MRF Reports - May/June 2011

WHAT’S INSIDE:

Is It Worth the Risk?

Page 2

NHTSA Requests

Motorcycle Safety Money

Page 3

Bob Letourneau’s

Testimony to Congress

Page 4

Legacy

Page 8

2011 MRF BOD Elections

Page 10

Dave Zien Injured in

Motorcycle Crash

Page 14

Club Rep Update

Page 18

Ride to Work Day

Page 20

Georgia on My Mind

Page 28

Lifesavers 2011

Page 50

There Are Two Kinds

of Riders

Page 52

The�MRF�does�not�endorse�any�products�or�services�other� than� i ts�own�product� l ine. �This�does�not�apply� to�pol i t ical �endorsements

Vol. �19, �No.�3� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �May/June�2011

Page 2 Motorcycle Riders Foundation May/June 2011

Is It Worth the Risk?Kirk “Hardtail” Willard

MRF President

A few weeks ago, I had the priv-ilege of attending my fifteenthHeartland S.T.E.A.M. Confer-ence in Shakopee, Minnesotahosted by ABATE of Minnesota.This conference is billed as aSeminar to Educate and Moti-vate (S.T.E.A.M.) and rotates

between seven mid-western State Motorcycle Rights Organiza-tions. The conference also serves as a major fundraiser to the Mo-torcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) for which we are very grateful.Thanks to Steve Rector and Buck Kittredge for being leadersamong those that initially recognized the need for such a valuableregional event and having it benefit the MRF at the same time.

S.T.E.A.M. has a special place for me since this is where I firstpresented a motorcycle rights workshop to our community andhaving gone well past 200 of these presentations and workshopsnow, I still think back fondly and meaningfully on the journey thefirst one started and the fact that some of the very best friends andcolleagues I have in this movement, I came to know well throughattending S.T.E.A.M. and seeing them in action. I actually con-sider it a family reunion of sorts. Many of these folks I only see atime or two a year but it is like a family because we share many ofthe same goals, interests and passions around motorcycling andmaintaining our freedom based way of life. It always motivatesand inspires me when I spend time around such hard working anddedicated individuals in our movement.

Getting to S.T.E.A.M. does bring up other not so good thoughts aswell. I found myself riding to S.T.E.A.M. in 2003 the day after mybest friends, and then MRF President Buck Kittredge’s funeral dueto an Easter Sunday bike crash. And two years ago, driving allnight after a Friday evening funeral to make a S.T.E.A.M. SaturdayGeneral session speaking engagement in North Dakota after mygood friend, and then MRF Vice President “Boz” Kerr passedaway the night he returned from the MRF BEAST of the EASTConference. In both cases, we were all looking forward to spend-ing time together doing more of what we love to do. And this yearas I headed to S.T.E.A.M. in Minnesota, it was with heavy heartagain as that very day was the funeral of a 37 year old family manthat lived two miles from me who lost his life in a bike crash a fewdays earlier.

As I often do when heading down a road I worked to connect the

dots and find meaning in what we know is part of our existence. Ithought about all the work we do so well, the many hours of tire-less dedication bikers spend on our movement, what a positive im-pact that it has on the movement, and how my friends no longerwith us dedicated so much of their lives to accomplish so much.

I also thought about the many distractions in our movement todaythat has a minimizing and detrimental effect on our work. Andwhether purposefully or not, we at times find ourselves wastingvalued resources on issues and distractions that have nothing todo with the mission and goals of our organizations. There arepeople seemingly waiting in line to get famous, make it into aheadline, leave the sandbox if they don’t get their way, and get at-tention they haven’t earned and certainly don’t deserve. But likeme, as a young kid in North Dakota, finding a coiled rattlesnake,even though we know we shouldn’t, once in awhile the temptationis just too great and we decide to poke the snake with a stick any-way just to see what will happen.

What I would ask that we do before engaging those outside (oreven inside on occasion) our movement trying to get famous forthe wrong reason is to avoid poking them with a stick, just leavethem alone and walk away. Let’s not provide them a forum tosteal the energy this movement needs to fuel it. Use that energyon only issues that have a positive impact on our movement.

Why do I say that? When I think about what we have accom-plished, what we have left to do and can accomplish, do we reallyhave any time, energy, money, and intellectual horsepower tospend on anything other than what it takes to preserve our free-dom of the road and way of life? Any distraction that takes awayfrom our needed focus risks a freedom people have fought for,risks us gaining a freedom we are fighting for, and god forbid,maybe even the life of a brother lost in a needless motorcyclecrash because we spent time on a nothing to do with our move-ment issue instead of promoting laws that inform and hold the mo-toring public accountable, securing and utilizing funding that isaimed at crash prevention, focusing our politicians and bureau-crats on crash prevention versus their current flawed belief in safercrashing. Are we doing all we can to accomplish the task at hand?If not is it worth the risk?

Advertising in the MRF ReportsThe�MRF�Reports�reaches�approximately�5000

motorcyclists�six�times�a�year.�Even�more�visit

our�web�site�(www.mrf.org)�every�month�and�this

is�a�prime�location�to�get�the�word�out�about

your�product�or�service�to�motorcyclists.

Contact�Margie�Ferrucci�for�more�information.

[email protected]

Contact Your Congressmen and Senators

U.S. Senate:You may phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Aswitchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate officeyou request.

U.S. House:You may phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. Aswitchboard operator will connect you directly with the House Repre-sentative office you request.

Information about your Federal, State and Local Senate and Repre-sentatives is also available from a link at the top of the MRF website’s home page (www.mrf.org). You will need your Zip+4 numberwhen running this search.

May/June 2011 Motorcycle Riders Foundation Page 3

NHTSA Requests Motorcycle Safety Money Jeff Hennie

Government Relations and

Public Affairs

NHTSA administrator DavidStrickland has submitted his2012 budget request to the Ap-propriations Committees. Out ofthe $860 million dollar requestone item jumped of the pagewhen the Motorcycle RidersFoundation examined the re-quest. Section 3011, Motorcycle

Safety grants, A $7 million dollar ask that specifically adds thepromotion of DOT compliant helmet use to the fund.

In the past this grant program has solely put money towards 2areas. Teaching people to ride motorcycles and educating therest of the motoring public to look for motorcycles while driving.Diluting this already small grant program to include helmet use

promotion will certainly diminish the effectiveness of the program.

In a recent Senate hearing DOT Secretary Ray LaHood wasasked by Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) to include a mandatory hel-met law in his budget request. LaHood responded, “This admin-istration believes that is a State issue”. Apparently Strickland didnot get that information.

What is also curious is the failure to embrace other forms ofsafety gear, where is the call for riding leathers, gloves, eyewear,and proper footwear? If this administration want sto include gear,shouldn’t they encourage all of the gear?

It even more troubling that NHTSA, whose mantra should be“crash avoidance” is now moving to one of “safer crashing”. TheMRF believes that the best crash is the one that did not happen.If the government wants to focus on safer crashing we will ulti-mately have more and more crashes.

The MRF will keep you updated on this important issue.

Repetition and RedundancyJay Jackson

MRF Vice President

I've had the good fortune toattend several State Semi-nars and Regional Confer-ences recently. It is alwaysinspiring to see the peoplethat are dedicated enough toinvest their own time andmoney to attend the eventsto learn how to be more ef-fective in their job represent-ing motorcyclists. Although

there is usually a decent mix of first timers and veterans ofmany conferences, often these sessions are kinda likepreachin' to the choir since the people that are committedenough to participate, are usually the people that already "getit". While the workshops are very informative, the networkingopportunities are priceless. There's no sense reinventing thewheel. If someone has already used the School of HardKnocks to determine what does, and does not, work... take ad-vantage of their experience. Talk to others and consider theiradvice.

I've said numerous times that we will be reinforcing some sub-jects this year. We will almost certainly be repetitive and re-dundant (just like that) with regard to some issues. The bigmoney guys on Madison Avenue know that Little Johnny is notgoing to fall in love with new "Crispy Crunchy" cereal the firsttime he hears about it. They run it over and over and over, untilyou know the jingle and every word of the commercial byheart. That's why we are continuously inundated with mes-

sages promoting one thing or the other. I'm certainly not sug-gesting that we are the Madison Avenue types, but if it worksfor them, there's no reason we shouldn't apply the same tactic.

To piggy back on that concept, there's the old adage that "themore stuff you throw at the wall, the more likely you are to getsomething to stick". You'll notice that most "campaigns" in-volve several forms of exposure. (the reference here is to anadvertising campaign rather than an election campaign, al-though advancing a candidate is very similar to selling a prod-uct) While there is consistency of message, there may beseveral different commercials. In addition to TV, there may beprint media, surveys, direct mail, focus groups, free samples,news releases or press conferences and a multitude of other"tools" used to establish or increase a demand for something.

So what does this have to do with motorcycling? If we are tobe successful, we need to be certain our message is clear andheard by many. In this effort, we must remain vigilant and keeprepeating our message, so everyone (the general public aswell as our SMRO members) will know "what we're about" .We may also have to use numerous, and perhaps even cre-ative, methods to drive our point home.

Since May is Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month, let'suse that as an example. I think just about everybody has abumper sticker with a basic message to look for motorcycles.This is a great way to reach motorists, but is it enough on it'sown? Probably not. That's the reason most programs includepress kits, key chains, "Share the Road" classes, public serv-ice announcements, proclamations, billboards and all the other

continued page 7


Bob Letourneau

MRF Assistant to

Motorcycle Safety

March 29, 2011

Chairman Duncan,Mr. DeFazio, andmembers of the High-

ways and Transit Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to tes-tify today on behalf of American motorcyclists'. My name isSenator Robert Letourneau and I am here representing the Motor-cycle Riders Foundation which is a coalition of state’s motorcy-clists' rights organizations with individual members representingabout 275,000 motorcyclists.

I served on the New Hampshire House Transportation Committeefor 8 years and as Chairman of the New Hampshire SenateTransportation Committee for three terms. Currently I am servingas a Motorcycle Rider Education Specialist for the New Hamp-shire Department of Safety. Additionally, I have been motorcyclerider for 43 years.

I appreciate the opportunity to provide your subcommittee withsome thoughts the MRF has on highway safety programs admin-istered by the National High-way Traffic SafetyAdministration The mem-bers of the MRF are appre-ciative that in theSAFETEA-LU legislationsection 2010 provided $25million specifically for motor-cycle safety rider educationand motorist awareness ofmotorcycles. That programreached 48 States and hasbeen extended for two addi-tional years.

Funding shortfalls for motor-cycle safety are presentacross the country. Duringthis time of economic challenge and budget shortfalls many Gov-ernors are raiding the dedicated safety funds generated by licens-ing fees from motorcycles to pay for non-transportation programs.When states are running a deficit, they often turn to motorcyclesafety funds as a piggy bank.

We pray that next reauthorization not only keep the federal motor-cycle safety grant program as a priority but also keep in place thesafeguards that protect these funds from being used for any otherpurpose.

Many non profit state motorcycle rights organizations (SMRO’s)have implemented share the road campaigns and impaired ridingreduction programs with private funding sources. These 2010funds can be made available to the non profit world to help themcontinue these life saving endeavors. It is important to note, thatdue in large part of this program motorcycle fatalities dropped forthe first time in 11 years during the 2008-2009 time period. Thedecrease in fatalities from ’08-’09 was by 10%.

That same report stated that an explosion of motorcycle salesfrom 356,000 in 1997 to 1.1 million today is crippling the rider edu-cation programs across the country. Twenty nine (29) States havecapacity problems and often have wait times for training morethan 12 weeks. This is another reason why Congress needs to in-vest more money in motorcycle rider education via the section2010 grant program

We ask that Congress continue this practice set for the inSAFETEA-LU. Consider this, under current SAFETEA-LU law thefederal government spends $1 dollar per motorcyclist per yearand ask your self if you think that is enough.

Lastly, as a personal observation from myself who actually seeshow these grants positively impact the rider training program inmy state of New Hampshire, I can say categorically that without

these grants it would nothave been possible to ex-pand our program that willreach many more riders thatthe outcome will be livessaved because of propertraining. One area of con-cern that we are working toexpand into is the returningrider (baby boomers), ourdata shows an increase infatal crashes in this areaand we are looking to createnew curriculum to addressthis issue.

With regard to the value ofrider education consider

this example; during the first 10 years of our motorcycle educationprogram having trained over 23,000 riders only one of those riderswas involved in a fatality and we believe that that rider had a med-ical event. Education is the key to successfully reducing motorcy-cle fatalities, our experience is proof positive.

On behalf of the MRF and Americas motorcyclists, I thank you forthis opportunity to present our concerns and views as you con-sider safety issues in the development of the national transporta-tion system.

Senator Bob Letourneau’s Oral Testimony

Before the Highways and Transit

Subcommittee, Washington, D.C.


Who’s Ready for Riding Season?Teri Stobbs Ricci

MRF Conference

Assistant

Okay, everyone, giveme a show of hands! Gotyour bikes all ready toride this year? Feel theneed for some wind ther-apy? Ready to hit the

open road? Sure you haven’t forgotten anything?

Well besides the usual checking of the tires, changing oil,and tune-up that you need to prepare for riding season, did youremember to do everything you need to do to protect your right toride?

Just like teachers, doctors and lawyers have to continuouslyeducate themselves on the current information, laws and meth-ods in order to remain effective, so do motorcyclists’ rights ac-tivists. One of the unique privileges the MRF provides for you todo exactly that is participation in our conferences. This year, wehave once again combined some “back to basics” workshopswith some exciting new ones – there is something for everyone,whether you’ve attended an MRF conference in the past or not.Check the MRF website for conference agendas(www.mrf.org/events.php).

Here’s a handy little checklist to help you prepare for our con-ferences and events this year:

1. It’s not too late to go to www.mrf.org/events.php and registerfor BEAST of the East in Linthicum Heights, Maryland (May 13-15). Many thanks to ABATE of Maryland for hosting BEAST thisyear.

2. BEAST of the East has been conveniently combined thisyear with Bikers Inside the Beltway in Washington, DC on May12. If you are planning to attend Bikers inside the Beltway,please contact Tiffany in the MRF DC office to let her know, soshe can be sure to have plenty of materials for everyone (202-546-0983 or [email protected]). There will be a group ride fromthe BEAST hotel into DC for Bikers Inside the Beltway. Makesure that you schedule lobbying appointments with your legisla-tors in advance so you can make the most of your DC visit.

3. Again, it’s not too late to go to www.mrf.org/events.php andregister for BEST of the West in Ogden, Utah (June 10-12).Many thanks to ABATE of Utah for hosting BEST this year.

4. If you really want to make the most of our conference sea-son, while you’re registering for our regional conferences, whynot just go ahead and register for Meeting of the Minds at thesame time? MOTM will be held this year in Romulus, Michiganfrom September 22-25. Many thanks to ABATE of Michigan forhosting MOTM this year.

5. Once you’ve registered for the conferences, be sure to bookyour hotel rooms as far in advance as possible at the conferencehotels to ensure that you receive the conference rate. You canfind all the information you need to book your rooms on the MRFwebsite as well.

6. Naturally, the MRF will be holding auctions at all three of ourconference banquets again this year. It’s never too early to startgathering items to donate to the auction. Visit your local busi-nesses and ask them to donate auction items. If they offer to do-nate something large that won’t fit on your bike or in yourluggage, contact either me ([email protected]) or Carol Downs([email protected]) and we will assist you in making arrangementsto send your auction items directly to the conference hotel.

7. And, of course, don’t forget to budget a few extra dollars topurchase your event t-shirts and other MRF products, as well asbid on those one-of-a-kind auction items that you just can’t livewithout . . . and remember, we take plastic!

So you would think that pretty much covers it, right? Well . . .there is a lot of planning that goes on behind the scenes to helpmake our conferences the premiere motorcyclists’ rights confer-ences in the nation. And since we are a membership-based or-ganization, we invite and encourage your participation andassistance with that planning, as well. Here are some additionalthings you can do to help us out in advance of our upcomingMRF conferences:

1. Have you ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I really wish theywould present a workshop about ___________ at an MRF con-ference.”? OUTSTANDING! If you have any ideas for a work-shop topic at an MRF conference, please send them to me([email protected]). Even if you don’t have a particular presenter inmind, we have a wealth of expertise in our membership, and cansurely find someone to present. Every serious suggestion will begiven serious consideration.

2. Is your MRF Sustaining State Organization interested inhosting a future MRF conference? MAHVELOUS! Contact me([email protected]) and I will send you our conference guidelines toassist you in making that decision. Without the enthusiastic sup-port of our host state organizations, it would be impossible for usto provide the quality conferences for which we have gained somuch respect.

3. Have you solicited local businesses, your SMRO or club,and your local chapter to come up with just $100 to become sus-taining members of the MRF, to hold a fundraiser for the MRF, orto make an additional donation? It costs a lot of money to dowhat we do . . . over $1000 a day just to keep our DC officeopen. Have you seen our significant and lengthy legislativeagenda lately? If you solicit memberships or donations before anMRF conference, both you and those organizations will be

continued page 6


Who’s Ready for Riding Season? continuedrecognized when you present those memberships and donationsat the conference banquet.

4. MRF members are eligible to make donations to MRFPAC.MRFPAC is a federal political action committee that supports mo-torcycle-friendly candidates at the federal level. In these tumul-tuous times, having motorcycle-friendly candidates in office iscritical. MRFPAC can only solicit donations from our restrictedclass, which is MRF members, employees, and their families.MRFPAC cannot accept donations from state PACs, but can ab-solutely accept donations from other federal PACs. MRFPACcannot accept corporate checks from anyone – only personalchecks are allowed. If you want more information on MRFPAC,please contact Steve Zimmer, MRFPAC Director, [email protected]. Again, you will receive recognition for MRFPACdonations when they are presented at the conference banquet.Confused about federal PACs? There will be informative MRF-PAC presentations at all three of our conferences this year.

5. Have you tried to solicit donations from an individual or busi-ness, but they’re hesitant because they want that donation to betax deductible? Well, we’ve got you covered on that, too! Motor-cycle Riders Foundation Awareness & Education (MRFA&E) wasestablished to promote motorcycle awareness and education dueto an ever-increasing rider population. No one is more con-cerned with rider safety than riders themselves, and obviously

those best suited to educate newer riders are veteran riders.MRFA&E’s mission is to, “Promote awareness and education inthe motorcycle community to improve riders’ safety.” One of theimportant things that MRFA&E can do is support MRF confer-ence presentations. And the best part? MRFA&E is a 501C3Corporation, which means that donations are tax deductible! Do-nations can be made through the MRFA&E website atwww.mrfae.org, or you can bring those donations to an MRFconference and, yeah you guessed it, be recognized at the con-ference banquet.

Last, but not least, I have to say that there was a time that I didn’tthink it would be possible for me to gain any more respect or ad-miration for Carol Downs, MRF Conference Director for the past8+ years. I had the privilege of serving with her during my previ-ous tenure on the MRF Board of Directors, and am honored toonce again be working with her and the entire MRF BOD. Nowthat I have a bird’s eye view of all the planning and hard work ittakes to put on not one, but three, MRF conferences each year .. . well, let’s just say that if I wore a hat, it would be off to bothCarol and her husband, Bruce Downs, for everything that they doto make our conferences so successful.

I hope to see ALL of you at BEAST, BEST, and/or Meeting of theMinds this year!

News Release

The Results Are In! Off-Road Vehicle

Riding Is Good For Your Body and

Soul

The Canadian Off-Highway Vehicle Distributors Council(COHV) and its funding partners the All-Terrain Quad Councilof Canada (AQCC), the Motorcyclist Confederation ofCanada (MCC) and the government of Nova Scotia have re-ceived the first of four reports from York University, confirmingthat riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and off-road motorcycles(ORMs) is good for your body and soul.

Jamie F. Burr, Veronica K. Jamnik, Jim A. Shaw and Profes-sor Norman Gledhill at York University’s Physical Activity andChronic Disease Unit, Faculty of Health conducted the study.The purpose of the research -- to characterize the physiologi-cal demands of recreational off-road vehicle (ORV) ridingunder typical ORV riding conditions using habitual recreationORV riders.

Study analysis of exercise intensity during riding revealed“approximately 14% of an ATV ride and 38% of an ORM rideare within the intensity range required to achieve changes inaerobic fitness. Riding on a representative course also led tomuscular fatigue, particularly in the upper body.”

Jamie Burr, York University, Faculty of Health concluded, “Onthe basis of the measured metabolic demands, evidence ofmuscular strength requirements, and the associated caloricexpenditures with off-road vehicle riding, this alternative formof activity conforms to the recommended physical activityguidelines and can be effective for achieving beneficialchanges in health and fitness.” Jamie further added, “Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) riding is similar in aerobic demand tomany other recreational, self-paced, sporting activities suchas golf, rock climbing and alpine skiing.”

“COHV and its partners were pleased to learn that this firstreport confirms what ORV riders already know -- that beingout on the trails is not only fun but contributes to individualand family well-being and physical fitness,” stated Bob Ram-say President of the MMIC. “This ground breaking, first evercomprehensive, scientific probe of the fitness and health ben-efits of ATV and ORM recreational riding proves that ridingcreates sufficient opportunity to stimulate changes in aerobicfitness and falls within the physical activity guidelines of both

continued page 9


Repetition and Redundancy continuedthings that various states use.

