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Demo not Demo

T
Demonstration is not the same as Demolition!!

On March 5, near the continental divide outside Buena Vista Colorado I saw one of the sickest chute runs ever, by perhaps the biggest idiot ever!

On a demo ride with the Mtn Tech Yamaha owner, a local rider wanted to test a supercharged 2010 Nytro that the owner has been testing and dialing in. The owner, on his 2008 turbo Nytro with two years of heart and soul, leads us out to a great little spot for side hillin', boondockin', and a highmark or two.

To make sure the test sled is performing as promised, the owner switches sleds with the, well, we'll call him "test dummy" from now on. Intending to check out the demo sled for about 2minutes, the shop owner makes a quick lap while the test dummy starts out on the owner's personal sled.

The next 35 seconds is unbelievable!!

Turning to the south, up an unstable and untested chute the Test Dummy lights a fire on the 2008 Turbo and bolts up the chute from about 10,500ft to a max elevation of about 12k+. Kicking off a small avalanche in his wake he rips up the slope, even boosting the skis in the air as he turns to his left to descend. Unfortunately, as Test Dummy began to descend, as good of a rider as he may have been to shoot the narrow line, he couldn't clear the last bit of rocks at the bottom of the chute. Passing his fracture line, he lost control of the sled and straightlined it into the rocks below.

Role, tumble...what started as cool, become seriously scary, and never was intelligent. Why the Test Dummy never asked to run the chute or did the wise thing and studied it first...well, he's a dummy!!

Rider survived, thankfully; sled was in bad shape...bent and battered, the Yamaha dealer did an inspection, reconnected a few things...

The reason we all love Yamaha...it started and he rode it out!

Test Dummy magically doesn't have any money, even though he was intent to buy the supercharged sled; so the small town dealer is out a sled, a whole lot of work, and a whole lot of cash in these tough times.

I say, "if you break it, you buy it!"

Thoughts?
 
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wilmot

Well-known member
Feb 3, 2010
508
101
28
Clearfield, UT
Give some guy's some power and they think they can do anything. It's one thing if it's your sled, but when a dealer is kind enough to let you ride his and you go off and trash it you should be responsible for all damage.
 
D

Dirt Digger

Member
Mar 1, 2009
44
5
8
He should be responsible for the sled!!!! IDIOT That is what screws everything up for the rest of use that have dealers that trust us, and let us take out demo sled. I hate people like that.
 
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paulharris

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
1,348
549
113
Colorado
this is why i never let anyone ride my sled....everytime i have in the past something crazy happens.....like the guy that hit the single rock one the entire mountain. i would not have let this guy drive his own truck home til he paid.
 
K

KJFarmer

Active member
Aug 24, 2009
160
25
28
North Dakota
Only guys i ever let touch my sled is guys i have rode with many times and would treat mine just like there own, as long as they treat there own with care.
 
T
It seems like a matter of respect. These toys are expensive and the penalty for not respecting the Rocky Mtns...any mtns, can be your life. Good thing is, the dealer kept his cool! If you're a Colorado rider or want to be, stop in and give the BV shop some love. They are great and could use some traffic.

What keeps replaying in my mind is that the guy had no sense about anything that real men stand for...no honor, no integrity...just a wicked scary chute run.

BTW---Huraah for the fact that the boosted 08 tamed the run with ease and then got his owner home after the crash!

If you're gonna borrow, test, demo someone's sled, chill the F out...
 

MTN_VIPER

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Nov 26, 2007
980
442
63
NW WA St.
fourstrokesolutionsllc.com
I have a similiar story.

I work at a car dealership and we had a guy road test a new ZO6 Vette and stuff it through a chain link fence.
The guy owned an older ZO6 and dicided that he would be interested in an 07 ZO6. The newer ones come with the 7.0L engine and put out about 100 hp more then the one he owned. They rip pretty good and when you drive one, the road needs to be dry and you better be pointing straight ahead when you stand on it!

Well this guy figured that he could handle it and dicided the gas on it coming out a corner. Spun the car out and managed to stuff an $80,000 vette through a chain link fence along side the freeway. Fortunately nobody got hurt but the salesman went for a heck of a ride! Pretty much scratched/gouged every body panel on the car.
Orginally the guy said that he would pay to have the car fixed and buy it. Then he started backing off from that. The car was insured through the dealership and they paid the have it fixed. It received a bunch of new body panels and looked like new again. However it could not be sold as a new car now, so the issue is the loss of value.
Insurnace will fix the car but not cover the loss of the sale value to the dealership. Last I heard they were going to try to get the guy to cover the loss of value and the dealerships deducable for the insurance bill.
Not sure if the guy ever manned-up and payed the bill though. I assume the insurance company was going to try and go after the guy, to get him to pay their costs as well.
I'm a big believer in "if you break it, you buy it" or at least cover all costs to make it right.
Somebody else ended up buying the car for a really good deal!
 

justinkredible56

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Dec 24, 2007
1,048
362
83
Eagle Mountain, UT
Nobody takes responsibility for anything anymore...seems like ever since lawyers have been able to get people out of bad situations people don't take responsibility!

My friend was driving another friends car back from wendover and was doing 90-95 on the freeway with icy roads and fog trying to get home to his girlfriend...then he fell asleep and ran us into a overpass barrier...afterward he was promising to pay for the car because it was clearly his fault...talked to his dad and his dad talked to his lawyer and the lawyer said he wasn't responsible! We talked to the kid and told him how messed up it was and he decided to pay my friend 500 for his car, which was worth a lot more! Anyways he paid him 100 then openly said he wouldn't pay him anymore! Still gets me heated!
 

smwizzz

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
May 6, 2008
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Ft McMurray, AB
Yep......

As a dealer on a test run the guy should have had to sign a waiver.... seems logical to me. I know how things go and we trust people too much sometimes, however, in these instances when dealing with high performance off road vehicles in potentially hazardous conditions it is only reasonable to say sign on the dotted line or ride your own toy. Your insurance broker will help out with a legal insurance document for your clients to sign and a lawyer will too. The insurance broker is much cheaper than the lawyer....

Just my 2 cents as a business person.
 
S
Jan 25, 2011
40
12
8
55
bad deal indeed I never ride anything i can pay for and among our riding group there has always been a comment when someone says try this out, will you take installments of 2995 :face-icon-small-win
 

RACINSTATION

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Jan 14, 2003
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Idaho
Most definitely should be paying for the sled. As stated above, responsibility is not real common any more. A stand up guy would be offering anything he could to make it up. If he doesn't have any money he should be sweeping the floors and washing windows at the shop for 20 years or so to make it up. Just the guilt alone would make most guys get a 2nd job and take care of it. See if the dealer has insurance at least and if he can pay the deductible plus more if needed. We shouldn't have to sign waivers, you should be able to TRUST people on stuff like this.
 
T
So...about insurance!! You all better check your policies and if you like your dealer, look that dealer straight in the eye and make him check his policy.

The insurance agent isn't gonna pay up either. "The test rides are only covered within 100ft of the shop"...a hole in my dealer's insurance for sure that he should have caught, but...BUT, once again, thanks mr. insurance guy for not really serving your customer.

I know insurance is needed! There is no way I could pay the hospital bills for any kind of severe accident. So to you good guys, thanks!! BUT come on, know your customer and make sure he/she is covered correctly.
 
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