UM (United Motors) Joins Motorcycle Stunt World

UM is a Miami-based powersports business that is essentially a distributor of motorcycles (street, D-P and off-road), scooters and ATVs ranging from 49cc to 650cc purchased from various manufactures (mostly Hyosung) that have been badged with the UM logo. Regardless of whos really making UM machines, they can still claim a strong presence in the industry with 600 full-line dealerships and 17 distributorships spanning much of South and Central America. A signature of UM is the bright orange color scheme found on many of its products.

In what must be an effort to raise their profile, and grow the consumer base, UM has recently teamed up with CBXManMotorcycles of Edwardsville, PA to sponsor The Close Encounters motorcycle stunt team. They ride on UM's V2S 650 V-Twin sportbike which are performance prepared by CBXManMotorcycles for all their stuntin' needs. According to UM the "bikes have performed very well for the team and the bikes have drawn rave reviews from the spectators and at competitions by the other stunt teams."

To UM's and Close Encounters credit, they're the only stunt team known to be using a bike with a V-Twin configuration.

Stan (Stosh) Kazmierski, one of the three main performers of the Close Encounters Motorcycle Stunt Team, entered the Clutch Control Stunt Riders Competition in King of Prussia, PA outside Philadelphia on September 29, 2007 and finished an impressive third overall in front of a crowd of more than 5,000 people. First and second places went to nationally sponsored riders from the West Coast, so this was quite an accomplishment for Stosh given that he has only been riding the UM 650 since mid August of this year. The event was filmed and Stosh appeared on Super Bikes on Speed Channel on October 10th riding the UM 650.

UM is proud to sponsor and be involved with this group of very talented riders, said Jose M. Villegas, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Its exciting to see them push our bikes to the limit and show off what they can do.

You can see Close Encounters gettin' crazy on their UM 650s at some regional events, and they'll be competing in Stunt Warz 2008 in Lakeland, FL on January 9-13, 2008.