Bedroll from 5-Ball Racing Gear
Don’t ever give up on Freedom. It works.
— Bandit
The Bikernet Weekly News is sponsored in part by companies who also dig Freedom including: Cycle Source Magazine, the MRF, Las Vegas Bikefest, Iron Trader News, ChopperTown, BorntoRide.com and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum.
RPM Act re-introduced, NTSB Chief demands re-designed roads to stop speeding vehicles, Presidential Executive Order of 50% of All Vehicles Sold to be Emission-Free by 2030, NY Governor Bans Sale of Combustion Vehicles from 2035, Zero-Emissions Legislation, More than 38,000 deaths in road-accidents in 2020 is highest since 2007, Per-Mile Motorcycle Insurance in USA, FEMA Survey, Programs to Slow Speeding Vehicles, Robot-cop in Singapore.
ABOUT AIM / NCOM: The National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) is a nationwide motorcyclists rights organization serving over 2,000 NCOM Member Groups throughout the United States, with all services fully-funded through Aid to Injured Motorcyclist (AIM) Attorneys available in each state who donate a portion of their legal fees from motorcycle accidents back into the NCOM Network of Biker Services (www.ON-A-BIKE.com / 800-ON-A-BIKE).
Legislative Motorcycle News from Around the World
The Highway Bill passes but…, Feds investigate auto-pilot car accidents, anti-profiling in California, lane-filtering, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally turnout, bad-driving and road-rage post-lockdown, fuel prices at a high, International Motorcycle Show, news you should use.
by Angie Trindade from https://www.wane.com
ABATE Foundation motorcycle organization kicked off its 32nd annual ride in Fort Wayne with strong turnout.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – ABATE Foundation, or American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, hosted its 32nd annual Mayor’s Ride.
The ride started at The Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 166, 2930 in Fort Wayne and ended after an hour-long ride to Decatur.
Fort Wayne motorcycle enthusiasts arrived in droves to register around 9 in the morning. They were set to ride by 11 a.m. Event organizer and Region Zero Secretary of Abate, Sherri Gordon, said she was thrilled with the strong turnout this year. ABATE was unable to host this event last year due to COVID.
“I’m definitely pleased with the turnout this year,” said Gordon, “And we’re hoping to get to where it used to be 15 years ago where we had almost a thousand bikes.”
The Mayor’s Ride originally started in Indy with the Governor’s Ride but then other Indiana counties joined in on the fun for Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month.
“It’s all about motorcycle safety, promoting it. People need to be aware, stay off your devices. Watch out, we are out there. We are somebody’s mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, and grandmother, just listen for us and watch out.”
Gordan was assisted by her fellow chapter members Jeff Eads, Dekalb County Rep, and Jamie Swagart, Adams Wells Rep. Eads was eager for the ride considering last year’s cancelation.
“It’s been wonderful,” Eads said, “We are so glad to see people together. Just this many bikes together, it’s good to see our brothers and sisters riding with each other again.”
May 28th, 2021
Jim “Legs” Korte, former State Coordinator for ABATE of Illinois and member of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation Board of Directors, passed away on May 28th after a short illness. He was born April 27, 1950.
Legs was very passionate about motorcyclists’ rights and held numerous positions in many organizations. He was a big man and cut a wide swath everywhere he went, in everything he did.
He served his country honorably in the U.S. Navy where he was part of the Navy Honor Guard for four years and participated in the burial of several U.S. Presidents. It was actually while stationed in D.C. that he got a Triumph 650 and started riding.
After his military service, he returned to Trenton, Illinois to farm with his father Otto Korte. He also spent 30 years working for the Illinois State Police.
Legs was a gentle giant and made friends everywhere he went. He and his wife Paulette, a legend in the motorcycling community herself, have countless friends and extended family throughout the biker world nationwide that they enjoyed riding with and visiting.
In addition to his wife of 13 years, Legs is survived by his daughter Rachel Korte (Tommie), Paulette’s daughter Nikki Jarvis (Brian), four grown grand-children and a sister, Jane Weaver (Bob) in Connecticut. The family wishes for privacy at this time and we ask that you honor that request.
