The Independent Motorcycle Aftermarket

American Bikers Journal Vol. 29 #4 By Bob Kay

“The right to modify” (the right to repair) may not be in the Constitution, but it is at the core of motorcycling culture that began as young men, returning from WWII, “bobbed” and chopped the full fenders and extra weight from their motorcycles for scrambling and street racing. Just as importantly, the right to repair is at the core of the future of motorcycling.

Personalization, as opposed to customization, is what separates motorcycles from other modes of transportation. A new biker, wanting to make a bike uniquely his or hers, will start personalizing their rides with different grips, pipes, intakes, or whatever trim detail that makes the bike stand out and personal, almost from the first day of purchase.

Performance modifications rivals customization for a place in motorcycling culture. The exhilaration of twisting the throttle and experiencing the “need for speed” pushes the desire for performance modification. With exaggerated claims that performance modifications add to climate change intensifies the threat by local, state, and federal agencies to create more rules up to and including a total ban of performance modifications, even if it kills jobs and an entire industry.

Erroneous and self-serving claims by regulatory agencies and ill-informed politicians that performance modifications contribute to pollution and are too difficult to control, pushes regulatory agencies and legislators to eliminate them altogether or mandate that all performance modifications come from OEM only.

With mandates for single provider (OEM) solutions, the cost for new motorcycles would be prohibitive. Not to mention the jobs lost in the aftermarket industry as an entire industry is legislated and regulated out of existence. Regulation and legislation start with one idea and soon expands to encompass everything the web touches. Cost will be prohibitive. Multi-levels of personal performance and customization will be limited to a one size fits all selection, like the Yugo or Lada automobiles made in Yugoslavia and Russia.

Visit any aftermarket shop or peruse an aftermarket catalog. The selections of exhaust pipes and intakes are shrinking because the costs associated with compliance do nothing but increase the costs passed on to consumers.

Chrome, once universally available, is getting harder to find other than what is available in catalogs. Custom paint? The choices of paint and painters are only slightly more available than chrome. The ability to add accessories or build a custom bike from the ground up to make your ride represent you is what makes motorcycles more personal than cars; and that choice is threatened.

The biker culture we live today started at the end of World War II. The young men who left home to protect our way of life returned as seasoned veterans with an unrest and they turned to the open road to find peace. Two wheels on a stripped-down motorcycle gave them the “edge” and helped put the war behind them. The late forties and early fifties “bobbers” evolved into the choppers of the sixties and seventies, and a generation fueled a new industry to fill the demand for custom parts to make used and new motorcycles into personal statements.

Cool and classy was not enough. Cool, classy, and fast was better. As weight was reduced and speed and performance increased, bobbing and chopping was not enough. Exhaust pipes and carburetors only contributed so much to enhance performance. Small companies like S&S and Truett & Osborn became the go-to places for performance enhancement products. A distinct characteristic of that time was the freedom to do what you wanted, not to conform and most importantly, not be controlled.

With little or no documentation, the current political climate has a questionable concern for the effects a motorcycle has on the environment. And the “one size fits all” attitude of regulators and legislators begs the question that our government wants to control us rather than answer to us.

Government agencies have already had a serious reduction in our ability to tune our bikes for better performance. Doing nothing and ignoring the signs of excessive government intervention is not going to stop the regulators or legislators. Taking the fight to them by responding to MRF calls to action or visiting their offices, as over one hundred freedom loving bikers did during Bikers Inside the Beltway, sends a clear message that we must stop the attacks against our
industry and lifestyle.

I know what is best for me as opposed to what some elitist in Washington, D. C., thinks. Motorcyclists must hold strong and stand up to complacency. The right to repair along with keeping the internal combustion engine alive and part of the nation’s transportation solution must be in the forefront of the attack against motorcycling.

With 52 co-sponsors before Bikers Inside the Beltway, H.R. 906 – Repair Act is the beginning of sending a message to Congress that the right to repair is important. Getting more co-sponsors on H.R. 906 will increase the chance of passage.

The IMA and MRF need your support to continue the battle to protect our freedom to repair, modify, customize, and protect the future of motorcycling.