Fallen Warrior

Richard "Dick" Floyd passed away on August 11, 2011. He is widely known for bringing the mandatory helmet law to California in 1992. For that alone, he is probably hated by a lot of frustrated motorcyclists.

Not me. I respect him for what he accomplished. Heck, I even admire him.

Don't get me wrong. I hate the helmet law more than your average motorcyclists. In fact, I've never met another biker who opposes the mandatory helmet law more strongly than I do.

But I gotta give credit where credit is due.

Floyd knew how to fight -- and he especially knew how to win -- the helmet law battle. He didn't get sidetracked, and never lost focus. He never gave up, and never took his eyes off his goal. But it was more than his single-mindedness that took us down. It was his winning strategy.

Dick Floyd didn't fight hard ... because he didn't have to. Instead, he fought smart. He picked his battle, and made his own rules. He played his strengths, and took advantage of our weaknesses. And we fell right into the trap he set for us. In fact, we're still running around in the same circle to this very day.

Even from the grave, he's still beating us.

Floyd drew us into a war of words, a dueling debate, a stalemate of statistics. And as long as we played his game, by his rules, on his home turf, he won. It took him only two seconds to plant a single lie, and bikers have spent the last two decades trying to prove him wrong.

Funny thing is, California bikers actually did beat Dick Floyd (once, temporarily). Not in a war of words, but by taking our fight to the campaign trail. When bikers mobilized against him, they kept him out of office. And that unified action took away the only real advantage Floyd had, which was his ability to legislate. All the rest was just a smoke screen.

But that valuable lesson was somehow lost. We abandoned the strategic high ground we held, and instead fell into his spin cycle of debating the issue. As if we could somehow say the right words or email enough letters to ever put the genie back into the bottle.

Floyd is dead, but life goes on. Redistricting is here, key legislators are termed out, and the 2012 primary elections are just around the corner. Will we keep trying to talk the talk? Or are we ready to walk the walk?

California bikers will determine whether Dick Floyd has the last laugh. And that's no joke.