Need some advice. Selling a bike to a friend who's never really ridden

So, I have a buddy who's never really ridden, and he wants to buy my 600 for street riding. We all know how dangerous the streets are and how fast 600's are, so when he said he was serious about buying it, I immediately started to feel this immense pressure to discourage him. I asked him if he was going to buy one regardless of whether it was from me or not, and he said yes. So part of me says there isn't a whole lot I can do, but the other part of me says that as a friend, I have a duty to him and his family to try to talk him out of it, as he's never really ridden.

I mean, is it any of my business? Am I over stepping my bounds as a friend? I'm torn here.....

 

Can you make the sale conditional to him completing a MSF course? If you're not really hurting for money, maybe make it an incentive by knocking off a few dollars if he does.

 

Tell him to at least complete the MSF first...and then buy him a track day.

 

If your gut is telling you something, listen to it. Nothing worse than having to live with something that you could have prevented.

 

Let him ride

 

A 250 can kill him just as easily as a 600 can on the street. If he has a head on him, a 600 will be fine. If he's a complete moron, he could even manage to kill himself on a 49cc Vespa.

Selling it upon completion of the MSF course isn't a bad idea though.

 

Not the same sitution but I felt the same way last year selling my Mustang. I had so many 18-24 year old "kids" come and look at it... I never budged on the price with them. I could just see them and the car wrapped around a telephone pole. Ended up selling it to a 62 year old guy who quit smoking and his wife bought it for him for quiting(he always wanted one she said) I moved on the price for them.
No price for peace of mind...

I agree with the above safety course can only help him... If he doesn't have it or won't take it that should tell u all u need to know...

Ride safe,
AAron

 

A good buddy of mine who also never rode before and who's married with two little kids wanted to buy a GSXR-750 I was selling, to ride on the street. I tried to discourage him, and finally sold it to a track day guy before he got really serious about it. I just didn't feel right about it. No way I wanted him killing himself on the street on a bike he bought from me.

None of my business for sure, and wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference if he ended up getting something similar form someone else (he ended up buying a Vino scoot ) but I sure did feel better about it. Just my $.02

 

stop being his mother. or if your friend is that stupid, why you hanging out with stupid people?

 

Not necessarily stupidity. Ignorance, sure. I think pretty much everyone who has never ridden a motorcycle has absolutely no freakin clue just how quickly you can get yourself into trouble and over your head on even a SV650. They think it's gonna be about as powerful as the 88 Mustang with flowmasters and a chip they had in high school, just with 2 less wheels. I let a guy I work with who has probably over 100k miles on his Goldwing take my TL1000s out for a spin. When he came back his face was literally white as a sheet. "That thing should be illegal!" or something to that end was his comment.

I would guess that time to crash from 0 miles for a brand new rider on, say a '05 ZX10r would be roughly 600 miles at best.

 

If i was really selling it to a 'friend'. who I like very much and would hate to see him dead or hurt in a wreck...
then I probably would be close to their family etc and I won't sell it to him...because I don't want to be the cause of all this and end up getting blamed.

"you sold him the bike " kinda deal.

if he's just another friend...then sure, sell it to him.

 

Clearly you've never had or have been a true friend. I base this solely on your stupid ass comment.

 

...

Then you should really look at this then..

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+live+a+guilt+free+life

 

clearly i let my grown-ass men friends wear big boy pants and make their own decisions. you wipe your friend's chin's with a bib after airplane feeding them mashed up greenbeans too?

 

Knowing nothing at all about your friend it's impossible to say. I can say that assuming you can somehow control a man's future is not very realistic. The question here is not about your friend at all, it's about your conscience. Only you can answer that, not us.

 

I made this mistake in 1977. Helped a co-worker's brother find a first bike, a Suzuki GS 450. The co-worker told me that the kid was too stupid and irresponsible to own a bike, I said he was determined to buy one, and at least I could make sure he got a reasonably sedate bike with good chassis and brakes.

The kid got the bike on a Saturday. His funeral was the following Friday. I was told specifically not to show up. The co-worker changed jobs because he couldn't be near me without wanting to kill me.

Sometimes you just gotta get distance. I would let the friend go find his own bike and tell him that you care about him and encourage him to learn responsibly.

I got a call while I was writing this, a young man I know just bought a GSXR600, despite me spending a half hour last evening telling him not to buy such a fast bike. He promised me he would take the MSF course and buy good gear before he rides it a foot. Now I'm praying that I don't hear about another funeral this week.

This is the part about being in the motorcycle business that I hate.

 

I have 2 cents, can I play?
Good post. Your heart is in the right place. (No need to justify a feeling of concern for a friend....Especially concerning motorcycles!)
Depending on how committed you are to the friendship, take the MSF class with him (I did this with a bunch of novice friends a couple of years ago & had a great time). After the class, if you still feel okay about the deal, sell him the bike, then go ride together.
It's a lot of "hand-holding", but if you pull the plug on the deal at least you were involved enough to justify saying no.
(Always listen to your spidey-sense!)

 

Back in 2004 I bought a new R6 (it was my second bike and I had been riding for a couple years at that point). Had it for two years until I saw the 50th Anniversary R1 and had to have it. My older brother (only by 1 year) had never ridden a bike before, other than tooling around parking lots on my previous bikes. He decided he wanted to by my 04 R6 from me. I wrestled with the same thoughts as a lot of you, but realized that one way or another he was going to buy a bike at that point. I told him he had to take the MSF course first and then for a month he could only ride with me, so I could see he wasn't being stupid. After every ride we would sit down and talk about anything that happened on the street and what he did or didn't do to be as safe as possible. In the end we enjoyed riding together for 4 years until he had his baby and decided to stop riding. All that being said, the day he sold his bike without major incident in those four years was a happy day for me.