Seattle International Motorcycle show

I've been bad about posting over the past week. Call it holiday angst or just lazy.

This past weekend the International Motorcycle show came to Seattle. This was my first year so I had nothing to compare it to. Many of my fellow riders tell me it was much smaller this year. That's too bad but obviously due to the economy. Word out is that many of the small vendors couldn't afford a booth this year.

I met up with some members from my Motorcycle Meetup.com group on a cold 24 degree Saturday morning at a nearby Starbucks. Fortunately, all of us had dressed appropriately. Armed with my heated gear plugged in I was ready to roll.

The ride over was sunny. When we got to the venue motorcycle parking was right in front and free…as it should be! There were enough bikes to gaze upon and enjoy in the parking area. To my surprise the event organizers made allowances for rider's gear by having a "Gear Check" area, smart!

Now personally I thought the show had a lot to see. At least two hours worth. From cruisers to sports bikes and even some tricked out scooters (see below in the pics). Got to see the new VROD Muscle, very nice if you are going for that sporty look. Lots of choppers which I love. I entered multiple contests to try and win one of those choppers, fingers and toes crossed, but I’ll just probably wind up with a ton of spam from Progressive and Allstate agents who hosted the giveaways.

One specifically interesting booth was set within the Harley show area. Basically this company sells a variety of handlebars. But what they did was take a Harley and modify it so that they could switch out handle bars with brakes, clutch, and mirrors attached very easily. Slide in the new bars, sit on the bike and see what feels most comfortable. I thought that was a smart concept. Now I wish they had different bikes models to see the differences.

The show was well worth the $12 I paid to get in. I'll be back next year because what else are you gonna do in the winter time?

Fury

The new Harley VROD Muscle

This is a scooter, yep looks like a bike but it's not. Go Girl!

Harley Fags

Ok, so I guess I wasn't the first person to come up with Fag On A Harley. It seems South Park the cartoon had a whole show dedicated to this topic. Who knew?

Check out a clip of the video on my right side bar.

Pretty funny!

And then there was Insurance!

Insurance is a necessary pain. But I always feel like I'm getting taken advantage of in the fine print and backend fees.

So I decided when I got the new Harley I'd shop around. My insurance company is State Farm but when I asked them what kind of deal I could get they told me they didn't give deals for motorcycles even though I have my house, my car, my two bikes with them. Nothing like treating your loyal customers like trash.

So I called around first to Progressive,  then to AllState and even an Insurance broker but none could give me a better deal. Now State Farm charges by the size of the engine. My bikes are pretty big, the Honday is 1800cc and the Harley 96 cubes which translates to about 1500cc.

Last on my list was Gieco. They came in just on the bikes a whopping $200 cheaper for the year. Wow! So I decided to move my bikes over. Now on my car I was paying around $150 per month at State Farm. So with the bikes I was at around $275 per month. The concern I had with switching my car was that 3 years ago I had an accident and sadly it was deemed my fault, though personally I don't agree, but I won't get into that. I didn't think I could get a better deal.

State Farm hadn't dropped the accident from my premiums but when asked, Gieco would and so I went from $150 at Statefarm to $103 at Gieco. Total for car and bikes at Gico wound up being $216 per month. Very nice!

I promptly called State Farm and cancelled my insurance for those three vehicles. It happened to be on the day they pull from my account and so they couldn't stop that. When I did get the check back I was short $25. They claim that they weight their motorcycle insurance higher in the summer and so you pay more then, hence the less funds. Sounds shifty to me.

Now State Farm said that if I came back in 39 days, (yeah weird number but they say thats the only way insurance companies can ignore past driving history and treat you as a new customer. State law or something) then the accident would fall off and my premiums would be cheaper but probably couldn't beat Gieco. Days later State Farm calls back and lo and behold they tell me they can get me my insurance down for all three vehicles to $150 per month if I come back in 39 days.

Do I go back? What if they decide to raise it in a year? We'll see in 39 days!