April 18, 2001

Motorcycle Riders Foundation?s Annual Western Regional Meeting Will Be Broadcast Live Via Internet

MRF Washington, D.C. — Concerned about motorcyclists? rights and overall transportation safety on the American road?

Better fly, drive — or, preferably, ride — to Phoenix, AZ, on April 6 thru 8 where the leaders of the American motorcyclists? rights movement plan their strategy for current legislative initiatives and beyond.

This year, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, the first voice for riders? rights in the nation?s capitol and the only Washington voice devoted exclusively to the street rider, will present the 2001 Best of the West at the Embassy Suites North at the southeast corner Greenway & I-17. Address as follows:

ABATE & MMA of Arizona invites you to meet the MRF Board of Directors Friday evening. The General Session Saturday morning starts at 8:30 and will finish with MRFVice-President Tom Wyld?s presentation, ?Is Your Ride For Freedom Or Is MyRide Finished.? The afternoon offers sessions on Leadership, Computer Workshop,Strategic Planning For Your SMRO, Triage and Act/Create Successes for Your Organization, Budgeting For Your SMRO, SMRO Activities, and How Can You Be Most Effective In Your SMRO. The evening will wind up with a cash bar/social hour, banquet, and both silent and live auctions.

Can?t make it? —- Logon!!!.

MRF has selected INB Radio to transmit the conference live, on the Internet. A leader in Internet streaming technology, INB Radio will transmit the conference live – and make the conference available on archive for 60 days. (Click on inbRadio now for more details.)

This conference will be simulcast live on the Internet via the INB radio network. INBRadio can be accessed at www.inbradio.com, or as a direct link from the MRF web site, mrf.org.

Best of the West will offer a wide range of training and information. There will be state legislative reports, plenty of news on the globalization of the motorcycle industry and itsaffect on the American marketplace, an update on the proposed Environmental Protection Agency?s proposed rules covering motorcycles, and much more.

If you need the most up to date information on motorcyclist?s rights and safety issues itwill be delivered to your home computer on Saturday April 7 by the MRF and INB radio.It?s the next best thing to being there. The broadcast will also be on the INB archive listfor the next 60 days. If you can?t hear it live you can still get the information later, or goback and listen again to get all the details.

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the National Safety Council isadvancing the name of a staunch anti-rider-rights advocate to head theNationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration.

This development requires a vigorous response from the American motorcyclists?rights movement.

California riders and motorcyclists generally have gone on alert atthe prospect of former Commissioner Maurice Hannigan being considered as thenext NHTSA Administrator. Pushed by the National Safety Council who hasopposed the freedom agenda of motorcyclists, former Commissioner Hanniganchampioned California?s mandatory helmet law. His opposition to motorcyclistsand their rights over the years has been staunch, vocal, and consistent.

Hannigan is best known for formulating a helmet law enforcement policy that Federal Courtshave ruled violates motorcyclists Constitutional rights. The Federal Court for the SouthernDistrict of California issued the first ever permanent injunction against the CHP in their history.The injunction was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Call to action:
First: Call the White House at 202-456-1414. Politely but firmly explainyouropposition to former Commissioner Hannigan and any official for NHTSA?s topjobthat is not respectful of motorcyclists, our rights and our freedom. If youcan?t get through on the phone, send an email to the following: The President
Second: Reach at least 3 other riders NOW and urge them to make the samecall.
Third: Call your U.S. Senators at 202-224-3121 and explain your opposition toany official for NHTSA?s top job that is not respectful of our rights. Also,you can find your senators? email addresses atU.S. Senate

The country’s long ride toward installing a new President looksto have come to an end. Bikers have finally won one. George W. Bush has been a long time friendto motorcyclists, and promises to change the way we’re dealt with by the Feds. I had the pleasureof meeting and talking to him during the campaign, and he proved that everything my friend, Sputnik,said about him was true. The first thing he said to me was that he wasn’t going to let anybody turnback the clock on Texas riders, and that their freedom was his most important consideration when hesigned the bill to remove the helmet law for adult riders.

For all of you who heeded the call and turned out to vote, great job! Don’t let up, keep involvedwith the system. Make it your duty to check up on all of your elected representatives, andkeep in contact with them. It’ll be good for you, and good for them. Like voting, your rights need exercise, justlike with muscles, the more you flex them the stronger they get!

In a move that many around the country think was eleven months too latein coming the Board of Trustees of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA)announced that Robert Rasor has been named the Association’s newpresident, effective Nov. 1.

The announcement was made at a meeting of the AMA Board at theAssociation’s headquarters in Pickerington, Ohio.

Rasor has been a member of the AMA staff for nearly 28 years, startingin January 1973 as a legislative analyst. In the early ’80s, he becamedirector of the AMA’s Government Relations Department, a postsubsequently titled vice president for government relations.>We at Bikernet.com want to congratulate Rob and wish him great success.

“FREE AT LAST,FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD FLORIDA IS FREE AT LAST,” exclaimeda jubilant James “Doc” Riechenbach III, President and Lobbyist for ABATEof Florida, moments after receiving a personal phone call from GovernorJeb Bush at 3:50 p.m. (EST) today, June 16, to tell him that he’d signedtheir helmet law repeal bill!

