Who’s Fighting for Your Right to Ride?
The 10 Biggest Threats to Motorcycling…and What the AMA is Doing About Them
Your right to ride doesn’t protect itself. Right now, motorcycling is under threat from forces that don’t make the news — but will affect every ride you take.
Autonomous vehicles that can’t see you. Fuel blends that damage your engine. Land closures that could end access to your favorite trails. Legislation that could take away your right to fix your own bike.
The AMA’s editorial team spent months documenting the 10 biggest threats facing motorcyclists in America — the issues, the fallout, and the fight. Get the full article free. Just tell us where you ride.
What's at Stake for Every Rider in America?
They’re already on your roads — and they don’t always see you. Autonomous vehicles are being tested in real traffic on public highways, with real motorcyclists as unwitting participants. A 2025 IIHS study found motorcycles are a persistent blind spot for automated braking systems. In April 2024, a Tesla in Autopilot mode killed a motorcyclist in Washington while the driver looked at his phone. The AMA has spent a decade demanding accountability. The technology isn’t the enemy. Deploying it before it’s ready is.
The trail doesn’t disappear all at once. It closes quietly — a regulatory decision, a landowner complaint — and one day you show up and find a gate where there wasn’t one before. Off-highway access is under steady pressure from federal legislation, executive orders, and a persistent negative perception of motorized recreation. When Bat Nest Road in Ohio faced closure, the AMA and riders from across the country mobilized to save it. They won that one. But the closures don’t stop coming — and most of them are permanent.
The relationship between a rider and their machine is one of motorcycling’s oldest traditions. Manufacturers are quietly dismantling it. Without federal protections, they can restrict the parts, tools, and diagnostic data needed to fix your own bike — pushing you to authorized dealers and locking out independent shops. The REPAIR Act is moving through Congress. More than 20 states are acting. The fight isn’t won yet.
Five seconds. That’s how long it takes to glance at a phone — and at highway speeds, five seconds carries a distracted driver the full length of a football field. Motorcyclists bear a disproportionate share of the cost: no crumple zones, no airbags, no margin. The crash scenarios are painfully familiar. The driver who pulls out and swears they never saw you coming — because they didn’t. The AMA is pushing for stronger penalties and better enforcement. But on a road shared with a rider, attentiveness isn’t courtesy. It’s life or death.
The AMA has been defending your right to ride since 1924. Our Government Relations Department actively monitors legislation, advocates in state capitols and Washington D.C., and mobilizes over 200,000 members when motorcycling is under threat. This report is what we know — and what every rider deserves to read.
Want to do more than read? Join the AMA and put your name behind the fight!