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Verucci has introduced their lasted 150cc scooter as the Viper 150 Turbo SE. With a look of a touring motorcycle like a Honda Goldwing the Viper Turbo will catch your and fool you as not believing this could be a scooter. With speed of 65mph that has you keeping up with all traffic plus the benefits of 60 to 80mpg is a real gas savings that you can bank on. Ridding scooters has become a way of life for many people being squeezed with the soaring gas prices since hurricane Katrina.

With more riders every year buying scooters it’s not just for one gender. More and more women are picking up on the scooter craze for fun and saving gas. Replacing the second car for running errands has become a main stay for women. A big reason for this is you sit on a scooter rather than straddle like a motorcycle. With TV ads using scooters to sell their wares with a pink scooter ridden by a pretty girl this just sets in motion the emotions needed for a scooter purchase. With a pink scooter you can really make an impression and some sites cater just to the female scooter rider.

If you are consider a scooter purchase there are some choices for you with the newer styles being added late in 2005. The very popular Retro styles and the 150cc scooters seem to lead the pack in terms of sales. The Euro style holds its own always with the most sales. The 150cc scooters are picking up once consumers realized the benefits of the added power for speed you get with a larger scooter.

Michael Milstead owner of http://scootertronics.com has seen scooter sales rise in the wake of soaring gas prices and more women riders taking to the streets.

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Initially I was blind sided by Alpine daisies and Digitalis (foxglove) passing themselves off as wildflowers, much less the other fabulous scenery on the North Cascades Highway, and then they showed up again. I turned the tables on them though and made a pass. I don’t commonly make passes at bikers, but in this case, it was a must. I went around them. Bikers. The non-motorized kind.

I hit the brake often for resting bicyclers and continued searching, as I drove, for the perfect shot of wildflowers. My “kill two birds with one stone” mentality needed Ross Lake as a backdrop.

I ducked out of traffic last spring when I got off the ferry and dipped onto South Chuckanut Drive. For approximately twenty-five miles I was in another world with narrow, winding roads under a canopy of trees and there I wanted to stay. I passed under Highway 5 near exit 231, hung a right onto Burlington Boulevard and left on Avon Avenue (Highway 20), headed east, back to Colorado. No traffic, feeling a bit lost even with a map, another sixty miles and I slowed down even more. I was in the Cascades.

My mind filled with a flash of Concretia from the Flintstones movie along the way, when I passed through the town of Concrete. There is not much to it but history, folklore and a garish cement stack with bold lettering no one can miss. Concrete sits below Baker Dam and the base of Lake Shannon. The bikers were beginning to add up as I passed more and drove another twenty-six miles, through Marblemount, climbing, climbing. Gorge Dam and its long, narrow Gorge Lake, then Diablo Dam created more than fifty-years ago, and Diablo Lake, and further on and above, Ross Lake, all a sparkle of deep blue.

A labor of love goes into building our roadways so travelers like me can see the grandeur of our country. North Cascades Highway was completed in1972 after twelve years. Down one particularly steep grade around a switchback the view of Ross Lake takes your breath away. It spans into Canada for a mile and a half. Access is only available on the U.S. side.

Six passes on and around this route reach elevations between 4,000 to 5,500 feet. Sherman Pass is the highest, followed by North Cascade, Loup Loup, Wauconda, Rainy, and Washington. Passes are monitored for weather changes, but expect Loup Loup Pass to remain open year round. Like Ross Lake, Loup Loup Pass goes into Canada. From Marblemount to the end of the Cascades on this highway fifty-six more miles awaited as I continued to dodge bikers.

I recommend springtime travel, more tourists and travelers flock here in the summer. Mid-April through late June is the time to reduce distractions, catch craggy peaks, and glimpses of passing wildflowers, but watch the road, too. Bicycling is a springtime fancy that brings hoards of them into the mountains. They do what they do for more than exercise and health. Funding good causes comes into play.

Covered with Douglas fir, many of the surrounding peaks, such as Liberty Bell Mountain, Ruby Mountain, and Early Winters Spires tower in the high 7,000 elevation range. My first time in northwestern Washington and writings stating European images came to light. It is truly awesome. Bicyclists benefit from unobstructed views and find safety quickly even from wild drivers like myself.

The humid side of Washington was about to end when Dry Falls appeared. The eastern leg of northern Washington is dry, flat, agricultural land stirred up by high winds that creates “dust devils”. They are ultra-mini tornadoes that whip the land into some sort of shape. The foreboding look of three or more can be seen at any given time throwing a fit on the horizon blending yellow, brown dust with cerulean blue sky.

According to Washington State Parks, Dry Falls is one of North America’s geological wonders. Dry Falls is a cliff over three miles long and 400 foot high and was once ten times larger than Niagara. The Colombia River used to rush through here.

