If you like to ride your motorcycle on the two-lane highways through the most scenic areas in our nation then you know there are deer on the road. I guarantee you; you do not want to hit a deer because motorcycles and deer do not mix.

Let me tell you a story about a couple of friends of mine and how we use to rip through the Malibu hills on our motorcycles; you see, all of us had high-tech fully raced out race bikes and we had square headlights and if you have ever ridden a motorcycle with square headlights in fast canyon sweeping corners in pitch black conditions, then you know that as you turn so to the edges of where the light goes and once you get use to it is not that big of a deal. Actually, you know it is such a rush and we had a blast doing it, but there are times when a deer could pop out on the road and you would not see it right away because of the angle of the light.

Well this happened to my friend Scott and we were behind Scott and we saw the deer, and beeped our horns. Scott had already passed the threshold and the deer jumped because it was afraid of our light and the winding sound of our race bikes, Yoshi pipes have a unique sound. Anyway, the deer's back legs hit the handlebars of Scott's motorcycle twisting them sideways and he flew forward, he was going about 40-45 mph on the turn and had just downshifted so maybe he hit the deer at 30 mph, remember it was pitch black and all this happened in a tenth of a second or so. Well one of the legs of the deer hit his helmet so hard it put a hole in it, ouch! Drain Bramage!

The deer crashed onto the pavement and rolled around and it was stunned for a second and a half and then the darn thing popped up on its feet and ran almost running into Scott who was now laying on the pavement. Scott had a lot of damage to his bike and it cost him $1200 in plastic and another $900 in other parts to fix it. Luckily, he had no personal injuries other than a sore wrist and he could not ride for two weeks or sit home and you know? Poor bum, we have never stopped teasing him about that. Scott is fine now and takes it in stride, but it could've been a lot worse. Trust me when I tell you that Deer and motorcycles to not mix. One more story of a 100 told to you digitally.

Touring Southern California on a Motorcycle can be very fun and somewhat hectic too. The traffic in the city is outrageous and it is your basic free parking lot although they have the tenacity to call it a Free Way? Luckily on a motorcycle you can cut lanes and move pretty fast thru traffic on the freeway, but watch out for the pissed off motorist in traffic who wishes to open their door suddenly because they are angry at your ability to pass between the cars.

Touring Southern California Mountains on a Motorcycle is much more fun, as you are away from traffic and there are so many scenic routes to take. There are mountains all around the LA Basin, San Diego, San Gabriel Valley and West Valley. It is a spectacular place to ride and it takes months just to ride all the roads there. And they are so much fun, you want to go back and do it again and again.

Once on top of the mountains you can look down on civilization and your mouth just drops as to the size of it all. But 460 square miles of concrete and 16.5 million people in the greater LA area of Southern California cannot be wrong. They live there for the great weather and indeed it is. It is truly amazing that so close by there are so many great places to ride. There is no place like it, so we will see you there soon touring the Southern California Mountains on a motorcycle.

One of the most fun places to do long-distance motorcycle riding has to be the great state of Nevada, as there is so much to see, it is simply incredible indeed. As a young man my friends and I use to do cannon ball runs from Southern CA to Las Vegas NV. Back then there was little traffic and we would really open up the throttle and go for it.

Sometimes racing thru the desert at ultra-high speed the road was so hot it, as you looked at it; it looked wavy, similar to a dream like mirage. At those speeds you could not really tell where the road was in front of you, only an approximation and then it would drop off as the road was filled with hoop-de-doos.

Of course this was 20 years ago and today there is just too much traffic and too many highway patrol and well quite frankly too many helicopters too. You cannot do the same routes we use to do and there are not very many other ways to go. But it was a fun time in my life and we did have a blast.

We use to start out from Van Nuys CA at the Tom’s Burgers and hit the Freeway and well we were in Palm Dale, screaming thru in under 18 minutes and give it another 20 minutes and we were at the I-15, never more than 45 total to that point. From there it was a beeline, bonsai, cannon ball run to Las Vegas.

Well I will never forget those days or a very good friend of mine who did not make it on one of our runs, as he departed the freeway at 165 mph the reports said and was DOA. No one knows what happened perhaps he looked down for a half a second or more or hit tried to swerve for an animal.

