hit and the biker dude was soooo lucky to be breathing.

 

Making a bad situation worse or just blowing smoke?

 

And the sad thing is, even a 600cc sportbike is incredibly, stupidly fast. Look at the new GSXR-600 - 123 horsepower and a top speed in the neighborhood of 160+ MPH. Doesn't take much for that kind of power to get out of hand.

And along the same lines, when did a 600 become a "small" bike, anyway? I remember when you had a lot of choices in the 250-500cc range, but except for a few long-running "legacy" models, everything seems to start at 600cc and go up from there.

 

oh man sounds like a close one, glad your okay

 

Not too long ago a sport bike in Ft. Lauderdale was racing down a well travelled road, hit a car pulling out of a shopping center. Flipped the car and killed the driver of the car not the bike.

 

There are a few sub-600s out there but not too many in the US. manufacturers focus on 600s and 1000s because those are the two sizes used in most pro racing.

If there was ever a "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" marketing strategy going on, it's in motorcycle racing.