Recent Entries

• The Winds of Change...

  by RevBigJohn November 11, 2022
  While ballots are still being counted in many races, the results on the 2022 midterm elections will have major ramifications in Washington, D.C. As of Wednesday afternoon, control of both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives remains undecided. What is clear is that there will be many n...

• 2023 Federal Legislative Agenda

  by RevBigJohn November 1, 2022
  At the 2022 Motorcycle Riders Foundation’s (MRF) 38th annual Meeting of the Minds Conference held in Des Moines, Iowa a legislative strategy session was hosted by the MRF’s Legislative Committee. The purpose of the session was to establish and prioritize the MRF’s 2023 Fede...

• Individuals Can Make a Difference!

  by RevBigJohn October 11, 2022
  Don’t fall into the trap of believing only high-powered lobbyists or big money donors can make a difference in D.C. The average biker can and has impacted policy in our nation’s capital. A perfect example is the work of two motorcyclists in Nevada, Fred Harrell a...

• Motorcycle Fuel Debate in Europe

  by RevBigJohn September 29, 2022
  Wednesday morning, members of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) leadership team attended a virtual seminar titled “Bridging the Gap to Climate Neutrality - The Case of eFuels for Motorcycles.” The event was hosted by the European Association of Motorcyc...

• Meeting of the Minds 2022 – Demand reaches room capacity!

  by RevBigJohn September 16, 2022
  Meeting of the Minds 2022 – Demand reaches room capacity! – Hotel booked up! Just as the MRF brought Bikers Inside the Beltway to capacity for hotel room requests, demand by attendees has brought the 2022 Meeti...

• Are you afraid of the dark?

  by RevBigJohn August 30, 2022
  With road fatalities increasing by 10.5% from 2020 to 2021, safety advocates are looking for causes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has begun a nighttime test of vehicles that use automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems to address the high percentage of pedestrian crashes that o...

• We Told You So…

  by RevBigJohn August 27, 2022
  At last year’s MRF Meeting of the Minds in Atlanta, Georgia the fate of the internal combustion engine was discussed. In fact, at the urging of ABATE of Illinois, the following language was added to the MRF’s 2022 Legislative Priorities: “Work to ensure the survival of co...

• Two Stories that Caught Our Eye

  by RevBigJohn August 24, 2022
    Two Stories that Caught Our Eye August in Washington, D.C. is normally a quiet time of year as lawmakers have left town and will not return until after Labor Day. Despite this, a few issues c...

• MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION

  by RevBigJohn August 23, 2022
  MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION -- MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022 “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”  – Iowa State Motto In 1847, those words became part of the...

• MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022

  by RevBigJohn August 20, 2022
  MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION - MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022 "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." – Thomas Jefferson For nearly forty years, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation has been eternal vigil...

• Frustrating News for Motorcyclists

  by RevBigJohn August 15, 2022
  In the last few weeks two national stories related to motorcyclists have been in the headlines. Last week a jury in New Hampshire acquitted a truck driver accused of killing seven motorcyclists in 2019. The Boston Globe reported, “The verdict was at odds with findings from the National Tr...

• MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022

  by RevBigJohn August 12, 2022
  MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION - MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022 "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." – Thomas Jefferson For nearly forty years, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation has been eternal vigil...

• Sturgis Museum & Hall of Fame

  by RevBigJohn August 10, 2022
  Motorcycle Riders Foundation inducted into the Sturgis Museum & Hall of Fame. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation was inducted into the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame at the breakfast in Deadwood on Wednesday August 10th...
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• MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION -- MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022

  by RevBigJohn August 5, 2022
  "Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose." – Kris Kristofferson Those words, sung by Janis Joplin over fifty years ago, were a generation’s anthem. Yet, there is a lot more to losing fre...

• MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022

  by RevBigJohn July 30, 2022
  MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION -- MEETING OF THE MINDS 2022 "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." – Thomas Jefferson For nearly forty years, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation has been eternal vigi...

• 2022 Freedom Fighter Hall of Fame Inductees

  by RevBigJohn July 18, 2022
  The Motorcycle Riders Foundation announces the 2022 Freedom Fighter Hall of Fame Inductees.   The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) is pleased to release the names of the 2022 class of Inductees to the Motorcycle Riders Foundation Freedom Fighters Hall of Fame (MRF HOF). These will be presen...

