A strange incident happened to me one night. While speaking with someone who I thought I knew from another place and time (mistaken identity), a local "independent biker" started bragging to his friends that he rode also. I knew this, but decided to poke a little good natured fun at the man, and begged the question that if he rode, where was it? I was riding. He was not.

To make a long story short, this bumpkin wanted to kill me. I guess he figured brute strength was his only hope against me, considering his alcohol-laden brain cells were not ready for a battle of wits. I attempted to apologize to the man if I had offended him (God knows we’ve all had worse happen to us), but he would hear none of it. Instead, a long dissertation followed about how I was a newbie, yuppie, wannabe Harley rider who had a new bike and didn’t have a right to be on the road.

Hmmmmm…. I decided that was NOT the time to bring up the fact that when this cur’s (rat)bike was down a few years back, that his ol’ lady had me check the ‘net for some needed parts for his scoot. Gratitude.

After a couple of days of cooling down, I started thinking about the way the cur acted. He thought he was better than me because he’s ridden a bike that he built himself for years. This fact (while building your own bike does impress me, I couldn’t do it without a LOT of help) made him SUPERIOR to me in his own mind.

Do we act that way about our riding? I hate to say it, but, yes. Maybe we’re not offensive or hostile about it, but we are.

The vast majority of active ABATE members ride a Harley Davidson. Why is that? Are we the only ones who give a damn about our rights? I don’t think so. I think, unconciously, we have the same mind set as the person in the above anecdote. I am just as guilty as anyone else. When I’m riding with the chapter, I want to ride next to a Harley, not something else. I want to ride next to someone I know.

We say officially that we accept all riders. I say that, in practice, we tolerate other riders, for the "good of the cause". We might want to change our mindset and "lighten up a little" like the man needed to do. In his endeavors to prove he was more of motorcyclist than I was, he proved one thing to a lot of people. That he’s a jerk. Is this the message we send to other people about ABATE?

So, how do we change it? Well, first we need to change our attitudes. Neither I nor you can change the collective mindset, but if we all examine our own attitudes, I think we’ll go a long way towards pulling in those people who want to belong, but feel they can’t because they don’t ride a Harley.

I’ve recently spoken to many motorcyclists that know of us, know that we do good things (and fun things), and are interested in joining. But, they say, they’d feel funny, because they don’t ride a Harley. No matter what I say at that point has no effect. They have gained the impression that we say one thing, but practice another.

Obviously, we have a creditability problem. We’ve got to back our words with our deeds. For the short term, we can speak to these new riders when they join us for a run. We can make them feel comfortable. We don’t need to coddle them, but a friendly, "Hello, Where are you from?" will work wonders on that person’s impression of us. And they’ll tell somebody that we are a pretty good bunch of people.

I think that will change our chapter and our organization from a good one to a great one.