AZBIKERINFO.COM

The 10th annual Las Vegas BikeFest is scheduled Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 this year and is expected to draw more than 30,000 bikers and motorcycle enthusiasts from around the country.

The four-day national motorcycle rally includes the Artistry in Iron Masters Builders’ Championship, Mr. and Miss Las Vegas BikeFest competitions, World’s Strongest Biker Contest, Custom Bike Show and a Vendor Village featuring more than 250 booth displays.

The event is scheduled at the Cashman Center near downtown Las Vegas at 850 N. Las Vegas. Blvd.

For information, visit www.lasvegasbikefest.com

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The new season of Sons of Anarchy demonstrates the perils involved when you take characters the audience has invested in deeply and start separating them from one another. Last season, the motorcycle-club saga built a compelling subplot involving the rape, recovery, and revenge of Katey Sagal's Gemma. Gemma's strong marriage to Ron Perlman's Clay, as well as the affection she feels toward her son, Charlie Hunnam's Jax, has long been SOA's most convincing repudiation of the pop culture cliché that motorcycle gangs treat women like dirt. By the end of that season, however, Gemma was in the wind, on the lam from a murder-rap frame-up. She didn't even know the crucial fact that Jax's baby son, Abel, had been kidnapped.

That kidnapping is now the primary motivation of the new season. Almost the entire SAMCRO crew has been marshaled to help Jax locate the child, whose suspected whereabouts include Ireland. It's implied that Jax will go anywhere — even unto that boggy isle where a motorcycle might find scant solid ground — to get ''my kid back.'' In the early episodes, this feeling of scatteration and displacement slackens the tension that made last season so exciting (that, and the departure of Adam Arkin as a wonderful bad guy).

Even in exile, however, there are some fine moments. Gemma reunites with her father, played by Hal Holbrook. Stricken with an early stage of dementia, Gemma's dad is both poignant and a handful, a difficult, complicated man — you can see where she gets her stubborn, independent streak, and Sagal and Holbrook play their scenes together beautifully.

Left mostly in the dust in the episodes I've seen so far is Clay, which is an example of the separation I was talking about. Big Love hit a rough patch last season by spreading too many plots too thinly, pushing some characters to the background. Similarly, SOA now finds itself in the position of having to make an extra effort to be sure all its stars remain prominent. I mean, it's pretty likely that show creator Kurt Sutter doesn't want fans to get distracted, wondering why one of their favorites is receding from their view.

This is a challenge I hope Sons of Anarchy will meet and defeat as its season progresses. Certainly, the show is still exciting and thoughtful in the way that it disassembles many pat notions we may have of tribe loyalty, family bonds, and the treachery of the business world. Plus, Stephen King makes a nicely chilling cameo in an upcoming episode that I won't spoil by describing further. Let me just say he's as scary as any SAMCRO biker, and that's scary indeed.

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Rachel Keown has gone from rookie to record-holder.

The newly-minted motorcycle racer, who works at Harley-Davidson of Glendale, broke the speed record for a 1,000 cc motorcycle this week at the BUB Racing Inc. Motorcycle Speed Trials at Bonneville Salt Flats outside Salt Lake City.

The final results won't become official until certified by the American Motorcyclist Assn., which is expected to take place on Friday.

But Delvene Manning, the meet manager, said Tuesday that Keown reached a top average speed of more than 141 mph on a milelong run, followed by a 133 mph run.

Two back-to-back runs are averaged together to determine the speed entered into the books. Keown's effort on her first day racing topped the record set last year by Serge Martin, another Harley of Glendale rider. He had reached 137.65 miles per hour on one run and averaged 135 mph.

Keown saw that she had reached 140 mph when she started the timed one-mile portion of the five-mile sprint.

If this doesn't upset you, it should. A man is peacefully protesting on public property with a banner that Say's "Impeach Obama" and is subsequently arrested and detained. This should NOT happen in America. When we have illegal aliens protesting and burning the American flag on the grounds of the Capitol building, being protected by the law, why is the law not protecting this man! Absolutely absurd, and unconstitutional.

Dim lights

Extra police officers, sheriff's deputies and court officers provided increased security at the Yavapai County Courthouse Tuesday during early disposition court for suspects charged in the Aug. 21 shooting between the Hells Angels and Vagos motorcycle gangs in an unincorporated area northwest of Chino Valley.

During early disposition, defendants learn if there can be a non-trial resolution to a case - basically a plea agreement. If a non-trial resolution is not offered, a not-guilty plea is entered on the defendant's behalf and a date for a case management conference or preliminary hearing is set.

At 8 a.m., defense attorney Mike Shaw told Yavapai County Superior Court Judge William Kiger that his client, Robert Edward Kittredge, 36, of Prescott Valley, pled not guilty to charges of three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of felony disorderly conduct, and two counts of participating in a criminal street gang.

Shaw asked for a preliminary hearing to be set for his client, who is the only one of the nine defendants in this case who still remains in jail.

When Kiger asked if he'd received some disclosure from the prosecutor, Shaw said, "No, your honor."

Kiger asked Deputy County Attorney Kevin Schiff if there had been any disclosure or non-trial offers yet.

"No, sir," Schiff said.

Kiger then set a preliminary hearing for Kittredge for Sept. 1 at 4 p.m. in Prescott Justice Court.

Motorcyclists who swap their bikes' stock exhaust systems for so-called loud pipes may be more likely to get a traffic ticket under a California bill that passed the Senate on Monday. SB 435, also known as the Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act, gives law enforcement officials the ability to cite noise pollution violations under the California Vehicle Code, reinforcing a 27-year-old federal regulation that is rarely enforced.

Under the proposed law, motorcyclists pulled over for other traffic violations could also be cited for illegally noisy exhaust pipes and fined $50 to $100 for a first violation -- a fix-it ticket that could be dismissed with a proof of correction. Subsequent offenses would result in fines of $100 to $250. The bill, which has also passed the Assembly, is headed for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign. It would apply to motorcycles and after-market parts from the 2013 model year forward.

"The noise pollution caused by illegally modified motorcycle exhaust systems is a major quality of life issue across the state," SB 435's author, Sen. Fran Pavely (D-Santa Monica), said in a news release issued Monday. "Basic common sense and decency dictates that when a motorcycle drives by and sets off every car alarm on the street, that is too loud.

[Updated on Wednesday, 9:45 a.m.: The Motorcycle Industry Council, the Irvine-based trade association that represents motorcycle manufacturers and parts suppliers, opposes SB 435.

NEW YORK — Harley-Davidson Inc.'s main ad agency for more than three decades has dropped the struggling motorcycle maker in favor of new business.

Ad agency Carmichael Lynch, a unit of Interpublic Group, said many factors went into the decision, including the fact that the Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker has slashed its marketing spending in recent years amid slumping sales.

Carmichael Lynch President Doug Spong said Harley-Davidson was also never a big spender on traditional advertising.

According to Kantar Media, Harley-Davidson spent about $11 million on television ads and other measured media last year, half its spending from 2007.

"It got to the point where we no longer felt we could take that brand forward," Spong said.