On one free-fall, in neutral down a steep, winding grade on the North Cascades Highway, there they were. And again, when I rounded a corner at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park, and once again before I crossed into Idaho. Still headed eastbound on Highway 20 just leaving Coulee City headed to Spokane, on the flat, dry plains, faces of the bikers were becoming recognizable. I filled up every two hundred miles or so from Washington to Colorado and began to think my speedometer was broken because the same bikers were everywhere I was. Were they following me? My curiosity was piqued, because I just couldn’t shake them all the way through Washington.

I began to hallucinate seeing bikers in Montana, thinking, they were still following me. So, here it was ten o’clock at night, I pulled off at a state campground, plopped ten dollars in an envelope, pitched my tent, and dreamed of bikers.

This link covers a bike tour that lasted 71 days and 4,224 miles starting at Anacortes, Washington and ending in Bar Harbor, Maine.
http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2004/06/10/recreation/rec01.prt

True account of one of the bikers who took the Washington route.
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/ncascade.html

Interested in biking across the entire United States contact:
http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/bikeaid/welcome.html
http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_WebPages/statebicycletoursRW.html

Washington State only:
http://www.cascade.org/EandR/raw/index.cfm

http://www.redspoke.org/day1.htm

One to Mt. St. Helens?:
http://www.tourdeblast.com/

Linda’s writing appears in From Eulogy to Joy, Beischel, Xlibris Press, 2000, http://www.Bootsnall.com, http://www.scribequill.com, and http://www.ezinearticles.com She loves to travel, write, design, decorate, and paint. Linda studied writing through Long Ridge Writers Group in Connecticut, journalism at MSCD, Denver, and painting at the Art Academy in Loveland, Colorado, USA.

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Of the many superb Arizona mountain biking areas, Sedona - approximately 80 miles North of Phoenix - is destined to become a major attraction for bikers.

While still relatively undiscovered and uncrowded, it offers spectacular biking trails for novices and experienced riders alike.

Although, at an altitude 4500 feet, Sedona is free of the severe desert heat of southern Arizona, it is wise to do you biking in the early morning. No Arizona mountain biking trail should be attempted without carrying plenty of water. Sedona also escapes the northern mountain snows, making it ideal for mountain biking.

Sedona is located at the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon, and at the center of the legendary Red Rock Country. This unique blend of mountain and desert offers Arizona mountain biking scenery at its best!

There are a number of informative Arizona mountain biking books available to serve as your guide to trails, lodgings, restaurants, and shopping. One of the most popular is ‘Experience Sedona’. Finding a detailed map of the area should be at the top of your list when you arrive.

If you are new to the sport, and to Arizona mountain biking in particular, guided tours offer a safe learning experience. Make your reservation, and you will soon be more knowledgeable about the environment, and your biking performance. The main advantage is that you will be able to concentrate on enjoying your ride, knowing that your guide is familiar with the intricacies of the surroundings.

Arizona mountain biking tours are designed around premier trails, with packages including rides from 2 to 6 hours, and a rental bike. A half day tour may take you to Bell Rock Pathway, Cathedral Rock Loop or Schnebley Hill, and Munds Wagon.

If you prefer to discover the secrets of Sedona on your own, you can take a leisurely ride through the Ponderosa Pine forests. If you want more excitement, tackle the steep switchbacks and the slickrock single tracks, all the while enjoying the breath-taking views and incredible scenery of the Red Rock basins. You will discover that a camera is a must on all Arizona mountain biking trails!

A popular trail in this beautiful Arizona mountain biking area is the Bell Rock Pathway. The ride along rolling terrain is excellent for beginners, but also offers more experienced riders the challenge of the many intersections crossing the trail. There is enough technical difficulty to necessitate some walking!

You can also visit the Red Rock State Park, 5 miles west of Sedona, with its diverse wildlife and vegetation that turns a bike ride into something special. This is one the Arizona mountain biking must-see regions.

If you are a fairly experienced mountain biker, you can try the Broken Arrow trail which starts just 1.5 miles from downtown Sedona.

This Arizona mountain biking trail leads into some of the most scenic basins in the area, with views of features such as Submarine Rock, Twine Buttes, and Gibraltar. It links up with the Little Horse trail, and later goes on to the Bell Rock Pathway.

Most of the Broken Arrow trail is hard-packed and fast, with some sandstone sections giving excellent traction. While there isn’t much climbing, some of the short, steep sections will remind you that you are on an Arizona mountain biking route!

Good quality rental bikes are available in Sedona, as well as parts, accessories, and clothing. With your rental, you can expect to get a helmet, pump, repair kit, spare tube, choice of pedals, and a personalized fit. Everything is geared to make your Arizona mountain biking experience memorable.

