False Assumptions About Motorcycle Noise and the AMA Policy

OFF THE WIRE
Editorial Columns - B.O.L.T.'s Editorial

A few of big assumptions that you are making is that is that the public is outraged by noise, rather than upscale merchants intent upon getting bikers off their upscale turf, then, assuming that the first doubtful proposition, that it is the noise of a few, rather than the irregular "potato potato potato" sound of all of us with "loud" pipes on our Harleys, then your assumption that the AMA is going after the pencil necked geeks rather than all of us with loud pipes, and finally, that AMA is not just collaborating with the cites and law enforcement, but that it is indeed seeking to take advantage of the municipal efforts to get bikers off the streets to further its efforts to go after aftermarket pipes and those of us who ride with aftermarket pipes.

The recent posting describing AMA's new catch phrase to demonize bikers with modified pipes is a great example of how AMA attempts to shift or redefine the focus of municipal antagonism for bikers into an indictment instead against modified motorcycle pipes. The citation to AMA's page containing the catch phrase "Loud Pipes Risks Rights" was included in an e-mail to Jan here on this forum. It read "

Here is the link to the loud pipes AMA slogan, it is located at the bottom of the page. Here is the link.

http://nymstf.org/PortJefferson.htm

But if you look to the controversy in which AMA had inserted that catch phrase, you will see that this involved a newsletter from the Port Jefferson Business District to the businesses in the village which didn't say anything about motorcycle noise. The newsletter described the advantages of a no parking zone as follows: "No motorcycles. No unsightly presence of motorcyclists."

It is true that cities like Delray enacted "municipal noise abatement ordinances" and West Hollywood determined to strictly enforce the state noise laws against motorcyclists here, but that is only because a city can't make laws against long haired, leather clad motorcyclists who they don't want fucking up their upscale districts, just the same as in Port Jefferson.

The noise thing is a red herring

It is rare that politicians will be as candid as they were in Port Jefferson. But don't be fooled. The noise ordinances were never about noise. They were about getting the Harley riders out of their upscale areas, just like the Myrtle Beach helmet laws were intended to keep the Harley riders and black riders off the Myrtle Beach streets.

Despite the AMA's false and counter-productive snitching admission that the "few" bikers with loud pipes were creating the "problem" for the majority, it became obvious in Delray that it was the merchants that wanted the bikers off their upscale neighborhood. The Mayor had stated that the proposed ordinances were a response to a substantial number of complaints from patrons objecting to the noise on Atlantic Avenue. One of the bikers at the second hearing provided testimony that he'd submitted a FOI request and the Mayor and city and council folks could produce precisely 0 paper evidence of complaints, no e-mails, no letters, no memoranda of telephonic complaints.

And it was obvious also in my experience here in West Hollywood that the city didn't give a shit about the noise; rather that it wanted to get the Harley riders to find somewhere else than Sunset Boulevard to hang out. The City issued a supposed order for "zero tolerance" of motorcycle noise in West Hollywood, stating again that the policy was adopted after multiple complaints by the residents, complaints that I had asked for but which the City again could not provide.. And in fact, the zero tolerance policy was never enforced in the neighborhoods, rather only on our upscale Sunset Boulevard, where the City's preferred clientele, the producers and directors, and other movie and music big shots, would prefer to meet in a more civilized dining environment, with their clubs recognized as the only real in-clubs, unmolested by counter-culture bikers with a different cultural bent on what's cool. I know this in part from my conversations with all the West Hollywood Councilmen/women, also from my mechanic who said that he received requests for loaner pipes only from those who got tickets on Sunset, and from my conversations with a West Hollywood Sheriffs officer who told me they were only enforcing the policy on Sunset, and then my personal experience riding on every other street in West Hollywood without getting a ticket.

Next, lets take a look at whether the assumption is correct that AMA's position is against biker geeks who rev their bike, as Tony suggests, or whether in fact AMA is rather focused on attacking riders who ride bikes with modified or loud pipes, pipes that I ride with, pipes that Tony rides with, and pipes that even hypocritical AMA noise policy apologists like ride with.

If you want to know the truth about AMA's policy, there is nothing in it about geeks, it is all about making after market pipes unavailable for us to modify our bikes with, discouraging riders from obtaining after market pipes, encouraging the police to enforce the noise abatement laws against riders with after market pipes, and encouraging event organizers to make riders with loud motorcycles unwelcome at their events. Here is the complete list of all of AMA's specific policies to reduce motorcycle noise.

