By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Wasn’t this a splendid day to ride? RIDE-CT’s day started with friend Gary Randall calling to say the new battery on his 1946 Indian Chief was dead and that none of his eight bikes were capable of moving. The problem was quickly solved. Gary took …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Those rubber boots on gas pump nozzles, designed to capture vapor, are going the way of the dinosaur. The federal government announced last week that they will be phased out simply because some 70 percent of cars have systems that are designed to capture vapors. …

Check this out… A rare military-version Vespa from the 1950s is coming up for auction in Monaco this weekend and it’s quite a sight to see. Mounted on it is a U.S.-made M20 recoil-less rifle. Approximately 800 were built for the

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Ural is back in Connecticut. The Russian brand that used to be sold by Canton Cycles in Winsted before that dealership went out of business a couple of years ago has added Street Stuff Cycle in Norwich as a dealer. Street Stuff Cycle got its …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com It was a couple of weeks ago that Phil Pepper of Torrington contacted RIDE-CT seeking advice on what to do about some old bikes in his possession, including a 1977 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing that he’d parked about 10 years ago. The bike had been …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com I cannot tell a lie. A few years ago, I got a speeding ticket. A state trooper caught me doing 80-plus miles per hour on the V-Rod that I then owned on Route 63 north of Goshen. It was a bright, sunny day. Visibility was …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Motorcycles have been a part of movies as long as there have been movies, and the crop of summer movies has loads of them, beginning with “The Avengers.” Not only does Captain America ride a Harley-Davidson in “The Avengers,” there are bikes in the new …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com State troopers in New York have arrested an unlicensed, 25-year-old rider who did between 150 and 170mph on the New York Thruway – and the guy boasted that his Suzuki could easily top 190mph. Nikkolaus V. McCarthy of Charlton, NY was charged with a variety …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Rare bikes are fetching hefty prices. A 1934 Brough Superior SS100 sold at auction in Stafford, England last weekend for £242,300 (or roughly $394,000). The bike features a 75-horsepower JAP twin-cylinder engine. Only eight SS100s were made for the model year, with one of them …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The owner of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle that floated in a container from Japan to Canada following a tsunami more than a year ago has been found, and efforts are underway to restore the bike and reunite it with its owner. “The Vancouver Sun” reports that …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The Harley-Davidson had a Japanese license plate attached to the rear fender, so what was it doing on a beach on Graham Island in British Columbia? Well, the bike was inside a shipping container and the belief is that it is debris that washed across …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Willie G. Davidson, the grandson of company co-founder William A. Davidson, retires today from Harley-Davidson after a half-century of designing motorcycles. Rick Barrett of the “Journal Sentinel” in Milwaukee spoke with the 78-year-old Davidson on Saturday about his career and his accomplishments, among them the …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com It was a perfect day for riding and an upbeat destination was The Shop in Winsted – Keith Bruno’s repair and  service center which officially opened at its new location at 920 Main Street after months of haggling with local authorities. Bruno (second from right …

By Steve Smith People pursue the art of riding in different ways. Some casually glide along the boulevard or back roads, while others enjoy the adventure of dual sport and off road, carving mountainous curves of asphalt ribbons or engaging in the adrenaline pumping action of track days or racing. …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Harley-Davidson had a strong first quarter of 2012. The company released statistics on Wednesday, which showed that profits were up 44 percent. Net income rose to $172 million, or 74 cents per share, up from 119.3 million or 51 cents in 2011. Total revenue was …