Belt Drive Betty's Blog: 6/27/10

A MAX Award winning web site!

National VP of Marketing

Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education

Contact Me

Friday, July 02, 2010

Good old Canadian Complacency will see us all get squashed...

I hear a lot of grumbling. The chair I sit in can be alternatively entertaining, heartbreaking and frustrating.

Today I am frustrated.

I hear so many people who whine, snivel and complain over the new motorcycle noise bylaw in Edmonton, the proposed bylaws in Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Windsor and countless other cities across this country and yet...who is doing anything about it?

I'll tell yah - about a handful of women on the Edmonton scene and from what I can tell - no one anywhere else - lots of noise, but no organized movements at all. (Unless I am blind and deaf I am not reading or hearing about anything concrete being done.)

In a recent discussion with Ivan from Medicine Hat Harley-Davidson I learned that the MMIC somehow caught wind of the fact that a federal law was about to be rewritten that would have seen motorcycle exhaust noise be limited to 86 decibels and that the MMIC intervened at the second reading and managed to get the limit raised to 96 by having the SAE create a noise standard test. Now that somewhat contradicts what the EPS (Edmonton Police Service) memo states but hey - let's not split hairs. Having this standard set means we as a community can force the issue over semi's and their noise, vehicles with no mufflers, boom boxes, leaf blowers and law mowers! We are actually in the drivers seat here folks - we just need to grab the handle bars and so something with it but...will we?

I got an email from a riding club that had the answers to a survey taken of their membership which is about 1100 strong.

349 people actually took the time to answer the 4 questions...

Here are the questions:

1. DO YOU THINK WE ARE PAINTING A TARGET ON US!

By going to bike nights in Edmonton.Where the EPS can easily setup and wait for bikes that night.

Percent Response

yes, 73.0% no 27.0%

2. SHOULD WE MOVE OUR BIKE NIGHTS OUTSIDE EDMONTON

yes, 52.5% no 47.5%

3. Should we ask Events like Toy Run to move outside Edmonton.

yes, 52.5% no 47.5%

4. IF I RECEIVE A NOISE BYLAW TICKET I WILL TAKE IT TO COURT or no I WILL JUST PAY IT.

YES 69.9% NO 30.1%

Now folks - this sucks if you really think about it - only about 33% of this riding club responded to an issue that affects all of us - discrimination. And I am not singling out this club - they are just the best example of what we face as a community period - no matter where in Canada, no matter which group.

This is the same complacency that KILLS riding clubs, events and charities.

Complacency is the enemy here folks, not the establishment - they shove these laws through because they know we will whimper and snivel and bend over and take it - no Vaseline required.

If you are not part of the solution then in this case you really are a part of the problem.

Look at the news today. St Andrews NB has the police working with them over the HUGE crowds coming to ride their motorcycles and spend their money - the community wants the tourism dollars. Shediac NB is hoping for the same boon in August as is the Red Island Rally in Charlottetown PEI that same August 27/28 weekend. The Wharf Rat Rally in Digby NS sees 20K plus riders spend HUGE money in their province.

Tourism by motorcycle is estimated conservatively to be a 300 BILLION dollar a year industry folks (only dealing with the 2 weeks of vacation a rider takes) in North America and in this economy the province of Alberta can not afford to let their police service dictate where our income comes from. Neither can any jurisdiction really. And if noise is really the issue - then let's deal with noise in some manner that actually addresses all of it, not one small, small part of it.

Oil and gas revenues are down, forestry income is down and tourism by motor home and air are down. If we look at the whole situation - take a macroscopic view as opposed to a microscopic view - you will see that most people want health care, infrastructure and certain other benefits looked after. All of those things take money and if we are only circulating our money and not getting in funds from tourism because the other revenue streams are suffering - then we end up getting nowhere.

I read some news articles on noise complaints this morning from people who bought homes in a sub division in Leduc AB - the sub division is by a highway that has been there for longer than I have been around and I am 50. Now folks - I hate to bring up the obvious - but - if you didn't think it was going to be noisy living next to a major highway - what the HE double hockey sticks were you thinking? It's like those who buy near an airport, race track or sporting facility and then whine and snivel about noise and traffic congestion - people, pull your heads out of your arses...

Complacency in the rider community is going to see successful bylaws across the country.

The whiners out number us and as in anything political - the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

So folks - get off your duffers, spread the word, sign a petition and then please join FIRRe - the Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education.

A united voice of the some 600,000 motorcyclists in Canada will carry far more wight than the efforts of 10 here and 30 there...

If you are not a part of the solution then you ARE the PROBLEM.

