Buying bike lands Utahn in doghouse
But ad trying to sell it proves extra popular
"I'm selling it because it was purchased without proper consent of a loving wife," Dyer wrote in the www.ksl.com classified ad he set up Aug. 7. "Apparently, 'Do whatever the H*** you want' doesn't mean what I thought."
That ounce of wisdom has made Dyer's classified ad for his 2006 Suzuki GSXR 1000 one of the most popular on KSL's site.
On Aug. 30, it was hovering around 83,000 views. By Saturday, it had eclipsed 100,000. By Wednesday, the last day the motorcycle ad was on the site, the bike had 115,244 views.
That's huge for a classified ad, said Andrew Bunker, KSL's director of interactive services. Bunker, a 14-year employee with KSL, designed most of the Web site, manages the staff that updates it, and wrote the code that runs it.
In the past couple of weeks, Bunker said, he and his staff noticed a spike in traffic on the Web site they tracked to Dyer's classified ad, with most of the hits coming from Yahoo e-mail users. So they guess that the ad has made the e-mail circuit. It has been picked up by Web sites and now the mainstream media.
"Rarely does it become a national entertainment sensation," he said.
But the bike hasn't sold. The attention is likely due to Dyer's humorous and succinct explanation for why he's getting rid of it.
More than one blogger assumes that Dyer is young or recently married. Otherwise he would have known better. But Dyer, 35, a father of two, has been married 11 years to his wife, Tanna.
Tanna Dyer doesn't oppose the motorcycle, she said, just the timing of the purchase.
The Dyers promised each other that they would get out of debt before they made any large purchases, and they discussed the possibility of a motorcycle because of increasing gas prices and because it's nice to have some alone time, Steve Dyer said.
Those discussions went on over four months before Tanna got fed up and gave her husband the line that has been e-mailed and viewed thousands of times. Suddenly, he told her he was going to pick up a motorcycle.
"I was not happy," she said. "I didn't speak to him for a month. I didn't want to say anything out of anger."
With six months to go before the family was out of debt other than the mortgage, the purchase was a blow.
"We've always communicated really well," she said. "I just didn't want to take out any more loans."
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