Editor’s Note: We’ve made several bike builders rich and famous,because they were featured in magazines and on television, but here’s anarticle about a true motorcycle hero. Sputnik, a man who devoted his life tomotorcycle freedom.
Memorial services for Bill “Sputnik” Strain were held July 10,2010 on the steps of the Texas State Capital Building. An estimated two thousand motorcyclistsmet at a VFW Post 8787 and accompanied Sputnik on his last ride to the TexasState Capital building. Theprocession of riders spread for miles along Interstate 35 and through thestreets of Austin. Sputnik wouldhave been proud that his “legislative warriors” turned out in strength to mournhis passing and celebrate his life and achievements.
Speakers at Sputnik’s memorial service included a motorcycleminister, a1% MC chapter president, a close family friend and a former TexasState Representative. Pop’s, a memberof the Circuit Riders Motorcycle Ministry, cautioned that we may have “lost ourleader, but let’s not lose our freedom”.
Gimmi Jimmy, thePresident of the Austin Bandido MC and National Commander of the U.S. Defendersassured the audience that motorcyclists rights in Texas were still in goodhands and the work Sputnik started would be carried on. Sputnik knew his days were running outand a replacement, Escondido Paul, was trained by the man . A close family friend, Janet Planet,read a resolution accepted by the Texas State Congress summarizing Sputnik’sachievements as a political activist. The Honorable Nancy Chavez, a former State Representative from District76 (El Paso) presented Sputnik’s widow with a flag that had flown over theState Capital building.
Sputnik lived in the Galveston area, in Alvin, Texas. His wife,Gwen, and several children survive him. Before becoming a motorcycle rights activist he owned an exterminatingbusiness and was a shrimper. Sputnik was truly one-of-a-kind; he championed the rights ofmotorcyclists at both a state and national level. He logged over one million six hundred thousand milesorganizing the motorcycle community and educating them on the legislativeprocess. His hair was cut in aMohawk, perhaps to acknowledge in Native American ancestry and he had the word“Free” tattooed in the center of his forehead.
Sputnik established the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association in1992 and was instrumental in repealing the state’s mandatory helmet law in1997. He sat on the board ofdirectors of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) and was a long-timemember of the NCOM Legislative Task Force. NCOM Founder Richard M. Lester said;“Sputnik is so universally loved and respected, from MRO leadership to COCpatch holders and from bikers on the street to state and federal lawmakers,that his passing leaves a void which can only be filled by all of us movingforward together with his spirit and resolve.”
Sputnik’s list of accomplishments was exhaustive; he’s beenreferred to as the “greatest motorcycle rights activist” of all time. He developed a “five steps to freedom”that can be applied to any special interest group. His philosophies have even been included in high school textbooks. He was proud of the work that he did, both for motorcyclists in Texas aswell as those across the United States.
You know that Sputnik is looking down upon us from his heavenlyhome, knowing that the fight for freedom will continue and that he hasinfluenced future generations of warriors to continue working to keep all of usfree.
