It appears that the rough roads the motorcycle industry has taken over the last few years fighting a prohibitive lead ban may be coming to an end.

The troubles started with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 which bans the making, importing, distributing or selling of any product intended for children 12 and under that contains more than a specified amount of lead in any accessible part.

Commonly known as the lead law, it effectively banned dealerships from selling the smaller framed motorcycles to the young riders they were designed for.

Ever since the laws introduction, motorcycle industry leaders and experts have fought to remove motorcycles from the legislation.

On June 16th, Rep. Denny Rehberg was successful in inserting language into the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, that prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from using money to enforce lead-content limits on kids' off-highway vehicles (OHVs).

The CPSC has delayed enforcing key portions of the law until after the end of the year. Unless the CPSIA is changed by then, the sale of child-sized dirtbikes and ATVs will effectively be banned.

The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill provides annual funding for several key federal government agencies, including the CPSC. If the full House eventually adopts the language, then it still needs to clear the Senate before the bill goes to the president to be signed into law.

"While the original legislation was intended to keep kids safe from lead content in toys, the overreaching enforcement wound up putting them at risk by forcing them to use larger, more dangerous machines that are intended only for adults," said Rehberg, who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. "While I'm working on a permanent fix to get rid of this dangerous regulation, my appropriations language will buy more time," he said.

Rehberg was referring to H.R. 412, the Kids Just Want to Ride Act, which he introduced to exempt kids' OHVs from the lead-content restrictions of the CPSIA.

"This language is an important step in efforts to lift the ban on the sale of kid-sized dirtbikes and ATVs imposed by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008," Rob Dingman, AMA president and CEO, said, thanking Rehberg for his efforts, "America's young riders need to be able to ride appropriately sized machines to help them stay safe. If those machines aren't available, then they may ride bigger machines that may be difficult for them to control.

"Small businesses that sell small off-highway vehicles also suffer under the CPSIA," he said. "For the safety of children, and for the health of small businesses, the AMA strongly urges the adoption of this language."