Too Good to Be True?

Ohio’s Mark Krieger wins the 2022 AMA Member Sweepstakes Yamaha MT-09

February 24, 2023

By Keaton Maisano

Imagine you’re going about your day and your phone rings. Despite it being an unknown number, you decide to pick it up and an unfamiliar voice tells you something you can’t possibly fathom — you are the winner of the AMA’s annual motorcycle sweepstakes!

Would you pinch yourself to see if you were dreaming? Or wonder what the catch is, and if you were suddenly the target of a scam?

Well, central Ohio’s Mark Krieger did not need to imagine this scenario…he lived it! And he chose to respond with a healthy amount of disbelief.  “Yeah, really? I’ll believe it when I see it.”

That’s what Krieger told AMA Editorial Director Mitch Boehm when Boehm called to deliver the news that Krieger had won the 2021 Yamaha MT-09 in the AMA Membership Sweepstakes. And while Krieger’s disbelief can be easily explained by the mantra sometimes things are too good to be true, he soon learned that this was both good and true.

Krieger, an on-and-off AMA member since 1973 and a consistent one since 2004, spent his phone call with Boehm — who Krieger had followed in motorcycle magazines for years — talking motorcycles and personal riding histories while he came to grips with the news. Eventually, and maybe not truly until Krieger had the bike in his possession, his disbelief faded.

“I really did think it could be a scam early on,” Krieger said later with a laugh. “The email I got originally from the AMA had an email contact from Yamaha, which seemed legit, but it was asking for my address and social security number, and as a retired person I worried someone would clean out my bank account, or steal my identity!”

“It’s still hard to believe I won a bike,” Krieger told American Motorcyclist. “Most of us riders say, ‘You mean they actually give those things away?’ Yep, they do, and I won a 2021 Yamaha MT-09.”