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freedom

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According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, there is trouble a brewing in the Bar & Shield crowd this week, as Dave Zien was denied a powertrain warranty claim on his 2014 model year Harley-Davidson trike.

For those not in the know, Zien is a former Marine as well as a former Wisconsin State Senator, but he his best known in the two-wheeled community as the man who has logged the most documented miles on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle (~2.5 million), as well as putting over a million miles on his 1991 Harley-Davidson, which now sits in the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame.

All those miles aside, Zien’s issue with Harley-Davidson stems from the flags mounted on his trike, and the fact that Zien can often be found bombing around on his trike, with his flags waiving not only during rallies and parades, but also at highway speeds.

Saying that while flags at parade speeds are of course just one of the many ways Harley-Davidson owners can customize their machine, the Bar & Shield brand contends that the aerodynamic forces of two large flags (Zien has seven flags in total mounted on his trike) puts an undue stress on the machine, and thus Harley-Davidson cannot cover Zien’s warranty claim.

I love our neighbors to the north, endless outdoor fun, progressive thinking, and an affinity for things of a more “crunchy” nature. But as a 5th-generation Californian, it is ingrained in my head to fear and mistrust the oppressive dictatorship and hate machine the Oregonians run (the California public school system starts this process in the second grade), as they steal children in the middle of the night and brainwash them into Birkenstock-wearing slave labor and questionable physical hygiene boot camps.

So it comes as some surprise that the Oregon State House of Representatives is introducing a bill to allow motorcycle riders, ages 21 and over, the choice of whether they want to ride with helmets or not (an act that misguided tea party wannabes equate with freedom on the open road).