From zero to fender in a flash.

At Extreme Powersports, a motorcycle dealership in Virginia, I ask the general manager, Ric Leary, "Would you sell me one of those?"

We're standing alongside a beautiful piece of machinery. It's a motorcycle, and not just any motorcycle. It's a Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1300R, the rocket that carried Ben Roethlisberger into that old lady's front fender.

It's black and it's silver and its name, hayabusa, is the Japanese word for peregrine falcon, a screaming-fast bird of prey. Even as the machine leans on its kickstand, it's so seductive that a guy draws in a breath, feels his heart throw in an extra beat. For $12,000, it's mine, all mine, if only the man would sell it to me.

"I couldn't refuse to sell it," the general manager says. "But I'd try to talk you out of it."

"Why?"

"It's the wrong bike for somebody without real experience," he says. "How so?"

"For one thing, it goes from 0 to 60 in under 3 seconds."