Columns

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 …

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.” …

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

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.

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 …

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.

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

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 …

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 …

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

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

Examined on a year-to-year basis, the downsizing doesn’t instantly appear to be that significant. You first think that maybe there’s a manufacturer missing or a favorite vendor that’s absent. But when compared to what the Progressive International Motorcycle Show was like several years ago,

Let me see if I have this straight… He doesn’t ride a motorcycle. He has no interest in riding a motorcycle. But now a motorcycle manufacturer in India is paying pro golfer Tiger Woods to be its “brand ambassador” for

Many folks are preparing to visit the Progressive International Motorcycle Show at New York’s Javits Center next weekend. Most attend to get a break from the cold weather and to get a fix for their motorcycle addiction, but some attend with the serious objective of “pre-shopping” for their next bike. …

Keeping vintage BMWs running is master technician Phil Cheney’s primary responsibility at Max BMW in Brookfield. He’s been wrenching on German-made BMWs for 45 years and is revered among Beemer owners in Connecticut and beyond for his expertise. Over that long span, he’s only worked on two R75M models.