So why cant you test ride a dirt bike?

Bill163
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USA
7/13/2010 9:03am
Hacienda Honda in LaPuente home of PK racing let my friend and I test ride a bike before he bought it in 1976 in the dirt lot next door around a big tree.
rallendude
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Adger, AL, USA
7/13/2010 9:17am
I had a small non-franchise bike shop several years ago. I was selling my '02 CRF450. It had a little work done to it. Some dude comes in and says, "can I test ride it?" I said, "you got money in hand?" He calls his girlfriend and says, "go in the bed room, look in my sock drawer and bring the cigar box down to the bike shop. DO NOT OPEN IT!"

I'm thinking, this is gonna be good. Meanwhile, his girl is driving to the shop and he's filling me full of how good a rider he is and how he's not sure it's enough bike for him. (Note: If you have to tell me how good a rider you are, your not good enough.)

His girl shows, he give me the money and I say, "have at it." He takes off down the side of the road, in shorts and t-shirt. I made him put on my spare helmet at the shop before he left. Front end two feet off the ground and back down in every gear, front wheel turned sideways, squirrelling all over the place.

He comes back and declares, "it'll do." I told my mechanic in the shop, "he'll have a broken leg in less than a month." Three weeks later my mechanic bought the bike off a friend of his. He said his buddy was laid up at home off work with a broken/dislocated knee.

Sometimes, you just know.
1
qdogg691
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Fairfield, IL, USA
7/13/2010 9:21am
The dealership I have worked for the last 15 years allows test ride on all our bike and atvs. If you are purchasing a sport bike you have to be approved and ready to buy before we allow it. The crazy thing is that we dont have you sign a waiver or anything and have never had any trouble. I did have a guy try to steal a R1 once but we caught him. It helps we are in the middle of nowhere. Now if somebody wee can is not serious and wants to ride a new ZX-10r its probably not gonna happen.
FGR01
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Fantasy
7/13/2010 9:27am
Sanchez wrote:
Some D7guys on here might remember Twigg Cycles out of Hagerstown, MD holding demo ride days in the mid-90's at the (now-defunct) Antietam MX track. It...
Some D7guys on here might remember Twigg Cycles out of Hagerstown, MD holding demo ride days in the mid-90's at the (now-defunct) Antietam MX track. It was only open to district racers and there was a release to sign...but it was awesome because the dealership carried all (the big-four) brands if I remember correctly, so you got to ride them all back to back.

I remember the bikes being liberally covered with clear tape, so I'm assuming the dealer sold them afterwards. Funny thing is that several people that'd show up to ride worked at competing dealerships at the time.

Yep, I did the Twigg demo ride at Antietam. Think I remember riding the 92 CR's there.

I know Honda used to have a demo program for street bikes and there would be a few select models at some dealers. I rode a few of them.

Victory has a really good demo program. They have a semi-truck that travels around the country to all their dealers. It has about 15 different bikes in it and you can ride them all.

I sold my pristine 99 CR250 to a guy that talked like he was an expert rider. About a week later I see him at the local practice track. He grabbed a handful across some wicked chop, went into some massive swapping and wiped out. Bike was all tweaked up. Saw the bike again about 6 months later and it was completely trashed.

Another buddy sold a bike to a guy that had never ridden. We saw him at the track soon after. He got out of control and shot into the woods and broke his leg. He did end up coming back and actually becoming a decent rider after that.

The Shop

Moto East Mag
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Location
Arlington, VA, USA
7/13/2010 12:42pm
Once this Italian guy showed up at my dealership and paid cash for a Yamie dual sport. I complete the sale, get it prepped and bring it up for him.
So I get off the bike and the guy jumps on with a smile. I think he is just checking the bike out. He starts it up for what I thought would be a little spin in the lot.
But no, he whips the bike around and before I could stop him, he takes off down the road with no helmet, no tag, no insurance, and I am pretty sure no license. Never returned my frantic calls.

Another guy buys a Katana sport bike and tells me he needs me to ride it home for him because he's inexperienced. No problem. But when he shows up to pick it up, his girl is with him so he wants to impress her and ride it home himself. I'm like "that's fine- it's your bike."
I watch him ride about forty feet down the hill from the shop before laying his brand new Katana down in a shower of sparks and broken plastic. Ouch.

qdogg691
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Location
Fairfield, IL, USA
7/13/2010 1:21pm
Atleast it was just a Can-of-tuna.lol
Sanchez
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Potomac, MD, USA
7/13/2010 1:58pm
LMAO at some of the shorts-and-sandles stories here. Sold plenty of those kind of 'tards sportbikes back in my dealership days. 90% of the time they'd never ridden anything at all and I'd see the same bikes coming back in on a flatbed within a week. More often than not we'd cross our fingers and pray they got off our lot first.