Within our community, I'm going to keep pounding the "whatwe're about" drum. We have to stay true and pure to our taskwhich is the preservation of motorcycling for future genera-tions. Anything else can be a distraction at best and a divisionat worst. We've got to stay focused. We work motorcycling is-sues. There are plenty of other noble causes and someoneshould support them. However, that is not our mission on themotorcyclists' rights front. I encourage you to belong to the or-

ganizations that represent those concerns (I do) and dedicateyourself to those causes you believe in. However, I suggestyou remain conscious of what hat you are wearing at anygiven time and remain focused on "that" issue. This will pre-serve your credibility as well as that of the organizations youare involved with.

Ride Safe,Ride Free, Jay Jackson

From Damnation To PurgatoryReprinted from www.righttoride.co.uk

On the 28th February MEP Wim van de Camp, as Rapporteur,presented his report to The Internal Market and Consumer Pro-tection Committee (IMCO) and representatives of the EuropeanCommission regarding the EU Commission’s proposal for a regu-lation on type-approval and market surveillance of L (motorcy-cles) -category vehicles.

The committee meeting was broadcast live on the internet andunlike the previous meeting which was chaired by UK MEP Mal-colm Harbour it did not probe into the issues and some commit-tee members admitted they were standing in for colleagues, thatthey were not experts and had written statements to read in re-sponse to the report.

In fact the meeting was running late and one question that wasasked at the end was refused a reply by the chair with the dis-missive, "we are too busy - move onto the next item".

The whole affair for those passionate and concerned with the fu-ture of motorcycling was nothing short of bland.

Instead of being interspersed with searching questions and rele-vant comments, it was a grey suited affair of safety and environ-mental rhetoric.

But what of the report?

We found that the information provided by the Rapporteur wasincomplete and piecemeal, furthermore it appears to have onlytaken into consideration a minority of views e.g. his commentsabout ABS (Advanced Braking Systems) and the “switch”; AHO(Automatic Headlight On) and the “switch” are in our opinion theviews of those who have no technical experience.

It appears that their influence on the Rapporteur has unfortu-nately moved the discussion on ABS and AHO into an area ofnonsense and seems more like an extract from Dante’s inferno –“You have escaped damnation and made it into Purgatory”

The Rapporteur’s position on anti-tampering goes beyond the

scope of his remit – for the simple reason that the Commissionhas put this proposal on hold due to the study that is being con-ducted by Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and will nothave any conclusions until the end of 2011.

The Rapporteur’s position on mandatory OBD (On Board Diag-nostics) suggests that not only did he not listen to the concernsof the industry but appears to have been influenced by his ownconstituency in the Netherlands by publicly admitting that he isagainst the introduction of a European wide Periodical TechnicalInspection (PTI) which would be the most obvious substitute formandatory OBD. This is in our view a conflict of interest.

What we do not understand is that in spite of visits to manufac-turers and taking part in the motorcycle workshop at the EU Par-liament, he has taken positions that beggar belief.

What seemed apparent – to us at least – is that he has missed afantastic opportunity to ensure the future of motorcycling.

It is our view that what was originally intended as the simplifica-tion of regulations to reduce bureaucracy has turned into alabyrinth of proposals, will have little or no safety benefit and willinevitably turn what should be a cost effective and efficientmeans of transport into the privilege of the select few due to theincrease in cost that the consumer will be obliged to pay.

We can only hope that a full a report which is to be submitted ata public hearing of the IMCO committee on the 22nd March 2011- and will form the basis of the opinion of the IMCO committeeabout the European Commission’s proposals, will be more con-cise, less biased and factual.

To view this article on Right To Ride EU including our full re-sponse visit - http://www.righttoride.eu/?p=6722

Issued by Trevor Bairdwww.righttoride.co.ukwww.righttoride.eutrevor.baird@righttoride.co.ukMobile: 07747604119, Phone: 02842 757131


Legacy

Graydon Wheeler

State Rep Board Member

Back in the early days,every highway seemed anadventure, every journeywas new. Now it getsharder and harder for the

rider to find an untraveled road.

He looked in the mirror as he rode. His beard now gray far earlierthan he had hoped. He could shave and look more his age, butwhat was the point? His appearance changed. He didn't.

Another thing that hadn't changed: the weather. Every long ridehe was guaranteed at least one solid rainstorm. He could see thewall of water quickly approaching, but having ridden through thiscanyon before, he knew there was no shelter for miles. Eitherstop and get soaked or ride and be just as wet. Nothing to do butshrug it off.

He leaned forward as the first drops stung his forehead. Layingover the tank he gave the elements as low a profile as he couldand held a gloved hand in front of his face for what little protec-tion it offered.

Minutes, or maybe it was hours, he wasn't sure how long, he leftthe canyon as the storm left him. A few miles ahead was a smallcrossroad store that had a couple of old-style gas pumps. Hewasn't planning on a fuel stop this soon, but he had no place hehad to be, and the thought of a hot drink and a moment or two ofdrying out appealed to him.

He pulled up to the pump and slowly eased himself off the motor-cycle, taking the time to relax the aches and pains that years andmiles have accumulated. He topped off the tank then walked thebike to the parking area in front of the store. He was about toopen the door when he heard it.

It was a smaller Japanese bike downshifting as it turned into thegravel of the store's driveway. The rider stopped at the pump,shut off the motor, then stood while doing the rider's ritual oftwisting this way and that to get the circulation going. He hoppedon one foot as he brought his leg over the other side,, thenreached for the pump handle.

The gray beard watched as the other rider noticed him and gavea curt nod as a way of greeting. He felt some memories stirring inthe back of his head watching the scene. He asked the kid, "Youalso get caught in the rain coming through the canyon?"

The kid nodded. A pause. Then he replied, "At least I didn't gethit with the rain last night".

Cool, thought the graybeard to himself, the kid wants to talk."What happened last night?"

"I was camping outside. Found an abandoned gas station milesfrom anywhere. There was a place in the back to park the bikeand an old picnic table that was sturdy enough to sleep on.Spent the evening watching the stars shine unlike any I've everseen. Rain would have definitely spoiled the moment".

Graybeard was appraising the smaller motorcycle. Four-fifty en-gine, about thirty years old he reckoned. He notice the tags onthe bike were from a county maybe an hour from his home. Longway to ride something this size. Then again, when you're young,you tell yourself a ride like that is fun.

"Don't see many of these on the road any more".

"A guy at work had it in his garage. Needed a lot of work, lot ofparts, but he wanted next to nothing for it.I think he was tired oflistening to the wife nag him about it taking up space. Anyway, Igot it running again it's been mine ever since".

"A bit of a long ride here, dontcha think?"

"Yeah, well..." The kid held his head down, nodding as he col-lected his thoughts, "I'm saving up for something bigger, moresuited for a trip like this. I had some vacation time come up andknew I had to go somewhere, anywhere on the bike, even if itwould cost me some of my savings. So I left a few days agogoing south for a while, sometimes west, sometimes north...justriding. A couple more days and I'll start back home. 'til then, I'llsee as much as I can".

"How much you have saved up, if you don't mind my asking?"

"About four grand I guess".

"That should be enough for a down paym..." Graybeard stoppedas the kid held up his hand shaking his head rapidly.

"No down payment. When I buy it, it will be mine, not the banks.May take few more years, but until then..." he patted the four-fiftyand smiled, "She takes care of me. Of course, only as long as Itake care of her".

Graybeard let the kid get back to fueling his ride and went insidethe store to finish his business.

He was pouring a cup of coffee as he watched the kid walk in,pause to locate the toilet, and swiftly walk to it. Some things allriders understand. He poured a second cup and brought it to thecashier. "I got both bikes" he said as he pulled cash from his wal-let. He took the coffee outside and waited on a bench by wherethe bikes wear parked.

Minutes later the kid stepped outside looked around and spiedthe graybeard on the bench.

"Thanks for paying for my gas I appreciate it".


Legacy continued"Don't mention it", he said as he passed over a cup of coffee tothe kid, 'What goes around, comes around".

"Well...thanks again".

They sat. Sipping coffee. Each alone in his thoughts.

Graybeard was thinking of a shovelhead he had sitting in hisshop back home. A basket case that was to be a build projectwhen he found the time. He thought about what he had investedin it. The kid's four grand would almost cover his costs. But thenagain, the kid would need a few bucks for insurance and registra-tion. He'd take a loss if he did that.

A warbling noise interrupted his musing.

"Meadowlark" He opened one eye to see the kid pointing to thebird on a nearby fence singing for what seemed to be merely thejoy of singing.

His decision was made. Graybeard stood as he drained his cof-fee and tossed the cup into a trashcan.

"C'mon" he said to the kid, "let's go for a ride".

"Okay" The kid didn't even question where they were going.

"I know a decent camping area a few hours north of here thathappens to be within walking distance to a place that servessome of the best prime rib; over dinner we'll discuss a motorcycleI have that may interest you", he started his Victory, "that is, aslong as you don't mind turning a wrench or two to get it running".

"Sounds great!", said the kid as he started the smaller bike, andthanks mister..."

Graybeard smiled as he held out his hand to the kid.

"Lex".

The Results Are In! continuedHealth Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine

(ACSM).”

There is still more to come. As they are published, COHV and itspartners look forward to reviewing subsequent sections of thestudy that will further assess the fitness and health characteris-tics (body composition, musculoskeletal fitness, aerobic fitness,back fitness, physical activity participation, lifestyle characteris-tics, health characteristics and quality of life characteristics) ofthis same representative sample of participants.

The COHV and its member companies: Arctic Cat, BRP (Can-

Am), Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Polaris, Suzuki and Yamaha arecommitted to family recreation and healthy, active life styles. Webelieve that the results of this study are a great resource to beshared with those who question OHVs as a healthy recreationalactivity.

Contact:Jo-Anne FarquharDirector of Communications & Public AffairsCanadian Off-Highway Vehicle Distributors Council (COHV)416.491.4449 or toll-free at 877.470.2288email : [email protected]

Georgia Department of Public Safety

Announces Details of Motorcycle-Only

Roadside CheckpointsJeff Hennie

Government Relations and Public Affairs

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation reports that the Georgia De-partment of Public Safety (GA DPS) has announced some of thedetails of the motorcycle only roadside checkpoints. The detailsinclude some the reasoning, time frame and locations of thecheckpoints.

Lt. Colonel Mark McDonough, GA DPS Deputy Commissionerexplained that the reason for the checkpoints is the rise contin-ued of motorcycle fatalities in the State of GA from 2005-2008.There were 167 motorcyclists killed in crashes in 2008.

McDonough did acknowledge the States education campaign in2009, which focused solely on raising awareness of motorcyclists

with all other road users. The campaign included safety presen-tations to school, church, civic groups and media outreach byState Troopers. The GA DPS credits the campaign with a 35 per-cent decrease in motorcyclists fatalities over the previous year.The Department called this historic decrease a “good first step”.

The next step, according to GA DPS, is the motorcycle only road-side checkpoints.

The first of these checkpoints will be conducted WednesdayMarch 9th 2011 from 8AM-5PM along Interstate 75 at the south-bound commercial vehicle inspection station in Monroe County.During the same time frame an additional checkpoint will be es-tablished at the southbound commercial vehicle inspection

continued page 12


2011 Elections for MRF BODDave Dwyer

MRF Elections Committee

Chair

It is that time of the yearagain and the MRF is puttingout our first call for candi-dates to our Board of Direc-tors. The ElectionsCommittee is Dave Dwyer,chairman, Larry Nielson,Cindy Hodges, Wayne Wier-son, Graydon Wheeler, and

Jim “Legs” Korte. Contact information for all BOD members islisted in the last section of this MRF Reports if you have anyquestions about the amount of work involved in these positions.

All positions on the MRF BOD are two-year terms, with alternat-ing election cycles. Our Executive Officers, President, Vice Pres-ident, Secretary and Treasurer are elected by the BOD at theMeeting of the Minds BOD meeting, with Vice-President andSecretary being up this year. We also have three Administrativepositions up for election this year, Directors of Conferences,Communications and Motorcycle Safety/Rider Education. TheMRF Elections Committee is charged with finding candidates torun for these positions. Currently, the incumbents in these posi-tions have not announced that they are not going to seek an-other term.

The MRF BOD has six At-Large positions elected by our mem-bers by ballot. The first is the Member Representative. Thesetwo BOD members represent the general membership of theMRF on our BOD. This year the position held by Wayne Wiersonis up for election. Wayne has indicated that he does not intend torun for another two-year term.

If you wish to run for this position, your Candidacy Papers mustbe submitted to the MRF office in Washington D. C. prior to July31, 2011. See the last paragraph of this article for guidelines.Candidacy Papers will be published in the Sept-Oct issue of theMRF Reports. Your other option to become a candidate for thisposition is to gather the signatures of 50 MRF members in goodstanding on a petition and submit that to the Elections Commit-tee prior to the end of the Meeting of the Minds, 2011. To be eli-gible for any MRF BOD position you must have been an MRFmember for at least one year by the time of the election. Ballotsare to be printed in the Nov-Dec issue of the MRF Reports andall Individual, Individual Sustaining, and Joint Members are eligi-ble to vote by mail for this position. The winning candidate will beseated at the January 2012 MRF BOD meeting.

Our next At-Large position is State Representative BOD mem-ber. The position held by Grady Wheeler is up for election thisyear. If you are a State and are interested in this position youneed to have your candidacy papers into the MRF Office by Au-gust 20, 2011. Copies of all Candidacy Papers will be mailed to

all State Reps by Sept 1, 2011. The election will be by the StateReps during the Reps Meeting at MOTM. To be eligible for thisposition you must have been a State Rep for at least one yearprior to the date you will assume office, the January 2012 MRFBOD meeting.

The last At-Large position is the Sustaining State MotorcyclistRights Organization BOD member. This year the position held byLarry Nielson is up for election. Larry has indicted that he will beseeking another term. If you wish to challenge Larry, you need tosubmit your candidacy papers to the MRF Washington DC officeby the first Friday following MOTM, September 30th this year.Ballots with copies of the candidacy papers will be mailed to alleligible Sustaining State Motorcycle Rights Organizations byOct. 10 and will be due back at the MRF Washington DC officeby Dec. 15th.

As per MRF bylaws; “Each supporting state motorcyclists’ rightsorganization shall have one vote for each position which shall becast by its highest elected officer. Any organization open tomembership on a statewide basis may choose to participate inthe election of Supporting State Motorcyclists’ Rights Organiza-tions Board Members. State Organizations wishing to do so mustmeet the following qualifications: A) Having previously been rec-ognized by the MRF as a supporting SMRO, or B) Having ex-isted as a viable functioning entity for at least two years prior tothe time of voting; be in support the MRF’s purposes and be asustaining member of the MRF for the year in which they chooseto vote. If the MRF BOD questions the status of a viable func-tioning entity for at least two years, articles of incorporation shallsuffice. Recognition once given may be withdrawn only by ¾votes of the members of the Board of Directors...”

It would be very helpful to the financial health of the MRF if can-didates for office would be self supported or supported by theirSMRO for MRF related travelling and lodging expenses. We hold3 BOD meetings per year, the first in January by teleconference,a spring meeting that has been held traditionally in May inKansas City, but will be held between our Bikers Inside the Belt-way event and BEAST of the East conference this year and thethird in September prior to our Meeting of the Minds conference.BOD members are also expected to attend and help out with atleast one of our Regional conferences, BEAST or BEST and theMOTM. Monthly conference calls help keep us all headed in thesame direction between meetings.

Email is the preferred form for submission of candidacy papers.Please note “Candidacy Paper” in the subject line. The addressis [email protected]. You may submit your candidacy papers forany of these positions by mail if you desire to; Motorcycle RidersFoundation, 236 Massachusetts Ave., NE #510, Washington DC20002. Please mark “Candidacy Paper” on the outside of the en-velope. Your Candidacy Papers should include which positionyou are declaring your candidacy for, your SMRO experience,positions currently and previously held and any other pertinentinformation you feel would further your chances of success.


FREE! To all M.R.O. members worldwide! All M/C Rights members and public are welcome.

*** 28th ANNUAL *** A.B.A.T.E. SOCIAL HOUR

Hosted by A.B.A.T.E. of South Dakota

Thursday Aug. 11th 12pm-5pm at the Whitewood City Park 7 miles west of Sturgis on I-90, take Exit 23, look for signs

INFORMAL MOTORCYCLIST’S RIGHTS WORLDWIDE GATHERING

Unity of Motorcycle Rights Organizations for your Freedom

Prices at the gate: ALL MRO & SMRO (ABATE, MRF, etc.) MEMBERS GET IN FREE! Must show current MRO card at the gate!

ALL OTHERS…….....…$10

Have a relaxing afternoon with A.B.A.T.E. of South Dakota hospitality and away from the crowds! FREE REFRESHMENTS, POP AND BEER!


Motorcycle-Only

Roadside Checkpoints continuedstation along I-95 in Chatham County, north of Savannah.

The checkpoints will check for proper licensing, DOT helmets, al-cohol usage, valid tags, as well the general operating conditionof the motorcycle.

Lt. Col. McDonough claims that for the average operator with theproper license and equipment the delay should take about oneminute.

Additional checkpoints will be conducted in the spring and fall of2011. Checkpoints are funded into 2012 as well.

The MRF will keep you updated on this important issue.

In Other News

U.S. House and Senate pass Highway Bill Extension.

One day after the House overwhelmingly passed the Surface

Transportation Extension Act of 2011 by a final vote of 421 to 4,the Senate approved by voice vote today vital legislation to ex-tend highway, transit and highway safety programs through Sep-tember 30th. The measure now goes to the Presidents desk,where it is expected to be signed into law soon.

"With unemployment in the construction industry at an all-timehigh, it is imperative that we extend the surface transportationprograms through the end of the fiscal year," said Highways andTransit Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN).

United States House of Representatives Hold

Surface Transportation HearingJeff Hennie

Government Relations and Public Affairs

The US House of Representatives Committee on Transportationand Infrastructure held a historic 2 day hearing March 29 and30th. The focus of the hearing was to gain valuable insight as theCommittee drafts the next surface transportation reauthorization.The current legislation expired September 30th, 2009 but havebeen on life support via a series of extensions that currently ex-pires September 30th, 2011.

The hearings called in a record 40 witness’s over the two days.The lengthy list included union representatives, mass transit, taxidrivers, truck drivers, financing experts and of course a motorcy-cle safety specialist.

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation was contacted by committeestaff to bring an expert motorcycle safety witness. To accommo-date the request the MRF contacted long time MRF supporterRobert Letourneau. Letourneau is a 15 year veteran of the NewHampshire legislator, along the way he chaired the New Hamp-shire House Transportation committee, as well as the NewHampshire Senate Transportation committee. He now serves atthe New Hampshire Department of Safety as the resident Motor-

cycle Safety Specialist. He is also a recipient of the MRF’s high-est honor, the John “Farmer” Eggers award.

Senator Letourneau was the only motorcycle safety expert on thewitness list. His unique qualifications made him the perfect advo-cate for the expansion of the 2010 motorcycle safety grants. Histestimony focused on the grant program, stressed its importanceto the States and urged the committee to keep the funds as theyare now and not dilute the program to be used for frivolous pur-pose’s such as promotion of personal protective equipment.Which was recently suggested by NHTSA’s Administrator, DavidStrickland.

The Subcommittee Chair John Duncan (R-TN) was especiallyimpressed with Senator Letrouneau’s testimony and personal ob-servations concerning the validity of the New Hampshire ridereducation program. Letourneau cited a valuable and impressiveand remarkable statistic “over ten years the New Hampshire ridereducation program has trained 23,000 students and out of the23,000 students only 1 has been involved in a fatal crash, andwe suspect that was most likely due to a medical event”. Chair-man Duncan was visibly in awe of the statistic.

The MRF will keep you up to date on this important issues.


SMROs in ActionArizona

Arizona’s MROs held their annual Motorcycle Day at the Dome

in late February. The biker attendance was down a bit from

previous years, but there was more participation by our legisla-

tors - great weather for the event.

Minnesota

Looking like a polar expedition, hearty Minnesotans took to the

ice in early March to support the MRF

A typical day of fishing in Minnesota in early March!


Senator Dave Zien Loses Part of Leg

in Motorcycle CrashThe Board of Directors of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation wish

you the very best in your recovery and are already looking for-

ward to the day you ride into one of our Conferences, in fact

when you're up to it, we'll be checking your schedule so you can

address the bikers rights machine in person. You have always

inspired this movement with your freedom loving and hard riding

attitudes, during this time of recovery you continue to inspire with

your positive outlook and sheer guts. Take care Dave and get

well, we look forward to seeing you on the road again.

Reprinted with permission

PATRICIA SIMMS and

MARY SPICUZZA

Wisconsin State Journal

madison.com

March 14, 2011

A colorful former Wiscon-sin state senator who ledan effort to exempt mo-torcycle riders from crimi-nal penalties for notwearing a helmet wasseriously injured in a mo-torcycle crash early Sun-day morning in Florida.

Dave Zien, who will be61 Tuesday, was in faircondition in the intensivecare unit at TallahasseeMemorial Hospital aftersurgery to amputate hisleft leg above the knee,according to his partner,Suzanne Bowe, on Mon-day.

Zien, who was not wear-ing a helmet, appearsnot to have suffered anyserious head injuries.

