Hill Country

CHESTER, VT – I’ve only got about 1,400 miles on the three-wheeled Can-Am Ryker Ace 900 that I bought last year. That’s not a lot of mileage, and I am still learning how to ride it.  Fortunately, one of my very best friends is a Motorcycle Safety Foundation-certified instructor who …

Decisions, decisions. I had a choice to make over the weekend and I knew a wise decision was needed. I could have gone out to my garage, fired up my Triumph Bonneville and taken a ride in some glorious weather. Or, I could have taken a seven-mile trip to my …

CHESTER, VT – It’s a place that I’ve dreamed of even though the name of it might elicit more of a nightmare – the COVID-19 Motorcycle Shop. It is not a place out of a Hieronymous Bosch painting. In truth, it is beyond pleasant. It is more a post-COVID biker …

CHESTER, VT – The dead of winter, the start of the new year, and I’m sitting here daydreaming about … motorcycles.  I’ve got three motorcycles in the garage next to my house. I’ve got another motorcycle in a garage that I have seven miles away. I don’t usually think about …

By Arlo Mudgett/Hill Country columnist Are you one of those people who can handle two or three things at a time? My fiancee is one of those people. She could be backing up my truck with two whining grandkids in the back seat and with the radio blasting while her …

CHESTER, VT – I haven’t ridden any of my motorcycles much in the past couple of years. Maybe two or three thousand miles. The downside is that being a competent motorcyclist requires that you keep your skills sharp. The only way you can do that is by riding a motorcycle. …

CHESTER, VT – There have been plenty of years when my riding season began back in March. Sound silly? Well, when I was a young married man with one car and a child on the way, having a motorcycle was often a Godsend. If I dressed properly, I could make …

CHESTER, VT – It’s always been about freedom. The new generation of motorcyclists are the ones that will see the greatest transition in motorcycling history. For so many good reasons, motorcycles are changing, and 2019 marks some milestones for those changes.  One of the more significant milestones is Harley-Davidson’s introduction of …

CHESTER, VT – Might as well come out and say it: It was a lousy riding season for me. Either my criteria for a good riding day has changed or it was truly a crappy riding season because of the weather.  I am ashamed of how little I rode my motorcycle …

CHESTER, VT – It may have been around 2004 when I made (for me) a rather predictable purchase a brand new four-wheel-drive ATV with a winch and a plow. I figured that I could justify the purchase just for the snow plow attachment. I used the ATV for a while, learned …

CHESTER, VT – When I bought a BMW motorcycle, it was like stepping into another culture. I quickly discovered that BMW motorcycle riders are a unique breed. When I attended my first BMW Motorcycle Owners of America (BMW MOA) rally, I met a lot of intense motorcyclists. Many of them …

CHESTER, VT – When I throw my right leg over the saddle and settle in for a ride on my motorcycle I’m suddenly in a completely different world. It’s a place where the risks are greater, where you need to bring a level of concentration based on situational awareness. Riding focuses …

CHESTER, VT – Back in the 1990s, I was at the big BMW MOA (BMW Motorcycle Owners of America) motorcycle rally in Moodus, CT when I overheard a woman declare that her butt was busted after riding from the Midwest to New England. We were standing in front of the Corbin …

CHESTER, VT – I’ve always been fascinated by cyclecars. What are they? Here’s a very loose history: Cyclecars first became popular in 1910. They were lightweight vehicles with small, motorcycle engines and minimal bodies. The most common configuration was a V-twin engine mounted in front between two steerable wheels with …

CHESTER, VT – No, this isn’t about me having some kind of vision, or about some psychic that I employed to interpret it. Not even close. This is about the creative process. It actually stems from the rather arrogant assumption (on my part) that I can do it, or have …