If You Had Asked, I Would Have Told You…

Wow, more than a month has gone by without an installment of “If you had asked me, I would have told you that…” My bad. Too busy building up the wood supply for winter and getting in some late-season rides to sit down at the laptop.

Consequently, some items have become backlogged, although this first one just occurred. So, without waiting another second, here goes.

If you had asked me, I would have told you that:

– An eight-person jury in Rapid City, S.D. on Friday evening ruled in favor of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Inc. (SMRI) in a trademark lawsuit brought against a local gift shop, Rushmore Photo & Gifts, and Wal-Mart. The store and Wal-Mart claimed that the Sturgis name cannot belong to anyone in particular and that SMRI obtained it fradulently.

The “Rapid City Journal” reports:

“SMRI, which bills itself as the organizer and sponsor of the rally, had sued both a local merchant, Rushmore Photo & Gifts, and the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, for improperly using the trademark “Sturgis” on merchandise they sold. SMRI claimed it owned that trademark and other similar phrases when used in connection with the rally.

“The defendants, including the three co-owners of Rushmore Photo & Gifts, asserted that the Sturgis Chamber of Commerce had lied when it persuaded the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to grant the “Sturgis” trademark. The defense’s argument was that “Sturgis” is a geographical descriptive, and thus could not be trademarked.

“But the jury disagreed. Of the 21 questions before the five women and three men who listened to eight days of testimony, 18 issues were decided in favor of SMRI and just three in favor of the defendants.

“The jurors awarded more than $900,000 in damages to SMRI, to be paid by some combination of Rushmore Photo & Gifts, the three owners — Paul Niemann, Carol Niemann and Brian M. Niemann, respectively a husband, wife and son — JRE Inc. and Wal-Mart.”

The full story is here. My gut says the defendants got the shaft.

– Having seen crashes involving newbies whose skill levels don’t match the power or size of their just-acquired bikes, I’d be in favor of Connecticut (and all states, in fact) adopting a “tiered” license system for motorcycle riders.

There’s no way that a person who has just completed a Basic Rider Course is ready to ride a nearly 200-horsepower sport bike or a nearly 1,000-pound full dresser. It wiser to start used and start small until you get some street sense and some competence.

Even a one-step process of limiting a new rider to a 250/300cc bike for the first year would help prevent accidents and deaths. Tyler Bowers has a well-constructed column on this subject at RideApart.

2016 Triumph Street Twin

– As much as I like the new larger “classic” models announced last week by Triumph, which include the Street Twin, Bonneville T120, Bonneville T120 Black, Thruxtion and Thruxton R, the British bike builder still needs to come out with some smaller, entry-level models in the 250/300cc and 500cc range.

The profit margin may not be as great as with the larger displacement bikes – four of the five new Triumph models are 1,200cc; the other is 900cc – but the company should be doing all that it can to entice non-riders into take up riding.

– I was a little surprised by the seemingly universal positive reaction of riders to the test track day at Lime Rock Park in Salisbury, CT on Monday. I expected some nit-picking, but everyone that I spoke with looked forward to riding the track in 2016. And noise wasn’t an issue! Good show!

– Ducati plans to build on the success this year of its 803cc Scrambler models with another version or two. Maybe something less costly and smaller? An announcement will likely come Nov. 16.

– Finally, Cindy Crawford dressed up for Halloween as a bike babe and went out with her husband, Rande Gerber, who also dressed like a biker. A video shows just out rude and obnoxious photographers can be.