The American Motorcyclist Association honored 59 U.S. lawmakers for their support of motorcyclists in the recently concluded 112th Congress.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), and former Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) in particular were honored with “Hero” awards by the AMA Government Relations Department for their efforts during the congressional session running from Jan. 3, 2011 to Jan. 3, 2013.

Klobuchar and Rehberg played important roles in getting youth dirt bikes and ATVs exempted from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act “lead ban”. Bartlett helped work out a compromise over the expansion of a U.S. Marine base that could have encroached on the popular Johnson Valley off-highway riding area in California. Sensenbrenner introduced legislation banning federal funding for motorcycle-only checkpoints. Continue Reading »

The American Motorcyclist Association has named activist Nancy Sabater its 2011 Motorcyclist of the Year, recognizing her efforts in helping get the “lead law” ban on youth motorcycles overturned.

Sabater helped organize the May 26 AMA Family Capitol Hill Climb which brought families to Washington D.C. to lobby in favor of overturning the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act’s ban on youth motorcycles containing trace amounts of lead. Sabater also produced a number of videos featuring racers and industry personalities speaking out against the ban.

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President Barack Obama has signed H.R. 2715, enacting a law that will make it legal to sell youth off-highway vehicles again.

The bill amends the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 which barred the sale of items with lead components, a ban which had unintentionally included off-highway vehicles. The amendment, which was approved by both the House and the Senate on Aug. 1, exempts off-highway vehicles and allows the Consumer Product Safety Commission to grant exemptions to other products on a case-by-case basis.

“Federal legislators deserve a lot of thanks for their tireless efforts, especially U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and all the other lawmakers who supported an exemption,” says Rob Dingman, AMA president and chief executive officer. “Hundreds of thousands of parents, kids and motorcycling club members responded to AMA calls for action to contact their elected officials and their efforts, along with all those volunteers who circulated petitions and took other actions, brought this issue to the attention of Congress and turned the tide in our favor.”

The Motorcycle Industry Council, which represents manufacturers and distributors, echoed Dingman’s response.

“For more than two years, the powersports industry and its riders have urged Congress to categorically exclude youth dirtbikes and ATVs from the CPSIA’s lead content provisions,” says Larry Little, chairman of the Motorcycle Industry Council Board of Directors.  “We are gratified that our community’s passion and perseverance have paid off and the ban on youth model OHVs is finally over.”

Related Reading
Lead Ban Exemption for Youth OHV Passes House and Senate
Malcolm Smith to Defy Lead Bike Ban

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Finally, some legislative news out of Washington that doesn’t involve the phrase “debt ceiling”. The U.S. House and the Senate have passed a bill that would exempt youth off-highway vehicles from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, also known as the “lead ban”.

The House approved the bill, H.R. 2715, which amends the CPSIA to exempt off-highway vehicles and gives the Consumer Product Safety Commission the discretion to allow other exemptions.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), was approved by a 421-2 vote on Aug. 1, and later that day passed unanimously through the Senate. The bill now awaits the signature of President Barack Obama before it becomes law.

Enacted in 2008, the CPSIA was designed to prohibit the sale of products containing certain levels of substances such as lead. As a result, the CPSIA banned the sale of youth OHVs because of traces of lead. The CPSC, which enforces the CPSIA, put a stay on enforcement of the act when it comes to OHVs, as various groups lobbied for an amendment.

[Source: AMA, MIC]

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A U.S. House subcommittee has approved draft legislation that could exempt youth motorcycles and ATVs from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade has approved the Enhancing CPSC Authority and Discretion Act (ECADA). The ECADA would provide the Consumer Product Safety Commission with the authority to use discretion in enforcing the lead ban on youth off-highway vehicles.

“While CPSIA has many virtues, there are some unintended consequences of the law as well. Our common sense reforms will help to make a good law even better, saving thousands of American jobs in the process and providing our children with the important protections they need,” says Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), subcommittee chair. “This was a careful balancing act, but even the Consumer Product Safety Commission has recognized the problems with CPSIA and requested greater flexibility in implementing the new law.”

The draft legislation would allow the CPSC to grant exceptions to products which require lead or cannot be manufactured without lead, or where the lead components are not likely to be placed in a child’s mouth and ingested. The ECADA also exempts battery terminals from the lead limits.

The ECADA will now move on to the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Motorcycle Industry Council, which represents the manufacturers and distributors, has stated its support for the ECADA.

“MIC and its members reiterate their strong support for ECADA and urge its quick passage by the Energy and Commerce Committee,” says Paul Vitrano, general counsel for the MIC.

Others, such as Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), say the ECADA does not do enough to address the problem. Rehberg restated the need for H.R. 412, the “Kids Just Want to Ride Act”, to be enacted.

“I appreciate the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade’s continued work to undo the consequences of the overreaching regulations created by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. However, this legislation still does not go far enough in exempting youth-sized motorcycles and ATVs,” says Rehberg, who authored H.R. 412.

“H.R. 412, the Kids Just Want to Ride Act, provides the necessary exemption for these vehicles and is the most common-sense approach to this issue,” he continued. “Montanans and folks across the country who enjoy these products are waiting for Congress to show leadership and exempt these products once and for all.”

Related Reading
New Bill to End Lead Law on Youth OHV
Kids Just Want to Ride Act Gaining Momentum

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The world is getting more and more paranoid about safety for children.  Sure, this can be a good thing in some aspects but in others it’s just ridiculous.

In America, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act became a law which allowed congress to ban products that could be harmful due to traces of lead found in them.  Sounds like a good idea on paper but it seems that this could be doing more harm than good.

Youth motorcycles and ATVs may contain a small amount of lead in some parts of these vehicles such as the alloy used to connect AZ batteries terminals.  Because of this, the CPSIA can ban all of these recreational vehicles from children. The Motorcycle Industry Council claims that this amount of lead and the way it might ever interact with a child (ie: not swallowing it) would never cause any harm.

Banning toys with lead in them was to make sure that if a child happens to put a toy car (for example) in their mouth, they wouldn’t get lead poisoning from such an innocent act (we’ve all put toy cars in our mouths at some point as kids!).

Motorsport can be and is a family sport.  I remember going to a motocross show as a kid with my friends and family, marveling at the high-flying dirt bikes.  Most, if not all of the professionals out there on bikes probably got their inspiration under the same scenario.  They saw those amazing feats and exciting races and had to get on a bike.

And they did, and at a very young age.

With the ban of these recreational vehicles catered to kids, where will the new batch of racers come from?  Can the sport even survive without giving young enthusiasts a chance to try it out?  Will youth riders start riding adult sized vehicles and be in even more danger?

My real question is: Does the tiny amount of lead found in the alloy in some small bits of metal (that will never get ingested) even matter when kids are now using cell phones, staying indoors to play video games, sitting at computers all day, eating junk food and doing tons of other things that can do more harm than good?  Would denying them the fun, excitement, experience and even the education of riding be better when the alternative might be picking up a video game controller instead?

Could the industry avoid this whole ordeal by improving and developing parts to not include that lead?

What do you think about the ban of youth motorcycles and ATVs?

The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) is out to stop the ban and by golly they are giving it their best shot!

See the rest of the post for a few videos about the ban.  Head over to MIC to sign a petition and read up on their cause.  Follow them on twitter to stay up to date (we have!)

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