Bike choices include the Specialized Enduro Expert Demo Bike, the Giant Reign Demo Bike, and the Giant Iguana. Rental fees are between $30 and $70 per day, depending on the period of use.

The U.S. Forest Service recommends a number of other trails in the Sedona area, as part of your Arizona mountain biking experience. These include Big Park Loop, Caruth Trail, Red Rock State Park, Girdner Trail, and Baldwin Trail. The trails are all in the easy to moderate range. The Dead Horse State Park Trail offers easy to strenuous riding.

Arizona mountain biking offerings are rich and varied. Whichever trail you choose, you are sure to be returning for more!

For more information visit Best-Mountain-Biking.com

Rika Susan of http://www.Article-Alert.com researches, writes, and publishes full-time on the Web. Copyright of this article: 2006 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box - including the link - is left intact.

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The perfect ride, I’m not talking about winning, the perfect ride is something else, something more. It’s when everything works. Your equipment works perfectly, your technique is effortless and efficient and every part of your body performs optimally. You feel invincible. Instead of dreading the pain caused by the next steep, long climb or the tortouress pace required to reel in the break-away, you welcome, yes even impatiently search for the next moment of hard effort so that you can pour some of that strength into it. And when the moment arrives, at the base of the climb or when the group forms into single file and the pace quickens, you feel as though you are powered by some invisible force with unlimited energy. You think to yourself, that now, now you are going to show your opponents, now they will experience the real feeling of pain and suffering. As you peak the climb, instead of resting a bit, you switch into that monster gear and spin it like you’ve never done before. You feel that you are recovering from the effort of the climb much quicker then usual. Even on the decent you are taking chances, no playing it safe today. With all this extra energy and power comes the feeling of being invincible. Nothing can go wrong today, today you are going to steal time both uphill and downhill.

You simply cannot seem to be able to find a use for all that energy. These days are rare, very rare. Maybe once a season, sometimes even less. Maybe a few times during training. The perfect ride starts before you even get on the bike. It starts with the previous night’s sleep. You have no problems sleeping, no tossing and turning, no worrying about the race. Just a deep, calm sleep. You awake with lots of energy, before the alarm-clock goes off. You get out of bed, you try to feel the body, the legs, as you dress. You wonder, is this the day? Is this the day when everything will work? The legs feel good, very good. Everything is ready for the race, all your equipment has been prepared the day before, including dry clothes to get into after the race. You know that it’s crucial to avoid spending energy on useless things today. You want to bottle up all the energy and reserve it for the event that is going to take place 4 hours from now. You eat your breakfast quietly today, avoiding anything that is not crucial for the race. A big bowl of oatmeal, a couple of bananas and the glass of orange juice goes down fine. One cup of coffee finishes the morning ritual and wakes you up, gives you that little bit of “extra”. You prepare your after-race recovery meal, making sure it’s ready as soon as you get off the bike. You arrive in the start area about 2 hours before start-time. You are focused, getting ready mentally. You check the equipment again, is it all ready? You arrange for the recovery meal and dry, warm clothes to be ready at the finish area.

This is what you have been working for, all those training hours. Those long, hard winter rides. All the hard work, it accumulates in today’s event. Usually this “pressure” would cause negative feelings, but not today. Today you are focused, calm and clear. Today you want to show them all. Today is your day. You can feel it already. Is the day? Will this be the perfect ride? You warm up, the feeling as your feet hit the floor this morning is still there. The legs feel good, very good. But you are cautious, you have felt like this before. You know that you very well could feel super now, only to discover that your legs are full of lead after 3 hours of racing. You tell yourself to be conservative, realistic. Stay focused, do not celebrate the victory before the race has even started. You know that it’s extremely important to directly all your energy and strength towards something positive. Happy thoughts, man, happy thoughts. The sweat starts to drip from your face, legs spinning effortlessly and fast. You are getting warm, the body is responding well during the warm-up. Finally, the time has come. The race starts, as usual, it starts fairly slow as we pull out of town. Riders chatting, exchanging stories, alliances are being forged, only to be broken 1 hour from now. Welcome to the peleton. As the race progress, you feel that this is the day! You recognize the feeling of the perfect ride. This is your day.

