Northwest Cycle Report

What do you get when you put 1000 plus members of 100 plus various motorcycle clubs together under one roof?  You get NCOM, the National Coalition of Motorcyclists.

Every year NCOM is held at a different city throughout the US.  It is a chance for motorcycle clubs (as in 3 piece patch holders) along with Christian MM and other patch holders to come together under one roof and learn how to be more effective in directing policies and legislation in their towns and states.  It is also a time for attendees to come together and hammer out various disagreements among themselves.  It is a time for networking, building alliances and making new friends and saying hello to old ones.  Many of those who attend but not all come as representatives for their states Club delegations. Much like in politics each district has its local delegates that go the state meeting and then go to the national meeting.

The reason I was attending this event for the first time was to receive an award for my work as the producer/creator of HogRadio. I along with 7 others from among the riding community were awarded the Silver Spoke award at this years 24th annual NCOM.

This is the first time I have ever been awarded this way for something I have created since I was in high school when I was awarded for my part in an art project for my high school.  I didn’t even know of this convention prior to research I had done after starting HogRadio 16 months ago.

Since my goal has always been to bring information to our listeners that they wouldn’t get anywhere else and to spotlight all the good things about motorcycling and the biker lifestyle I was honored for improving the Image of motorcycling.  It didn’t hurt that we had interviewed Richard Lester, founder of AIM and NCOM on our show a few months back.  Regardless of why they chose me I was humbled by being awarded and being honored, I even had a chance to share a few words to the 400 or so awards banquet crowd.

One of the major moves by NCOM is to reach out to the Sport Bike riders and offer them a chance to become involved with what is going on.  They had a fellow from PRO which is a sport bike club organization located on the east coast consisting mainly of black riders.  I met Seven, the rep who attended NCOM, and will have him on HogRadio very soon to discuss with us the movement within his circle of influence which is made up of thousands of African-American sport bike and cruiser class riders.  Many of you would be surprised to know that there is a 50/50 women to men ratio amongst this riding community.  These women take riding as seriously as any guy does, which in my book warrants notice.

Which brings me to my main point, do you take your rights as riders as seriously as you do your riding skills?

There is a lot of legislation taking place in the various hamlets and cities geared to making riding a not so nice past time.  Some within the New York city council wish to give the police the right to impound your bike and charge you $500.00 to retrieve it if they see your bike has pipes without an EPA stamp of approval on them (can someone say factory pipes only).

Other towns have been working to curb large gathering such as this years Myrtle Beach fiasco.  While others such as Snohomish decided to snub the Annual Old Bike day by requesting huge increases to cover “crowd control”.  They lose out and another town will gain by this stupidity.

What about loud pipe restrictions?  We have noted on HogRadio that many of the sport bike crowd have discovered the world of race pipes designed to increase air flow, HP and mileage.  It’s no longer the cruiser class but everyone who will be affected here. What about all the rat bike and café style bikes being built and ridden?  These will come under heavy scrutiny if the money grubbing politico’s have their way.  Not to mention activists out to throttle anything that smells like gasoline.

What about all the riders killed by stupid drivers in their cars or trucks?  In the majority of cases these reckless drivers get away with a fine and a ticket and nothing more.  Yet now the state wants bike owners to start being tested every other time they get their endorsement upped.  Note, I’m not against testing, but why not make all car drivers take a mandatory test every other time they have to re-up their drivers licenses and make sure to have them learn about the rights of motorcyclists.

The only way things will improve is if we the riding community get involved in contacting our government reps.  Maybe you don’t get pulled over because you wear a three piece patch but believe me; the day will come when you are pulled over because you ride a bike.

Conclusion, get educated on the facts, and make your voice heard!  This way you can continue to enjoy your passion of riding motorcycles.  And as a close friend who has never ridden a bike in his life stated to me. “If bikes never existed and they were invented today, chances are good that they would never be allowed on the street.”

God bless, ride safe and we will see you out on the road.

Steve Johann
HogRadio Producer