Ups & Downs
Ups & Downs
UP: To the San Diego Antique Motorcycle Club, for taking a step back before moving forward. The club’s long-running Concours D’Elegance, arguably the best in the U.S., didn’t come off this year for a number of reasons, including increased fees levied by the Del Mar Fairgrounds, site of the show for the past eight years, and a lack of space for swapmeet vendors and company displays. The SDAMC vows to be back in the fall of ’99, better than ever, with a new location and an expanded program. Plans call for the concours to be held in conjunction with the Chrysler Classic Speed Festival at an all-paved (read “no dust”) site on Coronado Island that includes a temporary, two-mile race course.
DOWN: To the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for wasting tax dollars. The NHTSA plans to summarize studies that have examined the costs and payment sources associated with motorcycle accidents. In the past, these studies often have been funded by the healthcare and insurance industries, two entities with anti-motorcycling agendas. “This project will do nothing to enhance motorcycle safety on our highways,” said Robert Rasor, vice president of AMA government relations. “But it will use up tax dollars that could be spent on beneficial research. Using federal tax dollars to provide fodder for the anti-motorcycling lobby is inappropriate.”
UP: To Indiana’s rider-education program, for gettin’ the job done.
More than 23,000 of the Hoosier state’s nearly 97,000 registered motorcyclists have completed an MSF course since 1987, and as a direct result, bike-related fatalities are at an all-time low. Forty-four deaths were recorded in 1997, a 30 percent decline from the previous year.
