I am dreadfully sorry about your friend, also. I have been in a couple of slappers with sport bikes, all of which were my fault. It is unfortunate that this post had to be written at all, but if some good comes out of it then all is not wasted. There are many inexperienced riders out there who do not pay enough attention to tire pressures, and general "waste of time" maintenance issues. Most of the guys here realize how important these seemingly monotonous these issues are each and every time you ride, but it can't be emphasized enough. Not sure if he was truly at 55 or if there was another issue at play here but, collectively we need to prevent these events if we can. Every time something like this happens, preventable or not, we take another black mark from those who do not understand that it is a safe and wonderful thing to do, unfortunately, many of them are lawmakers.
Seegarz