I am a Garmin addict - at least in my truck.  I am thinking about going to Sturgis this summer and I think I will have to buy a Garmin Zumo for my motorcycle - but which one is the question.

A recent review of the Garmin Zumo 660 with a price tag of $799 appeared on About.com where the author took it on a 570 mile ride in Italy.  His final appraisal was positive giving the gizmo a 3.5 stars out of 5.  The Garmin home page for the 660 will give you the full details.

To be honest the $799 price tag kind of staggered me so I looked at another model - the Zumo 220 - but it is still listed at $599.  One of the best reviews I found on this model is at GPS News.org.

Bottom line - I think I will just use my truck Garmin and wire it into my bike.

Utah Bike Law represent motorcycle riders and their families across Utah including the counties and cities of Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Piute, Rich, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Wayne, Weber, American Fork, Beaver, Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Delta, Draper, Duchesne, Fillmore, Heber, Kamas, Kanab, Kaysville, Layton, Lehi, Logan, Moab, Murray, Nephi, Ogden, Orem, Park City, Price, Provo, Richfield, Riverton, Roy, Salt Lake City, Sandy, South Jordan, St. George, Tooele, Vernal, West Jordan, and West Valley City.

This is a reprint of an article from Facts About All - Interesting Facts Page.  I thought it was interesting!

1. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that in 2000, 631 motorcyclists were saved by wearing their helmet.
2. The German inventor Gottlieb Daimler is generally credited with building the first practical motorcycle in 1885.
3. Up to eight motorbikes can fit in the same parking space occupied by one car.
4. Motorcycles and scooters are, on average, about twice as fuel efficient as cars.
5. The first rider to ever go over 300mph was Don Vesco in 1975, on a 1496cc Yamaha-engined streamliner.
6. Kawasaki also makes spaceships.
7. The fastest motorcycle s the Dodge Tomahawk, a prototype with an unusual design, featuring the 500 hp (373 kW) 8.3 L V10 engine from the Dodge Viper.
8. MV Agusta is currently producing the F4 1078 RR 312. 312kph being the recorded top speed at the Salt Flats in Utah in 2007.The RR312 reached a recorded top speed of 195, but since speeds are averaged, it’s recorded top speed is 194mph, or metric, 312kph.
9. When Valentino Rossi was five, his dad Graziano built him a go-cart to discourage him from getting into bikes
10. Harley-Davidson built push-bikes between 1917 and 1923. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.

Utah Bike Law represent motorcycle riders and their families across Utah including the counties and cities of Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Piute, Rich, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Wayne, Weber, American Fork, Beaver, Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Delta, Draper, Duchesne, Fillmore, Heber, Kamas, Kanab, Kaysville, Layton, Lehi, Logan, Moab, Murray, Nephi, Ogden, Orem, Park City, Price, Provo, Richfield, Riverton, Roy, Salt Lake City, Sandy, South Jordan, St. George, Tooele, Vernal, West Jordan, and West Valley City.

Mission Motors is an electric motorcycle manufacturer based in San Francisco and recently set a world speed record for a battery-powered motorcycle at just over 150 miles per hour - 150.059 to be exact! For official reports this is the average speed over a two seperate mile long trials but the motorcycle actually hit a high speed of 161 miles per hour. This speed record was set at teh famous Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

The Patriot Guard is an ad hoc group of mostly motorcycle riders that formed to guard the funerals of American service personnel who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  At noon today they are going to escort a replica of the Vietnam Memorial into Ogden where it will be on display at the 'Gathering of the Guard' at the Weber County Fairgrounds.

Larry "Kooter" Knudson, a member of the Utah Chapter of the Patriot Guard, said all members of the guard, and anyone else who wants to, can meet the truck carrying the wall at the Morgan County Fairgrounds at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Morgan.  The memorial will be on display for the entire four days of the event.

The Gathering of the Guard is a 4-day event that honors the people who go about doing the business of defending our liberties and way of life - service personnel from past and present.  If the weather holds, and it looks like it will, there will probably be close to a thousand motorcycles at the Gathering this year.

Sons of Anarchy is a television show on FX that focuses on the life and times of a motorcycle gangnamed SAMCRO (The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original)as they take on rival gangs in the fictional town of Charming in California.

It is a quirky show is one of the highest rated television shows for men between 18 and 34 years old.  It is fiction, it is raw and often answers the questions I often ask like - 'Why don't they just shoot the guy' or 'I would cut the b***** off of a rapist if I could - why don't they?'  It is probably as close as we can get to the life of a motorcycle gang without being in a motorcycle gang - they are righteous individuals - yes they break the law - but they have morals - something like the stories of the old mafia during the second world war where they helped secure the docks by 'vetting' employees.  Yeah - they broke the law but it was for the good of the country.

I watched this show a little bit last year and will be looking forward to its return on September 8th.

