Selling Bikes to New Riders.

[BumbleB]

There is no education/experience requirement to sell a bike. I say the best strategy is, as mentioned in previous posts, talk a bit about the bike and be as clear as possible about its power. Otherwise, we are all adults and have to accept our own responsibility.

Sell on.

[DoubleEagle]

I do wonder about someone who has never ridden a bike going to a Dealership and wanting to buy a new let's say "
Super Bike ."

Usually if they are young the Insurance is prohibitive but there are a lot of rich kids and high Insurance costs won't deter them .

Some Insurance Companies won't write certain light weight /high horse power  bikes , especially to the younger riders.

Back to the situation at the Dealer level.

So I come in and let's say I've never ridden but I want that Bayliss Replica 1198 R 'cause I like the way it looks and I can afford it.

You are the Sales person , you would love to sell that bike but how do you handle that sale ?

Do you send me out on a Scooter after you explain how the Scooter operates  ?

I want to ride my purchase home.

Just because I manage to ride the Scooter around the block do you sell the Bayliss Replica for $42,995( plus any tax and fees) to me and hope by some miracle I manage to get it home , even if I only live 5 miles away ?

To me , that would be a very hard sale . Sure since it's a Bayliss Rep. the Dealer would offer to deliver it from a financial perspective.

Let's say I want a 696 used. Now the Dealer doesn't have the same kind of shall we say " financial " incentive to offer to deliver it plus it isn't a potent Super bike .

I'm going to ask my friend who is a Salesman at a Dealership how this scenario is /would be handled by him.

A different angle , but sort of the same thing from a moral stand point.

Dolph       

[Privateer]

I do wonder about someone who has never ridden a bike going to a Dealership and wanting to buy a new let's say "
Super Bike ."

I'm curious how it would be handled by a car dealership factoring in the same power characteristics.  If a 20 year old kid walked into Saleen and asked for a S7, and plopped down a cashier's check, would they sell it?

[Scottish]

When I sold my 1984 Suzuki GS1150 I put a line in the ad that read:  "This bike is NOT for a new rider, nor for a timid rider."  Fact is, that back was stupid fast and stable in a straight light.  Turned on considering the technology, but it took a little finesse to walk that nearly 600lb machine through a tight corner and any speed.  The brakes were way inadequate for the engine.

JM

83 GS110e was MY first street bike... loved that thing, great power. I also wrecked it half a dozen times.

[JBubble]

I do wonder about someone who has never ridden a bike going to a Dealership and wanting to buy a new let's say "
Super Bike ."

I know of a dealership that sold a 1098R and a 1098S to a couple that had never ridden before. One of the bikes was back in the shop pretty soon afterwards getting new fairings.

[Privateer]

I know of a dealership that sold a 1098R and a 1098S to a couple that had never ridden before. One of the bikes was back in the shop pretty soon afterwards getting new fairings.

we know it happens with bikes, I'm wondering if it happens with cars that go 0-60 in 3sec, 200mph?

[JBubble]

we know it happens with bikes, I'm wondering if it happens with cars that go 0-60 in 3sec, 200mph?

I should have quoted Dolph's post and not yours to be clear that I was just adding to your obvious knowledge of what bike dealerships do. I've fixed the post.

[Popeye the Sailor]

we know it happens with bikes, I'm wondering if it happens with cars that go 0-60 in 3sec, 200mph?

They wreck those too. Except typically the car has built in safety equipment, so they survive. C'mon-who did you know in high school who had a fast car? A bunch of guys, no doubt, and I have no doubts one of 'em wrecked in a spectacular fashion.

[DoubleEagle]

As far as cars go, when I was 18 , there was a rich kid who got a new '69 Trans Am for his 16th birthday. His Father bought it for him.

Another guy whom I used to ride w, got a new '64 Sting Ray Corvette for his 16th birthday.  His Father bought the car for him.

 He still has it.

I've been at MAG in Dublin , Ohio  many times. They sell ( Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Maserati, Aston Martin, Audi, Mini Cooper, Range Rover, Saleen, VW, and Saab ).

I've seen some very young looking boys ( men ) buying most of the more Exotic of those brands .