In the news today:

In the good old US of A there is a movement on by LAWMAKERS to get the NHTSA to put the focus on motorcycle accidents and helmet use.

An accident in Nevada took the life of a Canadian Soldier, Lt-Col. Nancy Ouellet, 41, reportedly died instantly June 22 when her motorcycle was struck head-on by a car trying to pass a transport truck. Ouellet a 23-year veteran of the military, had been until recently the commanding officer of the Canadian Forces Support Unit with NORAD in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In Lincoln NB a father and son were severely injured when they collided with a car that cut them off.

Another report from/on riders in the Hoka Hey Challenge...

Vintage racing will take place at the O'Keefe Ranch near Vernon BC next weekend.

There's a ton more news - so to get your dose of it tune in to www.beltdrivebetty.com where we sift through everything to bring you JUST the news that affects our communities and lives!

Belt Drive Betty

A MAX Award winning web site!

National VP of Marketing

Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education

Contact Me

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Birthday to one of the BEST Countries in the world!

What does being Canadian mean to you and why are you proud to be Canadian?

Most of us find it hard to express that sentiment in words...
So we here at Belt Drive Betty & The Busted Knuckle have a Summer Time Contest designed to help you define your Canadian Pride in Pictures!

Belt Drive Betty's Ride Like a Local Photo Contest...

It's Simple, Submit your favorite picture of you and your ride at your favorite attraction be it an event, a golf course, a road side attraction and you could win!

The rules are very simple.
The photo MUST be from the 2010 Riding Season, a CANADIAN attraction and your motorcycle must be involved.

You must be a registered member of Belt Drive Betty dot Com to participate - (you don't have to be Canadian either - we will make you an honorary Canadian......As long as the picture features YOUR favorite Canadian Attraction & Your Ride and is taken in 2010.

Upload your pictures between July 1st and August 31st...

On September 2nd we will open up the voting, votes will be accumulated until September 29th/2010 and the photo dubbed "The Best" by the riding community will net the winner a two night stay in the Hotel or Motel of your Choice as supplied by our Rider Friendly Business Association Partners OR $150 Cash - your choice!

With Hotels and Motels in Every Province now we are sure to be able to find you the right place for a weekend getaway! If not, take yourself and a friend or spouse out to dinner, to a movie or buy some bling for your bike with a $150 cash prize....

Come on Riders of Motorcycles in Canada - Submit your pictures today!

In the news today:
In New Brunswick the police are reminding motorists that traffic in to St Andrews for Atlanticade is expected to be heavy.

In Red Deer AB, the young man killed in last week's motorcycle accident is identified and his family says thank you to those who tired to aide him.

In Industry news Piaggio announces a scooter that they claim will get 141 MPG

In international News - the Old Spice man is trading his horse for a Motorcycle!

Happy Canada Day Everyone - PLEASE, rider like everyone around you is blind and can not see you, IS out to get you and ride Proud - NOT loud or a fine you will be getting...but if you get a fine remember - we WANT you to fight it if at all possible!

Belt Drive Betty

A MAX Award winning web site!

National VP of Marketing

Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education

Contact Me

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Another WILD news day in the motorcycling. community...

Today sees the news feeds filled with wild and woolly news that truly has one thinking about karma, community and life in general.

In New Brunswick a 26 year old man named Ryan Ellis was killed when his motorcycle collided with a car. This young father was involved in a high speed accident in 2003 where in he was doing over 200 KM per hour on a sport bike when he clipped another rider who died as a result, the rider was a man named Lee Barton. Ellis spent two years less a day in jail over that accident. Now a young girl is without her daddy...

There are a number of sad and tragic incidents like the one in Montreal where a father and his daughter were killed when the motorcycle they were on struck the rear end of a car. The mother who was riding her own motorcycle was also injured when she hit the same vehicle but not severely. The driver of the car had breaked suddenly to allow some ducks to cross the road.

The Hoka Hey Challenge saw a rider loose his life reportedly due to exhaustion - Charles C. Lynn, 44, of Sorrento, Florida died in Wyoming after he reportedly fell asleep, which caused his motorcycle to veer off the road and into a median about four miles north of Douglas in Converse County. The motorcycle crashed, and Lynn, who was not wearing a helmet was pronounced dead at the scene.

Four riders retired (From the Hoka Hey Challenge) due to an accident in the first few days of the ride with another fifty withdrew from ’stifling heat’ and more urban traffic than the riders were used to. Reportedly, the events route was kept to small state roads to avoid heavy traffic on interstates.(From Clutch & Chrome)

My heart is heavy folks...

