Rune does the 'Lawman 1000', which is a

benefit run Fetal Alcohol Syndrom and Drug Affected Infants. Its a major run held each year here in the northwest for the last 20 years. Attracts all ypes of bikes and bikers. but a healthy % of the participants are those in law enforcement and fire protection services.. Did the run with my riding buddy Ratdog, as we do just about every year. His 1999 standard valk is waiting on arrival of a universal joint so we did the run on my 2 bikes, the 2000 Tourer and the Rune of course. 404 bikes in the run this year (only one Rune). The thing about this run is: its a 2 day run... 500 miles out on day one and 500 back on day 2... they tell you the destination city and hotel/motel so you can book a room, but they don't hand out the course till you arrive at 0400 hours on satuday morning.... as ratdog said over on the Vermin website... "This year was bittersweet" 2 days of beautiful weather and awesome roads/scenery/etc. but the event was marred with 2 biker injuries and one fatality. The fatality happenned early sat morning on route 2 east of Stevens pass about 20 miles west of Levenworth. I think the deceased's name is Jack Stevens (not positive), he was a 14 year veteran of the Tukwila fire dept. riding a red and white Harley with his 13 year old grandson passenger. I know we left a Monroe gas station just shortly after he did and we passed him and his grandson as we headed up the mountain. Very near the accident site we encountered a deer that paused on the berm then bolted across the road ahead of us, we had to haul down on the brakes for a quick stop.. Evidently the accident involved a deer crossing as well, the grandson survived with broken arm, shoulder and some internal injuries and was medvac'd out, treated and released. They worked on his grandfather at the scene for a long time, to no avail. Later that day we rode up on the scene of another accident. An "older" biker (makes him about my age) caught in a heavy rain squall was wiping rain from his shield and bike drifted right to the shoulder which was unfortunately, large size loose gravel.. he corrected twice and almost kept it upright but lost it at the end. Paramedics were there when we arrived and it sounded like a broken ankle... considerable dmg to his Harley however.

This was a shakedown cruise for the Rune for the paducah run. Sure feels like a go... i spent all day in the corbin saddle on sat. Addition of 'B' bars, arlan ness mirrors. brakeaway throttle lock, Rivco hiway pegs all work to make it a Tourer, now. Gave ratdog a chance to play on the Rune today and he rode it back to Seattle from Lewiston, Idaho. If any of you know Lewiston, you may know of a short piece of road just to the north called the "spiral Highway. It the 'old' part of route 95 (now bypassed by the new hiway) leading into lewiston from the north.. road drops 2000 feet in just 4 miles.. very tight switchbacks but all banked just right, road is clean and sat eve and sun morn... completely traffic free. Couldn't have been better if it was a closed course. ran it up and down on both the tourer and the Rune... great to compare the preformance... Rune runs out of lean angle way before it starts to work hard... ends up being a real smooth twisty machine but makes you long for 'just a little more lean angle, if you please'.

Thats the news from the northwest.