Ups And Downs

UPS AND DOWNS

UP: Again, to Wayne Stanfield, for almost winning the Great American Race. After becoming the first motorcycle rider to successfully solo the two-week, cross-country event last year, Stanfield finished in the runner-up position this year, missing out on the $50,000 winner’s share of the purse by a heartbreaking 1 second!

Stanfield campaigns a 1936 Harley-Davidson UX3 prototype belonging to Dale Walksler, owner of Dale’s Harley-Davidson and the Wheels Through Time Museum in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. One of only two motorcycles in this year’s 85-car field, the rare bike was a testbed for Harley’s first recirculating lubrication system.

DOWN: To the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), for flat-out lying. In an effort to dissuade state lawmakers from raising speed limits after last winter’s repeal of the national speed limit, the NHTSA issued a document claiming that the fatality rate on Germany’s high-speed autobahns was six times greater than that on U.S. interstates. But after pressure from the National Motorists Association, NHTSA head Ricardo Martinez admitted that the flawed statistics included sections of the autobahn in what used to be East Germany, where poorly maintained roads and cars made driving more dangerous than in the affluent West. The real fatality rate on the West German autobahn has been roughly equal to that of U.S. interstates for more than 10 years. Hear that, lawmakers?

UP: To Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, for recognizing motorcycles’ potential to reduce parking congestion. Glendening recently signed legislation that makes it legal for two bikes to park in a single metered space. The legislation does not, however, specify whether the second rider has to help feed the meter.