By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer
The dust settled and the whine of motorcycles sporadically came to a halt Sunday afternoon at the Daniel Boone Motocross track, as a state representative from Missouri spoke about an act of congress that he believes could spell the death of motocross as a sport.
“Amateur racing right now, folks, is in the balance,” Rep. Tom Self said to a crowd of motocross riders.
“When people hear about this, they either think of one of two things. Either that it’s not true because it’s ridiculous, or it is true and there must be some simple fix. ... The problem is it is true ... and it could literally take an act of congress to change it.”
Self is talking about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that was passed by the U.S. Congress in August and went into effect in February. The act limits the lead content in children’s toys — everything from infant’s toys, to books, and for Self, and most alarmingly for motocross enthusiasts, motorcycles.
The act banned the sale of small 50cc and 65cc motorbikes that are only big enough for use by children because they contain lead. This leaves somewhere between one to two million bikes on inventory across the country that can’t be sold, according to Self.
It’s not that the congressional act is completely a bad thing in Self’s mind — it does protect small children, particularly infants, from ingesting lead from toys — it’s that the act oversteps its effectiveness.
“What the government needs to concentrate on more is, if they’ve got that kind of situation (lead in toys), deal with that situation and don’t go broading out just for the sake of trying to overprotect,” Self said. “So many times government, again well intentioned, tries to work on something, but how it works on paper and practically are two completely different things.”
The act bans toys, clothes, books — any product used by children — that might contain lead in them for fear that the children could ingest the lead by putting the product in their mouths, or by handling the product and then putting their hands in their mouths. Self says it is ridiculous to assume that small children would somehow ingest lead from playing with a motorcycle.
The concern — and perhaps the overreaching part of the legislation — Self said is the “shared toy box effect.” Self said the act bans toys that could share the same “toy box” with younger children’s toys.
“But I don’t know anybody that stores a motorcycle in the toy box,” Self said.
This Christmas 10-year-old Cole Dysinger of Somerset received a motocross bike, and Sunday afternoon he got his first taste of “air” at the newly renovated Daniel Boone MotoCross track about five miles west of London.
Cole, clad head-to-toe in protective gear, is lucky his father Kenny Dysinger said because many of Kenny’s friends tried to buy similar bikes for their children, but couldn’t because of the ban.
To Kenny Dysinger, the ban just doesn’t seem American because in his mind it encroaches on personal rights.
“Obviously, we want our kids to be safe,” Dysinger said. “We don’t want toxins in them, but I mean these are not a toy you are going to find on the shelf in a Wal-Mart. This is something they are going to be out in the air using, not inside.”
Kenny Dysinger also worries that banning the smaller bikes will lead to safety hazards down the road. Teaching kids how to safely use motorcycles on motocross tracks has to be taught at a young age, Dysinger said. Dysinger likened it to teaching a child about gun safety — the respect for the power of the machine has to take place at a young age.
“If you are going to teach them, it’s better when they’re young, so they can learn that respect,” Dysinger said. “Kids don’t get shot when they learn gun safety, the same thing here. A 13- or 14-year-old that comes here and jumps for the first time is going to get hurt.”
Rep. Self agrees. Banning the children’s bikes also means replacement parts will stop being made, which Self says, leads to bikes that are dangerously under-kept or simply inoperable.
“The concerning part of that is you’ve got kids that have been riding for a while, and their bike is not available,” Self said. “And, Lord willing, this won’t happen, but they are going to be awfully tempted to climb on a bike that is too big for them. And then you’ve got a real problem.”
Self’s appearance near London was his last of a 10-day tour that took him to Illinois, Indiana and to St. Louis in his home state, where he spoke to a crowd of 50,000 people at the Supercross ride.
The tour was about getting the word out, Self said. Although the act has already been passed, and there is an uphill battle getting the law changed, Self told the crowd of motocross riders and their families that if they got active and vocal, things could changed.
But, Self said, that’s going to take everyone in the motocross community.
“If we don’t buck up and get serious about this thing, we are all going to be playing Mumbly Peg and chess in a year,” Self said to the motocross riders.
“It’s that simple. It’s your choice. In motocross there’s a saying, ‘You’ve got two choices. You can go big or go home.’ Kids you want to go big, or do you want to go home?”
The littlest motocross riders in the crowd all let out a, “Go big.”
Sean Bailey can be reached at sbailey@thetimestribune.com
