 History
of ABATE of New
York
1974 - 1981
In the early days of Easyriders
Magazine, the ABATE section allowed
bikers to write asking for help in their
state and give information in regard to
anti-bike legislation on the state
level. In early 1974, the New York
Motorcycle Rights Organization (NYMRO)
sent an article written by Jed Tranquill
stating that there was to be a state
wide helmet law protest at the state
capitol in Albany.
The Article stated that over 40,000
bikers were expected to attend and that
bikers should look to their local
newspapers for the announcement
concerning the time and date. NYMRO is
based in Rochester,
New York
- 230 miles west of Albany.
This article raised a great deal of
enthusiasm from bikers in the Albany
area. Up to that point in time all
anyone had done is bitch and talk over a
few beers in local bars about the
legislators and the problems bikers were
facing. There were a few
get-together-type of informal meetings
held at B & B Cycle Works in Albany,
the main topic being the up-and-coming
protest. A member of this group, George
Vigars, had
written three letters to NYMRO
requesting more information. As time
passed, no helmet law protest was
conducted, now was there any reply from
NYMRO.
On the spur of the moment and out of
total frustration, Warren Bennett, Kemp
O’Connell, and George Vigars organized
their own Motorcyclist Rights Protest.
It was thought up on a Tuesday and
conducted five days later on a Saturday.
One hundred flyers were designed and
circulated to the local bike shops. We
then went directly to the news media
with our story. The local newspapers
gave us a real good shot. Channel 10 TV
talked us into bringing some bikers down
to the State Capitol the Friday before
the protest for an interview. Six bikers
appeared on their choppers to give a
first-hand analogy of the concerns of
the motorcyclists
rights. At this point in time there was
a lot of talk about outlawing choppers,
extended front-ends, springers, and
raking, along with any alteration to the
frame.
Two days before the run, the Albany
Police Department issued an order to its
men that any biker without a helmet was
to be arrested. This being the first
event gave everyone a case of the
jitters. On Saturday about 60 local
bikers rode to the State Capitol
two-by-two. About half had helmets on.
The police were more than cordial and no
tickets were issued nor arrests made. We
had proved our point. We had gotten
along well with the news media and it
paid off for us in the end.
A month later, Warren Bennett made a
trip to California.
He brought with him the black and white
photos of the protest along with the
newspaper clippings. After some
detective work, he was able to track
down the office of Easyriders
Magazine, where he met Keith Ball, its
Associate Editor and also Director of
ABATE at the time. The articles were
presented, thinking that we were the
first ones outside of California
to this kind of thing. Keith presented
him with a new issue, which was not out
yet. In it was a four- or five- page
story about the Connecticut Motorcycle
Association holding rallies every month,
with thousands of bikers attending.
In Keith Ball’s office hung a poster
about 8" x 3', stating “Helmet Laws
Suck, ABATE of Illinois”.
Warren
asked Keith if ABATE had chapters around
the country. He replied that some
concerned biker groups were allowed to
use the name of ABATE. After asking, in
reference to New
York, he
said, as long as it’s for the cause, go
ahead and DO IT.
ABATE of New
York was
about the fifth state organization in
ABATE. Ahead of New
York were
ABATE of Illinois,
ABATE of Michigan,
ABATE of Indiana,
and ABATE of Kansas,
which changed its name from the Dave Moze Memorial
Foundation. ABATE of New
York got
ABATE of Virginia
going under the leadership of Fuzzy
Davy. From this group other chapters
were to follow. After Warren
came back from California,
George Vigars
and he started ABATE of New
York. George
was elected State Coordinator, a job he
was to hold for over two years.
In the early days of ABATE of New
York, there
were many, many hassles. To this day a
lot of people still don’t know how ABATE
survived the havoc. The paper work alone
was enough to drive someone crazy. In
the first two years of ABATE of New
York, the
headquarters moved eight times. We had a
post office box from the beginning, thus
keeping ABATE somewhat stabilized. Among
some of the hassles were: lost
membership records, funds stolen, and
membership meetings, which were being
held in local bars, turning into yelling
matches and fights. At this time we
decided that we’d better get organized.
At a monthly membership meeting, money
was raised among the members for an
ABATE clubhouse. A place was found on Jefferson
Street,
about a half-mile from the State Capital
in Albany.
