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Since 2010, RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland has been reporting about motorcycling in New England and portions of New York.

Woodbury, CT Gets Fowlers USA Apparel Shop

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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

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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 …

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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 …

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“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 …

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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 …

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