Whoa! Been away a couple days! I guess with all the complaints I read about ABATE of Florida, there must be no members there actually focused on a mission and it's just another group of partying bikers. To address AK hogherder's recommendation: There is no "national ABATE" SMRO's have many different names and many state's ABATE organizations' acronyms stand for different meanings. The original EasyRiders' concept was "A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments" And after the St. Joan of Claybrook period, they let unaffiliated state's rights organizations use the acronym as those state organizations saw fit without asking for royalties or copyright infringement. I continue to applaud their generosity as they saw a much bigger picture and decided to not become a parallel organization to the AMA. If you actually want to help the motorcyclists's rights movement, send an e-mail to the MRF about your ABATE of Florida (or Texas as I read elsewhere) negative experiences. No guarantees, but select persons within the national MRO would gladly have a chat with the affected state organizations about what kind of image they're portraying. May be too late for some of you to change your viewpoint, but future bikers may continue to preserve freedom of the road instead of b!tch about negative experiences with unruly individuals who are representing what an organization appears to be. Here in Chicago, we (the Chicago Chapter of A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education of Illinois Incorporated) don't have time for Poker Runs. With as many of our member clubs having something every weekend, we're not competing for anyone's social time or charity dollars. We do have our annual Chili Cookoff which coincides with the IMS show in February, up until a couple years ago there was absolutely nothing else happening that weekend (some of the ladies of LAMA were insulted when I had a boatload of extra T-shirts one year and my "trade" for one was a tittie flash, Hey, it's February in Chi-town!). The last Sunday in April, we have our annual Dave "Dogkiller" White memorial ride for Motorcycle Awareness which segways into the state rally at the capitol the following weekend to kick off Motorcycle Awareness month, a "Spring Fling" picnic in May which has kid's games (family event, no nudity) and a couple other things. We're not an "Events" organization, we're not competing with over a dozen different LEO clubs, over a dozen latin or african-american clubs, 4 different HOG chapters, etc... We are an MRO which works with our state's legislature as well as local bodies of government to preserve freedom of the road (and off-road in other parts of the state, rich kids who hook up a trailer of vehicles they can't ride to school to the family behemoth SUV are not within our urban ranks). As many Spring Flings as I didn't attend, I more than made up for in establishing and maintaining relationships with legislators and business people that others found to be not as easy to reach as some. People like the Florida or Texas example stated before, make my tasks more challenging, but I'll never take up golf. Or spend my sunday mornings with "holier than thou" hypocrites who would screw somebody over any other day of the week. This is what I do. Over 20 years ago (1984 to be exact) I also had a bigtime negative impression of "ABATE" I heard that a group was organizing back then at a bar called "Deadwood Dave's" to fight a certain assemblyman who kept pushing for a helmet law and decided to go visit. I took one of the many people I taught to ride along with me, I left my Triumph behind and rode my Suzuki and he his Yamaha he just bought. Aside from jap bikes, we were Chicago Greasers, no long hair or peace signs thermals and baggies instead of t-shirts and jeans. When we pulled into the lot in back of the bar, trailer-trash bimbos were messing with our bikes, we didn't "fit in" and it didn't seem like any of the dudes there cared about it. We left, it took over 10 years f

 

Our ABATE Org held meetings at a bar in a small town some drank others didnt and we talked politics,it was a small town witch was centerd to where we all lived,some rode 2-10 miles,some 50 and I road 120 miles one way once a month,our yearly party was great,Beer-Bands-Games,all the riders from local towns would show up(300 + riders)our 1st one we had around 70 people show up but it grew from then on. I stopped going in 95 but its still a fun time from what riders tell me......

Its the people that ether make or break a ABATE get together.....Iam glad our ABATE was well put together with good people....

 

Our local charter is only 6 months old and we DO meet at a bar. Some of our members drink and some don't. I fall into the latter category. We discuss politics, current/pending legislation and upcoming events. We'll start having events in the next month and I'll be requesting that our members do NOT drink and ride at the events. What they do after the event is their business, but it's too much of a liability for them to drink and ride in one of our events. I don't know what the other charters within our State do, but I don't want one of our State Representatives to see someone drinking before a ride. We're trying to get the helmet law repealed and I honestly don't think that would help our lobbying efforts at all.

 

The image you portray to the general public (including the retiree/empty nest riders)weighs heavily on whether your legislators take you seriously or not. Drinking before or during rides should really be taken into consideration here. As far as after, most elected officials I know love to throw a few back just like anybody else. Refusing to partake with them could have them view you ( when I write "you", I am referring to the group) as unrepresenting of the biker/rider community as a whole. They want to appeal to the large audience (votes), not a small, fringe element. Elected officials are just another person with just another job, don't lose sight and they'll be responsive when you call.