Legislation Forum

LEGISLATION FORUM

"WANTS TO GET HIS FEET WET"

The articles I read concerning laws and proposed laws governing, my error, dictating the way a two-wheeled machine is to be operated sicken me. I feel nothing but pure, unadulterated disgust for the ones who are responsible for this.

Mr. Joel E. Gonzales (CW, Forum, March ’68) had the right idea. For the benefit of those who did not read it, what he said in plain English was, “Every one concerned had better get up and do something about all the laws and coming laws in regard to motorcycles before it’s too late.” This man is definitely right.

One of these bright, sunny mornings we’re going to hop out of our beds and want to go for a-spin on our bright, shiny motorcycles. The first thing we will have to do is go to the local police station and fill out the required forms, and have our many dollar, mandatory leather suits and our many dollar, mandatory helmets with glare-proof, dust-proof, waterproof and bulletproof faceshields inspected. Next, we’ll have our lights checked, front and rear, which will be wired to stay on at all times. Actually this will be for daytime only, because eventually, all cycles will be required to be off the streets by 5 p.m. Then seat belts and shoulder straps will be checked at the same time the weld on the governor is tested. (All motorcycles will be governed to a maximum speed of 45 mph.) When you show your special driver’s license, complete with photo and fingerprints, title and registration, you will be issued your key to your motorcycle, which stays at the local compound. By the time you have gone through all this, warmed up your machine and are ready to go, the dispatcher will have planned the route that you will go by to reach the riding area assigned to you that day. No more crosscountry rides, and no one will be allowed to ride his machine across a state line until he has a special permit from Washington. I’m sure that if there is not one already, there soon will be a special office for this sole purpose. This special group, most graciously, and at a very high salary (naturally), probably won’t consist of more than a dozen brilliant jackasses who more than likely have never ridden a motorcycle and don’t even know the difference between a Honda 150 and a Harley-Davidson 74. They will be the kind who will dictate to us unless we do something about it.

You want to know who’s raising all the squawk? The ones who know absolutely nothing about motorcycles. Some moron sees a movie with a bunch of cycle bums ravaging a town. He is so outraged and gullible that he starts imagining all sorts of things everytime he hears a motorcycle. He writes letters banning the bomb and the motorcycle. He wants us out of sight, and he wants us out of mind. If he keeps on the way he’s going, and we keep on the way we’re going, HE is going to get what he wants. These people who know nothing about motorcycles are getting laws passed against them. Why can’t we, who know them, get laws passed for the motorcycle?

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Not only had all cyclists better get busy, but dealers and all who are connected with the business or sport in any way. Some of the laws non-riders propose are going to affect the sale of motorcycles everywhere. Do you dealers think someone is really going to want to buy a motorcycle when there will be so many restrictions on it, that the very idea of riding will be disgusting? I may be wrong, but I don’t think you can make a living selling motorcycles that will have to be hauled to each sporting event.

I have enjoyed this happy, fun sport for about two years, and I honestly love it. I hate the idea of being forced out before I really get a chance to wet my feet. Help me, help everyone concerned. What can we do to stop this? Who should we write? Who should we see? This may never be printed, and even if it is, I don’t know if it will do any good. I have to try, though. There are many centers of influence that could help. There are businessmen who ride motorcycles, there are doctors, lawyers, motorcycle dealers, and newspapermen who ride. Let’s get something organized. Let’s fight for our rights. Let us put on some pressure of our own.

DON R. SCHOCHLER, USN U.S.S. Saratoga CVA 60

Write your congressmen, state legislators and Lewis S. Buchanan, U.S. Dept, of Trans-

portation, Motorcycle Safety Division, National Highway Safety Bureau, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC 20591.-Ed.

"TOO SECURE?"

I am greatly concerned with the present and possible future situation of motorcycling for the road rider. It seems to me that lawmakers are getting ready to slowly eradicate the cycle rider from the streets by nuisance laws. Surely the industry and the governing bodies such as AMA and AFM are aware of what’s starting to happen, or is everyone feeling very secure making lots of money and thinking that motorcycling is too big to be hurt badly. We know no one ever gets so big that they can’t be brought down, if only a little at a time. Letting people make laws about things they know or care little about, or dislike, is bad business.

The helmet law, I feel, is just the start of what could lead to being told how you should dress while riding, and how the machine should be equipped-which I feel is up to the rider. The law should require only that a motorcycle meet the normal vehicle requirements as to lights, mufflers, brakes, etc. Certainly, telling someone what’s good for him and forcing him to abide by this rule is taking his individual rights.

If a man chooses to ride without a helmet, that’s his business and his head. He isn’t going to harm anyone but himself. He isn’t endangering anyone else. Certainly it’s smarter to wear a helmet, but the idea of being told you have to for your own good is a step toward telling you how to do a lot more things before it’s through-until finally it’s either illegal or impractical to ride on the road anymore.

