But there’s another 100th anniversary for American motorcyclists this year. And it’s one that involves all riders, regardless of the brand or style of machines we ride.

Even as William Harley and Arthur Davidson toiled in their now-famous shed in Milwaukee, enthusiasts for this new style of transportation were coming together to ensure their—and our—future. In 1903, some riders already recognized the need to create a national organization to protect their interests. So they founded the Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM).

This new organization was designed to bring consistent rules to competition events and to develop a national calendar of activities for all types of riders. But from the very beginning, it was also responsible for representing the interests of motorcyclists on matters of government policy—in other words, protecting motorcyclists’ right to ride.

At a time when there were few paved roads, it was the FAM that launched an advocacy campaign to get governments involved in building and maintaining highways. And in an era of inconsistent licensing laws, the group also fought to allow riders to travel from state to state without needing to get a new license in each location. Out of those issues, the motorcycle rights movement was born.

The AMA can trace its heritage in a straight line back to the FAM, which survived into the late teens. When that organization faltered during World War I, its functions were taken over by an industry group called the Motorcycle and Allied Trades Association (M&ATA;). Then, in 1924, when the M&ATA; recognized the need for a separate organization to represent the interests of motorcycle riders, it founded the AMA.

Since then, much has changed. Indeed, Messrs. Harley and Davidson, and the other founding fathers of the motorcycle industry, might have a hard time recognizing some of the offspring of their early machines. Picture an engineer from that time watching Ricky Carmichael sailing over a motocross double-jump. Or seeing Eric Bostrom drag his knee—and perhaps his elbow—through a corner. Or peering inside a fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, double-overhead-cam, four-valve streetbike engine that revs to more than 15,000 rpm.

Yet in spite of those obvious differences, some things are remarkably similar. The job of the AMA, like the FAM a century ago, is still to maintain consistent rules for competition, to create a national calendar of motorcycling activities, and most importantly, to protect your right to ride.

Back then, the goal was to encourage the government to build and maintain good roads, and to keep motorcyclists from being arrested for the crime of using them. These days, the challenge is more likely to involve fighting bike bans and eliminating health-insurance discrimination that has the potential to keep us from riding at all.

There were times in the early history of the AMA that this advocacy role was not the primary focus of the association. In those days, the Association was known mostly for its racing activities. But over the decades, the AMA’s leaders have always recognized the need to get involved in issues that matter to riders.

That commitment led the Association to create a separate Legislative Department in the 1960s. Today, this arm of the AMA is known as the Government Relations Department, with staff at our headquarters in Ohio, plus our legislative office in Washington, D.C., and a Western States office in California.

Advocacy efforts have become one of our primary missions over the past four decades. In fact, the AMA’s involvement in legislative and regulatory issues on behalf of our members is now one of the most prominent reasons cited for becoming an AMA member.

The AMA is proud of the way that the motorcycle rights movement has grown from those small beginnings a century ago. And we’re proud of our part in making that happen. But we also know that it’s dangerous to become infatuated with the past while ignoring the future. You can bet that executives at Harley-Davidson have no intention of saying: “Well, we made it to 100, let’s call it a day!” And neither do we.

The AMA’s involvement in legislation and regulation is all about the future. Protecting our right to ride today is the only way we can ensure that we, and our children, will be able to ride tomorrow.