MRF Rep Report

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation has partnered with several organizations recently in an effort to reach a larger audience.

What started as a casual conversation at Daytona, ramped up at Sturgis, has now created the Independent Motorcycle Aftermarket Network. This is a discussion group to keep the MRF informed on the challenges the aftermarket is facing. Independent motorcycle dealers, repair shops, and custom bike builders are crucial to our industry with the services they provide. ABATE of WI will be reaching out to many aftermarket repair shops in the state to encourage their joining of this group. With this membership level, we will be able to help each other stay in existence and be more effective.

The national Motorcycle Profiling Project has been going on for several years now, but it is a new survey every year and we encourage all bikers to complete the short survey every year. This gives us hard numbers to take to our legislators to show that profiling of bikers does exist. It is anonymous and very simple to complete (only 5 questions), so please do so. The survey is at: www.motorcycleprofilingproject.com.

ABATE of WI has asked me to be a state rep for National COIR. The National Council of Independent Riders is a newly created organization, directed by Jim Barr, a life member of ABATE of New York and founder of Long Island ABATE. Our intention with COIR is to reach the bikers that we call “non-joiners”—those people that say, “I don’t join things” or “I don’t want to pay for a membership,” etc. It’s a steppingstone to at least get them educated on the issues we are facing with the hopes that they will soon realize this IS happening and we need to be united to stop our lifestyle from becoming extinct. Hopefully this will lead to more memberships for us in the future, but at the very least, it will educate more people. COIR is free to follow on Facebook and if you sign up at www.nationalCOIR.org, you will receive email updates similar to what ABATE and the MRF put out.

There will always be strength in numbers. Feel free to reach out to me at any time for more information about these organizations.

Stay vigilant, my friends!

Jen Abraham

ABATE of WI

Board of Directors

MRF State Rep