A deal was worked out with a local
amusement company to bring in a pay pool
table, juke box, pinball machine,
cigarette machine, etc. We had a TV and
four refrigerators donated to us. Every
night was party night except Tuesday
nights, which was work night for ABATE
work. We had a filing cabinet to keep
everything organized, along with a desk
and chair. Membership meetings were
twice a month on Sundays; they were
packed. We were signing up new members
faster than we could process them. ABATE
was growing in leaps and bounds. As the
word spread that
ABATE had a clubhouse, more and
more people started to come around -
some to party and some to help out. It
was at this point in time that we had
gotten some printers interested in the
ABATE Movement. Ed Fink and Bob Sammon were
indispensable in making ABATE look like
a professionally run organization.
With the clubhouse, ABATE grew so fast
that it literally split ABATE apart at
the seams. ABATE did not have any type
of organizational structure, nor
professional leadership. The bar and
money was handled with little or no
accountability to any one person.
Everyone thought that the clubhouse
would just run by itself with little or
no responsibility on anyone’s shoulders.
In a little less than three months, the
whole thing folded.
Although money was being ripped off to
some extent, and beer sales were
unaccountable, along with some drugs
being used inside of the clubhouse, the
biggest problem that the ABATE clubhouse
faced was with a local outlaw club. This
club, at the time, did not understand
ABATE, nor did the members of ABATE
understand this club. Animosity
developed between the two groups. The
end resulted in Hondas being kicked over
as the club members decided to
antagonize their opposition and by
ripping off a Superglide
that was parked in front of the
clubhouse. This bike was later recovered
at the outlaws garage down the street
from ABATE. This club (the Breed M/C)
seemed to get their kicks playing head
games with members of ABATE, who were
not interested in any hassle.
Because of the bad mismanagement and a
lack of any strong leadership, ABATE
closed down the clubhouse. After paying
off the bills we were left just about
broke. Members who were involved with
this project ripped up their membership
cards and tore off their patches. All
the many problems were piled on ABATE,
making it responsible for everybody’s
shortcomings. ABATE of New
York ceased
to exist.
After about four or five months, the
ones who were concerned about
legislation decided to make ABATE into a
mail order organization. No contact
would be made with the members, other
than a monthly newsletter. ABATE still
had some volunteers to lobby on its
behalf at the capitol, although their
unflagging zeal and morale was low. Out
of the 300-plus members who belonged to
the Albany
area, a group of about10 emerged to
carry the load. It was again decided
that we needed a place to work out of. A
small office was located at 1969-A
Hamburg Street
in Schenectedy
(about 10 miles away) which rented for
only $80 a month. This was in July of
1976. This office was funded by
donations of $10 each and was set up as
a private group of bikers willing to
further the cause of ABATE. There was a
desk, chair, refrigerator, and later, a
pool table.
It didn’t take long for the word to get
out that ABATE had another clubhouse. To
stop any misunderstandings, this group
started their own motorcycle club,
calling itself “Friends of the Road
Motorcycle Club”, dedicated to the
preservation of ABATE.
By having a clubhouse atmosphere (beer,
food, music, and pool table) it didn’t
take a lot of talking to get people to
stop by and lend a hand to ABATE. When
it came time to put together the
newsletter, there was always plenty of
help and volunteers. ABATE of New
York would
not have made it through the next two
years if it were not for this clubhouse.
Many hours of work and organization
developed from this new lease in life.
....As we go marching on. Shortly after
the first clubhouse was closed, a group
of ABATE members from the Gilboa area (35
miles away) started an ABATE chapter. At
the time, we were spending every last
nickel on the helmet law repeal. This
chapter sent us all their membership
dues, which at the time, was $5 per year
per member. This chapter lasted about
six months, ran out of money, ran out of
leadership, and ran out of hope.
A short time later, some members living
in the Syracuse
area (130 miles west of Albany)
contacted ABATE of New
York wanting
to start a chapter. They were, for the
most part, mad because they felt ABATE
of New York
wasn’t doing anything. They had only
received five or six newsletters a year,
if they were lucky. After their second
meeting, they came to Albany
to hand over the $160 they had collected
from new memberships and a raffle.
Although the people in Albany
hadn’t seem that much money in a long
time, we knew that history would repeat
itself if we took it. We gave them a
stack of membership cards, applications
forms, and other ABATE literature and
told them that when they got back to Syracuse,
they should open up a checking account
and get a post office box. Thanks to Joe
Koller, Dick
Tallcot,
Carl Riggall,
and Rita Leeb
for working so hard to make this chapter
become successful. Besides the fact that
people in the Albany area needed funds
badly to promote the helmet law repeal
bills that had been introduced, they
also had to put up with a lot of
criticism from the local ABATE members
who stated, “What if they rip off the
membership money?”, “What if they make a
bad name for ABATE?”, “What if they get
too big and challenge our power?”, “What
if?” etc., etc., etc.
It didn’t take us long to realize that
you can’t have a negative outlook if you
expect to have any positive results...
