HEEEEELLLLP! <forehead slap>

[jtemple]

My mother is unbeliveable. She wants a bike.

She has lots of passenger experience (starting from before I was born) on a bike. So, that's not a problem.

She has been considering a sportbike. I tried and tried to steer her toward beginner-friendly bikes. What does she want? A Hayabusa.


Why? I don't know. I had her going toward something easier to ride, like a smaller cruiser, or the Ninja 250. Last night, she emails me, and again, has to have a Hayabusa. Here's what I said to her:

I forbid you to get a Hayabusa. They are about as far away from a beginner bike as you can get. Bad, very bad idea. You do not need a 200HP bike to have fun.

A 50HP bike can out-accelerate any car on the road and go faster than 100 mph. My first bike had 68HP and would do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, was powerful enough to pull the front wheel off the ground, and had a top speed of about 130MPH.

A 200HP bike is very unforgiving toward common mistakes that new riders make. Something as simple as a manhole cover, or a freshly painted crosswalk, and one twitch of the throttle will make you wreck.

Now, will she actually go through with it and get a Hayabusa anyway? I don't know. The way she is, she might never get any bike. But geez, I swear I'm talking to a brick wall.