Doc, who also serves as Chairman of theBoard of Directors for the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM),said, “It’s been a long time coming, 31 years, and we’d just like to thankour ABATE members, NCOM and every state that helped us win our freedom!”

House Bill 1911 will repeal Florida’s helmetlaw for riders 21 and older who have a minimum of $10,000 in medical insurance,and will become effective July 1, 2000.

“The Bush brothers have now set two statesfree,” exclaimed Doc, referring to Jeb Bush’s brother and Presidentialhopeful, George W. Bush Jr., who as Texas Governor signed a similar billin 1997 to allow freedom of choice for responsible adult Texas motorcyclists. 

Something tells me that Daytona Bike Weekis gonna be one Helluva helmetless celebration! NATIONAL COALITION OF MOTORCYCLISTS(NCOM)

If you thought that states like Arizonaand New Mexico didn’t have a helmet law for adult riders, you were wrong…atleast until now. Although state laws in those Southwest states allow riders18 and older to ride without a helmet, a mandatory helmet requirement hasbeen in existence on all Navajo Nations land, even though it was seldomenforced by Tribal Police.

But the tribal council recently voted unanimously57-0, with no opposition, to repeal the helmet law on their Native Indianreservation lands, which is considered to be a separate and autonomousgovernment, and bring their law into compliance with other Southwesternstates comprising the Navajo Nation.

The helmet law repeal was signed by NavajoNation President Kelsay Begay on May 8, 2000. 

Those of us who’ve been fighting in thetrenches for bikers’ rights have known all along that the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been fudging their statisticswhen lobbying against us on helmet laws. But now comes word from Ms. NHTSAherself, Saint Joan of Claybrook, who’s vision and leadership brought ussuch governmental boondoggles as the backwards-steering ”Safer-Cycle,”that NHTSA mislead the public regarding the safety of air bags.

According to a WASHINGTON TIMES editorial”Death By Safety Experts” forwarded to us by COWBOY over the Internet,former Carter-era NHTSA chieftain Joan Claybrook recently admitted thatNHTSA’s false or inaccurate claims over the years have ”hurt” the agency’sreputation and believability with the public, particularly with the ongoingfiasco over air bags. 

Among other things, the editorial chargesthat while serving as NHTSA administrator Claybrook claimed that mandatingcar manufacturers to install air bags ”was necessary because of then-chronicunderuse of safety belts. She said that air bags could actually supplantseat belts and would provide superior protection.”

It goes on that ”Miss Claybrook, likeher mentor Ralph Nader, also claimed that air bags were the safest wayto arrest the forward movement of an unbuckled child in a frontal impact.In fact, an Associated Press photo surfaced recently depicting Mr. Naderdemonstrating an air bag simulator with an unbuckled young girl.”

We now know that it is precisely the unbuckledoccupants, especially infants and young children, who are most likely tobe killed or maimed by a deploying air bag.

”Mr. Nader and Miss Claybrook have yetto be called to account for their dangerously misleading advocacy,” saysthe Times.

Claybrook and Nader also put forth theutterly unsubstantiated claim that air bags would save up to 9,000 livesannually, states the article, although ”No factual evidence was ever givenin support of this gratuitous assertion. It is looked upon with derisionby knowledgeable industry analysts.”

Claybrook’s recent, belated apology forthe flood of dangerous falsehoods about air bags she turned loose some20 years ago is not much comfort to the more than 150 people, many of themchildren, who’ve been killed and the thousands who’ve been injured by thesegovernment-mandated ”safety” devices.

”True, air bags have certainly saved lives,”admits the article, ”But there is no question that they have also killed.No other safety device required by federal law has such a mixed recordof success.”

The Times editorial concludes; ”How manypeople will have to die before the government concedes it made a mistakeby ignoring the engineers and listening instead to know-nothing busybodiessuch as Madam Claybrook is anybody’s guess.” 

Politically active Cal Bikers broke a moritoriumin the Senate Transportation Committee, and pushed though a veterans licenseplate for motorcyclists. 

Following months of frenzied lobbying byABATE of California and a biker veteran named ”Trash”, a motorcycle licenseplate to honor veterans has received an important nod from the Senate TransportationCommittee by a unanimous vote of 9-0. This vote reflects the strength ofthe motorcyclists’ lobby, as bikers faced an uphill battle in getting theirbill approved due to a self-imposed moratorium on approving any additionallicense plates in California. 

Although AB1515 had received unanimoussupport in all the committee votes in the Assembly, including a unanimousfloor vote to send the bill to the Senate for consideration, it was stonewalledin the Senate Transportation Committee until motorcyclists and other specialinterest groups wanting specialized plates were successful in convincingcommittee chairwoman Senator Betty Karnette to lift the ban and allow avote. 

In addition to creating a special plateto honor motorcycling veterans, AB1515 was further amended to allow motorcyclelicense plates to be issued for any existing car plate. 

At this point, it looks like smooth sailingfor the Veterans Motorcycle License Plate bill, which has yet to have asingle vote cast against it. ABATE OF CALIFORNIA 

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