The motorcycle helmet’s primary function is to protect the biker’s head. If the color of the one purchased does not express the owner’s personality, it is always possible to put stickers or better yet to custom paint this.

The best place to get some ideas will be to visit a local decal store. If none are interesting, the person can always check various websites online. Should there be a good prospect, this should be printed and shown to the local shop and ask if this can be done.

The individual should not be surprised if the detailing shop in the neighborhood cannot accommodate the request. This is because the establishment may not have the proper equipment to make it happen.

Should this be the case, the person will just have to get the job done over the Internet. The customer will have to select the design and give a time frame. The biker will also have to determine how this will be paid.

Those who have brand new helmets should ship this to the manufacturer to have the work done. The person must not forget to put the contact details inside so this can be returned when the task has been completed.

If the cost for shipping this is too expensive, perhaps it will be much cheaper to order a new one with the custom painted job included. The owner has to make sure to order the helmet that will fit one’s head because giving the wrong details will make this useless when this is delivered to the customer.

The price of custom painted motorcycle helmet varies. This will depend on the type of paint used and the amount of time taken into making the design. Given that this will entail shipping and handling, it will be safe to have about $500 for everything.

Many of these shops prefer to work on brand new solid color helmets because the effects will not be the same when this is done on an old one. It is advisable not to sand or use primer to remove the moldings since the specialist will also be doing that before painting this with the new design.

When people see a car, it is easy to see the detailing on the sides. Since this is much different for a motorbike, the best thing to look at will be the custom painted helmet that is often considered by many to be a work of art.

Arizona is a great place to ride a motorcycle, as it is a huge state with lots of flat areas and lots of mountains and beautiful rides to take. For those who live centrally located in Phoenix well they have great rides they can take in nearly all directions. For instance they can ride up to Flagstaff and back down thru Sedona for a nice ride or they could head up Hwy 87 to Payson, then out to Show Low and then back down scenic Hwy 60 to Globe.

Or perhaps set out from Phoenix to Globe and take Hwy 70 to Safford then South back to the I-10 past Wilcox AZ. Another good ride is to head out to Superior Arizona and take hwy 177 to Hwy 77 back to Globe or continue on into Oracle Arizona for nice days ride.

Indeed getting your kicks on Route 66 through Arizona is also one of the most favorite rides of motorcyclists and leaving out of Kingman, AZ and heading up to Ash Fork, AZ and then down into Prescott Valley is truly a memorable event. I can tell you that riding thru all the Indian Reservations in Northern Arizona is fun as well; the Painted Desert, Canyon de Chelly and other scenic areas are truly magnificent.

If you do any motorcycle touring at all I must recommend that you ride Arizona, because until you do? Well you just cannot even imagine what you are missing.

In a nutshell, the advantages of hybrid cars may be summed up in three reasons: economy, efficiency, and sustainability.

Economy

Hybrid cars use both electric power and fuel power, and uses up much less energy that your ordinary fuel-generated vehicles. Thus, the owner is spared from the constant price hikes and increases in the world oil market. And they are guaranteed to reach their destinations with or without the erratic movements in oil price hikes.

Efficiency

Since hybrid cars operate and run on electricity, hybrid cars easily function consistently well at any motor speed in comparison to gas-powered engines. As gas-powered engines generate much less power in decreased low revolutions per minute, motor and engine speed is affected considerably. In a hybrid car, the owner need not worry about transmissions and engine revolutions per minute in relation to speed. And although, because of acceleration reasons, a hybrid car may run a bit slower than a gas-powered vehicle making it a disadvantage to some people, parents prefer and opt to buy these hybrid cars for their children, being guaranteed their kids’ safe speed on the road.

Sustainability

Using a car that can run on electricity will definitely have environmental advantages. Environmentalists and ecological activists are thrilled by the idea and by the ability of hybrid cars to emit substantially lesser smog pollutants and other hazardous gasses that are harmful to the environment and to people’s health.

With all these advantages in Hybrid cars, and with the rate at which car companies are going in order to develop and innovate on current hybrid car models, it won’t be surprising to find the modern household owning at least one hybrid car in the next ten years.