cdm806
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Locke, NY, USA
7/13/2010 2:01pm
Cygnus wrote:
Liability. The only MC company that allows test rides is HD. Oh KTM does ride days but you do not test the same bike you would...
Liability. The only MC company that allows test rides is HD. Oh KTM does ride days but you do not test the same bike you would buy Just the same models.
Not a dirt bike, but I test rode my VTX 1300 about 50 miles before I bought it. Definitely not a HD.
MickeyMeanie
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3/25/2008
Location
Frisco, TX, USA
7/13/2010 3:06pm
Cygnus wrote:
Liability. The only MC company that allows test rides is HD. Oh KTM does ride days but you do not test the same bike you would...
Liability. The only MC company that allows test rides is HD. Oh KTM does ride days but you do not test the same bike you would buy Just the same models.
cdm806 wrote:
Not a dirt bike, but I test rode my VTX 1300 about 50 miles before I bought it. Definitely not a HD.
Yep, I got to test ride a VTX1800 (beast of a bike), a Kawi Vulcan 2000 (another beast of a bike) and a Kawi Mean Streak... bought the Mean Streak. Of course I had/have a valid MC license and several years of riding experience.
Lightning78
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Huntington Beach, CA, USA
7/13/2010 3:35pm
A dealership sold a 2010 R6 to a kid that was a little "special" if you will, but coherent enough to function.........THIS guy had never ridden before in his LIFE and buys a freakin R6 ...the best part was that when we had that nasty set of storms back in January in Socal he decided he would learn in the rain how to ride so he rode over 30 miles a day in the rain on an R6 with zero experience for a week and made it without a crash......needless to say we were surprised .....then he comes back in and demands an R1 because he said the R6 was too slow......LOL

Wonder if he is still alive today.....its been 7 months and I havent worked there since march
7/13/2010 3:35pm
.Around here KTM has a ride day, as well as Kawasaki at a track. Husky dealer usually will let you go for a chew in the rear lot.
Blake
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USA
7/13/2010 7:39pm
If you dont know what you want, you probably arent buying shit anyway.

I've never test drove a new car before buying.
1
Suns_PSD
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4/1/2008
Location
Austin, TX, USA
7/13/2010 7:58pm
What's the point?

You can't really tell if the bike is awesome until you get it dialed in on a track you can haul on anyways and then ride it back to back against your usual bike.

Riding a dirt bike in a field tells you nothing. Riding a strange sport bike on a few public roads tells you nothing. I guess you could decide which footpeg brackets you like on your HD?

All of the new bikes are good you should be able to just choose the one that is known to have the characteristics that you prefer in a bike based on test reviews and rides on friends bikes.
7/14/2010 2:41pm
honda and ktm have done test days for the 10s around here.

i think bikes should come with free revalve and springs for your weight.
steve,i sent ya a friend request thru my space..thanx,dd...
i barely use myspace anymore. i should change that to facebook. but ill add ya.
KAWboy14
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Austin, TX, USA
7/14/2010 2:43pm
Xerxes wrote:
The 011 bikes are coming out soon which made me realise that in 30+ years of mx I've bought all my bikes on trust. I wouldn't...
The 011 bikes are coming out soon which made me realise that in 30+ years of mx I've bought all my bikes on trust. I wouldn't buy a Hyundia or Kia without a test drive and yet I would on a CRF which costs the same - wtf is that all about.
why would anyone want to testdrive a hyundai or kia? HA
VEGAS711
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Las Vegas, NV, USA
7/14/2010 2:46pm Edited Date/Time 7/14/2010 2:48pm
Xerxes wrote:
The 011 bikes are coming out soon which made me realise that in 30+ years of mx I've bought all my bikes on trust. I wouldn't...
The 011 bikes are coming out soon which made me realise that in 30+ years of mx I've bought all my bikes on trust. I wouldn't buy a Hyundia or Kia without a test drive and yet I would on a CRF which costs the same - wtf is that all about.
It's funny you say this, reminds me of my neighbor when I was about 17 or 18 ? He's selling his Street bike...something that screamed crazy...
It's funny you say this, reminds me of my neighbor when I was about 17 or 18 ? He's selling his Street bike...something that screamed crazy and this guy shows up, wants to buy it, hops on and takes it for a spin down our street, just eats shit and destroys the bike, my buddy is sitting there with his mouth open just shitting himself, guy hauls his ass into his car blood everywhere and my buddy is left standing there with a wadded up bike...That's why you don't test ride a bike...any kind lol

S
I have been going down my gotta pay that guy back list (kind of like Earl). I will gladly send that guy a check for his bike I wrecked if you tell him to get contact me!W00t W00t W00t

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