The winter is slowly beginning to depart. You’re anxious to be able to get out for the first ride. It may have been six months since the last time you rode, so for this edition of Safe Riding let’s consider a simple, three-part preparation checklist: Bike, gear, and attitude. Some …
Read More »BMW Recall To Be Headache For Dealers
If the service person at your local BMW dealer is smiling just a little less these days, there’s a good reason. That’s because BMW’s recent recall announcement will likely cause a host of headaches for both dealers and riders in the weeks to come. The 43,426 bikes recalled in the …
Read More »Two Montesa Basket Cases Get Rescued
The email from Bjorn “Bob” Bagn that arrived on Jan. 6 instantly caught my attention. The subject line revealed that he was offering two Montesa basket cases as freebies. “Little by little, ‘galloping geriatrics’ has caught up with me,” he explained. “With two metal knees, and at 84 years, I …
Read More »News Outlets Share Bogus “Gang” Story
(Update: Jillian B. Stickels of the FBI responded this morning (3/26), confirming that the story is a hoax and noting that the faux story is already included on the debunking website Snopes.com, which says it first appeared on a satirical site called National Report. And, also as of this morning, …
Read More »Counting The Days Until Spring…
What can be said about this winter that hasn’t already been said; usually with four-letter words? After popping the bead on one of the tires of my snow blower last weekend, I had a particularly colorful combination of bon mots running through my head. Suffice to say that winter needs …
Read More »Marriott Rates Gouge Daytona Beach Bikers
Call me suspicious, but I just had to wonder about the press release issued Tuesday by Daytona Beach Marriott Hotels that bragged, “Bikers heading to Daytona Beach Bike Week this year will find rates worth getting revved up (emphasis added) for at Courtyard Daytona Beach Speedway/Airport and Residence Inn Daytona Speedway/Airport.” …
Read More »New England Air Museum Made Correct Call
In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea – mixing a staid, military-skewed vintage aircraft museum and a leather-clad motorcycle club whose violent name can be misconstrued or viewed as offensive by
Read More »Dealer Perspective: Thinking Small
In a previous column, I reviewed the various ways that dealers can grow their businesses. One way is by offering more and different products for sale, and manufacturers are starting to help in this area.
Read More »New Year Begins In Frenetic Fashion
An early episode of the television series “Law & Order” had detectives Lennie Briscoe and Mike Logan tackling a heavy caseload that included five unrelated murders and a domestic quarrel in a 24-hour period. Appropriately, the episode was titled “Mayhem.” It came to mind earlier this week when contemplating today’s …
Read More »Dealer Perspective: Growing The Business
Just like any business, motorcycle dealerships are constantly looking at ways to boost sales. New revenue can help fuel expansion or simply replace monies lost over time as customers change their buying habits.
Read More »Is This Justice? No Jail Time For Rider’s Death
Sipping my Sunday morning coffee a few moments ago while sitting at my laptop, I made a routine visit to the state’s Judicial Branch website to see if there was any change in the status of the case related to my riding mate and friend Gary Randall, who died from
Read More »Moto Guzzi Added To Stable
When the best time to buy a motorcycle? The answer to that question has become something of a cliche because “when you see it” seems, at least on the surface, to be just too simple of a response. It’s a sound reason, though, that took me more than 10 years …
Read More »Safe Riding: Thoughts On Group Riding
Motorcycle riding is mostly a solo (or solo and pillion) activity. However, when we ride in a group of two or more motorcycles, the other riders can have positive or negative effect on each other’s overall experience. Not too long ago I was reading a lengthy online discussion among touring …
Read More »Five Rider Resolutions for 2015
Did you make a resolution (or resolutions) a year ago at this time? If you did, how’d you fare? Exceptional or exceptionally poor? In a column last Dec. 30, I vowed to literally take more unexpected turns, and followed up by
Read More »Lifelong Affair With Honda Leads To Charity Bike
Jeff Crampton spent years in his youth working on Hondas. As a certified Honda technician and later as a service manager, he toiled at several dealerships in New England back in the 1970s. His first motorcycle was a Honda – a 1965 Super 90 – and his current bikes are
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