Efficiency

Since hybrid cars operate and run on electricity, hybrid cars easily function consistently well at any motor speed in comparison to gas-powered engines. As gas-powered engines generate much less power in decreased low revolutions per minute, motor and engine speed is affected considerably. In a hybrid car, the owner need not worry about transmissions and engine revolutions per minute in relation to speed. And although, because of acceleration reasons, a hybrid car may run a bit slower than a gas-powered vehicle making it a disadvantage to some people, parents prefer and opt to buy these hybrid cars for their children, being guaranteed their kids’ safe speed on the road.

Sustainability

Using a car that can run on electricity will definitely have environmental advantages. Environmentalists and ecological activists are thrilled by the idea and by the ability of hybrid cars to emit substantially lesser smog pollutants and other hazardous gasses that are harmful to the environment and to people’s health.

With all these advantages in Hybrid cars, and with the rate at which car companies are going in order to develop and innovate on current hybrid car models, it won’t be surprising to find the modern household owning at least one hybrid car in the next ten years.

If you have followed along with the news lately, you have no doubt noticed the growing interest towards hybrid cars. What is this all about?

After nearly 100 years on the road the combustion engine is slowly becoming an old-timer. The environmental pollution and its unlimited thirst for fuel cause problems from smog to global warming. Furthermore, conventional engines actually become increasingly inefficient as they grow in size. Most cars use at the most one third of the energy present in the fuel, the remainder is lost in the form of heat and sound.

But only if gasoline starts costing way over 3 dollars per gallon, traditional cars will be considered as too thirsty - apart from the fact that they get the environment dirty. But the cleaner electrical technology, as in electrical vehicles, is not the ideal solution either. And hydrogen or gas cells are not fully developed yet. Here the hybrid car has its window of opportunity - a new automobile technology, which unites the best of two worlds: a gasoline and an electric motor.

The results?

The most pollution free motorised vehicle on offer thus far.

The hybrid technology manage to do this by connecting a small petrol engine with a torque-strong electric motor and a battery. And can in this way lower the fuel consumption and have a lower pollution factor.

In fact, some hybrid vehicles produce 50% less emissions than your conventional car. Although this is very good indeed, one has to admit that two power sources under the hood is more complicated, more susceptible to errors and may sound a bit wasteful even.

But if this will allow almost any driver to have 50% of gasoline savings and reduces the emissions by a third, it certainly can't be all wrong. And the best of everything is that these hybrid cars - in the short time the have been on the market - have proven to be very road worthy vehicles as well.

Especially in the USA, where the environment is quickly becoming more and more polluted, hybrid vehicles play an increasingly important role - not least in California, where "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger have opted for strict environmental protection guidelines.

For this reason no doubt, we can also see somewhat of a Hybrid car craze in Hollywood right now. During the Academy awards of 2005, the most prestigious way to travel was not the long black limousine, but a hybrid car, which supposedly showed the environmental awareness of the celebrities.

On the other hand, one can also assume that the above phenomenon was a way to show ones status, as hybrid cars where rather rare and expensive at the time. Among the celebrities that where seen arriving in various hybrid cars were Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams Harrison Ford and (surprise, surprise) Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.

Did you know that Harley-Davidson is very popular in the Middle East and anyone who has any money wants to buy a Harley-Davidson and they are not cheap overseas. There is no wonder why humans enjoy riding around on very large motorcycles. After all, dogs like to stick their head out the window too. Have you ever noticed that when you drive with a dog in a car, truck or SUV that they stick their head out the window? Dogs do this all the time and all dogs love to do it.

It appears that all humans like to ride Harley-Davidson and perhaps it is for very much the same reason. The feel of power, the feel of the open road and the RAM air running through their nostrils adding more oxygen? We all know that the visual stimulation from motion is a common promoter of various brain waves. People like motion and they like oxygen and they love the feel of power. This is why Harley-Davidson is loved all over the world.

Why can't we use Harley-Davidson to help us unite the world in a common cause? After all, if everyone in the Middle East wants to ride a Harley Davidson and everyone in America loves Harley-Davidson to then obviously that might be a good starting point. Maybe the State Department needs to buy a whole bunch of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and give them as gifts to foreign diplomats who agree to various terms of negotiation.

