I fear for my mate!!

Hi everyone
i have a bit of a dillema and hope some of you can help.....i'l start at the beginning.

This time last year my mate(& next door neighbour)decided he wanted to get into bikes,so he purchased a verardero xl125.After riding this for 6/7 months he put in for his direct access test in january this year and passed.

From the 1st of march this year he has been riding a v,nice er6n the black & gold with some nice touches ie,carbon hugger,tail tidy,mini indys etc but over the last 2-1/2 months his riding (considering his very limited experience)has become somewhat erratic,by that i mean not making the best manovering decisions opening up in dodgy places(again by this i take into consideration he has only been riding 2minutes)another thing is when i open up for a 2 minute hoon,he is there trying to stay with me(i am 36 & have nearly 30yrs experience/he is 44 with less than 3 months on a big bike)it's almost like he thinks of it as a racewhere i am probably riding at 75% he must be riding to his max & beyond.

Now for the real dillemma,over the last few days he has got it into his head that he wants a cbr 600(and i feel maybe he thiks he'll be able to give me a run for my money on it)where as in reality nothing i feel would change apart from he'd have more top end power on the straights,(surely as a newbie 72bhp and a 130 top speed is more than enough?)also i think it may be a bit of a pose thing,don't get me wrong he's a top,top bloke but can be a bit vain at times and for this reason it could also be a (look at me)thing but the chances are he'l get more looks on his er6n with it's modifications than a cbr cos lets face it you've seen 1 you've seen em all.

Sorry to waffle on but my big fear is he's gonna be out there with very limited experience screwing the knackers off it left right and centre and if or maybe when something goes wrong he's gonna freeze,not know what to do and the outcome is anyones guess.

Now i know anybody on anything at anytime can come a cropper(had a few myself)but surely experience and what your riding count for a lot and my fear is little experience+powerful machine=potential disaster(especially how HE tries to ride.

Also as it was probably me who pushed him in the direction of bikes so i feel slightly responsible for his wellbeing,even though he's a grown man who can/does make his own decisions.

So there you have it....my question to you all is do i keep stum & let him get on with it or try to tell him it's a bad idea at the moment and that he should get another 12 months under his belt then see how he feels?only thing is i don't want to come across as a patronising preaching pillock.....please help

many thanks...robo.

[dizzyblonde]

a: hes a bloke
b: hes been riding a few months and is learning to push his limits
c: hes a big boy, hes going to have to find out fro himself

I usually find this sort of situation from the younger end of the riding scale. I've found no matter how i try to help/advise friends on riding it comes across as patronising, so sometimes I stay schtum. You have to let him go the course i'm afraid and just hint at things...hes older than you too, so telling him may cause offense.

Blokes, bikes, ego and testosterone are a funny mix, you don't find many burds that display these charachtoristics, they usually take the more subdued stance til they get really experienced.


maybe I'm just waffling again

[tigersaw]

Maybe get him on a track day, for experience and the chance to explore his limits in a safer enviroment? A few years ago I helped/nursed a friend through from a cage driver to passing his test, now after 3 years he's a far better rider than I am after 30, in fact I watch him for guidance, so your mate may well turn out ok.

I used to be like this when I started biking, albeit I was 24 but still thrashing the tits off every bike in a straight line and wobbling round corners. Lucky for me I had a huge accident (which wasn't actually my fault) which I survived and realised that I had to learn to ride rather than act a tit everywhere. Not sure what you can do to avoid this situation as all I wanted to do was keep up with my much more experienced mate (wh also rode a much better bike than me) to prove something. I think Bikesafe is a good option and some advanced training with an instructor would be worth its weight in gold as well. The only other thing to do is when you go out with him slow right down but take him on twisty roads and explain you are trying to build up his roadcraft? Just some ideas.

[fizzwheel]

How is he going to react if you talk to him ? is he likely to listen or is he likely to dig his heels in and get the CBR ?

Its my experience that most people dont take kindly to riding critique even from close mates.

Has he actually asked for your opinion, if not I'd wait till he does and then be honest with him about what you think and why. Sounds like the issue here isnt the bike though, sounds like the issue is in the riders head.

why dont you say something like, you have been talking to people on the forum and a lot have mentioned IAM and Rospa. Tell him you are looking into it and does he fancy going along with you.

Bear in mind that many new riders jump straight on to sports bikes and not all of them come a cropper, and after a few miles and brown trouser moments, realise that the bike is quite scary (I've seen someone wobbling around on a track day on a blade at ridiculously low speeds, to the point where other riders were queued up behind them with both feet down and drumming their fingers, waiting for the por sod to go round a corner). And most people don't ride their bike to it's full capability.

So, as far as the pose thing goes, is that his problem or yours? And is he really in a postion to buy it, or is he just thinknig about it?

And as others have said, what oher training can he do? There's lots of stuff - IAM, bikesafe, more riding school training, track tuition etc. Might be good to suggest to him that he can get a lot more out of his existing bike before he trades up.

[quote=CoolGirl;1513261. Might be good to suggest to him that he can get a lot more out of his existing bike before he trades up.[/quote]
Yep,in a roundabout kind of way thats what ive been trying to do,but like i say i don't want to sound patronising,at the end of the day he will make his own decision.
All i'm trying to do as a mate and experienced biker is to guide him,ive had the thrills and unfortunately a couple of miners and one near fatal spill so i would hope that i would know what i'm on about,even others who we ride out with have their concerns.
Maybe he needs a bit of a scare to get a reality check who knows.

Anyway...thanks all.