Letter from Chip Northrup

To Bikers: Stop Firing Your Guns

One of the great attractions of the Village of Cooperstown for bikers and motorists is the ability to come into town backfiring and revving their motors. This is known in the trade as “firing your guns.” (Don’t ask me how I know these things.) It is also really obnoxious, damaging to ear drums and 100 percent illegal.

Not long ago, New York State passed a law, known by the humorous acronym the SLEEP Act (I can’t make this stuff up), whereby any motorist that has a muffler modified to make the exhaust sound louder than the original equipment can be fined up to $1,000.00 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. The village and sheriff can enforce the act.

On any given weekend, the village could clear $10K in fines, easy. If Ommegang could be persuaded to sponsor a Bikers’ Gang Weekend, the county sheriff could make the annual nut on jail maintenance costs.

The village can start by posting signs: “Welcome to America’s Village. Now Shut Your Exhaust Pipe All The Way Up.” If they need a convenient place to set up a decibel meter, they can use our back porch. We have front-row seats on Road Warrior IV.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown