 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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