Then there's this whole NOISE issue - the aldermen and councilors in these cities must all take the same "stupid is as stupid does" pills before breakfast me thinks...either that or they think we complacent Canadian Motorcyclists are just gonna take this discriminatory treatment without some Vaseline...

Windsor is getting really serious about implementing a similar bylaw to the on in Edmonton that goes into effect tomorrow and now so is Calgary. One Alderman in Calgary (John Mar) is going rogue against his Mayor and reintroducing the noise bylaw to council for a vote on July 5th...he is pushing to see the bylaw passed and be enforced by Mid August and has nine signatures from others on council already.

Yes folks, Karma is biting back in many ways. We didn't police ourselves and now look at the state of affairs. Because of a handful of attention seekers in every community across Canada and in the US, noise bylaws restricting motorcycle noise are cropping up everywhere. Our community is under siege.

Think I exaggerate? Look at what just happened in California...
If the new law goes through there - after market exhaust systems will be completely illegal until the after market industry can come up with EPA compliant pipes.

Under siege, singled out as the MAJOR noise offenders in a noisy urban world...that is the lot of the motorcycle community these days - how do we stop the madness?

When will the law makers realize that they can NOT single out one community this way? When will they turn their anger to the boom boxes, the screaming leaf blowers and the chipped up pick ups, cars and noisy semi's who disregard the signs and laws about the use of Jacobs brakes in city/town limits and the vehicles with NO mufflers at all? When will that happen?

When - I will tell you when - WHEN WE, the MOTORCYCLE community band together, hire a really good civil rights lawyer and take these discriminatory laws to the supreme court to have them struck down - that's when.

So community...you up for it or are you just gonna snivel and whine like the good complacent Canadians we are? This year for our Canada Day Celebrations - we all need to look at what the people we have elected to power are doing to our county, our communities and our rights and freedoms and decide that it is time to take them back.

It is time people - it is time to unite and light a F.I.R.R.E. in the soul of every rider in Canada. The Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education NEEDS you. We need a defense fund and we need you to sign petitions, lobby your tourism departments and your business community...

People - remember the Motorcycle, Moped Industry Council is the Group that PAID the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) to develop the noise testing standard that is being used in Edmonton. Think about why the business community - the manufacturers paid to have this standard set just for us...Why - because they claim they wanted tickets issued to be less subjective to the officers discretion. Hmmm, either they think we don't understand the bite the aftermarket industry takes out of the bottom line for the manufacturers and dealers? Is this perhaps a way for them to get us all on new machines? Or is it a way to be seen as addressing a huge issue and being good ambassadors and helping us to police ourselves?

I have no answers, only suppositions, and in this economy, in this time in our history, I think they are looking at both issues because for them, in business that makes good sense.

I personally think we need to start petitions asking these councils who are looking at implementing the noise bylaws against us to start enforcing what is already on the books.

The Transportation Safety Act does not discriminate - Noise issues are already dealt with in FEDERAL LAW in an equal and equitable manner, why won't they consider just actually enforcing what is already on the books to nail ALL offenders of the law, ticket them fairly the way the FEDERAL LAW does?

NOISE POLLUTION - if that REALLY IS the ISSUE at hand here, NOISE POLLUTION is created by us all, and by some more than others - treat the offenders who always go over board the same regardless which noise making community they come from.

One other question I have - how can provincial or municipal laws supersede Federal Law?
Why do they have those kinds of powers if they in fact do? I would love to understand and I am sure many others would love to know too.

As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subjects of the day. It is ONLY through thoughtful and thought provoking dialogue that we will ever change hearts and minds.

Talk to me people!

If you are fortunate enough to be riding today...please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you and IS out to get you and ride proud not loud.

Belt Drive Betty

A MAX Award winning web site!

National VP of Marketing

Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education

Contact Me

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Hoka Hey Challenge has it's winner (s)

Two men crossed the finish line in homer Alaska together - a pact they made when the met on the road. At 4:20 a.m. Monday morning, 190 hours and 20 minutes after leaving on June 20, Frank Kelly of Prosperity, S.C., and Will Barclay of Highland, Fla., did just that, crossing at the same time under the finish banner at the Kevin Bell Ice Arena on the Homer Spit and becoming the first of 500 riders to end the grueling trip.

The Hoka Hey was surrounded in controversy as the organizer Big Jim has had some - shall we say confusing - history. There were many in the US who said this race would never go off.

