Ride CT & Ride New England Serving New England, NYC and The Hudson Valley!
Here goes with more Oil Drippings: News and Opinion as well as links to stories from elsewhere.
– What gives with Hamlin Cycles in Bethel, CT? It opened last April and became a Moto Guzzi dealer more than three months ago, but its bare-bones, amateurish website gives the impression of an apathetic business.
Aside from a Moto Guzzi logo buried in an afterthought fashion at the bottom of some pages, you’d never know it sells the Italian brand.
There are no active pages for new or used bikes and no substantive information on the dealership whatsoever.
If the purpose of a website is to make a first impression, Hamlin Cycles’ website makes a bad one.
– Is Royal Enfield on the verge of becoming a bigger deal outside of India? That’s the impression based on recent news nuggets. First came the news that it outsold Harley-
Davidson last year. Then came word that it to open a technology center in Leicestershire, England.
Add to that the hiring of former Ducati designer Pierre Terblanche and former Triumph guy Simon Warburton and it looks like Royal Enfield is looking at some serious model expansion.
In fact, VisorDown now reports that the company is working on a parallel twin engine, possibly in the 750cc range, for 2016.
Meanwhile, IndianCarsBikes.com reports that Royal Enfield has trademarked the name Himalayan in Europe for perhaps a 400cc adventure bike. Here’s what that website imagines it might look like:
On the subject of out of date websites, the website for Royal Enfield’s U.S. distributor, Classic Motorworks, is still bragging about “All New Pricing in 2014” and touting “The New 2014 Continental GT.” It’s 2015, folks.
– If you’re not doing anything two weeks from today and feel like taking a drive, our Bob Rosen has a tip – a motorcycle show at
Martin Moto in Boyertown, PA.
The fifth annual The Modern Classics Show will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 7 and will feature more than 100 bikes from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Admission is $8. Kids under 12 are free.
– Victory has announced that it will introduce a version of its Magnum model dubbed the Magnum X-1 at Daytona Beach Bike Week. The unveiling will be 9 p.m. March 7 at the Full Moon Saloon and the company declares that “Sound Is No Barrier” with the new bike.
Posters on Victory Forums.com are speculating that the X-1 will have a better sound system or different pipes.
– Finally the Daily Mail had a story this week on the rise of women riders in the U.K. over the age of 60. The newspaper quotes Karen Cole, director of the Motorcycle Industry Association, as saying that of all the over-50s getting licensed in 2013, nearly half were women.
