Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ow that the smoke has started to clear, I would like to take a moment to discuss Ed Younglood. As you probably already know, r. Youngblood recently resigned as resident of the American Motorcy. ts Association (AMA) after 28 years f duty. There's been a lot of speculaion as to the circumstances of his eparture, but tha t's for another story. he purpose of this piece is to address e legacy Mr. Youngblood left behind ter his years of service. . Youngblood has been around otorcycles all of his life. After growng up in Oklahoma and moving to hio for graduate school, he began ollowing dirt track closely. He ooked up with a junior-class racer amed Alton Story and headed out to he Midwestern oval circuit as one of tory's mechanics. It was at that point, 'n 1967, that he bought his original AMA card; he had to be a member in ord~r to sign up for his mechanic's license and work in the pro pits. Youngblood admits to being more of a bike pusher than an actual mechanic, but although he never actually laid wrenches on a bike, he was wellversed in the ways of racing. So the next logical step was for him to become a reporter for the very newspaper you are reading. Like so many other motorcycle personalities who have emerged over the years, Youngblood broke in as a Cycle News stringer; this was in 1968, after he graduated from college, back when CN had an office in Ohio. Youngblood worked the. dirt track beat for two ars' before he was he was recruited o become editor of the AMA's inhouse magazine, American Motorcyclist, in 1970. At that time, the AMA had fewer than 100,000 members and was staffed by about a dozen people, led by the well-meaning Russ March. March ambitiously tried to take the AMA from its club-level racing roots into the government-relations business. The marketing of professional racing became a mission as well, and the undermanned AMA staff dived in. Unfortunately, the organization was neither ready nor sophisticated enough to handle the task. Within three years, March had accidentally almost put the company into bankruptcy. He was dismissed in August of 1973. The AMA's front doors were steadiIyrevolving with staff turnover at the time. As a result, Youngblood, with all of three years' experience, was one of the senior members of the executive staff. The board of trustees handed him the keys as interim general manager while 'they looked for a new CEO. Four years later, the board still had yet to find that CEO. Youngblood wasn't doing a bad job holding down the fort, having survived with the guidance and support of John Harley. Under Youngblood's watch, they managed to turn things around, and the AMA became solvent with a good financial base. By the time the new CEO was brought in, the magazine had formed a qualified staff in Youngblood's absence, negating the need for his return to journalism. With few options, he went into the governmentrelations department, where he would labor for the next five years. In the government-relations wing, Youngblo d worked under Lin Kuchler, who had returned from a stint with NASCAR to became the AMA presi- dent. Kuchler helped put the association on more solid financial ground, and during his tenure he acted as mentor and friend to Youngblood. Kuchler admittedly didn't have a feel for government relations, but he knew it was important, so he gave Youngblood a free hand to run the division. The 1970s were a turbulent time for motorcyclists in America. On the road side, there was the con troversy over mandatory helmet laws, to which the AMA had strong objections in principle. The battle for public lands was on after President Nixon's Executive Order #11644 regulated off-road vehicles. Numerous government agencies had the power to shut down riding areas, and each seemed to have its own agenda. The AMA had to deal with a labyrinth of federal agencies, each with its own infrastructure and red tape. The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) put a lot of effort into the fight, as did AMA Districts 36 and 37 out west. Off-roading was also under fire on other fronts, including EPA efforts to regulate motorcycle noise with unreasonable limitations and impossible expectations. As a result, the AMA quickly became sophisticated in dealing with the feder.al government. The dark clouds over motorcycling would prove to have a silver lining. As a result of the high-profile court battles, motorcyclists who did not race street and trail riders - began joining the AMA, not to enter sanctioned events but to help in the fight for motorcyclists' rights. The organization was growing. , Still, the war continued. As the 1980s dawned, motorcycles were being blamed for forest fires, erosion, noise pollution, and violating protection

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