"He's actually doingpretty good, consider-ing," Bowe said. "Hisspirits are really good.He's looking at it that itcould have been worse. I assume he will probably be on a bikeagain at some time. Probably a three-wheeler."

Zien collided with an SUV that attempted to change lanes, wentout of control and flipped onto its side on Interstate 10 in JacksonCounty between Panama City and Tallahassee, according to theFlorida Highway Patrol. The crash occurred at about 6:15 a.m.

Zien, who also fractured his pelvis, was flown to the Tallahasseehospital by helicopter, the Highway Patrol said. Zien and Bowehad planned a week in Panama City visiting family and friends.Zien served as a Republican lawmaker from Eau Claire from1989 to 2006, when he was ousted by Democrat Pat Kreitlow ofChippewa Falls in a Democratic sweep. A gun enthusiast andVietnam veteran, Zien had championed conservative causes likepassing concealed carry permits for guns and rode a Harley be-tween his district and the Capitol.

Bowe, who was in California visiting family when the accident oc-curred and arrived atZien's bedside Mondaymorning, said Zien isthankful to be alive. "Hesaid, 'I have no brain in-jury. I am not paralyzed.It could be worse.' Helooked at it very posi-tively. He prays a lot toGod."

Bowe said hospital staffdisconnected the phonein Zien's room becauseZien was getting toomany calls.

Troopers said the driverof the SUV, Ryan G. Ma-theny of Marietta, Ohio.and his passenger weretaken to Jackson Hospi-tal in Marianna for treat-ment of minor injuries.Matheny was chargedwith failure to stay in hislane and driving with asuspended license.

A long-time HarleyDavidson rider, Zien wasthe lead backer of Wis-consin's "Rider's Choice"law, which exempts mo-torcycle riders from crim-inal penalties for notwearing a helmet. Zien's

lawyer, Michael Hupy, Monday said Zien fears his 2009 HarleyDavidson Road Glide is a total loss.

Contact Patricia Simms at [email protected] or 608-252-

6492; contact Mary Spicuzza at [email protected] or

608-252-6122.


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The View Past the Handlebars Seize the Day

To ride a motorcycle is to live in the moment. It is an act that putsus in touch with the forces, energies and spinnings of life. Leantoo far, and you topple over. Apply too much brake, and you’re li-able to gain a fast and intimate relationship with the pavement.Waiver in your concentration, and your reward will be a painfulreminder that to perch atop our rumbling, glistening machinesdemands focus.

Riding a motorcycle is not for everyone. I’ll bet you can think of afew folks who scare you badly enough when they get behind thewheel of a car – the last place you want to see them is behindthe handlebars. To race with the wind, to try to catch shadowsand to beat the sun to its nightly rest in the west requires focus,dedication and skill. By climbing aboard our two-wheeledavatars, we, these select few, say to the rest of the world, I willnot accept conformity. I will strive to dare, to dream, to reach.

But to accomplish that daring, something is demanded of us inreturn, something that goes beyond the simple mastery of eye,hand and foot coordination. We must agree to a simple bargain,a pact with life that says whether on or off our bikes, we will livein the minute. We will never miss an opportunity, no matter thepursuit or the purpose, to revel in all of life’s glories and to turnevery day into a grand accomplishment. In short, carpe diem;seize the day.

Do it now. Don’t wait. Start planning that dream ride you’ve al-ways wanted to take. Never been to Sturgis before? Make reser-vations now. Want to get involved, to make a difference in the

motorcycling community? There’s never been a better time. Beenmeaning to take someone for a ride? Pick up the phone and letthem know that as soon as the salt has left the road, you’re goingto share the magic of two wheels with them. Never wait, nevermiss your chance to live in the moment – we blink, and the mo-ment is gone, the opportunity lost.

A few years ago, my cousin’s boy, David, died. His family wasthen living in Kentucky, and since I moved to Minnesota, I didn’tget to see them all that much. The spring before he sadly tookhis own life, I kept saying to myself, maybe next year I’ll invitehim up for a week and take him for a ride, introduce him to allsorts of mischief that would horrify his mother. The stories wouldbecome legend, and the truth behind the adventures would be asecret only he and I would share. Unfortunately, that chance isnow gone. He was only 18, far too young according the calendar,yet wise beyond his years. And I am poorer for missing mychance to live in the moment, for not seizing the day.

Back in the mid-1600s, the great English poet Robert Herrickpenned his most famous work, “To the Virgins, to Make Much ofTime.” The opening lines of that poem read, “Gather ye rosebudswhile ye may; old time is still a-flying.” Robin Williams’ characterin the movie “Dead Poet’s Society” echoes this theme as hehauntingly whispers to his students, “Carpe Diem! Seize the day,lads! Make you lives extraordinary!” Let’s take his advice, andthat of Mr. Herrick before him, and not lose a moment’s chanceto make our lives, both on two wheels and off, extraordinary.

The Ghostrider

SMROs in ActionWisconsin

Some of the ABATE of Wisconsin at our small group lobby dayl to r John Reblin, Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Secretary Mark Gottleib, Dave Dwyer, Ric Mellon


Download this ad to run in your SMRO newsletter at www.mrf.org

The MRF Wants You to Raise Awareness

and Some Money While You’re At ItTodd Riba

State Reps Program

Director

By the time this issue of theMRF Reports hits our mail-boxes the summer riding sea-son will be in full swing. Thatmeans the MRF Reps willhave unlimited opportunitiesto spread the word about theMRF and maybe make a fewbucks for the cause at thesame time. As we all know,

the MRF doesn’t have some of the social aspects of SMRO’s.We don’t have local meetings, runs, or ,rallies so we miss out onsome of the positive aspects of being involved in motorcyclerights. That is why we are asking our MRF State Reps and As-sistant Reps to consider establishing some kind of event in yourstates that supports the MRF financially but also creates someof that much needed “fun time” with the MRF members in yourstate.

The MRF Reps in Minnesota have hosted a MRF Ice Fishingcontest two years in a row now. The event was not huge by anymeans but let me tell you, fun was had by all and we raised a

couple hundred bucks for the cause. Another event that we puton was a photo op with the American flag in the background.We also had some snacks and beer to taste, NA beer was avail-able as well. We held this event at our A.B.A.T.E. of MN StateRally. It was a good time, we raised a few bucks, and the quan-tity of beer allowed for tasting was very limited so it was a safeevent. I know we have a lot of creative Reps out there that cancome up with some great ideas. We are not looking for milliondollar ideas, we are just looking for every state to host at leastone small event to raise some much needed money for MRFand we are hoping these events will create some of those socialopportunities that the MRF is missing out on at the state level.

The Massuchesetts Motorcycle Association has once again do-nated a fresh lobster dinner with all the fixings that will feed fourpeople and it will be shipped right to your door. All you have todo is plan a safe tasteful event, let me know when and where itwill be, and tell me how much money you raised. We will bringthe checks to Meeting of the Minds in Michigan and the StateReps that raised the most money from one event will walk awaywith a great free dinner. Now I realize that lobster is really thepoor mans lutefisk and it is not nearly as tasty as fresh walleye,but I am sure the reps from Minnesota will enjoy their forth com-ing lobster dinner this April. Now the question is, will the rest ofreps let us win it two years in a row?


Club Rep Update“Still Ray” Fitzgerald

Sustaining Member Motorcycle

Club Representative

Motorcycle Clubs Are Not CriminalStreet Gangs. This is our message, weknow it, the question is - how do weget it across to the lawmakers? Weneed to repeat this sentence, thismantra, slogan, whatever you want tocall it on all levels, local, state and fed-

eral.

On the local level, you can start as "local" as you can get, startwith your next door neighbor, the mailman, the guy or gal youwork with, tell them because you ride with a motorcycle Club youare being classified as a Domestic Terrorist.Tell them that you arebeing treated the same as the Street Gangs, no arrest, no trial,held without charges for an indefiniteperiod of time. Ask them if they haveever heard of Fusion Centers. Tellthem that there are now 74 of themacross the country, inform them thatthe bikers in Texas have pending leg-islation to try to contain this infringe-ment on what is left of our rights.Mention to your friends the storyabout the cops in Washington State crawling in the bushes tophotograph bikers, how the bikers took this and other incidents totheir State House, testified there and are now awaiting the Gover-nor's signature on an anti-profiling bill.

Get involved in local politics. You don't have to do much. You willbe surprised at the reaction you get when you show up at localprecinct meetings, city council meetings, etc. Remember that thepoliticians at the Capitol started out at the local level and they willremember you. It is important that they can identify with some-body they have had conversation with or someone who helped intheir early campaigns .I am currently serving my third term as aPrecinct Committeeman, (you can't get elected to a lower positionthat I'm aware of), when I go to meetings, people there know meby name or at least recognize me, I always wear my colors andride my motorcycle.

The State level is much the same, stay in contact with your StateRepresentatives. It is helpful if you have more than one issue thatyou talk to them about: they won't be inclined to think that onceyour issue is dealt with, you are going away. I have found that Ican express my anger without being offensive. Once again, I willuse my favorite Karen Bolin quote, "Never ask for what alreadybelongs to you, demand it". We are no less citizens than thePresident, we have rights just like everyone else and we refuse tohave those rights taken away for simply belonging to a Motorcy-cle Club. Motorcycle Clubs may not be popular, but they are NOTagainst the law.

Join your State's MRO. ABATE and others work on motorcycle

related issues, but more importantly, we need all the allies wecan get. If you find that you just can't sit through another meeting,give them the twenty five bucks for a membership and help themcontinue to do the work they do best. Remember the politicianscount voters, if we can stand in front of them and say we repre-sent twenty thousand voters, we have their attention. The Con-federation of Clubs in your state may have a working relationshipwith the MROs. Encourage it, remember, we need to get along,even if for a couple of hours a month, it is a start.The ArizonaConfederation of Clubs is very active in our state. Last year theGang Task Force was telling bar owners if they didn't post 'no col-ors' signs in Kingman, the Liquor Board would revoke their li-censes. We took our COC on the road and went to Kingman,rode to the bars in question, got the publicity needed for some-one at the Capitol to ask questions. This year we are going to thePima County Fair. A member of the Devils Disciples M/C was ar-rested and convicted of Criminal Trespass at the fair, we are tak-ing all the Clubs in the COC with a lawyer, video cameras and of

course the media to the County Fairby the time you read this. The mes-sage we are sending is clear, we willnot be treated as second class citi-zens, we know our rights and we willmake noise if our rights are abused.

The Federal level, naturally, I encour-age involvement with the MRF. I be-

lieve that if you can attend one of our conferences you will goaway with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. I have been going tothese conferences for many years and it is the same every time, Ileave a little smarter and willing to continue the fight. This year,BEAST of the East is the week following NCOM. It will be in Balti-more and the Fourth Annual Bikers on the Beltway will be the daybefore the conference. Bikers on the Beltway is a great chance tomeet your Congressmen, Senators, and freedom fighters from allover the country. We will ride to Washington, DC and show themhow much our rights mean to us.

They say a letter is worth more than an email, a phone call falls inbetween them, but how about riding across the country to makeyour point? That should be worth something, right? You don'thave to tell them how much fun you have along the way, just stickto the issues! This event is growing larger every year. If you arenot able to make it to DC, there is the BEST of the West Confer-ence in Ogden, Utah in June and the Meeting of the Minds in De-troit in September.The Motorcycle Riders Foundations ClubCommittee will have presentations at all of these events. I lookforward to seeing you there.

Respectfully, Still Ray PresJOURNEYMEN M/CArizona Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs ChairACMC PC ChairMRF Sustaining Member M/C RepABATE of Az BOD


Parallel Universe!reprinted from www.righttoride.co.uk

25th March 2011

The Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee(IMCO), chaired by Malcolm Harbour, MEP, met on Tuesday22nd March 2011 in Brussels to discuss the proposed new regu-lations of two and three wheeled.

This “Public Hearing” steered admirably by the Chair aimed toconsider the safety, environmental and economic issues relatingto these proposals and various stakeholders, (some claiming torepresent motorcyclists), were given the opportunity to speak.

At Right To Ride we have reported since January 2010 on thesediscussions which could change the world of motorcycling as weknow it.

We have given our opinions, reported on the issue and at-tempted to give space to others’ opinions.

However there seems to be a parallel universe that includes

what the actual issues are, how we interpret these issues, howothers interpret these issues and then how this interpretation isused to advance agendas and positions.

Our agenda is simply to promote and protect motorcycling and allthat it means as part of our way of life.

Our position aims to protect the spirit and historic tradition ofmodifying motorcycles.

For our full report and what others are saying following the IMCOpublic hearing as well as our summary of this hearing visit theRight To Ride EU website - http://www.righttoride.eu/?p=6829

Issued by Trevor Bairdwww.righttoride.co.ukwww.righttoride.eutrevor.baird@righttoride.co.ukMobile: 07747604119Phone: 02842 757131

SMROs in Action

Pennsylvania

ABATE of PA has been able to focus its efforts on Motorcycle

Safety and Awareness campaigns. See Steve Zurl’s report in

‘Around the States’ on page 44.

Massachusetts

2011 Massachusetts

Motorcycle Safety

Awareness Period

Proclamation

MA Highway Sign alerts motorists to “Check Twice for

Motorcycles”


Ride to Work Day

Media Release: For Immediate PublicationDate: 03/17/11Subject: Ride To Work DayMotorcycle and Scooter Ride To Work Day is Monday, June 20th,2011

The twentieth annual commuting event is expected to more thandouble the number of riders on the road, according to Ride toWork, the coordinator of the activity. "Riding on this day show-cases the positive value of motorcycles and scooters for trans-portation. It is an economical, efficient and socially responsibleform of mobility that saves energy, helps the environment andprovides a broad range of other public benefits," states Andy

Goldfine, the event organizer. Motorcycle and scooter enthusi-asts and rider organizations worldwide encourage their membersto ride to work on this day, and the event has also been recog-nized by proclamation by over one hundred American cities.

According to the United States Census Bureau and the Depart-ment of Transportation, over eighty million cars and light trucksare used for daily commuting on American roads, and about200,000 motorcycles and scooters are a regular part of this mix.On Ride to Work Day, the practical side of riding becomes morevisible as a large number of America’s 8,000,000 cycles are rid-den to work.

Studies have shown that across equal distances, commuting mo-torcyclists reach their destinations in less time than those usingautomobiles, that motorcycles and scooters consume less re-sources per mile than automobiles, and that they take up lessspace on roads. Motorcycle and scooter riders seek improvedemployer recognition and support for this form of transportation,and more public and government awareness of the positive valueof riding.

Intelligent Transport

Systems: What Riders Think

Mar 22, 2011

Communicative systems, advanced navigation, intelligent in-frastructure, and so on: for the first time, with the help of ex-perts in the field, FEMA provides an outlook from behind thehandlebars. With the publication of a comprehensive positionpaper on Intelligent Transport Systems, FEMA looks at hownew technologies in transport can apply to powered two-wheelers - or not.

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) cover a wide range of con-cepts, systems and applications aimed at applying Informationand Communication Technologies (ICT) to infrastructure androad vehicles in order to improve road traffic safety, fluencyand energy efficiency, while improving connections with othertransport modes .

Presented as a natural evolution of technology, not differentfrom anti-lock brakes or airbags, they however introduce com-munication technology in traffic, by allowing vehicles to talk toeach other, or to fixed points in the road infrastructure.

Developed from individual initiatives led by car manufacturers,these advances in technology are increasingly picked up bypolicy-makers, who are keen on reaping the benefits expectedfrom a wide use.

According to the manufacturers, various technologies, rangingfrom collision avoidance and automatic braking to traffic infor-mation and automatic distress calls, herald the dawn of a newage where personal mobility will be fundamentally changed.

Because of the far-reaching ambitions pushing for the use ofthese systems, and the cooperative nature of the technologyinvolved, many powered two-wheelers users fear badly de-ployed applications, botched products, or entire networks thatwould ignore the needs of riders, or even their existence alto-gether.

Because FEMA believes that technology is a tool, not a solu-tion in itself, and that new tools should be used when appropri-ate, in order to support positive policies inclusives of all users,the European Federation presents its views on how to design,deploy and manage ITS for the benefit of everyone.

In order to do so, this paper provides policy-makers, re-searchers, infrastructure operators and manufacturers of sys-tems and vehicles with the insider knowledge to betterunderstand the needs of motorcyclists, and integrate them intothe design and management of new systems.


SMROs in ActionHeartland S.T.E.A.M.

Iowa

ABATE of Iowa's Lobby Day February 17, 2011. Too many

folks to name them all. We are standing in front of one of our

mobile Rider Education units which was parked in front of the

Capitol.

Approximately half of the ABATE attendees at Oklahoma’s

Legislative Day

Oklahoma

U.S. Representative John Kline has been a strong supporter of

motorcyclists’ rights and was the key note speaker on Saturday

night at Heartland STEAM

MRF Board Members join the key note speaker, U.S. Rep.

John Kline, Saturday night at Heartland STEAM

Asst. to the Board Mike Berger takes the stage during Heart-

land STEAM’s Friday night fundraiser


SMROs in ActionNew Mexico

Minnesota

A.B.A.T.E. of MN Lake Chapter members in the MN State

Senate Chamber with MN State Senator Majority Leader Amy

Koch on Bikerday.


Join ABATE of Michigan in welcoming the

27TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MINDSto Romulus, Michigan September 22-25, 2011

Crowne Plaza, 8000 Merriman Road, Romulus, Michigan 48174Call 734-729-2600 for room reservations ($91 room). Cut-off date: August 21, 2011

(Room amenities: Shuttle service, coffee makers, indoor pool and whirlpool, fitness center)

Conference Information: Pre-registration for conference through the MRF, 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510, Washington, DC 20002. Pre-registration (must be received by Aug. 21st): $70.00 Current, Individual member / $80.00 Non-MRF member.

Registration rate after Aug. 21st : $80.00 Current, Individual member / $90.00 Non-MRF member. Registration includes all workshops, workshop materials, and Saturday banquet. Registration questions call the MRF at 202-546-0983 or Carol Downs at 303-204-6939, [email protected].

Hosted by ABATE of Michigan, PO Box 309, Milford, Michigan 48381 – 248-685-9150 – www.abateofmichigan.org



SMROs in ActionNebraska

ABATE of Nebraska District 10 Annual Polar Bear Run was

held on Sunday, March 20th. This year District 10 is trying

something new. In an effort to get more motorcyclists involved,

each month will be dedicated to a different motorcycle com-

pany. Honda was the Bike of the Month for March, and any

rider on a Honda received a free poker hand for the run.

In addition, anyone signing up for a new or renewal ABATE

membership had the poker hand donation waived as well.

The weather was fantastic and the photos do not adequately

impress the number of riders in attendance.

Maryland

ABATE of Maryland's Freedom Rally. Taken on 3-28-11

Attending BEAST and

Bikers Inside the Beltway?For those of you planning to attend both the Bikers Inside the Beltway(BIB?) & the Beast of the East and are not required to attend the BODmeetings, there will be about 24 hours of down time between the two.We at ABATE of Maryland are working on some activities so that youwon't have to sit around your hotel rooms twittling your thumbs or watch-ing Criminal Minds reruns.

First, on Thursday evening after visiting the Capital, we are plainning tooffer a couple of dinner rides. I plan on leading a run down to Annapolisfor some authentic Maryland seafood. There will be at least one alterna-tive ride as well. Also, we are going to try to put together a list of nearby

places for those who would rather go on their own.

Second, on Friday, registration doesn't start until 4:00 pm. So, we areplanning on offering a couple of scenic / historic rides around the area.We haven't quite finalized everything yet. We will do that at our Statemeeting on April 10th. I will then e-mail the info to all of the state reps.We're looking forward to seeing all of you on May 12th.

Lenny HolcombMRF State Rep ABATE of Maryland


Heartland S.T.E.A.M. 2011, Shakopee, MNWith the Spring riding season getting into full swing, HeartlandSteam 2011 kicked off at top speed! Hosted by Abate of Min-nesota in Shakopee, MN the regional conference had membersfrom all 7

Mid-west states~MN, IA, IL, NE, WI, ND & SD and 5 of our MRF

Board members in attendance.

There were workshops on Officer Duties, How to present Sharethe Road Program, Raising Public Awareness/Fund Raising, Pol-icy Statements, Public Speaking, Grass Roots lobbying, RoadRights Worth Fighting for, Group Riding, Getting elected to officeand Protecting off-road Riding Rights. Ample opportunities forlearning, networking and “re~charging” of our own SMRO in-volvement and commitment “batteries”.

Now is the best time to do some “mental’ spring-cleaning” for allof us. We need to remember and re~examine why we joined ourSMRO or ABATE in the first place. Was it to meet new peoplewho had common interests? to party? to fight for a way of lifeand the true freedom to ride and enjoy life as we do as citizens ofthe United States? All of the above? Consider why you really be-came involved in motorcycle rights. Renew and recharge youSMRO. ABATE and MRF memberships and “batteries” today.Whatever the reason you did become involved in the fight forrights and freedom, do that mental spring-cleaning, focus on yourcommitment to motorcycling, membership and Freedom.

Polly SchoellerAbate of IowaAsst. MRF Membership

Join the MRF Group

on Facebook!

The�MRF�has�been�striving�to�

become�more�accessible�online

and�this�is�the�latest�thing�to�take

the�net�by�storm.

Get�all�the�latest�motorcycle�news

out�of�Washington,�D.C.�and�hook

up�with�some�old�friends�while

you’re�at�it.

