MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation
236 Massachusetts Ave. NE | Suite 510 | Washington, DC 20002-4980
202-546-0983 (voice) | 202-546-0986 (fax) | http://www.mrf.org

09NR34 – MRF News Release – MOTORCYCLE CRASH CAUSATION STUDY UPDATE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7 October 2009

Contact: Jeff Hennie, MRF V.P. of Government Relations

MOTORCYCLE CRASH CAUSATION STUDY UPDATE

As promised, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) is closely following the progress of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) ongoing motorcycle crash causation study. Vehicle fatalities fell last year, while motorcycle fatalities rose. We all know that a large factor in the increase was the record motorcycle registrations and motorcycle sales, but no one is certain why a lot of motorcycle accidents occur. The last crash study done for motorcycles was in the 1970s, and so much has changed since then that the motorcycle safety community has aggressively pushed for a more up-to-date, relevant study.

“Having a better understanding of what causes these crashes will help us improve roadway safety for everyone,” said FHWA Administrator Mendez. “Keeping people safe on America’s roads is Secretary LaHood’s top priority at the Department of Transportation.”

The motorcycle crash causation study will be the federal government’s first major in-depth analysis of motorcycle safety in nearly three decades. A provision in the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users” (SAFETEA-LU) requires the study, which will be conducted by the FHWA in partnership with Oklahoma State University (OSU).

OSU houses one of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 10 National University Transportation Centers, and it receives federal grants to conduct transportation research. One of the holdups of the study was that OSU was required to secure funds to match the $3 million provided by the Feds. OSU did not have an extra $3 million, so a waiver was granted allowing the study to move forward with a smaller budget. The study won’t be as large as the original concept, but the MRF has been assured it will be rigorous and scientific.

Researchers will evaluate data from hundreds of motorcycle crashes to help identify common factors – including road configurations, environmental conditions and rider experience. The study’s focus is to look at how these factors may be affected by countermeasures that, if effectively implemented, will prevent motorcycle crashes or lessen the harm when they occur.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a pilot study to develop the protocols for the full-scale causation research. NHTSA also was responsible for the earlier motorcycle causation study, which was completed in 1981.

Between 1997 and 2008, motorcycle rider fatalities increased from 2,116 to 5,290 – a 150 percent jump, according to U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. In 2008 alone, deaths due to motorcycle crashes rose by an estimated 2.2 percent while all other vehicle classes saw reductions in fatalities.

Results of the current study are still 3-4 years away.

MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE | Suite 510 | Washington, DC 20002-4980 202-546-0983 (voice) | 202-546-0986 (fax) | http://www.mrf.org 09NR33 – MRF News Release – DISTRACTED DRIVING SUMMIT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 5 October 2009 Contact: Jeff Hennie, MRF V.P. of Government Relations

DISTRACTED DRIVING SUMMIT

Distraction: The performance degradation of a primary task upon introduction of a secondary act.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood convened an important two-day meeting in Washington DC last week to shine a light on the increasing incidents and opportunities to be distracted while operating a car or public transportation vehicle. Naturally, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) was represented at that meeting.

With the amount of distraction from increased use of cell phones (some with full keyboards), GPS systems, DVD players and the vast array of other complex video displays at an all-time high, it should not come as a surprise that the opportunity for an operator of any vehicle to become distracted has risen significantly in just the past few years.

Distracted driving is certainly not a new issue. One could argue that the minute someone in Detroit came up with the idea to put lighters and ashtrays in cars, or when a little company called Motorola produced the first in-car audio entertainment device, or when Ray Kroc sold his first burger out of the window of his restaurant, distracted driving was born.

What’s truly startling is the dramatic rise in the amount of “texting” people are doing behind the wheel. Some stats say sending and receiving text messages while driving is up 500 percent in just the past two years. Because of the complexities involved with typing on a handheld keyboard, some experts refer to texting while driving as the perfect storm for disaster.

The two-day meeting brought together experts of all types including auto manufacturers, cell phone providers, government officials, state legislators, behavioral experts and even a rocket scientist from NASA who specializes in the distraction of pilots under heavy cognitive load. Cognitive load is the amount of brain power you use to complete a task, relative to the complexity of the task, or as we learned, thinking about or talking about anything overly emotional. The other forms of distraction are visual (eyes off the road) or manual (hands off the wheel).

We know that distraction is a problem for all road users, and particulary motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users, but what can we do about it? Ray LaHood said it best when he opened the meeting with the statement, “You cannot legislate behavior.” Eighteen states and DC have enacted texting-while-driving bans. While this is a good start, it’s sort of missing the mark. Banning texting may remove one part of the equation, but that means it’s still ok to eat a burrito, watch a movie, paint your nails, pick something up off the passenger side floor, or talk on a hands-free cell phone, all while checking out your hair in the flip-down vanity mirror. Any ban at the state level should be against all forms of distracted driving, not just a few specific forms.

THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW

Senator Chuck Schumer from NY and Amy Klobuchar from MN both made an appearance at the event to plug some legislation they both support. Their bill, inappropriately called the Alert Drivers Act, would force states to pass texting bans or forfeit a whopping 25% of their road money. The feds have a long history of using this sort of “carrot and stick” approach to forcing states to enact legislation, and it’s problematic for a variety of reasons.

The MRF simply cannot support the bills (S. 1536 and HR 3535) to force states to pass texting bans for the simple reason that this is the same method that is used to force states to pass helmet laws, and blackmailing the states to enact legislation that they may or may not want should be strongly discouraged.

The two-day meeting is certainly a good start to the conversation about distracted driving, but far too much focus was given to texting instead of keeping all distractions on the table. We at the MRF hope that discussion continues, and we look forward to working with the powers that be to put distracted driving on the decline.

KILTS VS BIBS – ROUND FOUR!

I have to hand it to the Bibs this year. Those old guys spent the summer working out or something because they dragged us Kilts up and down the tug-o-war arena. After suffering devastating losses two years in row, the Bibs came back en force. Although league officials are murmuring about a possible violation in tug-o-war rules by the suspendered bikers, we won’t let that tarnish an otherwise flawless victory. So that leaves it all tied up for the ropers, 2 for the Bibs and 2 for the Kilts. Rumor is the Kilts are embarking on a vision quest sometime in the off-season to soothe the soul and re-emerge next fall in Peoria, IL for MOTM and the fifth show down. Don’t miss round 5, the Thunder-Dome!

U-Tube video presents a “You didn’t see me” message

October 8, 2009- Wauconda, Illinois Black Nail Brigade Awareness Ride & Protest
Meeting Point: 7AM to 8AM, behind Wauconda IL Walgreens in empty parking lot (west of rte 12/176 intersection). Awareness Ride: 8AM to 9AM. Proceed to crash site at Rte 12 & Old McHeny Rd. North on Midlothian Rd, Peterson Rd, Rte 45, Rte 120, to courthouse. Lake County Couthouse (Waukegan, IL) & Arraignment: 9AM to 12PM. We will circle the courthouse several times before parking. Park in spots on N County St or MLK Jr Ave (bring quarters). Please feel free to join us at the courthouse if you can’t make the ride. http://www.blacknailbrigade.org/ Please email greg at greg@blacknailbrigade.org if you can join us.

MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation
236 Massachusetts Ave. NE | Suite 510 | Washington, DC 20002-4980
202-546-0983 (voice) | 202-546-0986 (fax) | http://www.mrf.org

09NR32 – MRF News Release – CPSC LEAD ISSUE UPDATE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 September 2009

Contact: Jeff Hennie, MRF V.P. of Government Relations

CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION (CPSC) LEAD ISSUE UPDATE

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) has learned that the Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act (CPSCIA) received some attention in a House hearing recently. The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing titled, “Consumer Product Safety Commission Oversight: Current Issues and a Vision for the Future.” The hearing had one invited witness, newly seated CPSC Chair Inez Tenenbaum. Tenenbaum touched on a lot of issues with the CPSCIA, including the issue of lead in youth motorcycles and ATVs. The bulk of Tenenbaum’s remarks were focused on reform, the need for more resources and the Commission’s work on the Chinese dry wall issue.

For those not familiar, the CSPSIA set allowable maximums of the lead content in items marketed to 13 year olds and younger. This was a knee jerk reaction to the high quantity in toys manufactured in China. What happened as a result of this action was an enormous storm of problems with everything from children’s books to youth off-road dirt bike boots and helmets. Because of the arbitrary nature of this law, many items were banned as a result of its vagueness, an inactive Congress, and an understaffed CPSC. The CPSC did vote to issue a two-year stay of enforcement of the ban at the request of industry, but it is still technically illegal to sell the small vehicles. Tenenbaum takes the helm of the Commission at what is arguably worst time for the CPSC.

To address the specific concerns with lead in children’s toys, with particular attention to youth ATVs and motorcycles, the CPSC is holding a summit at the end of October in trips paid for by toy manufacturers. We hope that the summit will produce reasonable, realistic rules for the sale of these youth products. There is legislation currently in Congress to overturn the ban of these sales. Denny Rehbert (R-MT) introduced HR 1587 earlier this year. Call your Congressperson and ask them to co-sponsor this bill.

