North Pittsburgh A.B.A.T.E. of PA

WOW,,what a nice turn out - 19 Motorcycles braved the cold weather to ride though Hartwood Acres.

 
 
The 32nd Annual ABATE of PA State Party, Hazen 
Saturday's intermittent rain made it better! From the "mud slide" to the tug-of-war games, 
this will be a party to remember! The Bike Games were replaced by "people games", using 
wheel barrows in place of motorcycles, but as anyone that's been to a few Hazen Parties 
knows, improvising is what makes the party special. The bikes left with enough mud in the 
fenders to grow potatoes! Nothing that a hose and can of wax probably hasn't taken care 
of by now.
Approximately 2500 people from around the state participated in the party, enjoying 
almost-continuous music, food, and entertainment. ABATE of PA extends its thanks to all 
those that helped make the party and raffle a success! A special thanks to the individual 
ABATE Chapters and District Reps that took care of everything from planning to clean-up!
 
Motorcycle Raffle Winner 
The drawing for the ABATE of PA Motorcycle Raffle was held on Saturday, June 20, at Hazen.
And the winner is.... Travis Maines of Gettysburg, PA, Ticket #0278. 
The winning ticket was sold at the party by Patty Rehm of ABATE's Blue Mountain Chapter. 
Patty gets $1000 for selling the ticket. 
Thanks to Denny Blocker of Blocker Enterprises for his help with the raffle and long-time 
support of ABATE of PA!
Finally. 
Check www.abatepa.org and Between The Lines in the coming days for updates on 
Hazen and other events. There are ABATE Chapter & District events planned around 
the state all summer. Why not ride to an event you've never been to, and 
try something different? 
Take off on the bike, explore new roads, and get away for a couple days!
ABATE of PA wishes you a Safe & Meaningful July 4th weekend.
ABATE of Pennsylvania
PO Box 15226
Harrisburg, PA 17105-5226
717-731-8955
www.abatepa.org


I had been carefully monitoring two bills that would have provided some 
freedom of choice for motorcyclists in the use of helmets in the states of 
Louisiana and Missouri. Both were good bills and deserved to be enacted. 
Unfortunately, in June Louisiana lost its chance at freedom when the Senate 
Health and Welfare Committee refused to vote on the bill. Today, I learned 
that Governor Nixon of Missouri vetoed their helmet bill which would have 
allowed motorcyclists the choice in helmet use, except on interstate 
highways. 

Tomorrow is the 4th of July - Independence Day! I would ask each and 
everyone of you to take just a few minutes and go for a ride on your bike. You 
choose if you want to wear a helmet or not. I do not care. As I have 
often said, "It was never about the helmet, it was about freedom of choice." 
I hope that after your ride you consider how lucky we are here in PA and 
remember that we were the last state to modify a helmet law to allow choice. 
That happened on July 6, 2003 when Governor Ed Rendell signed the bill. 

Today I received my motorcycle registration renewal. In the envelope was 
a little piece of propaganda from the PA Department of Transportation 
reminding me to dress for safety by wearing a US DOT approved helmet and eye 
protection. I have no problem with them promoting the use of helmets but it 
does serve as a reminder of what their "real" agenda is. To put a helmet 
back on your head. The only way they can do this is if you allow them to. 
There are plenty of bikers out there enjoying riding helmetless that never 
lifted a finger or spent a dime of their own money to earn that privilege. 
Maybe tomorrow, without being confrontational with anyone, you should ask a 
fellow rider that you see riding helmetless if they are a member of ABATE 
of PA. If they are, say thanks. If they aren't, ask them to just consider 
becoming a member. Let's all do what we have to do to insure we continue 
to have freedom of choice in PA. 

Now, last but not least, yesterday the tickets for the 2010 Leadership and 
Legislative Seminar arrived at the ABATE office. You can go online and 
purchase one for $70. When you receive the ticket, you will notice that it 
is much nicer than any previous L & L ticket. This is only a sample of what 
the 2010 Seminar will be like. This is our twenty-fifth anniversary and 
it will be a special event. Only 400 tickets will be available for this 
event and its on a first come, first served basis. 

Charles 

Another good meeting last night.  Several new people came out to learn what North Pittsburgh is about.  Then they even joined us for a ride down to Fawn's Bar after the meeting.  Got to love them group rides.

Great meeting last night.  Do Drop in has a good room for a meeting, plenty of room for all of us.

We voted to do the Pig Roast July 26.  So now we have to be sure of the date and place, then we are ready to go.  Lots of help will be needed to sell presale tickets and then the day of....still long hard fun hours of work.  As a chapter we are taking a gamble and we will win :-)

Sue had a 50th birthday, so we got a sweet "16" cake from Costco.....if you ever had one of there cakes, then you know how great they are. 

Ride Free,  Buzz

Check out in our Photos Section we've added some new fliers for events coming up that you can attend!!!

We look forward to seeing you or meeting you if we haven't yet!!

Brian

Nine of us meet up at Exxon gas station and enjoyed getting to know each other better.  Off to the Blessing we road, all 5 motorcycles.  Fool almost did not make it

cause of some unknown problem with the bike, I was going to start pushing it up the hill

if I had to, I was not going to miss the Blessing. Along the way we picked up George and Mike riding on there motorcycles.  For a new chapter of only 25 members we did great with 11 members and 7 motorcycles.  Thanks Guys!!  (See pictures in Photo Gallery)

 We all made it and a big WOW to find so many motorcycles already there, looked like one great bike show.  Some of us sat in the Church and watched one of the many TV screens of the morning service.  At 12:30 the Blessing of the Motorcycles started.  Special thanks, Special singing and the raising of the flag by the fire dept, and a special pray for the Bikers themselves. Then we had a 21 second ROAR of all the motorcycles. 

After, some of us went over to the Do Drop Inn and had one fabulous lunch.  Then the rain started in Pittsburgh, So off Fool and I to home, leaving the rest to party till, who knows when.

Ride Free,  Buzz

Pittsburgh has a new ABATE chapter.  You no longer have to cross the river or enter into the city to come to an ABATE meeting.  Matter of fact we are so far from the city, you could say we are in the country.  There are lots of nice roads to the north of Pittsburgh and we are going to try them all out this summer.  So no matter what you ride, come on out and join us.

Here it is 11:00pm after our first Chapter meeting.  I want to say thank you to:  George, Mike, Jeff, Bill and Patty for becoming new members to North Pittsburgh ABATE.  Our meeting went very fast and we had some great food.  We had our first motion and voted to check into doing a Pig roast.  Now that sounds like alot of fun.  Can't hardly wait for the bike to be put back together so we all can go for a nice ride.

Ride Free, Buzz