See�you�there.

"Hardtail", MRF President/ABATE of Wisconsin Board member

speaks at Heartland STEAM

Jay Jackson, MRF Vice President, ABATE of Indiana ExecutiveDirector, addresses attendees at Heartland S.T.E.A.M. inShakopee, Minnesota


FIA Agrees with FEMA on Bike Safety

Measure

Mar 24, 2011

On Tuesday the European Parliament's Committee on the Inter-nal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) in charge of the pro-posed new regulation on type approval of motorcycles held apublic hearing on Clear Internal Market Rules for Mopeds, Scoot-ers and Motorcycles in Brussels. Again ABS was highlighted as amajor safety measure, but organisations other than FEMA alsoaccentuated the need for driver's training.

After the presentation of the IMCO working draft by RapporteurWim van de Camp last month, this week's hearing on the type ap-proval regulation concentrated on safety and environmental is-sues as well as on the timeline of its introduction. The hearing ofthe Committee was moderated by IMCO chairmen Malcolm Har-bour who, after the welcoming presentation of Rapporteur van deCamp, gave the floor to Luca Pascotto, the Mobility Director ofthe Federation International de l'Automobile (FIA).

Unlike FEMA, the Automobile clubs representative has been call-ing for the mandatory introduction of ABS on motorcycles. Mr.Pascotto presented ABS for motorcycles as "a promising technol-ogy" but also - and this is new - highlighted the need to have "5-star drivers" to improve motorcycle safety. "How to enhance thesafety of riders?" was the title of the FIA presentation. Mr. Pas-cotto's answer found FEMA's approval and underlined the groupof users the FIA usually focuses on: "To reduce risk of injury weneed five star drivers, in five star cars on five star roads".

Train car drivers to save motorcyclists

Shadow rapporteur Toine Manders took a similar position. TheDutch MEP, who will be patron of the 2011 MEP Ride, suggestedthat car drivers should be trained to ride motorcycles to increaseawareness for motorcyclists. To improve motorcyclists' safety Mr.Manders also pointed to the potential of ITS and underlined theneed for more research.

A speaker coming from the Dutch Royal Motorcyclists's Associa-tion supported the argument of FEMA and FIA that with or withoutABS training remains crucial in order to avoid emergency situa-tions. "Braking capacity depends on human capacity" - it wasMEP Mitro Repo who brought it to the point. The Finnish MEPalso agitated for rider's freedom regarding technical modificationsand the development and usage of independent spare parts. Un-fortunately, nobody was willing to respond.

Two MEPs Bernd Lange, who replaced the shadow rapporteur forthe Group of Socialists and Democrats, and Heide Rühle,shadow rapporteur for the Greens/EFA, asked for the actual coststo equip powered two-wheelers with ABS. Since the ABS discus-sion started numerous sums have been mentioned ranging from50 Euro to 1000 Euro per unit. Antonio Perlot, who was invited tospeak on behalf of the motorcycle manufacturers (ACEM), ex-

plained that the hardware would cost 250 Euro but that softwarecosts should not be underestimated since it had to be carefullyadapted for each model.

Presentations on environmental performance

Betrand-Oliver Ducreux presented an analysis of the FrenchAgency for the Environment and Energy (ADEME). The ADEMEdata supported the introduction of the World Motorcycle Test Cy-cles (WMTC) as it would bring emission measurement closer tothe expected real use of motorcycles and scooters. Mr. Ducreuxalso made clear that the durability of motorcycle emissions re-mains problematic. Another striking result of the ADEME study isthe superiority of powered two wheelers compared to cars re-garding real use fuel consumption.

The floor was also given to the Association for Emissions Controlby Catalyst (AECC). The emission figures of AECC showed thattoday some motorcycles would already comply with EURO 5 andthat one of the tested bikes even complied with EURO 6. AECCspeaker Dirk Bosteels therefore suggested MEPs to skip interme-diate emission steps and to introduce EURO 5 and EURO 6 assoon as possible.

Green bikes but durable

Making reference to the AECC study MEP Heide Rühle raised thequestion why intermediate emission steps which are Euro3 formopeds and Euro 4 for motorcycles, had been suggested at all.Antonio Perlot explained correctly that the AECC study did notperform any durability tests.

While FEMA members, in line with the greens in Parliament, wantgreener bikes as soon as possible at the same time Europeanmotorcyclists highlight the need for durability. Today manufactur-ers build bikes in a way that they appear to be clean when theyleave the factory. The bikes only have to pass emission checks atthe beginning of their life cycle and nobody requires them to stillcomply with the same emission level after significant mileage. In-stead of bargaining about the precise date of introduction for thenext emission steps FEMA gives strict durability requirements toppriority.

After the public hearing the discussion continued at the ACEMdinner debate in Parliament. Wim van de Camp brought up theissue of Repair and Maintenance Information (RMI) and gaveFEMA the floor to speak on behalf of the riders in Europe. FEMAcalled for the European Parliament to ensure that each rider willhave easy access to the information required to fix and maintainhis or her own motorcycle and also stressed the importance ofRMI for independent repairers in order to avoid monopoly situa-tions.


MRF Departmental ReportsFinanceFrank CarboneMRF Treasurer

Financial Wizard's are a lot like some of Grady's friends in thatthey tend to be very practical, conservative and on the cautiousside. In other words they find the dark cloud in every silver lining.Something has to happen about a dozen times in a row beforethe declare it an emerging trend and not just some anomaly. But Iam here to tell you that I see a sliver of light in the February num-bers. For the very first time in my wizardry tenure with the MRF,membership numbers look good in comparison to the previousyear.

Now mind you, it is only a two month comparison but new mem-berships are up almost 44% and renewed memberships are upjust over 9%. In terms of raw dollars it only represents $2,900 butthe arrows are pointed in the right direction. The financial side ofme (the evil one) says just hold on to your chaps before you goputting your a$$ out on a limb for what might be one little speedbump in the road. The biker side of me (the good one) says it hasto be the start of something big. After all, the efforts of the goodMRF and SMRO freedom fighters are starting to pay dividends ata time when so many are coming at us for helmet laws, noise re-duction, pilfering our mandated education funds, our alleged anderroneous costs to society, and whatever else they can think up.It is a very opportune time to recruit new members with all theheightened legislative and fiscal activities taking place.

The remaining side of the financial picture is that overall revenueis slightly ahead and spending is slightly down. Bottom line, weare ahead of last year. And while it is too early to tell, I believethis year's Beast of the East coupled with the third Bikers in theBeltway is going to be very well attended and attendance alwaystranslates into increased revenues. Our cash picture is holdingsteady at just over what we expect to spend in the next fourmonths.

In the stock market, history has proven that it is impossible topredict the bottom or top of any market and only a fool would tryand only a bigger fool would claim he or she is doing it. Well yourWizard may be the biggest fool, but he is going to predict that thebottom of the MRF membership numbers has been reached andwe are going to continue to increase our membership for the en-tire year. You heard it here first but please hold your applauseuntil Meeting of the Minds.

MRF Reps & GrowthGraydon Wheeler

Here it is, succinctly written.

1. If you have any advice to share with the MRF on how to attractand retain members, please do.2. To our Reps and Assistant Reps: thanks for all you do.3. To our Repless states: We patiently await your participation.

New for the State Reps.

The new Manual is here! The New Manual is here! The NewManual is here!

Yes, the new State Reps. Manual is now available to the StateReps. you can download it from the Reps. Tool Kit atWWW.mrf.org/reps

Also new to the Tool Kit as requested by one of our State Reps isan MRF Membership form. If you haven’t been to the Tool Kitthere are a few other things that can be useful for you. Rep Appli-cations, renewal postcards, a sample letter for emailing, a busi-ness card template for you to use to make your own and a fewother things. If you think there is something else we can add tothe Tool Kit please let us know.

We are proud to announce that we now have a State Rep in theState of Virginia. We would like to welcome Matt Danielson asthe State Rep. in Virginia.

We are working on building the Legislative resource Library, ifyou have successfully passed legislation in any of the categoriesbelow please send them to Eric Hampton or Myself so it can beadded to the Library as a resource for others to use.

Legislation Language, Anti-Discrimination Legislation, "No Col-ors" Policies, No Motorcycles Policies, Awareness Legislation,Motorcycle Safety Month, PSAs, Lifestyle Legislation, Alcohol,HIPAA Legislation, Mechanical Legislation, Emissions Legisla-tion, Handlebar Legislation, License Plate Display Legislation,Noise Legislation, Lighting & reflectors, Equipment Legislation,Helmet Legislation, Roadway Legislation, Camera Radar Legis-lation, HOV Lane Legislation, Red Light Legislation, RoadblockLegislation, ROW Legislation, Signage Legislation, DistractedDriving Legislation, Fuel, Marketing Your MRO.

Grady and myself are the State Reps Representatives to theMRF Board. If you have any thing that needs to be brought to aBoard meeting please contact Grady or Myself so we can ad-dress it.

Thanks for all the good work you all are doing,

Help spread the word,Legs KorteMRF State Reps., [email protected] Tool Kit: www.mrf.org/reps

Member Representative to the Board Cindy Hodges

This is the best position on the MRF board, bar none. My job isto develop relationships with our members so that they will feel atease coming to me with their concerns, issues, or hopefully, good


MRF Departmental Reports continuedcomments, that they wish to be passed on to the entire MRFboard. Granted, the position is one of the least utilized at times.I'm very proud to say that for each and every one of you who hascome to me with an idea, concern, complaint, or good word – yourwords have been carried before this board.

Certainly all the positions have their rewards but I won't blowsmoke up your skirts... it is work. All of us sit on numerous commit-tees. These committees work via telephone and email for the mostpart, which is not the most ideal way to get things done but whenwe are spread out across the nation, across time zones like weare, I think we do a darn good job.

So far this quarter I've had the opportunity to talk with many of youindividually via email and Facebook, and if you live in NC, OK, PA,or SC, I've seen some of you in person. What I'm seeing is heart-ening. As a movement, we continue to learn and move forward. Ithas been exciting to see the growth in some of our organizations,including the MRF!

Let me share with you the overall picture that is reflected back tome of late, by you sharing your own individual stories and con-cerns. A number of SMROs are ramping up their scope of work. Inaddition to moving legislation, more and more of you are creatingand implementing motorcycle awareness programs. More andmore of you are learning how to harness the funds that are outthere for you to do that. Some SMROs who had lost their focus orhave been treading water in areas of growth, have been rejuve-nated; they've been sending their membership outside their bor-ders and getting information and support from other SMROs,bringing it home and putting that information to work. MoreSMROs who have really had it together for some time are sharingand reaching out to growing SMROs. Leadership in many SMROsare tightening up things administratively in order to protect their or-ganizations so that the work can move forward without nagging in-terruptions that take focus away from the mission. These are thesorts of things that I am seeing, from our discussions.

One project I'm tasked with is dragging. I am trying to build amedia contact list. I've asked via this magazine, via the Repsemail list, and at conferences for people to forward to me thename, title, and contact information for magazines, television pro-grams, radio programs, blogs, Facebook pages, and email liststhat either are motorcyclist-rights oriented or simply motorcycle ori-ented. This can be local, national, or global. I'm looking for me-dias that reach all sorts of motorcyclists. I've gotten less than 10responses to my pleas over the past year. I suffered a computercrash and lost what I had, which amounted to a few pages inExcel. Please, if you have such information, send it to me (or sendit to me again) via [email protected]. I would very much appreciateit. This is necessary for many reasons, the foremost being whenaction is needed, sometimes some marketing and educating needsdoing. Recall when we wanted a push on the EPA issues while thepublic comment was in play? Much of the riding population had an“oh that will never happen” frame of mind and later, after it camedown on us, we got the “why did ya'll let this happen” sort of thing.So.. help us. And thank you!

From the Secretary’s desk:

Hello to all and welcome to riding season. Hope everyone haseared up checking your motorcycle for riding season and have hadthe opportunity between storms to get out and ride some. Here inthe unpredictable state of Illinois the weather can’t decide what itwants to do, but sneaking a ride in here and there helps the mood.

Just a note to let everyone know that the MRF Board meetings areopen to any member who would like to attend. The Spring/Sum-mer meeting will be in Maryland on Friday, May 13, 2011 beforeBeast of the East in Maryland.

MOTM Board Meeting will be Thursday, September 22, 2011 inMichigan.

The January meeting is usually held by teleconference on a fullday.

If you need anything please don’t hesitate to get a hold of me.

Have a great riding season Paulette KorteMRF Corporate Secretary

Communications Department Update

Ironically, the Communications Department has been pretty quietsince the last issue of the MRF Reports. That doesn’t mean thatthere is nothing going on, however.

We have been compiling biographies from many MRF Board mem-bers in an effort to put together a media press kit. Since we are allvolunteers and have many responsibilities outside of the MRF aswell, you can imagine how difficult it can be to get this kind of all-encompassing information together in one place, at one time. Weare very close to having it completed and hope to get it all wrappedup in short order.

Though I have not heard anything from anyone about the “Politi-cians Don’t See a Difference” campaign since my last departmentalreport, I am again going to prod the Reps for assistance with thisproject. If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, it isposted on the MRF’s home page online – www.mrf.org. It featurestwo very distinctly different motorcyclists standing before a beauti-ful Alaskan background. The Communications Department wouldlike to expand this campaign to include similarly distinctive motor-cyclists standing before a wide variety of backgrounds from acrossthe country – like the St. Louis Arch, the Lincoln Memorial,Yosemite, Mt. Rushmore and any other American landmarks wecan get. If you have a good photographer in your SMRO, havethem contact me at [email protected] for a little direction on the lay-out of the photo and help us get this off the ground.

Until next time around,Ride safe, ride free, ride today.Eric HamptonMRF Director of Communications


Georgia On My MindGraydon Wheeler

State Rep Board Member

As I write this, the issue of motorcycle-only checkpoints in Geor-gia is making the news.

One may ask, "Why would a fine state such as Georgia take fed-eral money to pursue an unconstitutional endeavor?".

One answer may lie in an unverified incident told me by a Boardmember. Apparently a rider, on his way to Florida, missed thesign announcing the mandatory stop. After a brief police pursuit,he faced a possible fine of $600.00. Not saying that money is thereason, but it may well be a deciding factor.

If I were making a ride to Florida, Icould easily bypass Georgia - Ala-bama has some nice riding country,especially the hills in the north - butit's a shame to have to avoid a statebecause of bad decisions made by afew bureaucrats with too much author-ity. And do boycotts really work?(Rhetorical question. Don't bombardme with examples)

Back to the constitutionality question.

For those of you without a copy of the U.S. Constitution handy - Icarry one with me when I ride - here's the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, pa-pers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon prob-able cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly de-scribing the place to be searched, and the persons or things tobe seized.

Allegedly what law enforcement looks for is a valid license, con-dition of your motorcycle and an approved (by whom?) helmet.So what happens if you or your bike doesn't pass? Are you tick-eted and allowed to leave? Does your ride get impounded? Doyou get a ride in the back of a patrol car?

And what of reciprocity? Those who defend our 2nd Amendmentusually are familiar with reciprocity. This means that my state willrecognize authorization from your state - for example, a con-cealed carry permit - as long as you recognize our authorization.Every time you drive to another state reciprocity comes into play.Your driver's license and vehicle registration are accepted asvalid in the visited state.

What if my motorcycle legally registered in my state is deemednot legal by an officer with inadequate training? Is it now up tome to prove that I am in the right? What happens when a statedecides my license isn't up to their state's standards? If I'm legalhere, I should be legal there. However, should I move to that

state, then I'll be subject to their stan-dards. This is where the 10th amend-ment steps in.

The powers not delegated to theUnited States by the Constitution, norprohibited by it to the States, are re-served to the States respectively, orto the people.

Except for when it affects interstatecommerce, the states are supposedto run things as they see fit, not as

dictated by a Federal Bureau. This is one of the strongest argu-ments to why we do not need a Senator from New Jersey tellingme what to wear in Wyoming.

Yet the Feds will circumvent the 10th Amendment via highwayfunds (in an extortionate manner): Pass a seat-belt law or wewithhold funds; Pass a helmet law or we withhold funds; LowerBAC level or we...you see how this goes.

Now the Federal Government has granted money to be use formotorcycle only "safety" check points.

When your state uses federal money to violate the 4th and 10thAmendment, you no longer reside in a United State, you live in aPolice State.

Best of the West in UtahI wish to welcome all officers and members of this nation’sSMROs to Utah. The BEST of the WEST this year is beinghosted by A.B.A.T.E. of Utah. I am hoping that everyone planningto come to Utah will ride here. Utah has some of the most beauti-ful scenery this country has to offer. Our state has four interstatehighways that run through it. I-15 for riders riding from California,Arizona, and Nevada from the south and Idaho, Wyoming, andMontana from the north. I-84 for riders riding from Washington,Oregon, and Idaho from the northwest. I-80 for riders riding fromCalifornia and Nevada from the west and North Dakota, SouthDakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming from the east and north east. I-

70 for riders riding from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Coloradofrom the east. Last but not least S.R. 262/163 and U.S. Highway191/6 for riders riding in from New Mexico and northeast Arizona.The conference is at exit # I-15/343

I hope to see you in June, Utah is a Freedom of Choice state –no skid lids for 18 yrs. and older. Come and enjoy Utah scenerywith a panoramic view on 2 & 3 wheels.

Brian (B-Y) Hepworth, CEO ABATE of Utah


Around the StatesArkansasConnie ShepherdMRF State Rep

As this goes to print our legislativesession will be ending. That is ofcourse if they can come to an agree-ment on how to draw the lines on re-districting on the Federal level. Withless than a week to go, there is a lotof name calling and finger pointingdown partisan lines at this point.

The Freedom Fighters in Arkansashad a busy year this session. Wefaced three bills directly related tomotorcycles. How did we do? Well,we won one, we lost one and we tiedone (compromised) but it could havebeen worse! We are very grateful toeveryone who made the necessarycontacts. The Legislators acknowledged the concerns of theirconstituents. We also want to say a big "Thanks" to RodneyRoberts and Tom Wewers for going to the Capitol, sometimesdays in a row, to testify on our behalf. They were ever vigilant!

Here are the bills:HB1769--TO IMPROVE MOTORCYCLE SAFETY BY REQUIR-ING TRAINING AND TESTING MATERIALS PREPARED BYTHE MOTORCYCLE SAFETY FOUNDATION TO BE USED INTHE APPLICATION AND EXAMINATION FOR A MOTORCYCLELICENSE. After some discussion with the MSF Coordinator ofArkansas, the sponsor was asked to pull the bill.

SB294--TO LIMIT THE USE OF MOTORCYCLE HEADLAMPMODULATION SYSTEMS TODAYTIME USE ONLY. Theterming out Senator who spon-sored the bill was adamant thatthe bill pass as it was a direct re-sult of his own experience. Thaton three separate occasions, hewas blinded at night by thesetypes of lights because of hiscataracts.....

We did our best, but this bill isnow headed to the Governor'sDesk.

HB1775--TO REQUIRE MOTOR-CYCLES TO HAVE TURN SIG-NALS. This bill in effect would have required turn signals onmotorcycles manufactured after January 1, 1973. This was ourcompromise bill. The manufacturing date was amended to "theeffective date of this act". It to is headed to the Governor's Desk.

Some have called SB294 and HB1775 as "oh by the way" laws.As with any law, if there is any abuse, please contact your Legis-lators and explain to them what is happening.

Well, that was our legislative session battle this year. Next yearis the fiscal session, so we shouldhave plenty of "free riding" days be-fore we gear up for the next legisla-tive session in 2013.

ABATE invites everyone to the Free-dom Run this year. May 1st, 1:00 pmstaging area War Memorial Stadiumin Little Rock. 2:00 pm Freedom Rideto the State Capitol. For more infocontact 501-835-5145.

Hope to see everyone there!!Ride Free, Ride Safe,Connie ShepherdArk MRF Rep

ConnecticutRon TroiaMRF State Rep

Well spring has finally arrived and I know many are very happy tosee this change of seasons. It has been an extremely long andtough winter in this part of the country and it is my hope not toever see another one like it. I had never even heard of a roofrake then one cold winter morning I found myself standing in linefor two and half hours to buy one! Great!!!

The Connecticut Motorcycle Riders Association just held its an-nual Legislative Dinner at Aldario’s in Milford and once again it

was a resounding success.Mary Stuart continues to runthis event with perfect precisionthere is no doubt that everyonehad a great time. Thank you toMary and her assistants fordoing a great job and also toyoung Vincent Ingala for doingan outstanding job of entertain-ing us. That kid has unlimitedtalent and potential.

On the legislative front it looksas though we will come outclean this year as far as un-friendly motorcycle legislation inConnecticut is concerned.

There was never any mention of a mandatory helmet law adjust-ment in Hartford but very late in the session a group of doctorsindicated their intention to push for an all rider mandate. Fortu-nately for us they made their “push” too late in the session to


Around the Stateshave any impact at all. We are however very concerned aboutthe prospects for next year. It is believed that they will be backearly and ready at the start ofthe next session so we must beprepared to do battle with themat that time.

