dude - that looks like some old school hotness right there two stroke?
re: sport bikes
I dunno bout the whole country, but around here I see two distinct and different groups of newbie out there.
One is the young kid on a crotch rocket that's obviously waaaaay too hot for their level of judgement. They're the ones we see wheely-ing down the interstate at 80 mph, doing burnouts, etc, etc...I am a fan of mandatory MSF classes and graduated licensing for bikes for these people.
The other is the 40-50 year old yuppie who had a dirt bike when he was 12 and now thinks he can handle a Fat Boy with close to 90 horsepower. These are the guys you see wearing the harley(tm) helmet, the harley(tm) jacket, the harley(tm) chaps, the harley(tm) gloves, and the harley(tm) boots with eagle spurs. They bobble at every stop sign, don't clear intersections before entering, and don't seem to understand the bike will in fact lean through a turn. I am a fan of mandatory MSF classes and graduated licensing for bikes for these people.
As far as fatalities go - the ones I have seen in the paper have been the older guys locally, but I have a hard time not thinking some of these kids on zipsplats aren't biting it too.