One of the greatest states to tour on a motorcycle would have to be the Great State of Nevada, as there are so many excellent roads, mountainous terrain and straight flat roads to really open it up with no one around for miles. There are places to ride along the Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and out across the desert at full tilt.

Perhaps my most memorable rides in Nevada have been across Hwy 50 and really the fun starts heading East not more than about 25-30 miles past Fallon Nevada and you leave the Naval Air Station Area and open it up for a wild and fun ride. Scenic is an understatement and the road is a motorcyclists dream.

I recommend both touring on a nice comfortable motorcycle or getting a high-performance crotch rocket and honing your skills and you have plenty of time to do that too. The road is over 350 miles long. There are towns along the way that you have to slow down, chill out and mellow for a few miles, but they are well marked and you have plenty of time to decelerate and avoid any speed traps, besides the folks in these places are very nice and it does provide a nice break too along the way.

If you have never tried Nevada as a place to tour on your motorcycle then you need to do this and you will be so glad you did.

If you like to ride your motorcycle on the two-lane highways through the most scenic areas in our nation then you know there are deer on the road. I guarantee you; you do not want to hit a deer because motorcycles and deer do not mix.

Let me tell you a story about a couple of friends of mine and how we use to rip through the Malibu hills on our motorcycles; you see, all of us had high-tech fully raced out race bikes and we had square headlights and if you have ever ridden a motorcycle with square headlights in fast canyon sweeping corners in pitch black conditions, then you know that as you turn so to the edges of where the light goes and once you get use to it is not that big of a deal. Actually, you know it is such a rush and we had a blast doing it, but there are times when a deer could pop out on the road and you would not see it right away because of the angle of the light.

Well this happened to my friend Scott and we were behind Scott and we saw the deer, and beeped our horns. Scott had already passed the threshold and the deer jumped because it was afraid of our light and the winding sound of our race bikes, Yoshi pipes have a unique sound. Anyway, the deer's back legs hit the handlebars of Scott's motorcycle twisting them sideways and he flew forward, he was going about 40-45 mph on the turn and had just downshifted so maybe he hit the deer at 30 mph, remember it was pitch black and all this happened in a tenth of a second or so. Well one of the legs of the deer hit his helmet so hard it put a hole in it, ouch! Drain Bramage!

The deer crashed onto the pavement and rolled around and it was stunned for a second and a half and then the darn thing popped up on its feet and ran almost running into Scott who was now laying on the pavement. Scott had a lot of damage to his bike and it cost him $1200 in plastic and another $900 in other parts to fix it. Luckily, he had no personal injuries other than a sore wrist and he could not ride for two weeks or sit home and you know? Poor bum, we have never stopped teasing him about that. Scott is fine now and takes it in stride, but it could've been a lot worse. Trust me when I tell you that Deer and motorcycles to not mix. One more story of a 100 told to you digitally.

In trailering a motorcycle you must be very careful, because motorcycles bounce around and even if they do not fall down if you have more than one motorcycle on the trailer they might bump into each other and scratch the paint. And that is exactly what you do not want to have happen.

The best way I have found to strap-down motorcycles is to let a little bit of the air out of the tires once they are in place and then you have strap them as tight as possible and to ratchet down straps a little bit more. Then fill the tires back up with air while the motorcycles are on the trailer.

Now once you get to your destination and on your way home you may not be able to do the same thing but at least it will be trouble-free one-way because those straps will be as tight as possible. Sometimes on a long haul it makes sense to go to a gas station near by and use their air.

You must remember when trailering a motorcycle that the motorcycles move from front to back and they bounce up and down when the trailer goes over bumps. They also move side to side if the straps get loose. If the straps work themselves loose because they go forward and backwards than they have more latitude to bounce up and down and this is why you must tighten straps from front to back and holding them down.

And still you must remember they can move side to side. If you do not have wheel holders on your trailer you need to also consider the side-to-side movement, which many people do not do. Please be careful when trailering your motorcycle and you'll be glad you did.