There were some proposals thisyear that caused us some con-cern such as mandating VehicleIdentification Numbers on motor-cycle exhaust systems and pro-hibiting anyone who does nothave a motorcycle endorsementfrom purchasing a motorcycle inthe state. The exhaust issuecaused a problem because virtu-ally no motorcycle in the statewould be legal under the terms of this proposal. No manufactur-ers that we know of stamp the vehicle identification on their ex-haust systems. My personal problem with that is that it just wasfor motorcycles! As for prohibiting anyone without a motorcycleendorsement from purchasing a motorcycle that would put everycity, town, and state agency at odds with the law since an entitycannot obtain a motorcycle endorsement. All the police motorcy-cles could not be registered as well as any rental or training vehi-cles. You have to wonder how these people dream up thesecrazy ideas!! Anyway it looks as though those proposals aredead for this year.

I would like to thank newly appointed Assistant Legislative Direc-tor Sandra Clark for her terrific efforts in preparing and present-ing testimony on our behalf in Hartford. Sandra was recentlyappointed to her new position and I am very impressed with herskill and knowledge in her presentations. Way to go Sandra!!!

The CMRA will be sending atleast 5 people to the MotorcycleRiders Foundation Beast of theEast seminar this coming Mayand just prior to that some ofthem will participate in the Bik-ers in the Beltway event. Weare looking forward to thoseevents for sure.

The annual May Day BreakoutParty in Wolcott is scheduledfor May 1st so plan ahead to bethere for some fun and to sup-port the organization that worksso diligently to preserve our in-dividual freedoms.

There will also be at least one poker run coming up this summeras well as a pig roast coming in September. Details are still beingworked on for those events but once they are finalized they will

be posted on the web site at www.thecmra.com.

We are also once again accept-ing PayPal for payments on theweb site so feel free to shop orrenew from the comfort of yourown home or even you companycomputer! Remember we cando this but we cannot do it with-out you.

OK please ride safe and defen-sively since after the long winterthe other drivers are not accus-tomed to watching out for us. Itstime to get out those “CheckTwice-Save a Life” bumper stick-ers to give them a gentle re-

minder

Ron TroiaConnecticut

IdahoDave CazelMRF State Rep

Well, on this deadline day for the MRF Reports this state rep hasvery little to report as far as the state legislation in Idaho. Todaythe Senate’s Transportation Committee passed HB 091, “the cov-ered loads ”bill which had passed the House of Representativeslast week. Next week the bill should go before the entire senatefor a vote and if we’re lucky and have done our homework, Idahowill have a “covered loads” law. No more articles blowing out ofthe back of recreational vehicles or from people taking refuse tothe dump.

This bill will protect Idaho driv-ers and motorcyclists from ob-stacles and refuse from blowinginto traffic from other vehiclesthat could maim or cause acci-dents. It will not only protect rid-ers and passengers but will alsokeep Idaho’s highways and by-ways cleaner and more pristinefor all. We’re right down to theshort hairs on this bill as the leg-islative session was normallyscheduled to end tomorrow,April 1st, but with the budgetconsiderations of the legislature

the session will be extended. Hopefully in the next Reports I’ll beable to report that the MROs of Idaho had a successful legisla-tive session in 2011.


As I mentioned in the last Reports, Idaho motorcycle rights or-ganizations are trying to stay ahead of the curve on motorcyclingrights and freedoms through education, awareness and legisla-tion where necessary andpossible.

Also for all of you that will beattending the Best of the Westin Ogden, Utah on June 13-15, take a few extra days(we’re right next door) andride your scooter a couple ofextra miles and come see

beautiful Idaho and ride with

choice. We’d love to have ya.

IllinoisJim “Legs” KorteMRF State Rep

As of April 2nd this is our current status in Illinois.

We Oppose and have been able to keep five Helmet Bills inCommittee as follows.

SB55, which would Makes it unlawful: for a person under the ageof 16 to operate or be a passenger on a bicycle unless he or shewears a protective bicycle helmet; for a person who weighs lessthan 40 pounds or is less than 40 inches in height to be a pas-senger on a bicycle unless the person can be and is properlyseated in and adequately secured to a bicycle safety seat; andfor a parent or legal guardian of a person below the age of 12 topermit the person to operate or be a passenger on a bicycle in vi-olation of the foregoing provisions. Provides for a civil penalty,and that moneys collected under this Act shall be deposited intothe Share the Road Fund. Provides that, in the case of a first of-fense in a 12 month period, the court shall waive the civil penaltyupon receipt of satisfactory proof that the violator has, since thedate of the violation, purchasedor otherwise obtained an appro-priate protective bicycle helmet orbicycle safety seat. Provides thatfailure to wear a protective bicy-cle helmet or to secure a passen-ger to a restraining seat is notadmissible as evidence in a trialof any civil action. Provides thatexcept in cases involving a par-ent or legal guardian of a personbelow the age of 12, a law en-forcement officer observing a vio-lation of the new provisions shallissue a warning to the personand shall not arrest or take intocustody any person solely for a violation. 3/18/11 Assignments

SB57, Creates the Ski Slope Safety Act. Provides that every skiarea operator shall ensure that skiers and snowboarders are notpermitted to enter ski areas without protective helmets and re-

quires all skiers and snow-boarders to wear protectivehelmets while in a ski area.Sets forth penalties for viola-tions of the Act. Provides thatthe Director of Public Healthshall adopt reasonable rules toenforce compliance with theAct. 3/18/11 Assignments.

HB292, to provide that schooldistricts must provide instruc-tion in relation to the laws re-garding the operation ofall-terrain vehicles and off-high-

way motorcycles in grades kindergarten through 12 and may in-clude the instruction in social studies, American government,driver education, or other appropriate courses of study. Amendsthe Illinois Vehicle Code to prohibit any use of all-terrain vehiclesor off-highway vehicles on roads. Provides that the Secretary ofState may suspend a person's driver's license for 6 months for aviolation of provisions relating to the illegal use of all-terrain vehi-cles and off-highway motorcycles on streets and riding an all-ter-rain vehicle or off-highway motorcycle as a passenger. Providesthat it is illegal to operate an all-terrain vehicle or off-highway mo-torcycle if the operator is under the age of 16, does not have avalid driver's license, or is not wearing a properly fitted helmetsecured to the person's head. Provides that a person mustdemonstrate knowledge of all-terrain vehicle and off-highway mo-torcycle laws on the written examination for a driver's license,and provides that information relating to all-terrain vehicle andoff-highway motorcycle laws must be contained in publications ofthe "Rules of the Road" by the Secretary of State and "Laws forYouth" by the Legislative Research Unit. 3/17/11 Rules

HB285, Provides that every op-erator and passenger on a mo-torcycle, motor driven cycle, ormotorized pedalcycle who isage 26 or younger must wear ahelmet that meets federalsafety standards. 3/17/11Rules.

HB 290, to require every oper-ator and passenger on a motor-cycle, motor driven cycle, ormotorized pedalcycle to wear ahelmet that meets federalsafety standards. 3/17/11Rules.

We have also been working the following Bills.

Around the States


Around the States

SB1291, Provides for the issuance of ABATE special licenseplates for passenger vehicles of the first division, motor vehiclesof the second division weighingnot more than 8,000 pounds,and motorcycles. Provides that,in addition to the appropriateregistration fees, an applicantfor the special plates shall becharged a fee of $15 at originalissuance and $2 at each re-newal. Provides that the addi-tional fees shall be depositedinto the Secretary of State Spe-cial License Plate Fund. Effec-tive January 1, 2012. 3/31/11Passed the Senate by a 52 – 1Vote and is now in the HouseRules committee. We support this Bill.

HB1914, Provides that no special fund shall be subject tosweeps, administrative charge-backs, or any other fiscal or budg-etary maneuver that would in any way transfer any amounts froma special fund into any other fund of the State. 3/9/11 2nd Read-ing House. We support this Bill.

HB1979, Provides that "gasohol" means a motor fuel that is a de-natured ethanol and gasoline blend that contains (i) no morethan 1.25% water by weight and (ii) the maximum proportion ofethanol authorized by the United States Environmental Protec-tion Agency under Section 211 of the Clean Air Act (rather than amotor fuel blend that contains 90% gasoline, 10% denaturedethanol, and no more than 1.25% water by weight). Provides thatif, on or after June 1, 2010, the United States Environmental Pro-tection Agency (USEPA), while acting under the authority grantedit in Section 211 of the Clean Air Act, authorizes an increase inthe maximum proportion of ethanol that may be included in motorfuel blends, then (i) a motor fuel blend containing a proportion ofethanol greater than that which was authorized prior to theUSEPA action shall not be treatedas gasohol under the Retailers' Oc-cupation Tax Act, the Service Occu-pation Tax Act, the Use Tax Act, orthe Service Use Tax Act, until (A) theDirector of Agriculture and the Direc-tor of the Environmental ProtectionAgency have each separately certi-fied to the Director of Revenue thatthe new motor fuel blend meets thedefinition of "gasohol" in this Sectionand that the blend can be legallyand safely produced and deliveredto consumers with non-flex fuel vehi-cles and (B) the State Fire Marshalhas been provided information by the storage tank owner or op-erator that the storage tank system, including the fuel delivery in-

frastructure, meets technical requirements for these regulatedstorage tank systems under rules promulgated by the Office ofthe State Fire Marshal pursuant to the Gasoline Storage Act and(ii) a motor fuel blend containing a proportion of ethanol equal to

or less than that which was au-thorized prior to the USEPA actionshall, for 180 days after the Direc-tor of Revenue receives the last ofthe required certifications, con-tinue to be treated as gasoholunder the Retailers' OccupationTax Act, Service Occupation TaxAct, Use Tax Act, and Service UseTax Act. 3/17/11 3rd ReadingHouse. We oppose this Bill.

SB 1380, Provides that the De-partment of State Police may not

require a State Police officer to issue a specific number of cita-tions, complaints, or warning notices during any specified timeperiod for violations of traffic regulations governing the move-ment of vehicles. 3/18/11 Assignment. We Support this Bill.

HB2860, Provides that the driver of a motorcycle, facing anysteady red signal which fails to change to a green signal within areasonable period of time because of a signal malfunction or be-cause the signal has failed to detect the arrival of the motorcycledue to the motorcycle's size or weight, has the right to proceedsubject to the rules applicable after making a stop at a stop sign.4/1/11 Passed the House with a vote of 104 – 0. And now goes tothe Senate.

We would like to thank the Reps. from the States that sent usinfo on their Bills or Laws, it has helped greatly.

For all of you that have helpful info please sent to Eric Hamptonthe MRF Director of Communications and Information. He isbuilding a Resource Library for all of us to use.

That’s it for now from Illinois. Hopeyou all have a successful year and,

Help spread the word,Legs KorteIllinois MRF State Rep.

IowaJodi CainMRF State Rep

On February 17th ABATE of Iowahad its annual lobby breakfast at theCapitol in Des Moines. One of ourtalking points was companion bills

HF290 and SF78 which would allow the use of motorcyclesequipped with detachable stabilizing rear wheels on Iowa roads.


Around the StatesOne brand that we used as an example is Voyager(www.mtcvoyager.com). As there were already 700 Voyager kitowners in Iowa, it was a problem that needed to be addressed.The existing law, the term “motorcycle” was defined as “every

motor vehicle having a saddle or seat for the use of the rider and

designed to travel on not more

than three wheels in contact with

the ground including a motor

scooter but excluding a tractor

and a motorized bicycle”. Theproposed bills stated that“Notwithstanding any other pro-

vision of law, a motor vehicle

this is originally designed as a

two-wheeled motorcycle and is

modified using conversion hard-

ware which allows for the attach-

ment and detachment of two

stabilizing rear wheels may be

operated on a highway with the stabilizing wheels attached in ac-

cordance with the provisions of this chapter applicable to motor-

cycles. A motorcycle shall not be determined to be reconstructed

based on the sole fact that two stabilizing wheels have been

added as described in this section.”. HF290 passed the IowaHouse 95-0. The Iowa Senate withdrew SF78 and passedHF290 48-0. It was signed into law by Governor Branstad March30.

Another of our talking points was SF292. This was an attempt toclose a loophole in the Right of Way legislation that was passedin 2006. That legislation provided for enhanced penalties incases involving serious injury or death as requested by theCounty Attorney. Currently, if a peace officer fails to endorse“court appearance required” on an information or uniform citationand complaint (if they don’t check the box on the ticket), a defen-dant can pay the ticket using snail mail, the website, or going tothe County Clerk’s office and never go to court. With the multi-tude of State Police, Sheriffs, Deputies, City Police, Town Policeofficers, etc… we are finding it impossible to educate all of themon this topic. SF292 would allow the conviction (paying the fineas described as above) to be set aside within sixty days if theCounty Attorney filed an objec-tion. We only have 99 CountyAttorneys which is a muchsmaller group to educate.While SF292 passed out of theIowa Senate 49-1, it got stalledin House subcommittee anddid not make it through oursecond funnel. The upside isthis is the first year of a twoyear session so the bill is notdead, just resting while we dia-logue with the three membersof this subcommittee to get itmoving in January.

In March we were part of the nice turnout for Heartland STEAMin Shakopee. I believe among our group we made it to all of thebreakout sessions. I personally attended How to put on a Sharethe Road presentation, Grassroots Lobbying, Policy Statements,and Road Rights Worth Fighting For. Each of them was worth

the trip up there. There was alsoan incredible amount of informa-tion shared during the GeneralSession Saturday morning. Itdoesn’t matter what State we’rein, we all seem to have the sameopportunities and frustrations. It’snice to network and comparenotes instead of trying to reinventthe wheel all by ourselves.

Our Share the Road program hasalready presented to more than1000 people this year with many

more classes scheduled. Our mobile Rider Education units willbe up and ready to go for the season as of April 2. A specialthank you to all the presenters and Rider Coaches that take timeout of your lives to educate those with whom we are sharing theroads.

On April 21st Governor Branstad will be signing the proclamationdeclaring May Motorcycle Awareness Month. The following weekthe Eighth Annual Motorcycle Safety Forum will be held in Ames,Iowa. The theme for this year is Ride Bright-Be Smart Be Seen.“Conspicuity”, which means easily seen or noticed; readily visibleor observable; and attracting special attention was the theme twoyears ago. Same theme, just easier to pronounce and spell.

Our annual lobby trip to Washington D.C. has been scheduledthis year to coincide with Bikers Inside the Beltway. As of thiswriting we have 3 of our 5 Congressmen already signed ontoHR412 “Kids Just Want to Ride Act”. We are 0 for 5 on HR904but hopefully by the time we get to D.C. we will just have to leanon the stragglers.

Respectfully submitted, Jodi CainIowa MRF Rep

MaineJoshua HerndonMRF State Rep

Last issue I reported that thelegislature was off to a slowstart presenting bills. Finally,seven bills relating directly tomotorcycles were produced.One was a bill to require aperson who obtains a motor-

cycle endorsement on their driver’s license to wear a helmet for


Around the Statesten years. The law now requires a one year period of mandatoryhelmet use. That bill has been withdrawn by the sponsor after re-alizing there was very little support for it. One down six to go.Five of the remaining bills were given public hearings on March24 in the Transportation commit-tee and all five were scheduledfor work sessions for April 1. Thework sessions are where therubber meets the road. The oneremaining bill has not beenscheduled for a public hearingas of this report.

I was hoping to be able to reporton the outcome of the bills afterthe work sessions but MotherNature has taken a role in theprocess. A major storm was pre-dicted for April fool’s day with upto a foot of snow accumulatingand all public hearings and work sessions scheduled were can-celled. So, I will briefly describe each bill and my impression ofthe public hearings.

LD 351, the helmet bill. Withdrawn by sponsor.

LD 221, a bill to put the inspection sticker on the registrationplate. This is a friendly bill to place the sticker on the registrationplate instead of a separate plate or the fender. The testimony forLD 221 was very good and I think the outlook is positive for it topass. Senator Plowman (sponsor) introduced an amendment toremove all mounting positions other than the tag. There was notestimony against the bill and the Bureau of Motor Vehiclesspoke neither for nor against. BMV did bring up a couple con-cerns with putting the sticker on the plate but I think we hadcounter testimony that negated theirs. One thing was the tagwasn't big enough to put the registration sticker and the inspec-tion sticker both. I happened to have brought my old plate fromFlorida that plainly shows thatthere is enough room for both.The other thing was that thesticker would be subject to theweather so it would be unsuitableto affix it to the tag. My responseto that was that the sticker for reg-istration was exposed to the ele-ments and holds up fine and sowould an inspection sticker madefrom the same material.

LD 477, a bill to require EPA la-beling of motorcycle exhaust sys-tems. This is obviously anunfriendly bill. There is strong opposition to this bill from the StatePolice as they feel it is unenforceable. LD 477 had a LOT ofspeakers FOR it. At least three from Maine Citizens Against Loud

Motorcycles (MECALM). A doctor also talked about hearing loss.Our first person to testify against the bill was the director of theMaine State Police Traffic Safety Unit. He reiterated the findingsof the working group that was mandated by the legislature under

LD 1675 last year and basicly toldthe committee that EPA labelingwould not work and was not theanswer to the noise problem somepeople thought it was. I backed uphis testimony with the EPA labelsurvey from New York City, a copyof which was put into each of thecommitte members hands, so theycould see for themselves the lackof feasibility of using labeling forenforcement. Eric Fuller andSonny Bridges representing theMaine Motorcyclist P.A.C. gave fur-ther testimony against the bill.

LD 704, a bill to remove the requirement for a motorcycle safetyinspection. Eric Fuller (MMPAC), the director of the Maine StatePolice Traffic Safety Unit and other concerned bikers testifiedagainst this bill. We need safety inspections to help prevent noiselaws or new equipment standards.

LD 925, a bill to change the process by which proof of inspectionis determined. This bill would reverse the documentation processby requiring a motorcycle to be inspected before the motorcyclecan be registered. This bill would require several laws bechanged to accomplish the intent and the motorcyclists feel it is astep backwards for us. Eric Fuller and the director of the MaineState Police Traffic Safety Unit testified against the bill.

LD 1011, a bill to confiscate motorcycle mufflers that are exces-sively loud or defective. What can I say about this one? The bestI can say is that the sponsor’s thought process was not function-ing at its highest level. Eric Fuller and the director of the Maine

State Police Traffic Safety Unittestified against this bill.

LD 1359, a bill to repeal the re-quirement for a motorcycle todisplay an inspection sticker andto allow municipalities to enactlocal noise ordinances. The mo-torcyclists of Maine will definitelybe speaking against this billwhen it comes up for a publichearing and working against itthrough the legislative process.

Well, there it is. Maine’s defend-ers of motorcyclist rights are having a busy legislative seasonthis year. I am disappointed that I couldn’t report the outcome ofthese bills in this issue. Please check the MRF website on the


Around the States‘States MRO Legislation’ page for an update soon. I feel surethese bills will have a final disposition before the next issue ofMRF Reports is in your hands.

Our riding season is just gettingstarted up here in the frigid north.Ride safe this year and please,watch out for the other guy. Don’t letthe idiots run you down.

MarylandLenny HolcombMRF Asst. State Rep

Well, it's the end of March and ourlegislative session here in the FreeState is almost over. As most of youare aware, we (ABATE of Maryland) submitted three bills thisyear. And while none of them have quite finished running theircourse, all of them are still alive.

The first is HB 1282, a bill to eliminate discrimination against mo-torcycles at publicly funded parking facilities. This bill passed outof committee 23-0. Then out of the full house 136-0. Now it's onto the Senate, where we expect a similar outcome. Then every"publicly funded" lot / garage in the state will have to accommo-date motorcycles.

The second bill, SB 257, is the bill we submitted to give our pre-viously passed Right of Way law more teeth. In this bill we areasking that "anyone who receives a citation for an accident caus-ing death" be required to appear in court. The bill has passed outof committee 10-1 and out of the full Senate. Now it's on to theHouse. While we still have a ways to go, the fact that it made itout of the Judicial Proceedings with a positive vote is a signifi-cant achievement. As this has always been a tough committeefor us. We also lobbied to add thewords "Serious Bodily Injury" to thebill. As of this writing we're not sureif the attachment was added.

The third biil, SB 852, is to have thefine for non-compliance of the helmitlaw put in line with the seatbelt fine.Our feeling being that they are both"safety" issues, so the fines sould bethe same. Keep checking theABATE web site for updates.

Along with awaiting the end of thesession and hopefully the successfuloutcome of our bills, most of us are impatiently awaiting the ar-rival of spring. It just seems that winter does not want to let gothis year. Which means that one of these weeks we will probablygo from 30 to 90 degress in a matter of a day or two. But hey, ifyou're from this area, than you should be used to that.

And with Spring, we are playing host to two MRF events. Theyare both taking place the second weekend in May. This first isThe Bikers Inside the Beltway (BIB?) on Thursday, May 12th. As

the unofficial host state, we'd love tosee a great turnout from Maryland.And if you are planning on attendingthen you should make an appointmentwith either your Representative or oneour two Senators. I just got conforma-tion from Rep. Bartlett. I'll be in his of-fice at 11:30 am. The second event,which we ARE the official hosts of, isThe Beast of the East. This will beheld at the Holiday Inn BWI Airport.This will be on Friday May 13th & Sat-urday May 14th right on the heels of

Bikers Inside the Beltway. Again, we'd love to see a big ABATEturnout for this. If you've never been to an MRF legislative con-ference, then this is your chance. This is a great opportunity tonot only learn about what's going on the motorcycle rights move-ment but, also meet fellow freedom fighters from all over thisgreat country of ours.