At the Kimball Art Center there is an exhibit titled "Danny Lyon: Bikeriders" that is open now and runs through July 26.  The exhibit shows the lifestyle of the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle club in the American Midwest from 1964-1967. The photos depict the fringe culture associated with motorcycle riding in the '60s and, compared to the crowd that showed up on Saturday afternoon on all types of bikes, it seems that culture has changed significantly over the past half century. Lyon's photos portray what Vangeison, and the motorcycle community in general, call "the one percenters" or gang members. [The term was coined to emphasize that 99 percent of motorcycle riders were law abiding citizens and only one percent were outlaws].

The exhibit, at least in part, portrays the motorcycle culture in Utah and how it has changed over the years.  That image of motorcycle riders as low-life criminals who impose violence on society is not the motorcycle community I know.  I have never met a motorcycle rider I did not like - I mean it!  There are all kinds of bikers - from mechanics to lawyers to doctors to salesmen - men and women and entire families.  Getting out on the road and enjoying the unique connection with the outdoors and the camaraderie of your follow bikers is unique and in a single word enjoyable.  There is no pressure to be like anyone else - simply enjoying the ride and the company of like-minded people is enough.  All of the motorcycle riders I know are of two basic types.

One type is the party goer type of rider.  They go to a lot of charity rides with their friends and raise a lot of cash for very necessary groups.  There is often a party at the end of the ride and we all get together and have a good time.  The other group is a non-group - loners if you want to call them that.  You see them riding alone on the highway just enjoying the ride.  But even the loners are in a group of follow riders knowing that they are not alone.  The familiar hang low wave to fellow bikers cements who we are are - simply enjoying the ride on the motorcycle we currently ride or simply enjoying life.

Ken Bingenheimer is a motorcycle examiner who wrote an article for examiner.com about the cavernous canyon views and the twisting and looping backroads that take you to Brian Heab in Southern Utah.  The article comes complete witha slide show that shows exactly what Kem is talking about.  I have riden this road before and it is spectacular but you need to be fairly accomplished rider to appreciate the downhills and twisting loops - just take it easy and you will be fine.  There are great little coffe shops along the way and the people are great!  Get off the beaten path and enjoy a little "off-road" in some of hte most brilliant and amazing architecture the worls has to offer.

The motorcycle community is one great community.  We put on motorcycle charity rides across the country and across the state helping fund causes from breast cancer to scholorships for children of fallen service members.  Another example is Golden Spike Harley Davidson who donated hours of time and parts to get an injured rider back on the road.

The Standard wrote a great article detailing the challanges that a dwarf experienced in finding his first motorcycle and the problems he had when that motorcycle was damaged in a crash a deer.  Putting on 30,000 miles a year is a feat for anyone and an accomplishment.  HOG members are great people and the work they do often goes unrecognized - KODO's to you guys.

Here is a great local site for everything one might think of as the biker lifestyle, right here in Utah.  It is an eclectic site including everthing from patches for your jacket including some very funny patches that in my opinion should be on every biker's jacket.  There is also biker jewelry that whould appeal to the lady biker in your life.  There is a great line-up of stickers availabale - unfortunately they should come with some type of revolving thing like on city buses so you can touch a button to display the appropriate sticker while riding for the appropriate situation.  There is also a great selection of pasties for the women - especially if you are considering going to some of the bigger biker rallies this summer - like Sturgis.

There is a link at the top of the site named Videos that has a number of collages of biker rides and other stuff.  It looks like the site is pretty new becasue some of the links at the top are still being built but I like where the site is headed - for example:

• Local Biker Bars
• Local Charity Rides
• Photos
• Biker Forum
• The Winning Recipe
• Your Best Biker Joke

I repeat one of the jokes here - well - just becasue....

Vaseline Biker

A young man has always dreamed on owning a Harley Davidson. One day he has
finally saved up enough money so he goes down to the dealer. After picking
out the perfect bike the dealer warns him that if he leaves his Harley in
the rain the chrome has a tendency to rust. He tells the young man an old
biker’s trick is to keep a jar of Vaseline handy and smear it on the chrome
if the bike must be left out in the rain.

A few months later the young man meets a woman and falls in love. She asks
him to come home and meet her parents over dinner. He readily agrees and
the date is set. At the appointed time he picks her up on his Harley and
they ride to her parents house. Before they go in she tells him that they
have a family tradition that whoever speaks first after dinner must do the
dishes.

After a delicious dinner everyone sits in silence waiting for the first
person to break and get stuck doing the dishes. After a long fifteen
minutes the young man decides to speed things up so he reaches over and
kisses the woman in front of her family.

And no one says a word…! Next he decides to take a more direct approach
so he throws her on the table and has sex with her in front of everyone.
And still no one says a word!

Now he is getting desperate, so he grabs her mother and throws her on the
table. They have even wilder sex. But no one says a word!!!

By now he is getting very worried and is wondering what to do next when he
hears thunder in the distance. His first thought is to protect the chrome
on his Harley, so he reaches in his pocket and pulls out the Vaseline.

And the father says, “Okay dammit, I’ll do the dishes.”

I was on the Utah Department of Safety web site the other day and noticed that they are finally getting with the program.  This poster is effective and a little humerous so I thought I would share.