Legs leaves large shoes to be filled, figuratively and literally. His dry wit, common sense, upstanding character and the desire to always do the right thing will be greatly missed by all.
Ride in Peace Legs.
A memorial is tentatively planned for Saturday June 5th in Illinois.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to ABATE of Illinois, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, or the MRF A&E to support the fight for motorcyclists’ rights.
from https://www.wgrz.com
Buffalo-area motorcyclists take part in 31st annual safety ride. The American Bikers Aimed Toward Education event aims to remind all drivers that motorcyclists are back on the road.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — May is Motorcycle Awareness Month, and on Saturday, 75 motorcyclists took part in the 31st annual American Bikers Aimed Toward Education safety ride.
The event is aimed at reminding all drivers that motorcyclists are back on the road. There are plenty of safety tips for motorcyclists, including the obvious.
“On a motorcycle, you want to make yourself visible,” Lee Argen of ABATE Buffalo said. “You always want as visible as possible. Daytime ride with your high beam lights on. A lot of times, I think people are not visible because their lights are either off or on low beam in the daytime.”
Drivers should never try to share a lane with a motorcycle. Always give a motorcycle the full lane width.
The one-hour event began Saturday afternoon at the Rath Building in downtown Buffalo.
Atlanta, Georgia – The Motorcycle Riders Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., along with ABATE of Georgia, announced a historic first with the announcement that the organization’s annual Meeting of the Minds Conference will take place in Atlanta in September this year.
“The MRF has met several times in the Southeast. However, we have never had the opportunity to meet in Atlanta, and we’re looking forward to the occasion.” MRF Conferences and Events Director, Fredric Harrell announced at the organization’s 2020 annual conference in Indianapolis in September.
“ABATE of Georgia worked to meet the MRF’s conference guidelines and we’re reaching out to our neighboring state motorcyclists’ rights organizations for participation.” Donna Nunez, ABATE of Georgia Activities Director, said when the 2021 conference was announced.
This “historic first” will bring the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Minds Conference to the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel, September 23-26 and will be the kick-off point for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation’s 2022 legislative agenda. Attendees are encouraged to make reservations as early as possible for this much-demanded conference.
Past keynote speakers at the annual event include, Keith “Bandit” Ball, former editor of Easyriders Magazine, Dave Zein, former Wisconsin State Senator, Paul Landers, Texas Freedom Fighter, Chopper & Slider Gilmore, Freedom Fighters & Motorcycling Safety Advocates, Mark Buckner, Former MRF President & current MRF Executive Director, among other notables who have added insight, levity and strong messages on freedom and individual rights to the MRFs annual conference. Conference agenda includes, but never limited to general sessions, 15 break-out sessions, safe riding demonstrations and awards banquet.
The first Meeting of the Minds Conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1985 witnessed barely 100 motorcyclists’ rights advocates and a very limited agenda. The Meeting of the Minds Conference has grown to over 500 participants from state motorcyclists’ rights advocacy groups in addition to representatives from Canada, the European Union, Australia and Liberia.
by Biker Dad, Chris Best from https://www.wkrg.com
It’s Ho – Ho – Harley time! Bikers are about to give back in a big way in the next few days.
The bikers are riding for Santa this weekend in support of the Salvation Army Angel Tree and the WKRG Magical Christmas Toy Drive. No matter if you are in Alabama or Florida, you can help in a big way this weekend.
First, WKRG and the Biker Dad Blog have teamed up with the Caballeros Acero Riding Club for the Magical Christmas Toy Run, riding from Tillman’s Corner Saturday at 2pm to the Salvation Army Warehouse at the mall. Please come ride with us and bring a toy. Get all the info here.
And if you can’t make that, the Florida ABATE Toy Run which is also in benefit of the Salvation Army is Sunday starting at Harley Davidson of Pensacola. Click here for all the info on both toy runs.
Not all of the bikers out there are on the nice list as we found some crazy video of one very naughty rider. He’s only 19 take a look at the video above. This happened in London. The person riding that motorcycle at 180 miles per hour is only 1, leading police on a wild chase through the very congested city and finally coming to stop because to refuel. He just pled guilty to charges and will be sentenced in January. More info here.
