Great efforts are underway in the State of Oregon to legalize lane splitting, and now we see Oregon’s lane-splitting law moving to the next phase of its legislative process.
With testimony already heard in the Joint Committee on Transportation, the time is now for Oregonians to contact their state representatives about House Bill 2314.
The Oregon Legislative Assembly is set to consider a bill that would legalize the practice of lane splitting by motorcyclists.
Accordingly, House Bill 2314 aims to allow motorcyclists and moped riders the ability to ride between vehicles in traffic, under certain sensible conditions.
HB 2314 builds upon the failures of previous attempts to pass lane splitting in the State of Oregon, and there are some important distinctions in this bill that set it apart from previous attempts.
As regular readers of Asphalt & Rubber surely know by now, legalizing lane splitting in Oregon will help reduce traffic congestion, help make motorcyclists safer on the road, and help lower the amount of pollution from transportation.
On Thursday, a German court of appeals in Munich released a ruling that Alpinestars had infringed upon a patent by Dainese, which held bearing over the the brands’ airbag suit systems.
The impact of that decision amounted to a big blow to Alpinestars’ ability to sell its Tech-Air garments in the German market, as the ruling meant that Alpinestars could no longer sell its Tech-Air products in the German market, and also that Alpinestars would have to pay restitution to Dainese for damages.
Letting that news circulate through the weekend, Alpinestars has now issued a statement about the German court’s ruling, which not only adds more clarity to the patents in question, but also shows that the legal battles between the two companies are far from over.
After a lengthy legal battle over the intellectual property found in the Alpinestars Tech-Air and Dainese D-Air airbag systems, the Munich Court of Appeals has ruled that Alpinestars violated a Dainese patent (EP 2 412 257 B1), which confirms the decision of the Munich Court of First Instance.
An interesting conclusion has come to a nearly decade-long legal inquest into the Mongols Motorcycle Club, as a US District Court jury in Santa Ana has found the outlaw biker gang guilt of racketeering and conspiracy.
The punishment that the jury has settled upon though is what caught our eye to this story, as the jury has decided to strip Mongols Nation of the intellectual property that the organization owns on behalf of the Mongols clubs.
This means that Mongols MC will no longer have control over its iconic logo, and according to prosecutors, it will empower police officers to confiscate the colors off any gang member they see wearing the black and white Mongols logo.
It has been over a year since we had to report the passing of Nicky Hayden. Struck by a car outside of the Misano circuit, while he was training on his bicycle, Hayden’s death was felt around the world.
Though always in our hearts, the motorcycle industry has begun to move on from the loss of its beloved world champion, but the legal proceedings in Italy have nevertheless been toiling away.
There are two matters before the Italian courts. One, the criminal proceedings for the unnamed driver of the car that struck and killed Hayden; and two, a civil suit by the Hayden family against the car’s driver.
Now, the initial criminal proceedings of the incident have concluded, with the Italian court finding the driver of the car guilty of homicide.
The Moto2 Championship doesn’t often make the headlines in the motorcycle racing sphere, but I bet you are hearing all about this weekend’s Moto2 race at the San Marino GP. For those who are late to the story, much is being said about an incident where Romano Fenati grabbed Stefano Manzi’s front brake lever, as the pair hurled down the Misano circuit at over 200 km/h.
Caught on camera, the incident in just one of several between the two riders during the Moto2 race this weekend, as Fenati and Manzi traded paint and hand gestures at several points of the competition, but the focus of the attention remains on the shocking act that Fenati took down the back straight of the circuit.
For the fans in attendance, and for those watching at home, you were witness to one of the most irresponsible events that can take place on a race track – an act that I would argue is tantamount to attempted murder on a motorcycle.
It therefore boggles the mind that at this point in time, Romano Fenati still has a license to race with the FIM, once his two-race suspension is completed.
Elected on a platform to do away with regulatory interference, especially Obama-era fuel economy targets, the Trump Administration is now looking to end California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act.
Ending the waiver effectively means that the United States would finally have a unified set of regulations for vehicles emissions and fuel efficiency standards, as California (through the California Air Resources Board) often sets higher requirements, through its Clean Air Act waiver.
Looking to gut the regulatory force of CARB, this news would also mean that vehicle makers would have lower targets to hit for gas mileage efficiency (37mpg instead of 46.8mpg), which in turn means that brands would have to sell fewer electric vehicles as well.
Lastly, under the proposed changes, vehicle emission standards would freeze at the planned 2020 levels, until the year 2026.
Episode 75 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and in it we talk about…nothing. We unfortunately didn’t have time to talk about the Suzuki Katana rumors, nor did we have time for Yamaha’s electric trials bike, which has a mechanical clutch.
We also didn’t have time for the debut of the Mugen Shinden Nana electric superbike, nor John McGuinness’s IOMTT movements. There is no time for Jonathan Rea racing at the Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race on a factory Kawasaki team.
We also glanced past RevZilla’s in-house apparel brand, REAX, which debuted last week. Did we talk about MotoGP?…Nope.
We do talk a little about what it is like to ride the MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR, the Italian brand’s superbike plans, and what new bikes we can expect to see from MV Agusta.
The show finishes with us trying not to talk about a story that has been going viral in the two-wheeled space. You can probably guess it from the title of the show, but rather than stoke the fires directly, we try and approach the subject from a more elevated perspective.
You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well.
We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.
If you are riding in California anytime soon, you might want to think twice before blaming the state’s fleet of drivers, as The Golden State just made it legal for self-driving cars to operate without a human behind the wheel.
While similar actions have stalled in the US Congress (the SELF DRIVE ACT is stuck in a Senate committee), states have begun to take matters into their own hands, like they did in Arizona.
That is right, the dawn of truly autonomous vehicles has just arrived, and it is primed to change the driving landscape as we know it, which by correlation means changes for the motorcycle community as well.
In August 2016, Harley-Davidson got into some deep water with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for roughly 340,000 “super tuners” that were sold, which ran afoul of the emission standards for on-road vehicles.
For its misdeeds, Harley-Davidson was slapped with a $12 million fine, along with an agreement to spend $3 million on efforts to mitigate air pollution. It should be noted, that all of this occurred on the heels of Volkswagen’s “Dieselgate” scandal – and timing is everything.
However in July 2017, news came out that Harley-Davidson wouldn’t have to pay the $3 million in pollution mitigation, as the Bar & Shield brand saw some mercy from the Trump Administration’s new EPA.
That didn’t sit so well with 10 states, and the District of Columbia.