What I’m trying to say is that motorcyclists had better start looking out for their own good before we wake up and find ourselves in a mess and wonder how it all happened. I don’t like the idea of one day not being able to take a ride without being harassed by nuisance laws, or not being able to ride on the streets at all.

HERBERT GOEDICKE Marion, Ohio

"DEPLORABLE GROUP?"

I don’t suppose there is anyone who dislikes the Hell’s Angels and their imitators much more than I do. As an enthusiast who thoroughly enjoys motorcycling, I realize that alienating the public can only damage the sport and make things difficult for all riders in the long run. Therefore I am somewhat bemused to find myself writing a letter to praise the Hell’s Angels. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that all California cyclists are now in debt to that deplorable group!

As most California cyclists are aware, 1968 saw the return of A.B. 978-an obnoxious bit of state legislation intended to sell out the rights of the state’s cyclists in order to placate the federal safety seekers. (The bill was NOT killed in 1967, as erroneously reported in the Oct. ’67 CYCLE WORLD, but merely shelved until this year.) Some of the bill’s provisions-special licensing, for example-are good. (There’s not much doubt that any special licensing program will be so incompetently administered as to be a farce in practice, but at least it’s a good idea in principle.) Some of the bill’s other provisions—notably compulsory helmets—are a different story, however. A few cyclists have written CYCLE WORLD in support of compulsory helmets; but most riders who value their personal freedoms and credit themselves with enough intelligence to make decisions affecting their own welfare are vigorously opposed to such legislation.

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Unfortunately for our sport, however, practically nothing was done to combat the objectionable parts of A.B. 978. The magazines expressed their editorial disapproval, and then proceeded to do nothing. The manufacturers expressed their unhappiness at meetings like Cycle ’68, and then proceeded to do nothing. The riders, those few who shed their apathy enough to do anything at all, generally confined themselves to writing a few futile letters to Legislation Forum and (hopefully) their legislators. As a result, we all would have been stuck with Foran’s idea of Big Brother motorcycling had it not been for the efforts of the most ignoble element of our sport: the Hell’s Angels.

The Angels were probably motivated by no principle higher than horror at the thought of their dirty image being tarnished by equipment associated with clean and safe riders. Their motivation, however, is somewhat beside the point. The essential fact is that they, alone, cared enough to really do something to protect our sport from people like Foran, and they did it. They went to Sacramento, they testified, they lobbied, and they somehow managed to put up a presentable enough front to be effective. The compulsory helmet provisions of A.B. 978 apparently have been killed—at least for this year. I must therefore take off my hat to the Hell’s Angels; but I also wince with shame that effective leadership in California cycling has to come from such a source.

How about next year? How about future attacks on the rights of motorcyclists? Can’t the largest cycling state in the union produce one organization dedicated to protecting the rights of cyclists? Is there no Kingsley Smith to lead us out of the wilderness-or will the vast body of respectable cyclists continue to flounder in disorganization while depending on outlaw gangs to represent California motorcycling?

NAME WITHHELD ON REQUEST

"THE THROTTLE OR THE PEN?"

It’s a heck of a thing when the first place I look in each issue of CYCLE WORLD is not the excellent feature articles or road tests, but the Legislation Forum. I feel that I have to these days to keep abreast of what our Big Brothers at the capital have in store for us.

After reading this month’s crop of letters, I have come to the conclusion that more of us motorcyclists had better let go of the throttle and grab a pen. It seems that in some states we’re lucky we still have the right to send letters to our representatives! And I feel that I have come up with an idea that will increase the flow of correspondence to our respective capitals many times.

Most people who are cycle fans (and there are a lot of us) simply do not know where to send a letter of complaint. It is well and good that everyone says write your state representative, but how? For my own interest, I asked about 15 of my two-wheeling friends if they knew where to send letters to their congressmen. None did.

I realize that space in a magazine is at a premium, but in the interest of fairness and the fact that we all have a stake in this madness, I feel that a list of addresses of the state capitals in your pages would stimulate the communicative powers of our reticent numbers. If it appeared at the end of the Legislation Forum column, it would hit the reader at the prime moment: when he is mad and wants to do something about it.

Congratulations on your June issue, by the way. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever hear about the Egli Vincent. Your article was superb.

WILLIAM K. DYER, JR. Manhattan, Kans.

Try your local library for state “Bluebooks’’ which list all state and federal legislators, and membership of various committees. These lists are readily available to all. Ask your research librarian where to find them. -Ed.

"WOULD RATHER WRITE"

Having already written my home state inquiring about any proposed legislation regarding motorcycles, I would like to write the state I reside in, California. However, I am handicapped as to information by being in the Gulf of Tonkin.

When I am not occupied with this pastime, I ride a motorcycle in San Diego, Calif. If I were to write to anyone denouncing proposed legislation, who would I write to? If this information were made available, you might find a few more followers who fvould rather write than procrastinate. Give us addresses please.

ALLAN D. HOWSER JR. FPO San Francisco

Write to John Foran, Chairman, Transportation Committee, California Assembly, State Capitol, Sacramento, Calif —Ed.