Veterans Day was just a few weeks ago, but for bikers, it’s always time to honor our vets. I don’t get to do this very often, so I thought I would mention it this week. The Patriot Guard Riders ride loud motorcycles but are quietly honoring or vets almost every week. This week I had the honor of riding with them to pay tribute to a Vietnam war hero and escort him to his final resting place.
Mike Shiver was in the Airforce in Vietnam. Although the loss was great for his family, you could see the comfort and pride they had when dozens of Patriot Guard Riders came to show their respects. It was certainly an honor for me to be a part of it. And they need more people to ride with them. It was a good showing for this ride, but the PGR needs more riders to step up.
Your Motorcycle Riders Foundation team in Washington, D.C. is pleased to provide our members with the latest information and updates on issues that impact the freedom and safety of American street motorcyclists. Count on your MRF to keep you informed about a range of matters that are critical to the advancement of motorcycling and its associated lifestyle. Published weekly when the U.S. Congress is in session.
100 and Counting
We’ve hit an important milestone in our push to pass H. Res 255 the motorcyclists profiling resolution in the House of Representatives. This week we gained our 100th co-sponsor, which means that nearly 25% of the House of Representatives is now on the record standing with the motorcycle community. It’s an excellent time to take a look inside the numbers and talk about the diversity of U.S. Representatives that support us.
What does all this mean? It means that we have an amazingly diverse set of lawmakers that have decided to stand with us on the issue of profiling. Whether they be Republican or Democrat, west coast or east coast, newly elected or long-serving, they have all gone on record against the profiling of motorcyclists.
How did we do this? We have used every tool in the motorcyclists toolbox to gain support. MRF members flooded Congressional mailboxes with letters using our CQ “Call to Action” software in April. In May, MRF members roamed the halls of Congress and met with staff and lawmakers during Bikers Inside the Beltway. Since Bikers Inside the Beltway, the DC team has done 193 in-person meetings on Capitol Hill about this issue. It’s not an exaggeration to say almost every member of the House of Representatives has heard about this issue from us.
Why is this important? In order for our resolution to be voted on, we need to demonstrate to Congressional leadership that it has broad based support. The easiest way to show that is by driving cosponsors to the resolution and having members of Congress attach their name to it.
Our initial goal was to double the 37 cosponsors we had during the last Congress. Once we hit that goal, we were told by our champions that getting to 100 would be an important benchmark. Well, we hit that and continue to run up our numbers.
While we will continue to educate lawmakers on the issue of motorcyclist profiling, we have asked Rep. Walberg and his staff to start pressing for a vote on the resolution. We have several other allies that have offered to help push our case, and we are hopeful that our hard work will be rewarded with an official vote and passage of this resolution. We will be relentless in our advocacy on this issue and will not rest until the House of Representatives joins the Senate and passes H. Res 255.
RPM Act Introduced in the Senate
On Wednesday, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) along with 24 (YES, 24!) other original cosponsors re-introduced S. 2602, Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act of 2019 (RPM Act), which will exclude vehicles to be used solely for competition from certain provisions of the Clean Air Act, and for other purposes. As you may remember, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation along with a dozen other organizations teamed up with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) during the 115th Congress in promoting the passage of this legislation which would exempt you from the provisions of the Clean Air Act which makes it illegal for you to turn a street-legal vehicle or motorcycle into performance race vehicle. The legislation took some time to be introduced during this Congress due to some changes to the previous version of the bill. One of those changes would ensure this legislation would be in effect immediately after passage and would protect the racers, consumers and aftermarket industry for using or producing, selling, and/or distributing emissions-related race parts for use on vehicles used exclusively for competition while the EPA writes regulations.
The majority staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is still reviewing the changes to the language, but we anticipate the companion house bill will be introduced in the coming weeks. We ask you to be ready for a future call to action for the RPM Act once the House version is released.
State News – ABATE of Wisconsin sends call to action to oppose the use of blender pumps
The MRF has been working with our SMRO partner, ABATE of Wisconsin, to help them utilize our CQ software to aid the riders in Wisconsin to engage with their elected state officials to oppose AB 382 and SB 349 which would allow blender pumps to dispense E10 and E15 with a shared hose and nozzle. The use of these blender pumps increases the dangers of misfueling your motorcycle or vehicle at the pump.
