WOODBURY, CT – A new store on Route 6 featuring motorcycle apparel and accessories quietly opened for business on Tuesday. Fowlers USA offers riding jackets and pants, gloves and other gear, and is owned by Sasha Fowler-LeBlanc and her husband, Todd LeBlanc. The retail business may be new, but its …
Read More »Remembering William B. Johnson
SOMERS, NY – The setting is an outlaw motorcycle race in the 1920s, depicted near the end of the Discovery Channel miniseries “Harley and the Davidsons,” and it’s where Harley-Davidson makes history. Not only is the race the first time its legendary “Knucklehead” engine gets tested competitively, but the scene also …
Read More »Royal Enfield Puts Down Roots
MILWAUKEE – India-based Royal Enfield put down some roots over the weekend by opening a North American headquarters and flagship store at
Read More »Big Ratings For “Harley” Miniseries
LOS ANGELES – “Harley and the Davidsons” was a hit for the Discovery Channel last week. The three-part, six-hour miniseries about the founding and early years of Harley-Davidson was “the most-watched
Read More »Furor Erupts At CT United Ride
NEW HAVEN – The CT United Ride, which bills itself as “CT’s largest annual 9/11 tribute,” is being lambasted today by a local motorcycle dealer and by Slingshot owners who charge discrimination in the treatment of a group that wanted to participate in the 15th annual charity ride on Sunday …
Read More »Fiery Start To Motorcycle Cannonball
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – A bike dream coming true for Motorcycle Cannonball rider John Pfeifer of Houston, TX was quickly shattered Saturday when the 1916 Harley-Davidson that he was riding was destroyed by fire. Pfeifer was unhurt, although
Read More »“Longmire” Solves Sturgis Mystery
Craig Johnson is a best-selling author and a motorcycle enthusiast. His “Longmire” mysteries about a Wyoming sheriff have sold more than 1.5 million copies and been turned into a television series that shifts from the A&E cable network to the Netflix streaming service
Read More »Is “Harley and the Davidsons” Accurate?
Is “Harley and the Davidsons” accurate? My answer to those folks inquiring today following last night’s premiere of part one of the three-parter is probably somewhere between
Read More »Who’s To Blame? Trucker Got Ticket
WINDSOR LOCKS, CT – Riding on a divided highway is supposed to be safer than riding anywhere else. No one can pull out from a side street and an oncoming vehicle can’t drift across the center line. That doesn’t mean accidents can’t happen – as a Connecticut state trooper discovered …
Read More »Rooting For Crystal Palace
HARWINTON, Conn. – It was hard to tell if the kit-wearing Crystal Palace fan inside the Tir Na Nog pub in downtown Philadelphia was inebriated, merely enthused or both in offering his earnest assessment that what makes the Eagles so appealing is that it’s
Read More »Harley-Davidson Plans Layoffs
MILWAUKEE – Layoffs are coming to Harley-Davidson with some 200 jobs being cut at U.S. plants. Workers at the factory in Springettsbury Township in Pennsylvania were notified at a meeting Wednesday with the local union reporting that 117 full and part-time positions will be lost. The layoffs will begin in …
Read More »Brookfield Indian Now Open
UPDATE: Having received its certificate of occupancy, Brookfield Indian Motorcycle is now open.
Read More »Dodgin’ Trolleys In East Haven, CT
EAST HAVEN, CT – Times change and so do the hazards faced by motorcycle riders. A big worry for us these days are inattentive drivers who text. While I haven’t inquired of any old-time riders, I’m guessing that decades ago trolley cars and the tracks embedded in the roadway were …
Read More »“Harley” Miniseries Has NY Link
SOMERS, NY – Harley-Davidson may have been founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, but an interesting element in the company’s history can be traced to Somers, which west of I-684 in Westchester County. That’s where William B. Johnson had the first Harley-Davidson dealership owned by an African-American. Johnson opened the franchise in …
Read More »Thailand Pushes For Motorcycle Growth
BANGKOK, THAILAND – Motorcyclists tend to associate brands with countries; Harley-Davidson with the United States, BMW with Germany, Ducati with Italy, Triumph with England, and Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha with Japan. But those same riders may not realize that seven of those manufacturers build bikes in Thailand, the exception …
Read More »