The main proponent of the scam argument is a poster named John Johnston who points to a story published by the Denver city magazine 5280 about another scam reputedly perpetrated by the main organizer of the Hoka Hey. Johnston launched the charge stating that, "This is a CON folks..........how long until you all wake-up.....I guess when you get to the end and there is no "GOLD"...and Big Jim and his gang of hustlers are sitting on the reservation laughing at all of the white men they scammed.....AGAIN!!"(Examiner.com)

Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge. A Possible 7000 Miles Long Scam? From Cyril Huze

It all started before the 1st of the 7000 miles was ridden Sunday morning in Key West, Florida. Some reported that potential participants, before or after paying their $1000 fee to get a chance to belong to the long distance challenge, decided to withdraw after they realized that that organizer Big Jim (Jim Red Cloud, Jim Durham) was at the last minute changing the rules advertised on the Hoka Hey website. Only Harley-Davidson were supposed to participate but other brands were registered. GPS were supposed to be prohibited but many participants were equipped with them and are now reporting their postions hour after hour. At a meeting before the challenge, Big Jim was supposedly presenting the Hoka Hey as a race when the event was initially advertised as an endurance challenge because racing on any public streets and highways in America is absolutely prohibited. (Cyril Huze Blog)

While shy of the 1000 riders they wanted, organizers got 500 and for the first race of its kind and with an entry fee of $1000, in this economy - I'd say its a pretty good start. I hope they had enough corporate sponsors to help them break even because the entries were only enough to pay out the half million dollar prize in Homer...

For the sake of the Native American Community, the riders who participated, the sponsors who got on board - I hope that this thing doesn't prove out to be a scam as many seem to think it will.

No matter what happens - I hope and pray that the people who participated in the Hoka Hey enjoyed the challenge, enjoyed the ride and the camaraderie. I hope that the reported cheating and negativity around the event didn't take away for the majesty of the road...

In other news:
In the last 24 hours 6 Canadian motorcyclists have died. If you go to the Rider Down Section on our web site you can read the articles giving you the information. My heart breaks every time I read these stories - most are incidents with reasons - very few are ever true accidents...

In Windsor ON the cops are cracking down on motorcycle noise...

In Alberta: Double Points Month! Cycle Works is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year and we want to thank our loyal customers for sticking by us for 30 years

Belt Drive Betty

A MAX Award winning web site!

National VP of Marketing

Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education

Contact Me

Monday, June 28, 2010

A tragic weekend - 5 riders dead, one in critical condition in a strange accident

Sunday proved to be a fatal day in the Lancaster Pennsylvania region. Police have not been able to figure out what happened or why but what is known is 3 motorcycles with 2 people on board - EACH ON hit the same van in different spots!

("It's really hard to tell who was going which way because the van was hit in three different areas," he said.Penn Township police had identified most, but not all, of the five people killed as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, according to King. "Nobody has come forward that actually saw the crash itself, so if anybody did, I'd appreciate a phone call," King said. Anyone with information should contact Penn Township police at 665-6959. Read more: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/262127#ixzz0s96LjGxO)

My prayers go out to the families and loved ones and I pray that an answer as to what happened is found.

In Gander NL - the Ride for Sight has officially concluded for 2010

In Ottawa ON two riders are in the hospital after hitting the back end of a truck.

In Timmins ON riders collected Toys in their Annual Toy Run

The Optimists Clubs of Ontario are holding a motorcycle rally to help raise money for the Bravery Bead Program

For those familiar with American Biker Politics - one of the most staunch defenders - Sputnik died of a massive heart attack. Sputnik was head of The Texas Motorcycle Rights Association.

In Maine the funeral of Outlaw MC Member Thomas Mayne took place without incident - police had feared that violence could erupt .

I have decided on the Outlaw Bikers DVD Series and while I agree Liane Langlois deserves huge cudos for her work on gathering signatures for the repeal of the Edmonton Noise Bylaw and I will send her my copy - I want the giving of these DVD Box Sets to be about getting more people involved and Liane is about as involved as one can be!

So - to that end, I am going to take Poet's suggestion from my Face Book Group and I am asking you to send me a write up on WHY you deserve this set in your DVD collection.

You MUST submit it to me at (bdbetty @ gmail.com) Fix the spacing folks - Must be a minimum of 500 words - I want it in by July 10th...I will make a decision on the winner then - in the mean time - Poet, you win a set for giving me the idea - contact me so that I can get E1 Entertainment to send it to you.

If you are fortunate enough to be riding today...please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you and IS out to get you and ride proud not loud.

Belt Drive Betty

A MAX Award winning web site!

National VP of Marketing

Foundation for Injured Riders, Rights & Education