[ST] Ride you bastards!

[Robert Smith <robert@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:55 PM 16/04/01 -0700, From: don draper <donnydogood@xxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [ST] For your consideration
>
>         An official at NHTSA (National Highway & Transportation
>Safety Administration) has been quoted as saying "If the public turns
>sour on motorcycling because motorcyclists cease to respect and
>accommodate that public, motorcycling will become a historical
>artifact!". The fact is that the 270 million Americans who care
>nothing for motorcycles are getting fed-up with the aggravation of
>riders burning their eyeballs with bright lights and assaulting their
>eardrums with loud pipes. It will be EASY for this majority, under
>color of altruism, to have their politicians simply regulate, tax and
>restrict our sport to the point where riding will be
>unaffordable or undesirable.

And to that I say bollocks. That's what they'd like us to do--just go away 
on our own.

The answer is NOT to become invisible and quiet down. Quite the opposite.

Motorcycling needs to become more visible and more audible. I'm not talking 
about bright headlights and loud pipes. (There are enough broken mufflers 
and maladjusted headlights on cages already.)

Joe & Jane Public (and the politicians who examine their every bowel 
movement through the polls) mostly think of motorcycling as a silly, 
dangerous game played by wheelie-popping squids and latter-day outlaws on 
noisy two-wheeled tractors. In much of the rest of the world, motorcycles 
are how people get around. They're basic transportation. No politician 
would try to take motorcycles off the road because too many people ride them.

Critical mass is the answer. Get out there and ride! Ride to work. Ride in 
the rain. Ride year round. Take a safe training course. Better still, 
become a safety instructor. Join a club. Make your "sport" your life. 
Invite your local politician to go for a ride with you.

The more bikes on the road, the more difficult it's going to be for "them" 
to make us go away.

OK, I've taken my tablets now...

Robert Smith--Freelance Writer
'00 ST "Singing in the rain"
Vancouver, BC
www.smith.bc.ca


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