Events, helmets and sorrow

Showing them the money doesn't mean they'll come along. In an opposite reaction to Myrtle Beach, which did its best to turn motorcyclists away from the city by passing a bunch of laws aimed at rider, Mesa, Ariz., attempted to draw them in.

Well, the merchants did, anyway. Apparently city officials were not all th at interested. Apparently neither were some of the merchants because the downtown Mesa event "Motorcycles on Main" proved successful, but no one wants to front their money to pay for it.

According to the East Valley Tribune, the organizer has been spending several grand of his money and lots of his own time to get the moto-event cranking. It's been successful, even the city admits it, but no one wants to take it over and run it.

The event brought several hundreds of thousands of dollars to merchants. Sounds like something we could pull once-a-month downtown, ourselves. 

Keeping the lid on  your head is the big push from the  The National Highway Transportation Safety Adminstration as it pressures all states, or the federal government to adopt a univeral helmet law.

That's created a lot of interesting chatter from a variety of sites on the innerweb, including people who obviously don't ride and those who may have ridden without their helmet one too many times, if you get my drift.

Where the head falls

One of the more entertaining and accurate commentaries comes from the responsible media's Steve Chapman, of WSBT in South Bend, Indiana.

It starts like this: "If you have a strong disregard for your own health and safety, you are free to express it in all sorts of ways. You can smoke cigarettes. You can gorge on fast food five times a day. You can go live among bears in Alaska ... But if federal regulators get their way, you will not be able to ride a motorcycle without a helmet."

Read it, see what you think.

It's all over but the shouting and crying and lawsuits. You may have read about the four members of the Saddletramps Motorcycle Club in California, a family-oriented 99% club quartered in Lakeside, Calif, who died in a crash on a two-lane stretch of highway.

Seems that they were cruising on a club anniversary ride with other members when a guy suspected of being on his way home to Mexico grew irritated at their cruiserish pace and tried to pass them on a double-yellow, near slamming into an oncoming car.

The oncoming driver swerved into the riders, killing four bikers and a passenger in his own car while the perp slowed, saw the carnage he created and bravely ran away.