Looks like we made our voices heard. The fools in Washington aren’t going to enforce the lead content law on kid’s motorcycles until May of 2011. We motorcyclists have until that long to get the law off the books altogether. The wording from the AMA is congratulatory to we citizens, and to themselves. Well done all ‘round.

Official wording:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has voted to stay enforcement of a lead law that currently bans the sale of youth-model motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The stay, which extends through May 1, 2011, follows a unanimous vote by Acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord and Commissioner Thomas Moore.

The AMA Government Relations Department is currently examining the 25-page Stay of Enforcement document and will issue more details shortly. It can be viewed by clicking here.

Moreland added that nearly 80,000 AMA and ATVA (All-Terrain Vehicle Association) members contacted their lawmakers and the CPSC to let them know how they feel. “I’m convinced this helped shape Chairman Nord’s and Commissioner Moore’s decision to support a moratorium on enforcing the lead law,” he said.

“Motorcyclists and ATV riders need to let the Congress know that we are concerned about the law, and that we want kids’ OHVs excluded from the law,” said Moreland. “We need to continue to let our decision-makers know how we feel.”

There are a few motorcycle riders who are my heroes, and you probably know their names: Kenny Roberts, Gary Nixon, Dick ‘Bugsy’ Mann, Chris Carr and Jay Springsteen. Some you may not know of like Emilio Scotto who took ten years to ride virtually every country in the world on a Goldwing no less. And now I add to that august list the name of Zoltán Sulkowsky.

Sulkowsky rode around the world on a Harley-Davidson and sidecar. Not a big deal as things go these days, but he did it in the eight year span of eight years from 1928 to 1936! Consider that for a moment. Mostly dirt roads, mostly hostile countries. “They experienced the riches of sultans, witnessed primitive cultures and extreme poverty in remote villages, traveled through wilderness with the ever-present danger of wild animals and bands of outlaws, and traversed roads of all descriptions. They dealt with mud, sand, unbearable heat, bitter cold, and rivers where the motorcycle had to be taken apart to cross in a small boat. They forged roads where no roads had existed and brought a whiff of exhaust-scented civilization to people who had never before seen a motor vehicle.”

Did I mention that he did this on a Harley? And did I mention that Mr. Sulkowsky was from Hungary? He started and ended his journey from his home town of Budapest.

This is a beautiful book of motorcycling adventure when riding a motorcycle and travel was truly an adventure, and I recommend it highly.

To find it, go to www.whitehorsepress.com.

P.S. Wordpress won’t let me put this picture in my comments but I can post it here:

The last public appearance of Evel Knievel in Daytona Beach

Well, looks like the stupidity from our new government concerning youth motorcyclists (see our blog a couple of weeks ago, Here come The Feds…Again) is attracting some attention. David Edwards, editor of Cycle World magazine devoted a column to it in the latest edition, and the venerable Malcolm Smith has organized some action.

This is from the Cycle World web cite:
To protest the ridiculousness of the CPSC’s ruling, Smith, many of the now-famous riders he inspired, and hundreds of fans and friends gathered last Thursday at his dealership, Malcolm Smith Motorsports in Riverside, California. As Smith tells it, he was standing in the store (recently named a Top 100 Dealer in the nation by Dealernews magazine) when a mom came into purchase a minibike for her child, “So the whole family can ride in the desert together,” she said.

Smith then found himself explaining to the woman how a law enacted to set ingestible lead-content levels in toys had been applied to child-size motorcycles, ATVs, parts, accessories and safety equipment—despite the fact that vehicle components that contain lead are nearly impossible to ingest!

“At that moment, I had had enough,” Smith said.

Out of this frustration, Smith and friends swung into action. To highlight the unfairness of the law’s interpretation, to draw attention to the ill effect it is having on motorcycle dealerships across the nation, they staged an act of civil disobedience. Smith simply sold two motorcycles and one ATV banned by the law.
One customer was multi-time Motocross, Supercross and most recently Supermoto champion Jeff Ward, who purchased a minibike for his son. Troy Lee, pioneering designer who brought custom-painted helmets to the peak of popularity, also bought a minibike for his son. The final purchase was by Bud Feldkamp, former race partner of Smith’s and owner of Glen Helen Raceway in nearby San Bernardino, who took home an ATV for his grandchildren.