I am a full-time endurance athlete, working towards the 2012 London Olympics. I maintain a blog, describing my ups and downs of training / racing.
http://roadrace1.blogspot.com

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So you want to be a custom bike builder? Well friend, before you rush out and buy that motorcycle kit, the one that will set you on the road to riches and fame, stop and think about the level of expertise and artistry the top builders have attained. More importantly think about how long it has taken them to attain it! Let’s look at a few key issues…

Education

You’d be surprised how well educated a lot of today’s top bike builders are. Several of them have degrees (some more than one!) ranging from mechanical engineering to business and marketing management. Billy Lane, the founder of Chopper Inc, has several patents relating to motorcycle technology in his name for example. What about someone a little more “old school” like Dave Perewitz? Dave has accumulated close to forty years of mechanical, metalworking and painting experience. Not theoretical, but genuine hands on, early morning late night kind of experience. Could you put that kind of time in? Matt Hotch is still only young, but has gained an incredible amount of practical experience customizing first bicycles, then VW’s before moving on to custom bike building.

Facilities

These guys are building choppers and custom bikes that are state of the art. They don’t get thrown together in the yard; the motorcycle shops have all the tools and equipment required to produce almost anything out of metal, not just bikes. Just as important are the other services these builders use; the local chrome platers, machinists, painters and so on. These guys have just as important a part to play in the construction of these one off bikes as the designer builders themselves.

Desire

All the top custom bike builders live for one thing; building the best bikes they can. They literally live eat even dream about custom bikes (and looking at some of the more way out creations you can totally believe this from the designs they produce!) They are constantly striving to build bikes better. Its not about money for the top guys, I am convinced of that.

So where does that leave Average Joes like you and me? Actually, I don’t think we are too badly off; in fact if you want to build a custom bike, it has probably never been easier. Here’s my take on it….

Education

There is an unbelievable amount of information for the guys who want to start down the road to custom bike building. Videos, books websites, all of them help to flatten the learning curve for a novice. Most of the material out there relates to motorcycle kits, and for the beginner, building a motorcycle kit is definitely the best way to go if you want to get real hands on experience. After that there are motorcycle maintenance courses, which again will allow you to get up to speed as fast as possible in your quest to become the next Arlen Ness!

Facilities

To put together a shop like the ones you see on television costs thousands of dollars. But you don’t need all that stuff if you start with a motorcycle kit. Motorcycle kits can be put together with some pretty basic tools, providing they are of good quality. Two things that are an absolute must in my opinion though are a torque wrench and a basic lift. With these two tools, you can tighten the motorcycle kits fittings correctly, and not break your back while you are doing it!

Desire

Well this is one area where you can match the pros, no question. If you really want to be a custom bike builder, start doing it for fun and put your motorcycle kit together.

We can’t all be Billy Lane, Eddie Trotta or Russell Mitchell, but we can have a lot of fun trying!

Michael Holmes is a enthusiast for all thing motorcycle. His website, http://www.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com, is a great resource of articles aimed at motorcyclists of all levels, including a page specifically about the motorcycle kits resources available online.

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If you are one who loves motorcycles you might consider starting a small business that has to do with motorcycle detailing. You can run this business from your home and put all the equipment you need inside of a trailer, a van or the back of a pickup truck and then travel to the customer’s home or business to detailer their motorcycles.

It is amazing how much people will pay you to detailer motorcycles. Many people have invested 20 and $30,000 in their Harley Davidson’s. The best way to get motorcycle detailing customers is to go down to the local Harley Davidson shop and asked them if you could put a few flyers on their counter and ask the person in the motorcycle shop if they will spread your name around. If you do a good job they will continue to refer you and so will the people whose motorcycles you have detailed.

Sometimes Harley Davidson dealers take in trades and they might call you to detail those trade-ins so they can put them inside the showroom. Detailing high-end motorcycles can be there are rewarded and you could meet some really exceptional people. You would be surprised how many wealthy individuals, business owners and entertainers ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

I have been in the auto detailing business for over 27 years, I am not want to drop names, but let’s just say that I have got to work for some very influential people in this country and some of the top stars too. If you love motorcycles and want to start a business of your own, then maybe you should consider motorcycle detailing as your next venture. Consider this 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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The bad thing about elliptical machines is that while working out the workout is so easy it is very easy to overdo your workout. You must remember to stretch before each and every exercise. Remember to wind down or cool down after all exercises as well. This will further reduce the risks of injury. You should keep your heart levels up to the level recommended by your physician. Refrain from letting your heart levels go about that recommended amount. There machines usually cost from three hundred dollars to five thousand dollars. It is very difficult to find the correct machine since there are so many different brands and models to choose from.

When browsing through elliptical training machines there are a few things you should keep in mind. Your budget is the most important follow be the space available in your home. Your budget will be the main factor at play here though. Just because you buy the most expensive machine it doesn’t mean that you will burn more calories. The fact of the matter is that it takes constant work and dedication to loose weight or become more health. You must maintain a healthy diet as well. Many machines can be assembled and disassembled easily. Some can be even folded and stored easily in small areas. This is idea if you have very little room in your home.

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