As an added bonus, the conference is FREE to all ABATE ofMaryland members. The only cost for members is if you chooseto attend the banquet / auction ($40.00) and if you choose to stayat the hotel ($92.00). So, go on line @ MRF.org and REGISTERNOW!!

See you in May...

Lenny HolcombMRF State Rep ABATE of Maryland

MassachusettsDoc DerricoMRF State Rep

Massachusetts Celebrates 10th

Annual Motorcycle Safety Aware-

ness Period

Massachusetts, as with most of NewEngland, suffered a significantlyharsher winter than usual; snows inthe teens of inches followed by moreof the same causing schools androads to be closed days at a time,many weeks in a row. This leads to

many becoming stir-crazy and really wanting to get out on theroad!

Four seasons can be beautiful, but these long winters also resultin motorists becoming more familiar with lumbering snow plows


Around the Statesinstead of motorcycles. Large, slow moving vehicles becomefodder for quickly accelerating cars to pass and avoid on theroads; these behemoths are east to spot, and their slowerspeeds easy to identify. Not so Motorcycles…

Motorcycles are inherentlysmaller and by nature moredifficult to judge with regard todistance or speed. When amotorcycle approaches, carsare no longer used to judgingwhether they can make it outonto the street or cross into aside street or driveway.

Motorcycle Safety Aware-

ness

Enter the Massachusetts Mo-torcycle Association (MMA)and the MA Motorcycle Safety Awareness Period. Since its in-ception 10 years ago, passed into Massachusetts General Lawat the request and shepherding of the MMA, a proclamation issigned each year by the Governor declaring the Month of April as“Motorcycle Safety Awareness Period”. The MMA has workeddiligently to help reduce early season motorcycle accidents andfatalities by leveraging this period with public relations and edu-cation campaigns.

With significant help from the Massachusetts Department ofTransportation and specifically the Massachusetts Rider Educa-tion Program, the MMA has been successful in obtaining use ofhighway and toll booth signs reminding all motorists to “Sharethe Road”. Coupled with the MMA’s Trademarked “Check Twice– Save a Life, Motorcyclists are Everywhere” campaign whichdates back to 1982, these signsact as a critical reminder thatmotorcycles are out there onthe roadways.

Indeed over the course of thepast 10 years, Massachusettshas noted an improvement inearly season Motorcycle Acci-dents and Fatalities. In additionto the awareness campaign, theMMA hopes to further contributeto reducing fatalities througheducation. The simple statisticsare that approximately 80% ofall Motorcycle Fatalities in Mas-sachusetts are with riders who had no Rider Education. Lastyear, the MMA hosted 2 complete weekends of ExperiencedRider Courses to help promote education among the rider ranks– these discounted courses sold out within 2 weeks of announce-ment and with the help of 2 MMA “Gold Card Members” schools,

were a huge success.

Education, not Legislation

The MMA has been a major advocate in helping educate ridersand awareness campaigns tar-geted at all motorists. Unfortu-nately, there are still those whowould choose to legislate ratherthan educate; this LegislativeSession in Massachusetts is noexception.

Announced in January, the MMApublished its Legislative Agendafor the 2011-2012 LegislativeSession in Massachusetts.Within weeks, it became evidentthat the MMA would also befighting as many, if not more,

bills than it’s sponsoring. To battle this, the MMA published acomplete list containing bills of interest, a summary of the bill, theand MMA’s position. Available to its members, the MMA asksthat all riders specifically fight the anti-motorcycle legislationwhile supporting the MMA’s agenda.

Of specific interest this session, 2 bills specifically restrict a mo-torcyclist’s ability to assert their rights as parents by carrying theirchildren as a passenger! One of these bills has been filed be-fore, by State Representative Pedone who was previouslyquoted in the press calling motorcyclists “knuckleheads” for car-rying children on their bikes.

Another bill requires that a person obtain a standard drivers li-cense before a motorcycle license (setting a very bad precedent

here in Massachusetts andperhaps nationally), and yetanother contains one of themost anti-motorcycle legisla-tive positions on motorcyclesound in the country.

This latter, filed by State Rep-resentative Speliotis requiresrestrictive sound testing anddB limits well beyond even theEPA, and acts to enforcepenalties that are even beyondthose of a DUI including a 6month loss of license and ex-treme fines!

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty!

As quoted by John Philpot Curran, these words are a mantra ofthe MMA as we ask our membership to be on the lookout for


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Wayne Wierson

MRF Member Representative

As a Member Rep for the MRFI've had a number of opportunitiesto travel to different states to pro-mote the MRF and to also presentShare the Road. I'm surprised athow much each State Organiza-tion is so alike; they all have peo-ple very committed to Motorcycle

Rights. They all have folks that seem to have spent the last hun-dred years as members and never seem to burn out. They allvalue freedom and watch closely so that no bureaucrat tries totake it away. They are all loyal to God, Country and Family.They faithfully attend meetings and encourage others to join andparticipate.

They are also very different; each state has its own problemswithin its organization. Bikers are the most independent critterson the face of the earth. Trying to get everyone to agree oneverything is like trying to herd cats! The fact that they are so in-dependent as people makes a difficult and challenging situation.Each organization has raised money for total strangers, be it chil-dren or adults that have fallen on hard times. They have goneout of their way to ride in rain or cold weather or even sunshineto support someone less fortunate. They have given up week-ends to work for some charity and help make a difference andyet may never have met the person or persons they are helping.

It's hard for me to understand that with all the charity in theirhearts for strangers that they will totally disavow someone intheir own district or chapter who says the wrong thing, doessomething that is not within the realm of what is "normal", or dis-agrees with someone else. Why do we give strangers the bene-fit of the doubt but not our own Brothers and Sisters who work tomaintain freedom just as hard as we do? There are bad or hardfeelings for members of our district or chapter, districts don't getalong with other districts, chapters don't get along with otherchapters, state organizations don't get along with other state or-ganizations.

The bottom line is not that we agree on every little thing. Thefact remains that freedom to ride the way we want is the most im-portant! The time spent working and expending energy aboutsomething other than combating whatever the Government is try-ing to do to us is time WASTED!

Can we ALL agree that freedom to ride, to come home safely atthe end of the day and promotion of motorcycling as a lifestyleshould be our top priority?

Can we agree that by ourselves we are less likely to accomplishthis goal than if we had other like minded people working for thesame thing?

Can we agree that time spent on things that take our focus fromthe freedom to ride is playing into the hands of government offi-cials who want the infighting and bickering to divide us and makeit easier to hinder our efforts?

When the NTSB, NHTSA or some other government entity work

continued page 54


Around the Stateslocal ordinances within their towns that may affect motorcyclistsand motorcyclists rights. More information on all these bills andactivities can be found on the MMA’s website, http://www.mass-motorcycle.org

Rest assured that the MMA plans to continue to fight all anti-mo-torcyclists legislation and re-tains a constant vigilancetowards actions which threatenour rights as Motorcyclists,whether in Massachusetts, oron the national stage in supportof the MRF!

MichiganSubmitted byMike PrzybyloMRF Asst. State Rep

ABATE of Michigans mission ismore than political or judicial. Itis in equal parts about safety.Our own and the motorcyclists to follow us. While our LegislativeCommitees do their work to safeguard our rights and promotelaws concerning our safety our Educational and Awareness Pro-grams do work that saves lives a little more directly. The best re-sult of an accident is that it DOES NOT HAPPEN! By teachingnew riders how to ride safely our Educational program doeseverything we can to prepare them for the road. The problem is,the majority of the accidents between bikes and cars are the faultof the car driver. The majority of those are the fault of the newdriver ( 6 months or less ). We try to target ALL drivers in Michi-gan for Awareness Instruction inseveral ways. To date ourAwareness Instructors havebeen guest lecturers to over60,000 drivers training studentsor age apropriate High Schoolstudents. Over 6000 in 2010alone. We talk to them in reallife manner and appearanceabout what we do on the roadand why. Real life experiancesmixed with facts. Several of ourRegions put up billboards.Everything from 4x8 plywood tothe large commercial ones onthe expressways.

Other Regions work closely with the media. The I-75 corridor isblanketed with radio ads promoting awareness to any cage driverrelieving their cartrip induced boredom by listening to the radio.Addressing the cause of accidents and correcting them is theway to save lives. Education, not Legislation.

Michael Lee Poage Motocycle Awareness

Director, ABATE of Michigan

MinnesotaMike BergerMRF Asst. State Rep

Legislative progress continuesin Minnesota on behalf of itsmany motorcyclists. Our In-creased Penalties bill is slowlymaking progress. In the StateHouse it has progressed de-cently and is now part of alarger omnibus bill, meaningthat the only way it can be re-moved is by a motion from theHouse floor – a very good thingwhen it comes to gettingpassed. In the Senate the bill(SF 201) is currently in theSenate Transportation Commit-tee where some language is-

sues are being ironed out. And hopefully by the next time youread this report I’ll be able to tell you that it was voted upon andmade law.

One victory we have had in Minnesota deals with handicappedplates for motorcycles. In the past, handicapped motorcyclistshad to either bolt a large car license plate onto their machines, orthey had to use the small plastic handicapped permits that hangfrom a car mirror, hoping that someone didn’t steal the thing.

Now, thanks in no small part tothe efforts of A.B.A.T.E. of MN’sState Coordinator Mack Back-lund, Minnesota will now offerhandicapped plates that arespecifically made for motorcy-cles. This is a great victory forour veterans and others whoqualify for handicapped platestatus, and now these folks willbe able to safely park their vehi-cles – be it a car, a motorcycleor a trike – in a designatedhandicapped space by using anappropriate license plate.

On other fronts, your MinnesotaMRF Crew recently held its second Annual “Fishin’ for Freedom”Ice Fishing Contest to benefit the MRF, and we raised close to$200 in the event. Additionally, we’ll be once again holding ourMRF Flag Shoot at the A.B.A.T.E. of MN State Rally, where for asmall fee you’ll be able to have a photo taken of you and yourbike in front of the American Flag, and you’ll receive an 8x10glossy print suitable for framing. (Check in the State Rally pro-


Around the Statesgram when you’re there to get all the details as far as time andexact location). We here in Minnesota feel pretty confident that,just like last year, we’ll raise the most money through a fundraiser for the MRF among the 50 states, and we challenge theother MRF teams to beat our record – there’s a lobster dinner forfour at stake!

Heartland STEAM was agreat success, and we had awonderful turnout and spec-tacular speakers. A.B.A.T.E.U in April looks to be anothergreat event, and of coursewe have the MRF’s Beast ofthe East, Best of the Westand Meeting of the Minds tolook forward to. Get out andride, get educated by attend-ing one of these great semi-nars and get your voiceheard in defence of motorcy-clists’ rights – after all, they’reYOUR rights; fight for them!

Respectfully, Mike BergerAsst. State Rep.

New MexicoAnnette TorrezMRF State Rep

150-175 motorcyclists and bi-cyclists attended New Mexico’s8th Annual Bike Day at theCapital on February 19th. Thewalls of the State Capital Ro-tunda were lined with motorcy-clists in black leather, as themotorcycle community teamedup with the state’s bicyclistcommunity in support of HB68, The Careless Driving Bill.Unfortunately HB 68 did notcomplete its journey throughthe Senate before the legisla-tive session ended. On a posi-tive note, the bill got furtherthan it ever has before, wemade good contacts in the Senate and House of Representa-tives and we gained insight as to what to do in the future to ac-complish our destination. HB 68 would have amended thecurrent careless driving statute to increase penalties on driverswho cause a crash which results in “great bodily harm” or death.Also, a member of the House of Representatives approached theNew Mexico Motorcyclist Community for our support on HB 531,

which would have required the Posting of Manufacturer’s Sug-gested Retail Price on all new motorcycles. Unfortunately, this billalso did not reach its destination before the legislation sessionended. I thought it was awesome that the legislators came to us,to ask for our support and help. This tells me we have receivedthe respect and acknowledgment that we have worked so hard toachieve to promote fair laws in our state. We also had a Tribute

to Fallen Bikers at our BikeDay. We displayed photosand told stories of motorcy-clists and bicyclists who havedied on our highways at thehands of careless drivers. Themedia was there to film andinterview us on our quest.

In 2010 there were 39 motor-cyclists killed on the highwaysof our state. This number istoo high, therefore; we wantto work on a Summer SafetyAwareness Campaign, to pro-mote safety to all who sharethe road. This will include a

safety awareness day, bill boards and DOT electronic signs,making everyone aware of motorcyclists and bicyclists on ourroads and help save the lives of the vulnerable user not pro-tected by the steel cage. We are also in the process of request-ing monies from the Department of Transportation to help withour campaign.

New Mexico has chosen anew assistant MRF represen-tative, Debbie Matthews. Deb-bie is co-owner of ShowStoppers Motorcycle Shop.She is also the President ofthe Mz Behavin Divas, an allfemale motorcycle club. Deb-bie has been an important andvital part of our community formany years, and I know shewill give 100% to the MRF andthe motorcyclists in our state

Remember to Honor our fallenVeterans in May on MemorialDay. Thank the troops andtheir families for all they do

and for their service to our country. Support them and never takethem for granted, they are the persons who fight for our rightsand freedoms. They are our heroes.

Continue to achieve the possible and impossible.

New Mexico MRF Representative Annette Torrez


Around the States

NevadaJohn BlandMRF State Rep

Nevada’s legislative bill SB177 now in the Senate TransportationCommittee will allow adults voluntary helmet use. MotorcycleMRO’s, clubs and individualshave come together in supportof this bill. Long time freedomfighter, Senator Don Gustavsonintroduced the bill and has intro-duced similar helmet bills in thepast. There has been a hearingon SB177 in the Senate Trans-portation Committee but theTransportation Chair, ShirleyBreeden did not call it for a voteand instead requested it go to aworkshop. The hearing went ex-ceptionally well with articulate,factual information presented byspeakers in favor of helmetchoice. The typical insurance,law enforcement and traffic safety representatives were presentand several spoke in opposition. This was my fourth legislativesession listening to the typical opposition. They seemed arro-gant with unsupported opinions. Law enforcement present wasobviously aggravated their statements and facts were beingquestioned by the legislators during their testimony. A lot of workeducating legislators paid off and the majority of the Transporta-tion members support passage of this bill. Concern is growingthat Transportation Chair Shirley Breeden is going to kill the billby not calling it to a vote. Thiswas standard procedure forpast Transportation Chair Den-nis Noland who was belliger-ently opposed to voluntaryhelmet use. It became obvi-ous that Mr. Noland held littlerespect for individual rights. Itbecame apparent that Nevadamotorcyclists needed to uniteand vote Dennis Noland out ofoffice. With help from others,that’s exactly what we did dur-ing the last elections! Wehave no choice but to turn ourefforts to remove any legislatorthat does not uphold individualrights and liberty and ignorestheir constituents. The voting strength of motorcyclists can bevery powerful. The Nevada Legislative opinion poll showsSB177 is one of the most supported bills introduced this session.It is unacceptable for the Transportation Chair not to call this billto a vote, we’re confident it would pass. We’ll see if SenatorShirley Breeden is listening to her constituents, if she’s not she is

likely to go down the same path as past Chair, Dennis Noland.

North CarolinaCindy HodgesMRF State Rep

CBA/ABATE of NC is workingdiligently to move, block, andmonitor various pieces of legis-lation. Kudos to those memberswho have actively and success-fully gotten legislation entered,or who have helped do so.Thomas “Doc Ski” Wasileski,Legislative Director, Paul Wilms,Raleigh chapter Legislative Co-ordinator, and Charlie Boone,State Vice President, have hadfeet to the ground probablymore than anyone else this pastmonth, getting it done! The fol-lowing is a listing of bills of inter-

est to the motorcyclists of North Carolina. Please contact yourlegislators accordingly!

H 113 The Motorcycle Safety Act. This bill increases the mini-mum fines for violating a motorcyclists right of way. The bill waspassed unanimously. It will now return to the floor of the Senateto be voted on. If it gets approved by the Senate it will go to theGovernor's Desk for signature.

H 187. REQUIRE LABELSFOR ETHANOL-BLENDEDGASOLINE - This bill was re-ported favorably by the HouseCommittee on Commerce.

H 205. MOTORCYCLEAWARENESS MONTH - Thisbill, introduced at the requestof CBA/ABATE, designatesMay as "Motorcycle Aware-ness Month. The bill wasgiven a favorable report by theHouse Rules Committee andwas calendared for consideredby the full House.

H 375. CHECKING STATIONSUNLAWFUL - Makes it unlawful for any law enforcement agencyor officer to conduct a checking station or roadblock unless theestablishment of a checking station or roadblock is to cordon offan area to locate an offender specifically named in an arrest war-rant. Provides that any other person passing through the road-block or checking station shall not be subject to arrest for any


Around the Statesreason except when the person has an outstanding arrest war-rant or the person has committed an implied consent offense andhas been warned by a law enforcement officer at a checking sta-tion or roadblock not to proceed and the person continuesthrough the checking station in contradiction of the warning. In-troduced by Rep. Glen Bradley (R-Franklin). Filed: 3/16/11.Passed 1st reading, referred to Committee on Judiciary: 3/17/11.

H 381. CHECKING STATION PAT-TERN SELECTION - Prevents lawenforcement agencies from estab-lishing patterns for vehicle stops atchecking stations based on a partic-ular type of vehicle. Introduced byRep. John Torbett (R-Gaston).Filed: 3/16/11. Passed 1st reading,referred to Judiciary SubcommitteeB: 3/17/11.

H 389. STUDY MOPED REGISTRA-TION AND LIABILITY INS. - Re-quires the Joint LegislativeTransportation Oversight Committeeto study the need for a motor vehicle registration, inspection, andfinancial responsibility program for mopeds. Introduced byHouse Rules Committee. Filed, passed 1st reading, referred toCommittee on Rules: 3/16/11.

H 392. MODIFY MOTORCYCLE HELMET REQUIREMENTS -Repeals the requirement that a person who is eighteen years oldor older wear a helmet while operating a motorcycle on a publicstreet or highway or public vehicular area. Introduced by Reps.Kelly Hastings (R-Gaston), Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), Darrell Mc-Cormick (R-Yadkin). Filed:3/16/11. Passed 1st reading, re-ferred to Committee on Trans-portation: 3/17/11.

H 392. MODIFY MOTORCYCLEHELMET REQUIREMENTS - Re-peals the requirement that a per-son who is eighteen years old orolder wear a helmet while operat-ing a motorcycle on a publicstreet or highway or public vehic-ular area. Introduced by Reps.Kelly Hastings (R-Gaston), TimMoore (R-Cleveland), Darrell Mc-Cormick (R-Yadkin). Filed:3/16/11. Passed 1st reading, re-ferred to Committee on Transportation: 3/17/11.

SB 339 Modify Driver Education Program introduced by SenatorFletcher Hartsell is being heard in the Senate Chamber thisweek. CBA requested that the bill include an amendment that al-lows for one hour of motorcycle safety awareness training to beincluded in the state curriculum.

SB 480. LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE - Repeals the re-quirement that a person who is eighteen years old or older weara helmet while operating a motorcycle on a public street or high-way or public vehicular area. Also has wording that states thoseunder the age of 18 must wear an FMVSS-218 approved helmet.Introduced by Sen. Kathy Harrington (R-Gaston). Filed 3/31/11,not yet assigned.

S 355. MASONIC SPECIALPLATE/MOTORCYCLES - Author-izes DMV to produce a motorcycleplate for civic clubs such as theJaycees, Masons, Kiwanis, Optimist,Rotary, Ruritan, and Shrine. Intro-duced by Sen. Don East (R-Surry).Filed: 3/16/11. Passed 1st readingand referred to Committee on Fi-nance: 3/17/11.

OklahomaCarol KingMRF State Rep

Thursday, February 23, 2011. ABATE of Oklahoma’s 20th An-nual Legislative Day at the Capitol, also known as our LegislativeBreakfast or simply “The Breakfast.”

Fruit? Check.

Juice and water? Check.

Doughnuts? How many dozen?28? Check.

Bagels? Check.

Coffee? They say we can’t haveit this year. <sad face>

Sign-in sheets? (He’s late!)Okay, check.

Dawn Canaday has the patchesand rockers. Cool. She’s great.

8:30am. The first of 210 leatherclad, concerned citizens of theSooner State start trickling in offthe elevators to the 4th floor Ro-

tunda. It’s show time in Oklahoma City.

9:00am. Folks gather in the conference room reserved for us.John Pierce, Legislative Coordinator, and Suzette NorthcuttRhodes, ABATE of OK’s lobbyist, discuss strategy, etiquette andthe one current bill of concern. Bill SB443 would add a motorcy-


Around the Statescle and bicycle awareness module to drivers’ ed programs. Ex-cellent idea.

9:30am. A wave of black leather sweeps over the 3rd and 4thfloors of the Capitol. Up and down the corridors bikers are talk-ing with their legislators and the legislators are listening. Yeah,all the behind the scenes work and stress was definitely worth it.

I’ve got to take a “brag break”here. Oklahoma has one of themost beautiful Capitol buildings,and I’m not biased. It’s full offabulous art, murals and statuaryand it is the only Capitol buildingwith a producing oil well. Comeby and see it sometime.

11:30am. ABATE of Oklahoma isrecognized in the House cham-ber, followed by recognition in theSenate chamber.

