Legislative Report - September 2026

Steve Panten

The Primary Election in Wisconsin is over and now we know who will be on the ballot in November. This means that we are in full campaign mode and there will be constant political commercials and advertisements. All these ads will not really offer much when it comes to our issues, so we will need to dig deeper. That means we will need to attend Town Hall meetings and attend events held on the candidates’ behalf.

Electing people that support the concerns of the motorcyclists in the State is going to be especially important when the new legislature is seated in January. We are going to lose people that have supported us in the past, so who is going to step up? Get to know the candidates and like I said before, more important is that they know you. Even before I was Chair of your Legislative Committee, I had relationships with my elected representatives in Madison, and it was always a great feeling when they reached out to me on a topic that affected us.

Our asks are simple:

Right to Repair - Ensure that the tools and technology are available to repair our own vehicles and devices, or to be able to take them to a repair facility of our choice. This is important for many small businesses across the State that must turn away work because they do not have the equipment available to make the repairs.

Preventing Level 4 and Level 5 Autonomous Vehicle Testing – Do not allow Level 4 or Level 5 autonomous vehicle testing until manufacturers provide a report on how these vehicles interact with motorcycles. It is interesting that they have published reports showing they are safe around other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists but nothing about how safe they are around motorcycles.

Ensure that E10 or less fuel is always available – We are not opposed to the expansion of higher levels of ethanol as long as E10 or less is available since that is the only gas we can legally use in a motorcycle.

When the new State Legislature is seated in January, we want to be ready to draft Right to Repair legislation, so we produced a survey to better understand the impact this has on small businesses in Wisconsin. We have been doing a good job collecting responses to our survey, but we are looking for more help. The goal is to show how Right to Repair affects many diverse types of small businesses. Take the survey to your motorcycle repair shop, your vehicle repair shop, or your power sports repair shop. But let’s not stop there. Think outside the box, trucking companies, municipalities, forklift companies, farmers, lawn and garden companies, computer repair shops, anyone that repairs their own equipment. Remember, McDonalds won a lawsuit to be able to fix their own McFlurry machines instead

of relying on the manufacturers. If you have a relationship with your auto parts store, check with them to see if they can help to distribute the survey.

This affects so many different industries, just ask around and see who else may be affected. If you need a copy of the survey or have no idea what I am talking about, please reach out to your Regional Rep, or reach out to me and I will get it to you. If you have someone that you would like me to talk to about what we are trying to do, again, please reach out to me.

We are also ramping up for a fight to prevent allowing Level 4 or Level 5 autonomous vehicle testing until manufacturers can provide a report on how these vehicles interact with motorcycles. It is interesting that they have published reports showing they are safe around other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists but nothing about how safe they are around motorcycles. Either they are not testing, or they do not want to publish the results. Statistics across the nation show that it is probably the latter. If motorcyclists across the nation have been run over by a vehicle in level 4 autonomy on the freeway, at freeway speeds, my guess is that there is a problem, so why would we allow testing on the roads in Wisconsin? We understand that this technology is developing and someday it may be safe for all road users, but right now it is not. Knowing the technology has flaws, especially when it comes to interacting with motorcyclists, and still allowing citizens to test it on our roads is just reckless. Manufacturers should complete testing before allowing these vehicles to operate without a driver in control, not the citizens in the state risking people’s lives.

We were warned that this is going to be a tough fight for us, so we need to be prepared. UW Madison is going to come at us hard, and so are manufacturers. Funny that they want to allow this testing when the Tesla’s Owner’s Manual says the operator must be in control and the California DMV said that Tesla cannot use the terms “autopilot” or ‘driver assist.”

And then there is the E10 issue that we all know about. We are not opposed to higher ethanol or people wanting to use it. We do not want to ban ethanol, we just want to make sure that if a business is getting a grant from the state to sell higher levels of ethanol, they should be required to carry E10 or less. Again, the only gas that is legal for motorcycles, lawn mowers, chain saws, generators, UTV’s, and even cars manufactured before 2000.

Lately, we have been hearing a lot about problems with people on e-bikes and e-bike fatalities. We have a few ABATE members that have been working with the State Department of Transportation to ensure that fatalities on e-bikes do not count against our statistics. Currently, the DOT does not have a means to categorize them separately, so they are occasionally listed as motorcycle fatalities. The DOT is aware of this, and they have been manually pulling these from our statistics and moving them to motorized bicycle fatalities, but that is not a long-term solution. The State already has classifications for e-bikes, and rules on who, and where they can operate so we do not want to get involved in that. If there are discussions on how to regulate them, we want to be at the table to ensure that any regulations do not conflict with the definition of a motorcycle.

You will hear a lot about municipalities drafting their own e-bike regulations. Just because the State has classifications and rules, it is up to the municipalities to adopt the State standards. Until that is done, local law enforcement cannot enforce the law. We will need to pay attention to what municipalities do. If they adopt the State regulations, we are not opposed. If they start to deviate, we will want to get involved and see what they are doing. My city did deviate a little by allowing a Level 1 e-bike (pedal assist and under 20MPH) to operate on sidewalks if the operator is under the age of 16 and not operating the downtown areas. I do not see any issues with that providing it is enforced.

E-bikes will most likely be a discussion between the States at the Motorcycle Riders Foundation’s Meeting of the Minds later this month. John, Gary Klinker, and I will also be attending the Governors Highway Safety Conference and right now, I see 2 sessions on e-bikes.

We will stay on top of the e-bike issue as an organization, but that is not where our focus will be. Right to Repair! We need to get the surveys completed by using the QR code on the survey (preferred method) or completing it and sending it to Marie at the State Office.

That’s it

Steve