Other supporters on hand included Supercross champ Jeremy McGrath, multi-time Baja winner Johnny Campbell, multi-decade-spanning off-road champion Scot Harden, Pro Circuit honcho Mitch Payton, and hundreds of other enthusiasts—all braved the 91 Freeway traffic to show their support.

So how is this law enforced, and what might the consequence be for breaking it? It is a bit of a mystery. As of yet, Smith has not been contacted by any member of law enforcement. Online research shows that a dealer can be fined $100,000 for every violation of the law, meaning Smith could be facing up to $300,000 in fines. But at this point, the legal repercussions of these actions are unknown.

What’s next? We don’t want to give it away, but Smith says he is planning a modern version of the Boston Tea Party. Stay tuned. More immediately, Smith says he is heading to Baja to enjoy the sport he inspired so many to try—and is now fighting for, to give even more the opportunity to experience the freedom that is motorcycling.

By Beau Allen Pacheco

Last week, a buddy of mine asked me, of all the bikes I’ve owned, which was my favorite?

Well, over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to own some landmark bikes, motorcycles that with their introduction, either raised the bar in motorcycle technology, or were pure classics. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that just as important as the bike, was the time in my life in which I owned it. My enjoyment factor of each bike was heavily influenced by my age, my health, my financial situation and the amount of time I had to ride it at the time.

I loved my brand new Honda Super Hawk 305 that I had as a fifteen year old living in the wilds of South Lake Tahoe. It was a landmark motorcycle and not too much of a beast for me. I loved it. My next bike was a Honda Scrambler that I owned as a seventeen year old living out in the high desert of Sparks, Nevada. I was free to ride the mining roads and deer trails for hours on end, and it was the perfect bike for that time. I loved it.

Then there was the Panhead dresser when I was a senior in high school. I had a full head of hair and I thought I was way too cool for school on that gorgeous bike. It too was a classic, and I loved it.

After that, at 19 years of age, I bought a Sportster that was my first and only foray into customizing. It had custom paint, and a custom seat and pipes. It was gawd-awful fast and those classic Sportys are valued collector bikes now. I loved it.

Around this time, my father who owned a lot of bikes, let me ride his BSA 440 Victor quite a bit. It was crude and cantankerous, but I loved that bike too.

After that were lots of bikes, a 450 Honda with the worst paint job in the world, one of the first inline Honda 750’s, a little blue BMW R/60 that I rode into the ground, a brand spanking new 1975 Triumph Bonneville that was a classic even then, but was so shoddily made that it fell apart underneath me as I rode it. And I loved those bikes.

Then there was the first year that Suzuki came out with their king of the hill, my new 1978 Suzuki GS1000E. It was the year that Cycle World proclaimed that all the manufacturers, Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki fired their big guns, and the Suzuki was their favorite. I thought so too. I was in my early thirties at the time, and able to fully appreciate how good this bike was. I was young enough to test its limits, had the time and money to take some wonderful long distance trips on it, and it just seemed to fit. When I sat on it, I could swear that they made it just for me. I loved it.

But my favorite of all of them? Well, maybe next time.
In the meantime, what’s yours?

By Beau Allen Pacheco
Tomorrow night is Oscar night, and I wonder if motorcycles will be represented in any of the nominated movies. Thinking back on the plethora of biker movies over the years, some of them I’ve liked, most I’ve hated, I can’t think of any, offhand, that truly represent the motorcycling experience.

Of the cinematic productions that I liked, the two shows that have stuck in my mind are: Little Fauss and Big Halsey, and Then Came Bronson. All the rest were pure Hollywood fantasy. A lot of guys believed in them though, and some of the movies set the tone for the industry.

Mike Corbin, Jedi of Corbin Seats told me that he was in the biker retail biz in the late sixties, and after the movie Easy Rider came out, he couldn’t sell Captain America helmets and sissy bars fast enough. He thought the movie was the best thing that ever happened for motorcycling because a whole generation of new riders were inspired to get on a bike and hit the road. Maybe the movie was worthwhile for that.

On the 25th anniversary of Easy Rider, I commissioned the great movie reviewer Roger Ebert to do a retrospective of the movie for Big Twin Magazine, and he commented that the movie isn’t holding up. Indeed, for a few years after its release, Easy Rider was considered one of the top ten movies of all time in lots of reviewer’s lists, but it has since almost disappeared from those lists.

That’s okay by me, I never thought it was that good in the first place.