Todd Lamb, newly elected Lieu-tenant Governor and member of ABATE of OK, received thehighest award we give. He was quite surprised and deeplytouched. He is a great friend of motorcyclists statewide and pro-vided invaluable help while he was a legislator.

Many of the legislators came to the Rotunda to greet their con-stituents. Some were asking at the sign-in table how many oftheir constituents were in attendance.

The Senators, Representativesand the Legislative Assistants allsay that the bikers are their fa-vorite group to come and lobby.The bikers are polite and respect-ful, not demanding or difficult.

Garry “2R” Canaday, State Coordi-nator, ended up in an elevator withGovernor Mary Fallon and her po-lice escort. He asked her to joinus, but she said that she had togive a speech at 9am, andwouldn’t be able to. Well, maybenext year. (And I can only imaginewhat her escort thought.)

All in all, this was one of our most successful Legislative Days. Ahuge thanks to John Pierce for all his work making this happen.Also to Sharon Stone-Husman and her husband Lance fromIowa from all their assistance in getting our Share the Road pro-gram rolling. It can only get better from here.

Oregon

Allan NicholsMRF State Rep

Well its that time of year again. Days are getting longer , tempsare getting warmer, and before we know it we will be ridingagain. So what do we do as responsible riders ? We make sureour rides are ready , and we make sure that we are ready men-

tally and physically. But as we dothis , if you are anything like me ,we tend to forget what is going onin our capitol. We look forward tothe ride so much we forget aboutwhat people are doing in order toallow us to keep enjoying thefreedom of the ride. Put simply weget complacent. People... we cannot afford to do this any longer.We have to keep focused on theissues and not let the people thatare looking out for us in Salemstand alone. We have bills in leg-islation right now that need oursupport. We won a major battle

with HB 2797 that will describe how we can transport firearms onour bikes and atv's in black and white so there will be no moregrey area. But it hasn't passed yet . HB 3141, the helmet bill,has met with some stiff resistance as we thought it would. Whenthe floor opened up for testimonies, each speaker was given 3minutes and a couple were even cut short of being able to maketheir point. We need to keep up the pressure on our reps andnot forget to thank the ones that are supporting us and are stand-

ing up for our rights. Other billsstill out there are the age limit forpassengers bill , the funding cutfor Team Oregon disguised as arate cut for our motorcycle en-dorsements, and also a bill thatwill remove the requirement oftaking a safety course if a limitedendorsement ( three wheeled mo-torcycle endorsement ) is appliedfor, as well as the resurrection ofthe sobriety checkpoints.

So as we ride around this beauti-ful state of ours, we should al-ways be mindful of what ourfreedoms are and how people aregoing to try to take them away .

They will not try to get rid of the motorcycle itself. They are goingto try to make it so difficult to enjoy the ride by putting so manyregulations on riding that they hope we will just give up and notride. Like no more aftermarket accessories , pipes , tires , carbs,or anything that will increase horsepower. All these items havebeen put before a committee and have been shot down, so far.But how long will this last if we just sit by and let it happen? Be-cause at some point we will lose all of our champions, whether


Around the Statesthey retire or just plain give up because of a lack of support. Sothis summer I hope you will join me and enjoy the treasures thisstate has to offer us and enjoy the runs and rallies. Get out thereand make the most of our time on the road. But while we are outthere, we should always be look-ing out for one another . Weneed to keep each other in-formed and as a group ... no ..

as a BROTHERHOOD we canmake our freedoms remain free-doms and not something we willhave to fight to get back in thefuture.

Ride free, ride safe, and i willSee you on the road.

Respectfully Allan Nichols Motorcycle Riders Foundationrepresentative for OregonA.B.A.T.E. State Vice Coordinator North, Oregon

PennsylvaniaSteve ZurlMRF Asst. State Rep

Spring is normally a busy time of year for ABATE of PA. Thisyear has been no exception. ABATE has been involved in meet-ings with PennDOT, Safety & Awareness Campaigns, and lobbyefforts. It took over 30 years, but I think we’ve convinced themthat “us bikers” ARE seriousabout our safety, and can providevaluable input.

Since the modification to PA’sHelmet Law in 2003, ABATE ofPA has been able to focus its ef-forts on Motorcycle Safety andAwareness campaigns. Thesecampaigns have evolved in to acooperative effort involvingABATE of PA, PennDOT, and thePennsylvania Motorcycle SafetyProgram (PAMSP).

In PA, May has been designatedMotorcycle Safety & AwarenessMonth. For the entire month, PennDOT’s lighted highway signsdisplay a “Watch For Motorcycles” message on the major road-ways. The “Live Free – Ride Alive” program makes its wayacross the state, carrying its message of motorcycle safety. And20,000 bright yellow lawn signs are set in place, with the mes-sage “Watch For Motorcycles”.

Two of the pieces of legislation ABATE of PA is supporting both

involve the PA Motorcycle Safety Program. One law would limitwhen a motorcycle permit can be renewed, and make the Motor-cycle Safety Program course a requirement for obtaining a ClassM junior driver's license. The other would limit the civil liability for

property owners who allow theirland to be used for the PennDOTauthorized Motorcycle Safety Ed-ucation Program.

The “Watch For Motorcycles”Lawn Sign campaign has be-come synonymous with ABATE.This program started small, andwas originally fully funded byABATE of PA. The program grewin popularity, and was noticed byeveryone – Especially by the PARepresentatives that struggle toget a few hundred of their cam-paign signs placed! We place20,000 lawn signs each year!

The sign program, recognized for its effectiveness in communi-cating the safety message, is now a combined effort of PennDOTand the PAMSP. Looking at the sign graphic, you’ll see all threeweb sites, side-by-side.

In a recent meeting with PennDOT, there were a couple disturb-ing statistics pointed out. 30% of PA’s motorcyclists’ fatalities in-volved impairment. For comparison, it’s 29% nationally. In 25%of PA’s motorcyclists’ fatalities, speed was a factor. These arefactors where the motorcyclist has direct control, and can PRE-VENT a collision from occurring!

Using PA as a case study, the mo-torcycle fatality numbers were notaffected by the 2003 modificationto PA’s helmet law. The modifica-tion was not the “carnage” pre-dicted by one of the majornewspapers. PA still has a helmetlaw! The law sets requirementsfor Freedom Of Choice, and al-lows adult motorcyclists the rightto make their own decisions. Byidentifying a common goal – Mo-torcycle Safety & Awareness –ABATE of PA has established aworking relationship with the Leg-

islators, PennDOT, and the PAMSP to make a difference!

Steve ZurlAssistant MRF RepresentativePennsylvania

Rhode IslandLou Petrucci Jr.


Around the StatesMRF State Rep

From the State that elected a Governor with only 36% of the Vot-ers selecting him much and a Congressman who left the City ofProvidence so far in the hole we may have to sell it to Massachu-setts here is the legislativenews.

House Bill 5218 will allow atranslator for anyone who is notproficient in the English lan-guage when taking a road test.It does not mention which testso I am assuming if they areparticipating in the required mo-torcycle course they may use atranslator. Great, do I put thetranslator in a side car?

House Bill 5370 and SenateBills 019 & 307 are The RhodeIsland Motorcycle Association’s(RIMA) Parking Bills. Either one of these Bills will require a desig-nated parking space for motorcycles every 30 automobile spotsat Public Buildings. Airports and Colleges will be exempt.

Senate Bill 269 will increase fines for failing to Yield at rotaries,controlled and uncontrolled intersections.

House Bill 5493 will exempt the trade in value of a motorcyclefrom the sale tax of a new or used motorcycle. Presently a num-ber of items from certain news papers too fishing vessels havesome sort of tax exemption. This of course in this economy willbe a hard sell.

South DakotaLarry NielsonMRF State Rep

.ABATE of South Dakota’s mem-bers are surviving an unusuallylong winter of snow and notbeing able to ride...which isevolving into a flooded coldspring that also makes riding dif-ficult. Bummer!

ABATE leaders who also aremotorcycle safety instructors at-tended a RIdercoach Update and Professional DevelopmentWorkshop in March where we educated our fellow Ridercoachesabout how ABATE helps the safety program by supporting it inthe legislative process. The meeting proved to be a learning ex-perience for all, and our focus is striving to prevent crashes, notpursuing the folly of trying to make crashes safer. Some Rider-coaches still do not share our philosophy though, we plan to con-

tinue to educate them.

South Dakota had good representation at Heartland Steam andthanks Minnesota for hosting an excellent conference.

With the arrival of the robins,ducks, geese, bike shows andthawing roads everyone is look-ing forward to a great riding sea-son here, come join us enjoyingthe scenery and experience ofSouth Dakota.

Upcoming events: ABATE ofSouth Dakota conducts a MayMotorcycle Awareness Run thatcoincides with our BOD meetingSaturday the 21st. Riders willconverge on the Capitol onPoker Runs from all corners.We will have a photo opportunityand presentation at our Capitol

building and activities afterwards.

Also, for those of you attending the Sturgis Rally, a reminder toreserve Thursday afternoon for the Whitewood Social, a gather-ing of motorcycle rights activists from all over the country for fel-lowship, relaxation, and sharing.

TennesseeCarol SimpsonMRF Asst. State Rep

March 29th at 3:00 CST HB0153was heard in Full TransportationCommittee.

To quickly refresh your memoryHB0153 was to prohibit underthe age of 5 from riding as apassenger on a motorcycle.

Click on the link below to pull upinformation about the bill.You can also click on "VideoClips" and watch the Transporta-tionhearing of the bill.

http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/billinfo/default.aspx?BillNum-ber=HB0153

There was much wrangling of politics to get to this point. ScottMcColpin, State Legislative Director, met with the bill sponsorand our champion, Rep. John Tidwell, before the first hearing onthis bill in Full Transportation on March 15.


Around the StatesIt was decided that Rep. Tidwell would offer an amendment thatchanged the bill language from preventing children under 5 frombeing motorcycle passengers, to simply requiring that all passen-gers' feet must be on the footpegs (footpegs are already requiredequipment in Tennessee Code). This amendment showsCMT/ABATE's solid intent in promoting safe riding for ALL motor-cyclists. If an 11 year old child's feet can't reach the footpegs,they can't ride. This does not interfere with a parent's decisionon whether their child can safely be a passenger, it just providesa requirement for safe riding.This amendment passed, andthe sponsor's supporters didn'tlike it. So there was heated de-bate, and John Milliken, Depart-ment of Safety Rider EducationProgram Director testified thatthere had been no fatalities ofchildren under five in the State'sstatistics for at least the last tenyears.

Then the bill was rolled until theCommittee's meeting on March29. During this time, one ofCMT/ABATE's dedicated mem-bers, Tony Gobble of Waynes-boro, TN, dedicated a day of his time to handing out bullet pointsheets to all of the committee members, aiding our LegislativeDirector tremendously.

The chairman of the committee, Phillip Johnson, recognized thatthe sponsor did not like the amendment, and that CMT/ABATEhad a firm hold on common sense with the amendment. Hemade the recommendation that the bill be sent to a summerstudy committee. The committeevoted to approve his recommen-dation. What does this mean forCMT/ABATE? For one, it can'tpass this year, with or withoutthe amendment. It will be sent toa summer study; some time thissummerWe are going to have a Legisla-tive Day on the Hill on the dateof the Summer Study. I will pub-lish the date as soon as I knowit.

Hopefully, the committee will noteven meet on this (it is difficult toobtain a quorum in the summer) but we will keep an eye on this.The sponsor can re-file the bill next year after the results of thestudy have been done.The fight is not over yet. But, we scored a big victory by gettingthis done.

Scott McColpin's direct quotes about this effort:

"This bill had great momentum in the house and had me seri-ously concerned about our ability to defeat it.We decided at the last B.O.D. that we would oppose this legisla-tion, so we did. I would like to thank ALL people that took thetime to email or call the people on the transportation committee.I'm attaching the bullet points in opposition to again remindeveryone."

The motion to send the bill to a summer study was made by Rep.Dean. The second was madeby Rep. McDonald. Scott didnot expect Rep. McDonald tomake the second on sendingthis bill to summer study, as hewas for it. Scott, and theCMT/ABATE legislative teamappreciates all the work SumnerCounty Charter did in contactingtheir representative, Mike Mc-Donald, to show their opposi-tion in regards to this bill. It justgoes to show how we can makea difference by never giving upon keeping in touch with ourlegislators-eventually it paysoff!!.

In closing, Scott says "Keep up the good work everyone.And score a victory point for freedom."

TexasRick BolandMRF State Rep

During the month of march therewas a fund raiser for the MRFAwareness and Education. Thiswas put together with JacksonHewitt Tax Service and RobinWarfield. For every return theyprepare during the month ofMarch, they will donate $5 dol-lars to the MRF Awareness andEducation.

May 20-21 2011 is Texas ABATEannual State Party in BellsTexas. Everyone is welcome.Texas ABATE is also workinghard on the AMSEP program.

This venture has been put together by Penny and a lot of helpfrom Wayne Wierson. This program is going to get to the drivereducation programs. We have started a test market and it hasgone well. Matter of fact it is going is lot better then first thought.

So soon we will get this out around the big state of Texas and get


Around the Statesthe information to the young drivers. Of course we will need thefunding we hope to get from the state to really get this going.Have applied for a grant from Texas. We also have a new ABATEChapter that has applied for membership. The Chapter is ABATEH.A.M.R. Chapter. Welcome aboard.

Legislative we have road blockbills that have been introduced.The Texas Legislative crew fromTMRA2 is keeping track of these.They are HB 439 and SB 288and companion bills HB 48 andSB 294. These last 2 bills havebeen referred to Senate Commit-tee on Transportation & Home-land Security. HB 439 and SB288 have been referred to Crimi-nal Jurisprudence. We need towrite our representatives andSenators to not support thesebills. Also keeping track of ourMotorcycle Safety funds. Gover-nor Perry wants to use these funds to help balance the statebudget. Well he has a big fight on his hands. Also want to men-tion the Fusion Center Bill SB 1572. Just a quick history of why Iam mentioning this bill is because we have had motorcyclistsfrom across the state are reporting to the COC&I and the TMRA2that DPS officers and local police are pulling them over, takingpictures of their patches and tattoos, and placing their informa-tion into fusion center databaseswhen there is no criminal activitysuspected. So this bill will help tostop this action and protect arider’s constitutional rights. Mayin Texas is Motorcycle Safetyand AwarenessMonth. TMRA2 and COC&I andTexas ABATE go out and getproclamations and attend councilmeetings to obtain the proclama-tions. There are also someevents planned around May forMotorcycle Safety Month. So re-member Motorcycle SafetyMonth in May.

RIDE SAFE and FREERick BolandTexas MRF RepTexas ABATE Legislative OfficerTMRA2 Member

WashingtonMike CampbellAmbassador at Large

Washington State has been making history this Legislative ses-sion. We have 9 pieces of Legislation being worked that con-cerns Motorcycles and Motorcyclists. Most importantly are theMotorcycle Profiling and the Parade Bill.

Persistence and calls to action inthe 12th hour moved these twobills from Rules committee toHouse and Senate floors for avote.

ABATE of Washington and theCOC has been working very hardthis session together to movethrough the process.

“Addressing Motorcycle Profiling”means the illegal use of the factthat a person rides a motorcycleor wears motorcycle-related para-phernalia as a factor in decidingto stop and question, take en-

forcement action, arrest, or search a person or vehicle with orwithout a legal basis under the United States Constitution orWashington State Constitution. You can read the full Bill 5242 at:http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo

Type in 5242. This bill goes to the House floor for a vote afterhaving been moved from rules at 2:00 PM today 3/31/2011 just 3

hours before deadline. This billpassed the Senate 48-0 previ-ously.

“Parade Bill” was an exclusivelaw in Washington State thatgave the authority only to theChief of the Washington StatePatrol or his designee to suspendtemporarily the rules for wearinghelmets. Washington State is ahelmet required State. The Chiefhas NEVER given permission toride without helmets in a parade,but allowed unlicensed vehicles(floats), un-seat belted passen-gers, children riding in trailers, on

tractors and etc. This bill will suspend certain motorcycle ruleswhen operating in parades or public demonstrations and author-izing local jurisdiction to make that determination. You can readthe full Bill 1328 at: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo Type in 1328.This bill goes to the Senate floor for a vote after having beenmoved out of rules just hours before the deadline for committeepassage. I was holding off writing this report hoping I could re-port the bills still alive. I do hope to bring the information to theBest of the West that we have passed these bills and gained theGovernor’s signature.


Around the StatesI do want to express my appreciation to all those who haveworked so hard in moving these bills forward. ABATE of Wash-ington, the Confederation of Clubs and the US Defenders Pro-gram has tirelessly spent long hours, traveling, attendinghearings, letter writing, emails and phone calls. I would like toname some individuals that seem to have worked above all therest to make this happen, butchoose to only say that we didthis as a TEAM. Of course wealso owe appreciation to theBill Sponsors: Representativeand Senators of which wecould not have done it withoutthem.

Respectfully submitted, Michael CampbellAmbassador at LargeABATE of WashingtonWashington State [email protected]

Late entry: House of Representatives House vote on FINAL PassageApril 1, 2011ESB 5242 - 2011-12Addressing Motorcycle ProfilingApril 1: Rules suspended; Placed on Third ReadingPASSED: Yeas, 91; Nays,0 Absent,0; excused 6.Next step: Governor’s Desk

WisconsinDave DwyerMRF State Rep

I am sure that many of youhave heard about the unrestin Wisconsin caused by theBudget Repair bill. The re-sulting protests in Madisonhave resulted in us having toreschedule our Lobby Daytwice now. After we picked anew date we found out thatorganized labor was planninganother rally for the sameday. This time instead of can-celling again the decisionwas made to go with thesmaller group of seasonedveterans to make our issues known before the full budget is de-bated and enacted. We did have a smaller contingent in MadisonApril 5th. Our ABATE Legislative Committee, including RegionalLegislative Officers met with our Legislators in smaller groups tolay the groundwork for our large group Lobby Day this fall. With

this smaller group we were able to negotiate our way through theprotesters and make our way into the Capitol to hold our meet-ings.

I will not pick sides on the budget repair bill provisions here, butwe do have to keep in mind that the protesters on both sides are

doing the same thing we do, pe-titioning the government for a re-dress of their grievances. Thelabor side sees this as a lively-hood issue. The other side seesthis as a sustainability issue. Wehave members firmly committedto both sides of this issue.

We had timed the circulation forcosponsors of our bill to fix theflaws in the ROW violationpenalty portion of Act 466 to co-incide with our original date forLobby Day. Getting 500 bikersinto downtown Madison and into

our Capitol in the midst of the ongoing protests would have beenimpossible. Because of this, and the fact that most legislators’ of-fices were not answering their phones and their email systemwas swamped, our bill, AB 55, was introduced with only 6cosponsors. This is not a problem at this time because we havebeen told there will be no action on this until at least the fall ses-sion. By that time we will have another full scale Lobby Dayplanned. Our members have been very understanding of the sit-uation in Madison and have been in support of our decisionsabout the timing of Lobby Day for 2011.

Here is the Legislative Reference Bureau analysis of our bill;

Under current law, the oper-ator of a vehicle must yieldthe right-of-way to anothervehicle under certain circum-stances, including: 1) whenturning left across traffic; 2)at an intersection postedwith a yield sign; 3) whenentering a through highwayor a highway from an alley ordriveway or from a parked orstanding position; or 4) whenentering a highway from an-other highway that ends at a“T” intersection. A personwho fails to yield the right-of-

way as required is subject to a forfeiture of not less than $20 normore than $50 for a first offense and not less than $50 nor morethan $100 for any subsequent offense within a year, except thatthe forfeiture is doubled if the person fails to yield at a yield signin a highway maintenance or construction area or in a utility workarea. In addition, if a person’s failure to yield the right-of-way re-



Lifesavers 2011 Phoenix, ArizonaPaulette Korte

MRF Corporate Secretary

I remember a few years ago at our state Seminar, Buck was talk-ing to me about having a presence at the Lifesavers Confer-ences held by NHTSA. Having a watchful eye out and making apresence known to the “Folks” that we as motorcyclists are pres-ent and accounted for and have an interest in what they have tosay. In the same turn, to also be heard on their analogy of mo-torcycling in deaths, accidents, VMT, Data collection, and the listgoes on.

The conferences usually start on a Sunday morning and continueuntil Tuesday. Fees for registration are usually high, hotel cost isusually high and it is interesting to see the level of funding for theconferences (sponsorship), and there are 4 levels of sponsoring.

Every year it is always interesting on what there is to say aboutmotorcycling and who is going to present and participate in thosepresentations. This year the participants were NHTSA, Insur-ance, NTSB and others.

NHTSA was waiting over the weekend for the publication of thenew standards for 218 on helmets. This has been ongoing fortwo years, bouncing back and forth and apparently is in final writ-ing. Keep an eye out on the National Registry for publication.

The National Standards for Motorcycle training will be out in itsfinal draft by June of this year. It is back to the 10 panel for final

writing. This was presented to the Administrators of the pro-grams in August of last year at the SMSA conference; it was thento be brought back to the states for comment by instructors fortwo months. Fun part, as not too many folks even knew it wasbrought back to them for comment or discussion, for example inour state, the Administrators of our program don’t even partici-pate in the program but made comment and did not take it to theUniversities contracts for comment. It will be interesting to seewhat is published for those of us who are Instructors.

