Agreed ... class A should be open and governed only with the bounds of rider and spectator safety.
My point is, Modified should be an extension of a stock, once street legal bike. Any other factory specials, racers, off road or specialty bikes should automatically be classed in Altered in the future.
Here's why. Back up to Production Rules.
Rule 7.E .1 Production '05 Rulebook, first paragraph:
"A standard production street legal motorcycle of which 500 or more have been produced and which are available for sale to the general public through retail motorcycle dealers and is completely equipped with full lighting equipment, frame, forks, wheels, brakes, gas and oil tanks [if oem], fenders and seat."
Now move forward to Modified which is the next step in bike classification. Modified should be a direct extension of a production bike. The bone of contention is the short paragraph allowing factory road racing and off road motorcycles to run M class. It is contradictory and seems to have been placed there many years ago so these bikes could go for M class records when they should have been originally placed in A open class to begin with.
This leads us to today's question, whether to move or not to move records around to suit someones current agenda. Why not change the M class rules for '06 by moving these clearly originally non-street legal bikes to A class for the future and move forward as life does?