OTHER CPSC NEWS

Former Congresswoman Annie Northrup (R-KY) represented Kentucky’s 3rd District from 1997-2007 and served on the Appropriations Committee. She founded the House Reading Caucus and also drafted legislation that created the National Reading Panel, which helped determine which federally-funded reading programs were most effective. She was also a strong advocate for motorcyclist during her time in the House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently nominated her for the CPSC.

Lastly, not without controversy, a recent Washington Post story reported that employees at the CPSC accepted dozens of trips paid for by toy and children’s furniture manufacturers that the agency regulates.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I want to ride a Harley through downtown New Delhi!” Tim Roehmer, newly seated Ambassador to the Republic of India.

The Patriot Guard has been invited to provide an escort by the family of Charles “Raymond” Roberts on Friday Sept 11th. Dale Roberts Sr, is a long time friend of ours and one of the older members of Central IL ABATE. Our condolences go out to the entire family for their loss.

The family of Raymond Roberts has invited the Patriot Guard Riders to honor him
for his service to this Great Nation. He served in Okinawa during WWII. For his
time in the service he received the Good Conduct Medal, Campaign and Service Medal,
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Complete Medal, Campaign and Service Victory World War
II Medal, Campaign and Service Army of Occupation World War II Medal.

Raymond’s funeral service on this day is one way in which we can also reflect on
the anniversary of 9/11and what veterans of all eras have done to protect this
country.

Services will be held at Hurd-Hendricks Funeral Home, 120 South Public Square Knoxville,
Illinois.

At the conclusion of services we will escort Raymond to his final resting place
in Abingdon Cemetery, Abingdon, IL.

Staging Location: McDonalds at Exit 51 off I-74, Knoxville, IL
Staging Time: 9:00 am – 9:45 am Friday 11 SEP 09
PRB: 9:50 am
KSU: 9:55 am

Ride Captain: Cliff Clark cliff1508@hotmail.com [mailto:cliff1508@hotmail.com]
(309)368-8813
RC Support: Tom Godfrey

Below is the Obit as published in the Register-Mail:

KNOXVILLE – Charles “Raymond” Roberts, 83, rural Knoxville, passed away at 8:58 a.m. Monday (Sept. 7, 2009) at home.
Raymond was born west of Abingdon on April 1, 1926, the son of John Marion and Bertha Lucille Morris Roberts.
He married Beatrice L. Cooley on Sept. 17, 1998, in Las Vegas.
Raymond was raised in Abingdon and Bernadotte. He was a veteran of WWII, having served in 1778th Engineer Construction Battalion in the Pacific from 1944 to 1946. For his time in the service he received the Good Conduct Medal, Campaign and Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Complete Medal, Campaign and Service Victory World War II Medal, Campaign and Service Army of Occupation World War II Medal. Raymond has been a farmer in the surrounding area since 1949, having lived at the Knoxville address for the last 53 years. In his earlier years he drove for L.K. Bandy and worked a winter at Admiral. In Raymond’s earlier years he enjoyed hunting, fishing, his horses, coonhounds and his Indian and Triumph motorcycles. In his later years, Raymond and Bea traveled all over the U.S. in their motor home or their Goldwing motorcycle and they traveled to many countries.
He is survived by his wife, Beatrice Roberts; daughters, Barbara (Lee) Shook and Raylene J. Roberts of Knoxville; son, Dale E. Roberts Sr. of Gilson; stepdaughter, Tonia (Will) Morris of Gilson. Raymond’s grandchildren are Michael E. (Shelley) Roberts, Brad A. Roberts, Dale E. (Carrie) Roberts Jr., Travis L. (Jennette) Petty, Tara L. Petty, Amber L. Hunborg, Cory L. (Jade) Hunborg, Levi W. Morris, Savannah J. Morris and six great-grandchildren. Raymond is survived by a sister, Vivian (Lester) Combs of Herman; a brother, Ivan (Agnes) Roberts of Knoxville; a sister-in-law, Maudie Roberts of Galesburg; plus many nieces and nephews and their families and many cousins.
He was preceded in death by his parents, one stepdaughter, two great-grandsons and one brother.
Funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11, at Hurd-Hendricks Funeral Home and Crematory in Knoxville, the Rev. David Shreeves officiating. Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, at the funeral home in Knoxville. Burial will be in Abingdon Cemetery with military rites conducted by Ralph M. Noble American Legion Post 285 of Galesburg. Fellowship will follow the services at the cemetery at Hurd-Hendricks Fellowship Center, 126 S. Public Square, Knoxville.
Memorials may be made to Hospice of Galesburg or to any cancer research.
Online condolences may be made at www.hurd-hendricksfuneralhome.com.