• Bikers Inside the Beltway 2022

  by RevBigJohn April 19, 2022
  Paving the Way & Rolling Toward Washington, D.C. Bikers Inside the Beltway, less than a month away and the Motorcycle Riders Foundation is rolling toward Washington. Since 2009 the MRF has brought over a thou...

• BIKERS INSIDE THE BELTWAY 2022

  by RevBigJohn February 17, 2022
  BIKERS INSIDE THE BELTWAY 2022 --Paving the Way for the Long Haul Bikers Inside the Beltway – Since 2009 the MRF has brought over a thousand motorcyclists to Washington to meet with their members of Congress to promote a ...

• Threats from Europe

  by RevBigJohn February 2, 2022
  The last few months have seen troublesome news for the motorcyclist community in Europe. Yesterday, the website motorious.com reported on a new threat to motorcyclists in Paris, France. Officials there are taking aim at motorcycles and using sound pollution as the justification. According to the rep...

• Class of 2022 Motorcycle Riders Foundation Hall of Fame

  by RevBigJohn February 1, 2022
  Nominees Wanted - Class of 2022 Motorcycle Riders Foundation Hall of Fame The Motorcycle Riders Foundation Hall of Fame (MRFHOF) was introduced at the Meeting of the Minds in Denver, Colorado. This institution was created to recognize individuals that have worked through the MRF to positively impac...

• National Roadway Safety Strategy Announced

  by RevBigJohn January 31, 2022
  Thursday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced a new national road safety campaign. The plan, known as the “National Roadway Safety Strategy,” comes in response to increased year over year fatalities on our nation’s roadways. In 2020, an estimated 38,...

• THE STURGIS MOTORCYCLE HALL OF FAME

  by RevBigJohn January 18, 2022
  MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION TO BE INDUCTEDINTO THE STURGIS MOTORCYCLE HALL OF FAME This week the Motorcycle Riders Foundation was notified by Emma Garvin, Executive Director of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, that the Motorcycle Riders Foundation will be inducted into the Sturgis M...

• ABATE of Michigan Annual Seminar

  by RevBigJohn January 16, 2022
  This weekend, ABATE of Michigan hosted its annual seminar in Saginaw, Michigan. In attendance were two longtime legislative champions for motorcyclist rights. Current Congressman, Tim Walberg and former Congressman Jim Barcia, joined the event.Congressman Walberg is the Co-Chair of the House Motorcy...

• Lawmakers Head to the Exits in 2022

  by RevBigJohn January 13, 2022
  Happy New Year! As is the case every two years, 2022 is an election year for much of Congress. All 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and 1/3 of the U.S. Senate are up for reelection in November. Add state and local elections to that and literally thousands of elections will take plac...

• 2021 Mid-South M.I.L.E.

  by RevBigJohn November 19, 2021
  Late last month, over a hundred bikers gathered in Dallas, Texas for the 29th annual Mid-South M.I.L.E. event. Like the Midwest’s Heartland STEAM event, the Mid-South M.I.L.E. brings together bikers from neighboring states to discuss legislative priorities, share ideas ...

• Highway Bill Passes… a Year Late

  by RevBigJohn November 6, 2021
  After a 13-month delay and enactment of three separate extensions, Congress finally passed a surface transportation reauthorization bill. This bill, sometimes called the highway bill or the infrastructure bill, has been a hotly debated topic in D.C. for several years. Once signed by the President, t...

• Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)

  by RevBigJohn October 22, 2021
  Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation released an interactive website with data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). FARS, which became operational in 1975, containing data on a census of fatal traffic crashes within the 50 States, the District of Columbi...

• Legislative Strategy Session at Meeting of the Minds

  by RevBigJohn October 16, 2021
  One of the most important events at Meeting of the Minds is the legislative strategy session. Each year, during this session, state motorcycle rights groups develop the federal legislative priorities for the following year. Items are discussed, debated and eventually voted on, with each Sustaining S...

• Chainsaws, Golf Carts, Lawn Mowers... What's Next?

  by RevBigJohn October 11, 2021
  Over the weekend, California Governor Gavin Newson signed a bill into law banning the sale of all off-road, gas-powered engines, including generators, lawn equipment, pressure washers, chainsaws, weed trimmers, and even golf carts. Under the new law, these machines must be zero-emissions, meaning th...

• Congress Kicks the Can...

  by RevBigJohn October 2, 2021
  30 day Highway Bill Extension Passes With the failure of Congress to pass a new highway bill, by the September 30th deadline, nearly 3,700 United States Department of Transportation staffers were furloughed on Friday. Most of t...