NOR CAN NEGATIVE PEOPLE ACCOMPLISH
ANYTHING POSITIVE, except maybe an
accident.
ABATE of Syracuse
started to grow in members and dollars
(about $600 in their treasury in three
months time). Officers from the Albany
area would travel back and forth,
attending their meetings, giving advice
from time to time from the standpoint of
their experience. ABATE of Syracuse
did all of their own paperwork, along
with sending out their own newsletters,
membership cards, etc.; things really
started to look up for a change.
ABATE of Syracuse
sponsored their own helmet law protest,
of which people from the Utica
area attended. (Utica
is about 40 miles east of Syracuse).
These people were excited by what they
saw; they wanted to start a chapter
also. Officers from ABATE of Syracuse
went to Utica
a week or so later to help them set up
their own chapter of ABATE. Paul Antonik, a
member of ABATE of Utica,
moved to Buffalo
to go to college. There he helped local
bikers start ABATE
of Buffalo.
And on it went, chapter after chapter
forming, reaching out and influencing
area bikers and politicians. A chapter
needs good leadership and volunteer help
from its members to be successful, as
well as keeping its members informed or
educated through regular meetings and
newsletters. Chapters that have failed
on one or more of these points have
folded: ABATE of Queens,
ABATE of Yonkers,
ABATE of Ulster
County,
and ABATE of Binghamton.
Some chapters never got off the ground
such as ABATE of Westchester
and ABATE of Auburn.
However, the local chapters gave and
give ABATE the backbone it needed and
needs, along with the ability to deal
with legislators on a more personal
basis.
When ABATE of New
York first
started developing chapters, the
chapters called themselves
by the name of the county they were in.
This started to become too impersonal
and confused people as to exactly what
area the chapter represented. It was
decided to call a chapter by the name of
the city they were in or near when
acceptable to members. The ideal
situation would be to have an ABATE
chapter in each legislative district,
which usually takes in one or more parts
of several counties or wards. Using the
name of a local city gives the members
some identity and pride to belonging to
something they can identify with.
Although some chapters have come and
gone, most have accomplished what they
set out to do in regard to becoming
established, stable, and recognized.
The biggest problem that ABATE of New
York has was overcome when we developed
a statewide newsletter, thus informing
all the members of what other chapters
were up to in other parts of the state.
This has increased competition between
the chapters to outdo one another on
different projects.
As with any story, there are stories
within - as with George Vigars, the
first State Coordinator (1974 - 1977),
who took the initiative to do something
while others just talked about it; Jim
Andrus, the second State Coordinator
(1977 - 1977), who had access to DOT
records and gave us proof that many of
the news stories were lies; Dave Bakic, the third
State Coordinator (1977 - 1978), who
took the job in name only; Dick Tallcot, the
fourth State Coordinator (1978 - 1980),
who drew up a Constitution and set of
bylaws for ABATE of New York and had
them ratified by the chapters November
18, 1978, established a monthly
statewide newsletter as of February 1979
(had run a monthly Syracuse Chapter
newsletter since April 1977 before
that), and got ABATE of New York
incorporated (which was finally made
effective by the attorney we hired July
1980); Phelps Moore Jr., the fifth State
Coordinator, who continues the work
holding the organization together; the
volunteers made everything possible, for
without the volunteer helpers, the
officers in ABATE may not have
accomplished anything. In fact, there
may not have even been an ABATE.
ABATE of New York, Inc., has had many
years experience to iron out its
problems and to move ahead. If we have
learned anything, it’s that you can’t do
it alone. A lot of people doing a lot of
work is always much better than a few
people doing a lot of work. How did we
accomplish all of this? We formed
chapters, independent chapters without
any strings attached. We made them their
own bosses whether they liked it or not.
The chapters had power over their own
destination and the responsibility that
goes along with it. If a local chapter
goes down the tubes, they have no one to
blame but themselves. They can’t come
running back to the State Office nor anyone else;
they are what they are. It’s up to the
local members to vote in or out of
office, members they feel are best
qualified; although qualifications have
little to do with spirit and hard work,
which is what they will
need if they want satisfaction
and success down the road with ABATE.
ABATE of New
York and its
officers can only offer YOU our
experience, which we hope will last you
a lifetime. Although being a volunteer
has it’s
drawbacks, it also has its benefits. The
Brotherhood probably has the greatest
percentage of righteous people you’ll
ever come in contact with.
One last note: The first thing they
teach you in the Marine Corps boot camp
is - THERE’S NO SUCH WORD AS CAN’T!
Good luck,
ABATE of New York, Inc.
(1981)
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