Do Two Wheels Define a Motorcycle
There really isn’t much doubt as to what a motorcycle is, is there? It has one wheel in front, another in back, and a motor in between. You sit on a seat that is also somewhere in between the two wheels. Voila! A motorcycle. Do you ride a Vulcan 1700 Voyager? Motorcycle. How about a Kawasaki KLX250S? Motorcycle. See it’s simple.
OK, but what about trikes and other three wheelers, like the Can-Am Spyder RS? Are they motorcycles? They do have three wheels, after all, not two. Some states offer motor trike licenses that are not valid on regular motorcycles, but in most states the license you need for a trike is the same one for a two-wheeled motorcycle. So are trikes motorcycles, or aren’t they?
Now let’s really muddy the waters. Can a motorcycle have side by side seating and be totally enclosed? Peculiar as it may seem, there are some three-wheeled vehicles with this configuration–generally small, often electric-powered ones–that, in some states at least, are properly registered as motorcycles. Are you confused yet?
It turns out that some safety requirements that apply to cars–such as seat belts and air bags–do not apply to motorcycles, so if the producers of these questionable vehicles can get away with classifying their products as motorcycles they can escape these requirements, and keep their prices down. It’s no surprise that if they can do it, they do it.
Fine. What does it matter? You can call a tail a leg but that doesn’t make it a leg, but ultimately, who really cares?
The answer is that all of us should care. Safety agencies such as the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration use accident statistics to provide guidance in developing policy. How skewed is policy development likely to be for motorcycles if a lot of three-wheeled “motorcycles” are involved in serious accidents? How will street and highway design be affected by statistics deriving from these accidents?
It’s enough of an issue that the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) is seeking to update its definition of what a motorcycle is and isn’t. Another group concerned about the issue, and working to help shape the FHA’s conclusion, is the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). The AMA is an advocacy group for motorcyclists and it is very concerned that distorted statistics not be used to the detriment of those of us who ride honest-to-goodness two-wheeled motorcycles. The AMA has asked its members’ help in this matter, soliciting their thoughts on an appropriate definition.
The FHA offers, as an example of the sort of definition it is seeking, this wording: 1. Two or three wheels in contact with the ground (excluding trailers suitable for motorcycle hauling). 2. A seat or saddle for rider (operator) and passengers (if any). 3. A steering handle bar. 4. Motor capacity exceeding 5 Horsepower. 5. Wheel rim diameters exceeding 10 inches. 6. Do not include a full enclosure for the rider (operator) or passengers. 7. Sidecars and trailers are not regarded as separate vehicles—a motorcycle and sidecar or trailer is reported as a single unit.
That’s a far cry from the simple definition we began with, but the FHA wants to be better able when compiling statistics to differentiate motorcycles, mopeds, motor scooters, trikes, and everything else one from the other.
So who knew it was that hard to define a motorcycle? It used to just be a bicycle with a motor. And who knew it mattered? But unless we would be content with regulations that are based on meaningless data, these are necessary distinctions, and it’s good that the FHA is taking the time and trouble to make them.
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