Mork meets Mindy. 2/15/2006
Roy gave me this link…
… where a 22 year old motorcyclist died doing wheelies. On a 1200 c.c. Kawasaki, which has something like 130 plus horsepower on tap. The first question I asked myself was, “How does a 22 year old afford a liter plus Kawasaki?” OK, it’s Australia, where the bikes there don’t have this ridiculous import duty and tax structure where only the committed and insane buy superbikes. But even in Australia, big Kawasakis are still more expensive than Hyundais. No doubt a Kawasaki has more street credibility than a Hyundai, but still.
The other thing was how did he afford the insurance for it? Insurance in Australia is a bloody expensive joke. Maybe not as bad as England, where the cost of your annual premium can be more than the initial purchase cost of your machine, depending on your age, driving record, location and so on. But I do know for a fact that a 22 year old rider in Sydney is going to have some heavy premiums to pay to comprehensively insure his bike.
There is a saying about bold riders, and old riders, but no old, bold riders, to paraphrase that old saying about pilots. There is certainly no match for experience. Unless your name is Valentino Rossi.