To learn more about the issue in Wisconsin, you can reach out to Steve Panten, Legislative Director of ABATE of Wisconsin, by emailing him directly at legis@abatewis.org with your questions.
Meeting of the Minds
Last week the 35th Annual Meeting of the Minds was held in Bloomington, Minnesota. The gathering of so many dedicated and selfless motorcycle advocates in one place was powerful. We in D.C. are continually talking with lawmakers about our membership and the riding community but being in the same room with the people we represent further fueled our passion for advocating on your behalf.
Two full days of meetings and panels covered a wide range of issues including collaboration between SMRO’s and clubs, lobbying tips and tricks, our health, being a better brother and sister, the MRF PAC and the establishment of the 2020 MRF legislative priorities.
On Saturday night, we heard from two guest speakers. First Rep. Peter Stauber from the 8th Congressional district of Minnesota spent 20 minutes discussing many of the issues we face at the federal level in D.C. Congressman Stauber is a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and pledged to work with the MRF to fight for our priorities in the upcoming transportation bill. Additionally, as a former law enforcement officer, he understood our concerns regarding motorcyclist profiling and was proud to be a cosponsor of H.Res. 255 since June. He offered to meet with the D.C. team in the coming weeks to follow up on our priorities.
Second, State Senator John Hoffman from the Minnesota State Senate addressed the group. He spoke about working with local motorcycle rights groups and the battles and victories that have been fought at the State Capitol in St. Paul.
Having both a federal and a state elected officials speak to us demonstrates that motorcycle rights are a battle fought on different fronts. State legislators and federal lawmakers each play a different but useful role in the fight for motorcycle rights. We want to thank ABATE of Minnesota for arranging the guest speakers.
We want to recognize representatives from the American Motorcyclist Association and Harley Davidson for making the trip from D.C. to be a part of Meeting of the Minds. Collaboration between our organizations has been improving for the last few years, and we appreciate their willingness to visit with our members and continue working together on areas of common interest.
As always, the MRF board came to Minnesota a day early for a board meeting and overall review of the MRF as an organization. It goes without saying that these board members sacrifice their time, energy and money to sustain the MRF and the continued the fight for motorcyclist rights. Thank you to all the board members for their selfless efforts. A special thanks to Fred Harrell, Director of Conferences & Events, for his work organizing the 35th Meeting of the Minds.
Finally, none of this would have been possible without ABATE of Minnesota. Our friends in Minnesota spent countless hours of their own time volunteering to ensure this edition of Meeting of the Minds went off without a hitch. We are grateful for their efforts and for setting a high standard for the 36th edition of Meeting of the Minds in Indiana in 2020. Be sure to mark your calendars to join us next year on September 24-27th.
Do Your Homework:
As an advocate for motorcyclist rights, every member of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation should know one simple number, the number of motorcycles registered in your state. Whether you are meeting with a lawmaker, legislative staff or just having a dialogue with a non-rider, the ability to drop that number into a conversation is a powerful tool.
Being able to quantify how many riders are in a given state demonstrates that motorcyclists are not some minor part of the transportation world but rather a substantial part of the fabric that makes up our state and local communities.
Some states provide even more in-depth statistics including total driver licenses with motorcycle endorsements and motorcycle registrations by county. We encourage you to do your homework and gather as much data as possible. You never know when having motorcycle statistics at your fingertips will come in handy!
Do you know how many motorcyclists are registered in your state? If not, click here to see the most recent statistics from the Federal Highway Administration 2016 report.
Standing Update:
We are currently at 91 cosponsors from 36 states and one territory for H. Res 255, the motorcycle profiling resolution. An additional 6 new cosponsors since our last update. The map below shows which states have at least one lawmaker signed on as a cosponsor. Is your state not filled in yet? Check with the D.C. team about how we can work together to secure cosponsors from your state.
As we continue to move the needle here on Capitol Hill, we ask that you stand by for any future Calls to Action to help ensure that we can secure the passage of this resolution.
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