Does Trials Need The Ama?

[ridgrunr]

The WTA went AMA last year. We balked for years, but finally couldn't find any private insurance, even with no claims since 1973. So we bit the bullet and became AMA sanctioned.

What's changed. Riders have to pay $40 to join AMA to ride. That discourages the guy a little who just wants to try it, but usually they still do cause we let first time riders ride for $5, plus all first time riders take home a medal. They don't think it's too expensive considering they paid $50 bucks for each moto they rode last Sunday and got to ride for fifteen minutes and blew up their bike and the kid broke his collar bone. The $45 it cost them to ride Trials all day is a lot less than the Moto Cross, they go home with bikes and bones intact so the cost doesn't seem as much. Then for the rest of the year they get to ride for $15. Their kids get to ride for $10. What a deal.

I get a bad magazine I don't need. I wish they'd use the money it costs to print that rag to further motorcycle causes or maybe lower the AMA fees. If I want to read about bikes, I go on-line or buy a Cycle World or a Dirt Bike.

You do get a membership discount for stuff you buy at on-line places like Bike Bandit.com. I paid for my AMA fees with discounts savings I got on stuff for my V65 Sabre and my Brute Force quad.

Our club is actually floating in money. We've never had so much money as we were paying $2400 a year for pretty much nothing. Now all we need is about ten riders at a meet to break even. We usually have three to four times that so finances aren't critical anymore. Land owners are happy when we tell them we're insured by the AMA. We can afford to pay the BLM permit fees. We have no regrets.

Edited June 13, 2006 by Ridgrunr