"Based on its opposition to excessive motorcycle sound, the AMA recommends the following:

* All motorcyclists should be sensitive to community standards and respect the right of fellow citizens to enjoy a peaceful environment.
* Motorcyclists should not modify exhaust systems in a way that will increase sound to a level that is offensive. This includes the installation of unmuffled exhaust systems.
* Organizers of motorcycle events should take steps--through advertising, peer pressure and enforcement--to make excessively loud motorcycles unwelcome.
* Motorcycle retailers should discourage the installation and use of excessively loud replacement exhaust systems, including unmuffled “straight pipes.”
* The motorcycle industry, including aftermarket suppliers of replacement exhaust systems, should adopt responsible product design and marketing policies aimed at limiting the cumulative impact of excessive motorcycle sound.
* Manufacturers producing motorcycles that meet the appropriate federal standards should continue to educate their dealers and customers that louder exhaust systems can decrease the performance of motorcycles.
* Law enforcement agencies should fairly and consistently enforce appropriate laws against excessive vehicle sound and other sources of undesirable sound.
* The motorcycle industry and the safety community should educate customers and riders that excessive sound can be fatiguing, thus impairing good riding skills and judgment, making riding less enjoyable.

All of the specific recommendations are leveled against loud pipes, modified pipes, after-market pipes. No specific mention is made of revving the motors. So lets not pretend that the AMA is not going after our right to modify our bikes or out to get us folk who are riding with "loud" pipes. We are the target of AMA. The AMA is not just after the geeks. So let's keep that straight.

I continue to maintain furthermore that it is undignified for bikers to snitch on other bikers, and I object in particular to AMA's snitching on the riders with modified pipes, even to the point of discouraging use of after market pipes, urging the police to enforce the decibel laws, and telling event organizers, to "take steps--through advertising, peer pressure and enforcement--to make excessively loud motorcycles unwelcome."

AMA is the enemy in every controversy involving motorcycle noise and should never be permitted to participate in, let alone lead the sheeple in "opposition" to municipal noise abatement ordinances. Despite that AMA must surely have known that the proposed Delray ordinances were preempted as a matter of law, it's quick agreement that motorcycle noise is "the problem" was detrimental to the objective of overcoming the proposed ordinances. Indeed AMA's admission lent support to those seeking to enact the ordinances, to wit the Mayor and merchants who wanted to discourage all our tribe from smelling up their upscale Atlantic Avenue turf. In Port Jefferson it will be much more difficult for the Business District to deny the true intent of the similar proposed no parking zone, but never should we admit the false premise for these laws just because they've been phrased as noise abatement ordinances. I don't abide clubs that discriminate against bikers with colors, or any organization that would admit that riders wearing colors are misfits, or organizations that would snitch on them, and I won't abide AMA snitching on bikers who have chosen to modify their bikes with aftermarket pipes.

We must not permit this argument to get muddied, first by the assumption that motorcycle noise is the issue; rather it is motorcyclist smell, as Port Jefferson candidly admitted. We must let the argument get muddied by the argument that AMA is just against geeks who rev their pipes. That isn't AMA's position. AMA's position is specifically against after-market and modified pipes.

Finally, AMA is clearly the enemy in noise disputes. And it not only that AMA wants to join in redefining city and merchant antagonism to bikers as antagonism to noise, supporting the false premises upon which the municipal noise abatement ordinances are sought to be defended. AMA's tactics are (1) snitching; and (2) kissing ass. AMA snitches on the bikers with loud pipes, and then politely offers to rein them in.

But please understand the big picture. The greater objective in all municipal rights fights must always be to soundly and unambiguously defeat the ordinance, never to give the city any opportunity to claim a victory, even the victory of getting the bikers to rein themselves in, because when you do, all you do is encourage other cities to do the same.

There are only two legitimate options: (1) civil disobedience; and (2) court challenge. In Delray, it was the preemption argument; or it could have been just making a point not to take showers and hang out in droves on Atlantic Avenue during the peak business hours. Find a weakness and exploit it, as Tony did in Milwaukee, as I suggested to the ABATEs here in LA, and as the Brits or French recently did in shutting down traffic both on the streets and in the subways. Compromise is never an effective solution because it will only encourage further attacks on our rights and more compromise. AMA is a compromiser. BOLT's principles are never to compromise. We are the organization of civil disobedience and court challenge.

Fuck snitching, fuck kissing ass, fuck AMA's efforts to deny us our option to obtain after-market pipes and modify our bikes as we chose. And fuck the AMA.