want a 600cc SS bike for a first bike?

[OreoGaborio]

Originally Posted by umairhashmi

I try to avoid that but most kids who walk in looking for a 1k,busa or zx14 have already made up their minds so they dont listen so i just end up giving it to them. I think its a great way of controlling the overpopulation crisis

Ya gotta explain it in terms they'll understand, like HP to Weight ratio. (most people know that kinda stuff from drag racing and if they don't it's an easy enough concept for them to grasp w/ a little explanation.)

Ask them to name a really fast car.... Typically they'll name a car that weighs probably 2500 lbs and has about 500 hp or so..... If they don't pick something that sounds like that, pick a car for them that does :P

Then tell em that car, at 500hp and 2500lbs has roughly 5lbs per hp....

Then tell em that your average literbike puts out almost 200hp (at the crank.... makes more of an impact than RWHP) & weighs about 400lbs (without them on it, but don't tell them that ) which translates to only 2lbs per hp... More than twice as much hp per pound than their supercar and probably 10 times as difficult to control since it takes a completely different set of skills to operate.

Does that sound like something that's safe to learn on?

That usually puts things in perspective for them and it worked like a charm for me this past weekend when I had a kid in my MSF class tell me he wanted a CBR1k.... he's now looking at older used 600's or 650 twins.

The next day he said he walked into a dealership & the salesman tried talking him into a ZX14 even after he told him it would be his first bike... he said he won't be going back there anytime soon.