Published in The Register-Mail on 9/9/2009

Yesterday, Sept 8, took the seat off Baby-Dog, and checked the water level in the battery.  Only one cell was down to the low line as marked on the battery case, but I brought them all up to full and replaced the seat.

I have a cigarette outlet with a battery voltage reader stuck in it to read the voltage.  It seemed to run no higher than 11.9 volts going down the road as I rode to the post office in Galesburg, then to deposit a check in the bank and then out to Wal-Mart to get oil and a filter for the diesel truck.  I decided to take a long way home and ended up going up US 150 to the Kozy Inn corner and headed east to Wataga cross country. Then I decided to try out the good blacktop between Wataga and Victoria, and maybe take the Snake Den blacktop to Williamsfield.  But then I missed the turn and went to the intersection with 180 and a flatbed semi came around the corner.  I guessed the bridge work has been completed since there was a lot of traffic coming from the South.  Pretty good ride through Billtown and back home.  But the voltage never came up.

Today, I took the manual out and read how to adjust the regulator.  Hmmm, seemed simple enough,  Loosen the teeny lock nut on the adjustment screw  which was also teeny, and run it in until it puts out 14.5 to 15 at 2500 rpms.   After making sure  the  teeny screw and nut  was snug, and replaced the  2 teeny screws holding the cover in place, I fired it up and  it went  up to  12.4 at idle and 14.3/14.5 at 2500 rpm.  Perfect!  I will try it out tomorrow and see if my stalling problem is lessened.  On the 650Rider.com website, some have experimented with using a solid state regulator from a Chrysler, and its small.   I thought I would give the regulator another chance to do right before I spend the $29.95 at Advance Auto for the solid state one.

We decided to go for a ride rather than go to the Peoria TTs on Sunday.  Got the 6 cylinder Voyager and headed out to Galesburg East Main Hy-Vee gas station and then took I-74 to US 34 west and got off at North Henderson Street and took South Lake Storey  Road to Rt 67 North of Monmouth.  Took the blacktop that runs straight to the Bald Bluff blacktop.  So far so good.  Went North on the Oquawka- Keithsburg blacktop past Big River State Forest and into Keithsburg.  Turned onto the blacktop that runs north up to Rt 17 that goes to New Boston.  All nice new black top, NICE!   Turned west onto Rt 17, took the blacktop North of New Boston that runs up to the highway that crosses the Muscatine, IA bridge.  This road is much better than I have seen it in the past.  Only a couple of dippy/bumpy spots.  We went over the bridge to Muscatine and went South on Rt 61 to Wapello.  There, we picked up Highway 99 and rode that down to Burlington.  Most of this is new blacktop as it was underwater from last summer’s flooding of the Big River.  Stopped by the Burlington bridge and fueled up again and headed back to Illinois.  Once we got to the turn-off to Happy Rock (Gladstone), we took that to Oquawka where we headed east again on Rt 164.  Went through Monmouth on Rt 34 and got off and took old route 34, which is Rt 164, east of Monmouth. and ended up at the Hog Trough (Sirloin Stockade) in Galesburg.  And for those of you familiar with the comedian Ron White, “It was a good day, Tater!”

Got my latest order from Mike’s XS, www.mikesxs.net, and got rid of the vacuum operated petcocks on the two 78 XS650 Specials. I only ordered two petcocks, as they are $40 apiece. The 78’s had a petcock on each side of the tank. The 80-84’s only had one petcock. I had bought 2 adapter plates from “partsnmore.com” that would accept a 3/8″ NPT petcock, put a brass plug in the plates and put these on the right side petcock location. So far, working out great. Finished putting new fuel line on the BabyDog on last Saturday. Next thing will be to get some small rubber pieces that cushion the metal side cover mounts and some other small incidentals items to replace things that are getting old, like the rubber covers on the clutch and brake levers. But overall, things looking up on the bikes. Nice to have them running good. When I started to investigate the vacuum petcock issue on www.650rider.com, the advice there was to get them replaced as soon as possible to not have them start leaking and filling the crankcase with fuel. And when I investigated, I discovered that the vacuum hose on the back side of the diaphragm petcock on Spotty had come off! (The carbs have a fuel line between them) This was the source of my idle problem, and backfiring on slowing down. Doh! SpottyDog runs much better now.  I had no problem on Baby because I had to use “72 carb mounts a couple of years back, replacing the stock ones that were not holding the carbs securely, so they had no intake nipple to block off.  But the petcock could still start leaking.  This issue is what happened to the 79 XS1100 that resulted in the fire in the shop last year.  Never want that to happen again.