There is a company called IADLEST (International Association ofLaw Enforcement Standards and Training), upon arriving on Sat-urday the day before things started there was a day class spe-cific to training Officers on motorcycle specific issues. Most ofthe class is about how to make motorcycle specific stops, how tocheck helmets for compliance, DOT specific and how to reportaccidents to be universal. There will be 20 more of thesethroughout the NHTSA regions in 2011. There was an officerfrom New York on a “Handbook” for “Roadside Checks” for stateswho are taking in consideration of doing this. For more informa-tion on this organization here is their website: www.iadlest.org ifnothing else find out when the training program is going to be of-fered in your region and get invited to the region conference.This organization also had a flyer called “Pursuit Policy Work-shop for Law Enforcement Officers”

NTSB did a presentation, still based on the 6 accidents research,they did give their opinion of helmet usage which hasn’t

continued page 52

Around the Statessults in bodily harm or death to another, the court must suspendthe person’s motor vehicle operating privilege and the personmust forfeit $200 if bodily harm results, $500 if great bodily harmresults, and $1,000 if death results. For any failure-to-yield viola-tion, the court must also order the person who commits the viola-tion to attend a traffic safety schoolapproved by the

Department of Transportation (DOT)and conducted by a police depart-ment, sheriff’s office, or regularly es-tablished safety organization. Thetraffic safety school must acquaint theperson with vehicle right-of-way rulesand provide instruction on motorcy-cle, pedestrian, and bicycle aware-ness.

Current law also allows a court tosuspend a person’s operating privilege if the person is convictedof violating any state or local traffic law.

Under this bill, if a person is convicted of a failure-to-yield viola-tion that results in bodily harm, great bodily harm, or death, DOTmust suspend the person’s operating privilege, but a court can-not suspend the person’s operating privilege.

This DOT suspension must be for a period of two months if theoffense resulted in bodily harm to another, three months if the of-fense resulted in great bodily harm to another, and nine months ifthe offense resulted in the death of another. The bill requiresDOT, instead of a court, to order a person to attend traffic safety

school for a failure-to-yield violation.The traffic safety school must be con-ducted by a regularly establishedsafety organization, a licensed driverschool, or a provider of driver educa-tion courses and must be approved byDOT. The traffic safety school’scourse of instruction must acquaintthe person with vehicle right-of-wayrules and provide instruction on mo-torcycle, pedestrian, and bicycleawareness. If the traffic safety schoolis conducted by a driver school orprovider of driver education courses,

the driver school or provider must issue a certificate upon suc-cessful completion of the traffic safety school. If a person’s oper-ating privilege has been suspended as a result of afailure-to-yield violation that results in injury or death, DOT maynot reinstate the person’s operating privilege unless the personhas successfully completed the traffic safety school.




Lifesavers 2011 Phoenix, Arizona continued changed. The insurance companies that participate in a studyshowed the payout base on motorcycle accidents based on year,make, model and rate of insurance coverage.

CDC (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Divisionof Unintentional Injury Prevention) is now a participant in Pushingfor Universal Helmet Law on the radar screen. Their presenta-tion is Motorcycle Safety, How to save lives and save money.The break down consists of: Who Dies, Who Pays, Save Lives,Save Money, Public Support, and Taking Action. We are nowbeing called again a detriment to society and costing tax payersmoney!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are just a few points of interest brought up and have en-couraged other MROs who attended to write their thoughts. Themore the merrier of what is going on in these conferences. Iwould personally encourage MRO to attend these conferences tokeep presence known.

If anyone would like to print out the handouts of breakout ses-sions go to the LifeSavers website and click on the informationyou want to get.

Paulette Korte

There Are Two Kinds of Riders…Stacey “Ax” Axmaker

Recording Secretary for

MRF A&E

I’m sure that we have allheard this phrase - “Thereare two kinds of riders; thosewho have gone down, andthose who will go down.” I’d

like to suggest that we STOP saying this – especially to new rid-ers. Let’s talk about why I feel that way.

#1 – It’s an opinion, not a fact. It can’t be proven true (but it canbe proven un-true; just find a rider who has never crashed andhas recently passed away of natural causes…)

#2 – There are multiple strategies and techniques that arm ridersto avoid crashing. You can find them in books, videos, and ridertraining courses.

#3 – Giving up. This one is probably the least thought of rea-sons, but can have some severe consequences. Let’s picture anew rider that has been told that ‘sooner or later, all riders crash.’When this new rider gets into a situation with crash potential(skidding rear tire, car pulls out in front of them, starting to runwide in a curve, bike starts to fall over at low speed, etc.), they

may simply decide that ‘this must be my time to crash’ – in otherwords, they give up and accept the crash as inevitable. Whenthe human mind holds a thought like this, the motivation to thinkof solutions and act on them diminishes, and the belief that theresimply may not be a solution grows.

The late Ron Shepard (former MSF staffer and director of theIdaho STAR Program) was fond of the phrase “Never throw awaya perfectly good motorcycle.” What this means is that whilecrashes do happen, and any given riding situation could end upin a crash – you don’t have to help it get there (don’t ‘lay it downto avoid the crash’). Another longtime rider education expertputs it this way “If you’re going to crash, ride it all the way to theground.” The reasoning being that if you keep riding it (stay onthe bike, stay in control, use the controls, look where you want togo, etc.), you stand a good chance of not crashing. In otherwords – don’t give up.

We want all riders to ride with the belief that what happens tothem when they ride is primarily up to them. Yes, crashes hap-pen, and all riders should be aware of and prepared for that pos-sibility (armed with skills and dressed to survive a crash).However, the reality is that crashing is not inevitable. We – asveteran riders – have a responsibility to the new riders. Let’sNOT teach them to give up.

From a YAS RecipientEditor’s Note: Don’t forget that nominations are now being ac-

cepted for the 2011 Young Activist Scholarships - see

www.mrfae.org for details

Lori ButlerABATE of Iowa

So what can I say about my experience at the Meeting of theMinds? Educational – Enlightening –Exhilarating! I constantly felthumbled being in the presence of the greatest minds in the motor-cycle rights community and it made me wonder if I’ll still be here in20, 30 or 40+ years staying active in what I care so much about. Ihad many great opportunities to speak with others from around thenation and it was so encouraging to hear how we all face the same

problems and by being to talk to each other we’re able to share ourexperiences and knowledge so we can all go back home a littlesmarter and with some new ideas. I know I feel a little smarterafter attending the break-out sessions on your rights during a traf-fic stop, Awareness Rallies and Wayne’s Share the Road presen-tation. Slider’s general session presentation was another greatone to hear, the pictures and videos do a wonderful job of showingthe real-life side of these road conditions and situations that we alltalk about. Of course my most memorable experience will be theYAS panel discussion – I hope myself and the other winners wereable to bring to everyone in attendance some useful insight intothe minds of young motorcycle activists. I know I was very happyto meet the other two winners and hear what they had to say. Imust say though that I was relieved when it was over and glad I


From a YAS Recipient continueddidn’t trip over my own feet walking up to the front! The YASScholarship program is a very worthwhile program and I hope itwill continue to be a part of the Meeting of the Minds for manyyears to come.

Meetings like these are so valuable to our cause because of whatwe can learn and take back with us. My husband and I talked al-most all the way home– who we talked to, what the sessions werelike, what we learned, and what we can take back to our Chapterand other members. I wish everyone could attend one of thesemeetings because it opens your eyes to the world of motorcyclistrights and what is really going on. So many people, whetherthey’re a member of a motorcycle rights organization or not, simplydon’t know what is happening. Right after we returned fromMOTM, my husband and I met a couple from Wisconsin that re-cently purchased a motorcycle. They had heard of ABATE andknew about helmet laws but were rather shocked to hear some ofthe things we had heard at MOTM about things like noise restric-tions and motorcycle-only road stops. I hope that they will con-sider joining ABATE when they returned home but I think it justgoes to show that we still need to continually work on getting ourmessage out to people. We’re not just about helmet laws but moreabout ‘let those who ride decide’ and ‘education not legislation’.

Something else that I want to talk about is bringing in younger peo-ple as members and what to do when they finally get there. I hon-estly believe there are many younger riders out there that wouldenjoy joining an organization to meet others to go on rides withand share the enjoyment of motorcycling. Most of my friends, mo-torcycle riders or not, are tired of hearing about politics and think itjust messy and confusing and simply don’t want to get involved.When I try to talk to my friends that are riders about joining ABATE,

some just turn away saying they don’t get involved in politics. It’shard to get them to see that even though they may not want to getinvolved, politics are already involved with them and it’s up to themto decide if they want to be in control or let the politicians controlthem. I think it’s been very helpful to talk to them about specificthings going on in other states that I’ve learned about at MOTMand Heartland STEAM. By telling them exactly what has hap-pened in other places they start thinking about how it would be ifthey couldn’t make those cool aftermarket changes to their bikesor couldn’t just ride down the road without getting stopped simplybecause they’re riding a motorcycle. Everyone knows about thehelmet issue but there are so many other things out there thatcould affect us that we need to also be talking about these issuesas well. Another tactic I have used to get new people to join is tohelp with our community service and volunteer events. These arethings everyone seems to get behind and can be an easy way togradually get people involved. But no matter how you get that per-son to join, the follow up is critical to get them to stay. If yousigned them up, you need to be involved in getting them to cometo meetings and events - be the encouraging voice to get them in-volved and be the one to ask them to renew and to volunteer tohelp with an event. I know this works first hand because the per-son that encouraged my husband and I to join is now one of ourgreatest friends and we now plan a yearly week long motorcycletrip together and continually work together in our local Chapter –thanks Monty!! It’s all been such a wonderful experience so farand I know I’m only just getting started. So I just want to say thankyou to everyone out there that has ever encouraged a new, youngrider to become a member, helped welcome a new member intoyour group, and has ever had a hand in preserving motorcyclerights

MEP Ride Patrons 2011FEMA

Mar 16, 2011

The MEP Ride 2011 will be patronized by four Members of theEuropean Parliament belonging to the four biggest parliamentar-ian groups: Frieda Brepoels,Bernd Lange, Toine Manders andWim van de Camp. This year, theMEP Ride will lead participantsfrom Brussels to Circuit Zolder.The MEP Ride will be openingClean Week 2020, an official partof the Energy Days of the Euro-pean Commission's SustainableEnergy Europe Campaign, whichwill be held on this prestigiousrace track.

Wim van de Camp belongs to the Group of the European Peo-ple's Party (Christian Democrats). The Dutchman is an enthusi-astic motorcyclist with a penchant for sport bikes like the 848Ducati. The Committee on the Internal Market and ConsumerProtection named him Rapporteur for the Committee's report on

the proposal for a Regulation on the type approval of two- andthree-wheelers.

Bernd Lange belongs to the Group of the Progressive Alliance ofSocialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. In many

occasions Bernd Lange has actedas MEP Ride patron already. TheGerman MEP has a weak spot forBMWs and fosters a variety ofmodels ranging from the 1950s topresent including one sidecar.

Toine Manders is part of Group ofthe Alliance of Liberals and De-mocrats for Europe. The DutchMEP is member of the Committeeon the Internal Market and Con-

sumer Protection and his office is an important ally of FEMA.Frieda Brepoels belongs to the Group of the Greens/EuropeanFree Alliance. The Belgian MEP (Flemish constituency) is a sub-stitute of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and takes aspecial interest in the FEMA activities taking place in Zolder.


ABATE of North Dakota Loses

a Dear Friend: Wes Erickson Our ABATE Family lost one of our great people. I am sadden tonotify our members that Wes Erickson has passed away. Weswas one of the founders of ABATE. Without the dedication ofWes and his “brothers” ABATE might havenever been. We will miss his wisdom and ofcourse his crazy sense of humor! I am sureWes is already riding with the brothers andsisters that have passed before him/ GodSpeed Wes.

Wesly Erickson, 71, born in Bottineau, raisedin Maxbass, a brilliant man, Founding Presi-dent of ABATE of North Dakota, avid motor-cycle, race-car and ultra-lite enthusiast, losthis battle with cancer at his home inPhoenix, Ariz. With the Lord’s blessing, Wesjoined his Father, Fredrick and Mother, Char-lotte, and siblings, Jere and Mark at thegates of heaven. To the end he was with hisbeautiful, loving wife, Elaine, of 48 years. He also leaves behindhis children, Twila (Chris) Schamer, and their children, Jacoband Danielle, and LeNita (David) Fitzgerald, and their children,Mikayla, Mariah and Tyler.

A Service with Military Honors will take place, in Bismarck, thissummer followed by a motorcycle procession and life celebrat-ing reception, details to be announced on his Legacy.com web-site,

http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/weserickson/Homepage.aspx.

Thanks to Phoenix Hospice of the Valley, wecould not have navigated this journey withoutyour compassionate direction. We would alsolike to extend a special thanks to Robin Gra-ham, who has been our “Angel on Earth” dur-ing the last four weeks. Words will never beenough to express our gratitude for what youhave done.

Wes is survived by his siblings Verna Valek,Marilyn Nagel, Richard Erickson, Mary Sum-mers and Robin Graham.

Daddy, we miss you so much but are so verythankful you are free from pain and we knowyou are riding heavens highways and flying

with new wings.

Due to his health conditions prior to the cancer, Wes was notable to obtain Life insurance. If you are so inclined, donationsare being accepted at Wells Fargo under account number945366970~Wesly Erickson Memorial Fund or you may sendthem through Paypal to [email protected].

Thank you for your love, prayers and support.

This newsletter is an official publication of the

Motorcycle Riders Foundation, 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510, Washington, D.C. 20002-4980; phone (202) 546-0983;fax (202) 546-0986. All rights reserved. Portions may be reprinted with proper attribution. MRF Reports is published six times a year and distributed nationwide. Opinions expressed herein are solelythose of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the

Motorcycle Riders Foundation, its officers or representatives. The

Motorcycle Riders Foundation will not knowingly contract with or do business with any entity that discriminates against

motorcyclists in any way, shape or form.

Sign Up for MRF News Releases at www.mrf.org

The More We Differ,

the More We Are the Same continueding " for our own good" starts intruding and stepping on ourfreedoms we need to work to prevent this from happening.JOIN a local motorcycle rights group, attend the meetings, getINVOLVED! Join not only at a local level but at a national aswell. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation is one of the bestways you can keep track of all that is happening in Washing-ton. Join the MRF and let your voice be heard at a nationallevel.

We really do know why a dog puts his head out the window,that the best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome, and a thun-derstorm looks best in your mirror. Let's stop the infightingand keep the wind in our faces and set a goal of everyone rid-ing free.

Wayne


PRESIDENTKirk “Hardtail” [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENTJay [email protected]

GOV’T RELATIONS ANDPUBLIC AFFAIRSJeff [email protected]

SECRETARYPaulette [email protected]

TREASURERFrank [email protected]

Eric HamptonCommunications [email protected]

Carol DownsConference [email protected]

Dave DwyerSSMRO Board [email protected]

Larry NielsonSSMRO Board [email protected]

Cindy HodgesMember [email protected]

Wayne WiersonMember [email protected]

Jay JacksonMotorcycle Safety/Rider [email protected]

Steve ZimmerMRFPAC [email protected]

Todd RibaState Reps Program [email protected]

Graydon WheelerState Reps Board [email protected]

Jim “Legs” KorteState Reps Board [email protected]

John PierceMembership [email protected]

Tiffany LatimerDC Office [email protected]

MRF A&E Board of Directors

Deborah Butitta, Chair928-308-1117 [email protected]

Carol Downs, [email protected]

Stacey “Ax” Axmaker, [email protected]

MAIL TO BOARD MEMBERSmay be sent to the MRF officeand will be forwarded. If youmust mail time-sensitive mate-rial to a board member, con-tact that person by phone oremail first to make arrange-ments.

Motorcycle Riders Foundation Board of Directors

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Assist. [email protected]

Michael McGuire

[email protected]

Dave Condon

Asst. to the

State Reps Program Director

[email protected]

Mike Berger

Editorial [email protected]

Teri Stobbs Ricci

Conference [email protected]

“Still Ray” Fitzgerald

Sustaining Member Motorcycle [email protected]

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Washington, DC 20002-4980

[email protected]

MRF Office

236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510

Washington, DC 20002-4980

Phone: 202-546-0983

Fax: 202-546-0986

[email protected]

Website: http://www.mrf.org

Mission StatementTo continue developing an

aggressive, independent nationaladvocacy for the advancement

of motorcycling and itsassociated lifestyle, which is fi-

nancially stable and exceeds theneeds of motorcycling

enthusiasts.

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____

____

____

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___

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MRF Committees

ALCOHOL AWARENESS: Steve Zimmer

(Chair), Frank Carbone, Jeff Hennie, Jay

Jackson, Lynn Oldenburg, Carol Simpson,

Graydon Wheeler, Wayne Wierson

BY-LAWS: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard (Chair),

Carol Downs, Paulette Korte, Jay Jackson,

Larry Nielson, Todd Riba

COMMUNICATIONS: Eric Hampton

(Chair), Mike Berger, Deborah Butitta,

Margie Ferrucci, Jeff Hennie, Cindy

Hodges, Tiffany Latimer, Mike McGuire,

John Pierce, Teri Stobbs-Ricci, Graydon

Wheeler

CONFERENCE AND EVENTS: : Carol

Downs (Chair), Frank Carbone, Jeff Hen-

nie, Paulette Korte, Teri Stobbs-Ricci, Gray-

don Wheeler, Kirk “Hardtail” Willard, Steve

Zimmer

ELECTIONS: Dave Dwyer (Chair), Cindy

Hodges, Jim “Legs” Korte, Larry Nielson,

Graydon Wheeler, Wayne Wierson

FINANCE: Carol Downs (Chair), Frank

Carbone, Chuc Coulter, Paulette Korte,

John Pierce, Kirk “Hardtail” Willard

FUNDS STEERING: Todd Riba (Chair),

Mark Buckner, Still Ray Fitzgerald, Cindy

Hodges, Jim “Legs” Korte, John Pierce,

Graydon Wheeler

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE- Kirk “Hard-

tail” Willard (Chair), Dave Dwyer, Jeff Hen-

nie, Cindy Hodges, Jay Jackson, Jim

“Legs” Korte, Boyd McFail, Larry Nielson,

John Pierce, Todd Riba

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: John

Pierce (Chair), Mike Berger, Still Ray

Fitzgerald, Eric Hampton, Cindy Hodges,

Paulette Korte, Tiffany Latimer, Sarah

Muckenhoupt, Polly Schoeller, Todd Riba,

Wayne Wierson

MRFPAC: Steve Zimmer (Chair), Chuc

Coulter, Dave Dwyer, Jeff Hennie, Jim

“Legs” Korte, Larry Nielson

MRF REPS & GROWTH: Grady Wheeler

(Chair), Dave Condon, Cindy Hodges, Jim

“Legs” Korte, Tiffany Latimer, John Pierce,

Polly Schoeller, Todd Riba, Wayne Wier-

son

PRODUCTS: Carol Downs (Chair), Frank

Carbone, Polly Schoeller, Teri Stobbs-

Ricci, Helen Wesson, Graydon Wheeler

RESEARCH & STATISTICS: Jay Jackson

(Chair), Jeff Hennie, Paulette Korte, Bob

LeTourneau, David Tuschel, Thomas J.

“Doc Ski” Wasileski, Graydon Wheeler,

Kirk “Hardtail” Willard, Steve Zimmer

STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE

AWARDS:

STATE & FEDERAL: Dave Dwyer (Chair),

Jeff Hennie, Larry Nielson, Todd Riba

AWARDS:

FARMERS: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard (Chair),

Mark Buckner, Deborah Butitta

FOUNDERS: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard

(Chair), Mark Buckner, Marc Falsetti, Still

Ray Fitzgerald, Jay Jackson, Gary Sellers,

Steve Zimmer

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Kirk “Hardtail”

Willard (Chair), Deborah Butitta, Paulette

Korte, Steve Zimmer

MRFPAC: Steve Zimmer (Chair), Dave

Dwyer, Jeff Hennie, Jim “Legs” Korte,

Larry Nielson

MEMBERSHIP: John Pierce (Chair), Cindy

Hodges, Tiffany Latimer, Todd Riba

RON SHEPARD SAFETY RECOGNITION:

Jay Jackson (Chair), Chuc Coulter, Carol

Downs, Paulette Korte, Bob LeTourneau,

John Pierce, Wayne Wierson

THOMAS PAINE: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard

(Chair), Eric Hampton, Tiffany Latimer, Sarah

Muckenhoupt, Graydon Wheeler

MRF CHAMPS: Dave Dwyer (Chair), Kirk

“Hardtail” Willard, Jeff Hennie, Larry Nielson,

Todd Riba

Mission Goals* Maintain and improve our ability to act asan advocate before national, state and local legislative, executive and judicial bodies, andwith private or public entities, regarding is-sues affecting motorcycles, motorcyclists ormotorcycling.* Maintain and improve our financial baseand ensure financial stability.* Maintain and improve our capability to meetand exceed the needs of our membershipbase and all state motorcyclists’ rights organi-zations.* Maintain and improve our capability to bethe national information center for motorcy-clists’ rights information.* Enhance the training of national, state andlocal motorcyclists’ rights activists.

Motorcycle Riders Foundation236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510Washington, DC 20002-4980

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MRF Reports - May/June 2011

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