Dal Smilie
2004, Leadership
An all around dedicated enthusiast, Dal Smilie has been instrumental
in lobbying for on- and offroad motorcycle rights for over 30 years.
Dal has managed to bring together on- and off-roaders to work for
motorcycle rights.
Undoubtedly, there is no one better at "pounding the pavement" than
Dal. Over the years Dal has persevered through several administrations
to obtain Motorcycle Safety Awareness weeks and/or months. He has
worked closely with the Highway Patrol, Highway Department, Office of
Public Instruction and motorcycle groups to get Public Service
Announcements promoting motorcycle safetly developed and broadcast.
While attending graduate school at Southern Illinois University in
the mid-1970's, Dal became aware of motorcycle safety training. He
began borrowing safety-oriented films and materials from the Montana
Office of Public Instruction to share with motorcycle road clubs long
before Montana had any safety training.
Possibly the youngest person ever elected to the AMA Board of Directors,
Dal has served for over 20 years. Currently, he serves as the AMA's
Vice Chairman.
When the AMA Board decided to open a museum in Ohio, Dal served as
the museum's initial board chair, reaching out to other museums to
establish a cooperative climate of sharing the great history of
motorcycling. In fact, Dal organized an international motorcycle
museum conference aimed at helping all of the museums raise their
level of professionalism in order to better preserce the overall
history of motorcycling.
Dal is also involved in the vintage motorcycle movement, having been
a member of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America for 20+ years. He's
also raced and volunteered for the AHRMA for over 15 years.
Since his 50th birthday, Dal has picked up four national AHRMA
motocross championships. He has over 500,000 miles on road bikes, and
has won BMWMOA's highest mileage contest twice in the past.
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