Hamlin Cycles Adds Pool Room

BETHEL, CT – It’s not uncommon for motorcycle dealers and shops to sprinkle vintage motorcycles around their stores to provide a visual link to the past. For example, Doc’s Motorcycle Parts in Waterbury, CT has an elevated shelf in its building lined with splendid old bikes. North’s Services in Lenox, MA has some old bikes and so does Rocket Moto in Nashua, NH.

Hamlin Cycles, the Moto Guzzi dealer here, has come up with a new participatory amenity for riders who have their bikes in for service – a pool table.

Owner Jim Hamlin has taken an awkwardly located room on the dealership’s second floor – upstairs behind parts counter that was initially used for displays of riding gear – and has turned it into a pool room with a big-screen television. The gear is now displayed in a different room alongside parts in the warren-like facility.

Hamlin said that he had two reasons adding the pool room. “I was looking for two things – a better waiting room so that the customers that I have that come long distances have a more appealing place to hang out,” he said. Also, “I was having trouble getting people to go up the stairs to look at the merchandise. The stairs were an artificial barrier.”

The pool room is now being paneled with rough-cut pine to cover concrete block walls. “I have a lot of people who come big distances. If they have a good time while they’re paying to be here, it helps,” Hamlin said.

– By Bud Wilkinson