If they have the $$$$$$ , they can buy what ever is for sale.

Dolph     

 

[Privateer]

They wreck those too. Except typically the car has built in safety equipment, so they survive.

yeah, that's a pretty good point.


It's one of those things that gets a lot of press around here.  The local paper is decidedly anti-motorcycle and has run statements like "sportbikes are replicas of racing motorcycles and require no special training to operate."  Hey, guess what, fast cars take no special training to operate either.


So should the dealers and manufacturers take steps to solve the problem before government does?  Seems like all I've been hearing lately is how motorcycle fatalities have risen over the last couple years.  California DMV had a half-hearted attempt to raise driver awareness of motorcycles, but has seemed to have zero effect.

Until someone shows some leadership and decides it's ridiculous to sell a superbike to a noob, the problem will only get worse and soon we'll have tiered licensing.

[Special K]

I'm not crazy about a tiered system like Europe but it's also not the worst idea.

If you have a valid motorcycle endorsement does a dealer really have a responsibility beyond warning of the dangers? Obviously they want you to survive to need their service and more bike sales in the future but it's the riders responsibility to ride safely and on something they can handle.

My question to dealers is; is it even required to have a license to buy a motorcycle? It must not be here in Jersey because I took the MSF class with some punk who already had a Triumph 675, a suspended car license, had just wrecked his sports car and wanted to know where the nearest stunt riding school was. What this kid's father was thinking is a mystery as he was the one who had to drive his son to the MSF class. I think natural selection will take of this kid breeding more stupid people.

[Popeye the Sailor]

There is no license requirement. I bought my motorcycle without one.


Nor should there necessarily be-I mean-what if my wife had no endorsement and wanted to buy me a brand new BMW GS? I would hate it if she couldn't.

[mcgalinmd]

Had a female student in our MSF class show up stating she had "wrecked her R6 - 3 or 4 times" doing slow speed stuff.  Thankfully not in a curve.  She was absolutely petrified of the bike, and was taking riding "pointers" from the salesmen at the dealership.  After discussing with her what a motorcycle for newer riders with limited skills should be - and shouldn't be - she proceeded to bring it back to the dealer and trade it in for a Ninja 250.  She now LOVES to ride.
To this day, the salesman at the dealership still says to me when I walk in to get parts for our training bikes: "boy, we just couldn't make that bike work for her".....no dork, you were looking for the $$$$, not what was good for the rider.

I'll NEVER buy a bike from that dealership and I don't offer their name to any students that ask me about purchasing bikes once the class has completed and they've passed.  Any dealership and salesman with an ounce of integrity would have talked to the person and figured out their skill level.  An R6 or most any 600cc sportbike is not a beginner or novice bike IMHO.

[Goat_Herder]

I'll NEVER buy a bike from that dealership and I don't offer their name to any students that ask me about purchasing bikes once the class has completed and they've passed.  Any dealership and salesman with an ounce of integrity would have talked to the person and figured out their skill level.  An R6 or most any 600cc sportbike is not a beginner or novice bike IMHO.

I would feel the same way.  Although the dealership can legal sell any bikes to anybody who can afford it and is licensed to ride, I think a dealership has the moral obligation not to sell (or recommend) some bikes to certain people.  The dealer, mentioned by mcgalinmd, did not do anything wrong by selling an R6 to a lady with limited experience.  But it would lose a lot of points in my book and make me less likely to do business with them in the future.  Just like that POS dealer from S Carolina who posted pics of himself riding with t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.  I have no respect for people like that.

[bluemoco]

My 19yo nephew wanted to buy an R1 for his first bike - and he didn't have a valid MC license yet.   He wanted the Liter bike because a 600 "won't have enough power."  

Fortunately, he got an insurance quote before he got serious about buying a bike...   IIRC, insurance for a Literbike would have cost him ~$250/month.

About 2 years later he still had not purchased a bike, but he wanted to ride his dad's ZRX and some other friends' bikes during the summer.  I offered to pay half of the cost of an MSF course for him, and he accepted my offer.  He passed the final riding test without a single point deduction.