EDITORS NOTE: This is a letter I recently received from Sam. As you can see, she is passionate about motorcycle riding and even more passionate about protecting our rights. After receiving this email, I called Sam and spent nearly an hour on the phone with her sharing stories and experiences.  I was so impressed by her drive, writing style and insight, that I asked her to be a guest columnist for CurvesAhead.net and she accepted!!  Look for more articles from Sam coming to CurvesAhead.net in the near future.  She is strategically located in Tallahassee and promises to bring us much more about issues relating to protecting our rights as motorcycle riders. You can find out more about Sam by visiting her blog at http://rider-sam.blogspot.com/

 Hi Maria,

I checked out your website. Nice coverage on rallies and such.

How about writing about those of us who fight for the freedom to ride in those rallies? Every day, some legislator somewhere comes up with a discriminatory bill to restrict our freedoms as bikers. I've ridden for 30+ years and it never ends. People speak of discrimination against race, religion, and gender, but most are totally unaware of the very real discrimination against motorcyclists.

When people go out and fire up the bike for a ride, and in Florida, leave the helmet at home if they so choose, they have no clue of the blood, sweat, and tears it took to get that freedom for them. And when you go out and change those pipes to aftermarket, sweet sounding V&H pipes on your Harley, they don't know that "we've" fought battle after battle against local
authorities to retain the right to put after market pipes on your bike. We've recently defeated a bill that would restrict you from deciding if you can have your child on the back of your bike. Businesses restrict the wearing of leather into their establishments. Mayors even try to restrict motorcycles completely from parts of their cities. The list never ends. And
it is an exhausting battle, done by the few who care about the freedoms that our forefathers wrote for us. 

The Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America has announced the route for its 14th annual motorcycle ride, to take place July 13 - 20, 2008. NASCAR driver and Charity Ride founder Kyle Petty will lead a field of more than 250 riders as they wind their way from the Midwest to the Deep South in an effort to raise awareness of and funds for Victory Junction Gang Camp and other children's charities.

Riders will depart from Traverse City, Mich., on July 13, making overnight stops in Elkhart Lake, Wis.; Lombard, Ill.; Lexington, Ky.; White Sulfur Springs, W.Va.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Peachtree City, Ga., before reaching Savannah, Ga., their final destination, on July 19.