2020 January

by Gary Klinker

I hope everyone survived the Christmas rush and the time-or too much time with relatives. I’m not one for resolutions, but this time of year is great for reflection of past performance and preparing to do better in the future. Be it personally, for Safe Rider, or the ABATE of Wisconsin board, things can be improved. All of us can take the theme of the upcoming Officer’s Training to heart and “Be Better”. Every member of ABATE can do their part, attending Lobby Day, answering the Calls to Action, recruiting members and more importantly, retaining members who already joined us. You don’t need to make resolutions to do these things, you just need to do it.

Safe Rider met in December and put together the schedule for the 2020 training season followed by a Christmas party for the staff. We had a great time, since we are like ABATE, a family. Pending approval of our dates by the State Patrol we will publish the schedule. It may not make this issue, but it will be in the February issue for sure. As always, if your region would like a BRC2 class for your members contact me and we can work out dates and Rider Coaches to meet your needs. It only takes six people and you are all set. For a BRC, no matter where you are in the state, we will be happy to train your family members or friends who want to learn to ride.

For the next couple of months there is still a lot you can do to get through winter. Bike maintenance is a must. There are a lot of very good motorcycling books on the market that you can curl up with on cold nights. Planning for summer rides is always fun. For those with the time, there are always trips to the southern warm weather to ride. I may be a little weird, but I’ve always liked winter. I enjoy plowing snow, snow shoeing and cutting wood if the snow is not too deep. Different strokes, I guess.

I look forward to seeing many of the state’s ABATE officers at Officer’s Training next month. Once again Safe Rider will sponsor the pizza lunch on Saturday just prior to the Safe Rider and Highway Safety presentation by John Reblin and me. If you have any questions have them ready. We’ll be putting out a lot of information on the courses and about the motorcycle crash statistics from 2019. See you there.

Ride Safe,

Gary