|
Front Page
Editors Ramblings
Focus On
Green laning and what it's got to do with you
Behind the Lines
Foreword
VAT On Helmets
SORN (Satutory Off Road Notification) Don’t Get
Caught Out
Automatic Headlights (AHO) AGAIN
MOT Sticker
Motorcycle Luggage - Do You Know The Dangers?
MAG Condemns "Free" Insurance Schemes
I’m No Lady Coming Out Of The Closet
Hazards for
Motorcyclists - Your Help Required
Insensitivity to Disabled Bikers
MAG Youth?
MAG Youth – (temporary name)
Odds and Sods
Stolen Bikes
Raffle Prizes for 2004
Pennsylvania Helmet
Freedom!
Funnies!
Are You In Here????
Stolen Bike
MAG Events
Previous Issues
|
ODDS AND SODS
Raffle Prizes for 2004
The raffle prizes for next year include a Triumph Daytona 600 (in MAG Yellow), £750 worth of vouchers from Hein Gericke and £250 worth of vouchers also from Hein
Gericke. MAG Direct will donate £250 towards the cost of insuring the bike.
PENNSYLVANIA HELMET FREEDOM!
CONGRATULATIONS to ABATE of Pennsylvania and Keystone State motorcyclists, who scored a monumental victory over the Independence Day Weekend when Governor Edward G. Rendell
signed a helmet law repeal on July 6, 2003, making Pennsylvania the 31st state to allow adult freedom of choice.
Effective September 4, 2003, riders 21 and older who have had a motorcycle
license endorsement for at least two years, or have completed a motorcycle safety course, will have the freedom to decide when and where to wear a helmet. Passengers must wear a helmet if the
operator is required to wear one.
"This was a classic example of grass roots activism," said an exuberant Charles Umbenhauer, ABATE's lobbyist. "We've been working at
this for more than two decades, and it proves that patience and persistence pays off."
Earlier this year, on June 16, the State Senate approved Senator John Wozniak?s helmet law modification
bill, SB 259, by a vote of 29-20. Then, on July 1, the House of Representatives passed the measure by a vote of 118-79, sending the bill to the governor?s desk.
Governor Rendell
promised to sign the bill if it got to his desk, and he kept his word to the state's 700,000 motorcycle riders.
"This governor knows how to keep a promise," said Umbenhauer,
referring to former governor Tom Ridge, now Secretary of Homeland Security, who vetoed a similar bill over a technicality in 1998, after publicly supporting ABATE's efforts to repeal the law.
ABATE is planning a celebratory ride on Saturday, September 6, 2003, forming on Commonwealth Avenue behind the state capitol in Harrisburg. Governor Rendell has been invited to do a ceremonial
signing of the bill before the "Ride to Gettysburg," which will be the state's first helmets-optional ride in 35 years!
FUNNIES!
BERLIN (Reuters)
- Having sex while driving at 100 kph (60 mph) down a motorway is not an offence in Germany. But if you hit something make sure you don't run off.
A Cologne court fined a man who admitted he
was having sex with a blonde hitchhiker sitting astride him when he drove his car into a road sign. But only because he fled the scene of the accident with his naked accomplice.
"The man was
convicted of hit-and-run and sentenced to a fine of 600 euros," court spokesman Juergen Mannebeck said on Tuesday. "It's hard to believe but in fact no law was broken with the intercourse
on the motorway. It's a situation lawmakers never thought about."
The 23-year-old man, who was tracked down through the car's registration, was also ordered to pay 400 euros to repair
the sign. He did not know the name of the woman who left her clothes behind in the car.
ARE YOU IN HERE??????
This is excellent and so true ....
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's probably
shouldn't have survived. Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint, which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors
or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no
seat belts or air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding
and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from
this. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to
solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no-one minded. We did not have
Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went
outside and found them. We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were
accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again. We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it. We walked to friend's homes. We made up games with
sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of
7 and wore our coats by only the hood. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.
Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had
freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations! Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real
kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. (If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us).
Pete Wood, Bandit and SV Owners Club
|
