From various news reports:

Wrecks: Out of 75,000 riders having a blast in the tri-state area, there were ZERO fatalities. There was one serious crash out on Needles Highway, with a patient airlifted to Vegas. Otherwise, there were of course numerous tumbles, flying dismounts, and dropped bikes, with the usual minor injuries.

Police Scores: Metro issued 600 traffic citations, 20 DUIs. They made 112 arrests. 93 of these were for petty misdemeanors. There were 10 felonies involving drugs or stolen vehicles, and 9 were busted for "gross misdemeanors" like concealed weapons. I haven't seen a report on the amount of drugs seized, if any.

One guy I talked to in Laughlin was hopping mad about a ticket from Arizona for having handlebars too high. Here's a link to the AMA's free database of U.S. motorcycle laws for future reference:

http://www.amadirectlink.com/legisltn/laws.asp

I heard two Alaskans were caught rolling a joint in an alley off Main Street in Oatman. And that is all.

Cops and Robbers: Bike theft is dying and almost extinct at the River Run. There were 27 stolen in '04 - 13 in '05 - and this year, 3. To top that, Metro recovered 8 motorcycles that were stolen or had stolen parts, and one stolen vehicle. Final: Cops 9, Robbers 3.

Besides other tactics, Metro posted "bait bike" warnings:

Inlaws and Outlaws: An item in the local paper on 4/27 reported a Las Vegas fracas between one "suspected Hells Angels member" and two "Mongols" at Industrial and Tropicana on Wednesday morning, 4/26. They say the Angel attacked the two riders with fists and then tried to get at them with a crowbar. Police say they saw "several Hells Angels" in the crowd. Names were withheld, no charges were filed. This came to the paper from Metro's Laughlin substation.

I saw only a few solitary riders wearing colors over the weekend, and didn't recognize any of the names. The only group I saw with colors were these guys:

They're cops. Does that make them "inlaws"?

Metro didn't see many outlaws, and had no incidents with them to report.

And, this last:

You might recall the "Angels vs. Mongols" cantina shootout away back in '02. Four years later, they've just begun setting trial dates for some of the 14 people accused after the smoke cleared.

Legal life can be complicated. The state's indictment had to be revised by order of the Nevada Supreme Court. One group's cases were severed from the other's. The eight alleged Angels charged are now scheduled for trial in March '07, but they're also tangled up in a separate, larger federal case against the club, which is scheduled for U.S. District Court in September '06.

That wraps it up. Hope we all have it as good or better next year - joe@gazette9.com