RIDE-CT Reports on Cliff’s and Norton

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Gathering information and writing the RIDE-CT column for “The Republican-American” every Saturday is often the best part of the week. It usually involves meeting new people and checking out cool bikes before sitting down at the laptop and leisurely tapping out something that will appeal to riders and non-riders alike. This weekend’s column is a bit different as it contains more meat – the sale of Cliff’s Cycle Revolution in Brookfield to Max BMW and an interview with the CEO of Norton’s stateside operation, who goes into detail about the plan to base its U.S. headquarters in Connecticut.

For the first half of the column, RIDE-CT went to the dealership and spoke with seller Cliff LaMotta and buyer Max Stratton. That was on Wednesday and the store was “closed for inventory.” Stratton, who owns BMW dealerships in New York and New Hampshire, had brought in several of his employees to get a count of everything on the property prior to the closing. The place looked like a tag sale the night before the scavengers arrive. Racks of gear and other items were marked with “Done” stickers. LaMotta’s upstairs office was barren except for a couple of boxes on his desk waiting to be carried out, kind of like a college dorm room on the last day of school. The atmosphere was an odd mix of urgency and melancholy. The fact that the story had to be written as a done deal before all the papers were signed because of deadline made it less enjoyable as well. 

Cliff LaMotta, left, and Max Stratton

The second half of the column is devoted to Dan Van Epps, Norton’s new U.S. boss who has high hopes for the British brand. He’s only been on the job for about six weeks, working from a home office, but is optimistic that the company’s three Commando models will find buyers when Norton rolls out in April or May. Finding Van Epps took a little digging. It was worth it. He came off as friendly, enthusiastic and smart, and the best part is that he’s a lifelong motorcyle guy.

Having two good stories in the same week and cramming as much info as possible into one column wasn’t enjoyable. RIDE-CT normally runs about 1,000 words and it would have been easy to write that much on each story individually. The result is a column that, frankly, I’m dissatisfied with because it contains less storytelling than normal.

One of the traditionally alluring aspects of covering news for reporters and columnists is knowing things in advance of the public and getting to write about them. Suffice to say that there’s another intersting news story already in the pipeline that will have to wait until the new year.