Ready for more bickering, bluster and contrived nonsense? The Discovery Channel is rebooting “American Chopper” after a five-year hiatus and the reaction so far has been predictably polarizing. Some riders never want to see the battling Teutul clan again, while rubberneckers wonder about the current status of Orange County Choppers, …
Read More »Old Harley-Davidson Bikes Are Jim Fenn’s Passion
BARKHAMSTED, CT – Down a narrow, unpaved driveway and behind a house in Barkhamsted sits a weathered, nondescript garage that’s filled with relics worth marveling over – an assortment of classic cars and vintage motorcycles. Among the four-wheeled vehicles are two convertibles – a 1942 Ford and a 1954 Chevy. The …
Read More »Electric Motorcycles May Spread Quickly
HARWINTON, CT – Not to belabor the point made in the last column that the future of motorcycling may be battery powered, but the landscape keeps shifting at an ever-increasing pace… It was while having breakfast with Phil Cheney after that column appeared that the subject of electric motorcycles inevitably came …
Read More »Motorcycling’s Future Looks Electric
HARWINTON, CT – Imagine the roads with far fewer motorcycles and without the din of their excessive exhaust noise. Imagine the happiness of homeowners and churchgoers, especially those who live or worship on heavily traveled highways where the continuous roar of loud pipes make what should be quiet Sunday mornings unbearable, …
Read More »Hill Country: Break-In Required For Gluteus Maximus
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 …
Read More »1973 Norton Roadster His Only Bike For 42 Years
THOMASTON, CT – Tom Ordway of Thomaston wasn’t expecting to buy a Norton when he went shopping for a motorcycle in 1975. “I went to a Harley dealer to buy a Sportster – all my buddies had Sportsters – and this was parked over on the side,” he recalled, referring …
Read More »Delectable Ducati 250 Diana Raced, Retired
FALLS VILLAGE, CT – If a motorcycle could talk, the single-cylinder race bike owned by Ed Bozzi of Naugatuck, CT would probably say that 15 years of retirement have been quite enjoyable. No hard running – just an annual oil change, a twice-a-year startup, an occasional track day, and periodic trips …
Read More »Dream Bike Gets Hit After Only 6.4 Miles
WATERBURY, CT – Mother’s Day weekend didn’t go as uneventfully as Taig Rehmel had hoped. He’d anticipated a wonderful reunion with a fondly-recalled motorcycle model from his earlier street riding days and an exhilarating ride from Connecticut to his home in Georgia. Instead, he was confronted by pain and the challenge …
Read More »Indian Once Made Cars – Briefly
WESTFIELD, MA – If it seemed at all odd when Polaris Industries, maker of Indian motorcycles, came out with the Slingshot roadster three years ago, it was really a case of history somewhat repeating itself, and with a good deal more success. The three-wheeled, belt-driven Slingshot is really more automobile …
Read More »Are The Best Riding Days Behind Me?
Maybe it was the muscle aches from yard clean-up, exacerbated by start-of-season riding with arms, legs and butt unaccustomed to being in a locked-in seating position for extended periods, that prompted the thought. At age 63, I probably have more riding days behind me than ahead of me.
Read More »Motorcycle Market May Heat Up In 2017
HARWINTON, CT – It has been a schizophrenic end to winter. Warm one day, cold and windy the next, with occasional rain or snow. One day I’m toasty while riding to New Haven to meet a friend for lunch, the next I’m shivering while hauling logs for the wood stove. …
Read More »RIDE-NewEngland: Collection Has Valmobile, Welbike
WILLIMANTIC, CT – Mark Turkington is a familiar figure at motorcycle shows around New England. The 72-year-old Bolton resident is a life-long rider and a collector of rare, vintage models, and he enjoys showing off his two-wheeled artifacts. For Brit Jam in 2015, he brought a British-made 1924 Douglas SW/24. …
Read More »National Powersports Is A Used Bike Bazaar
PEMBROKE, N.H. – Ever traded in a motorcycle at a New England dealership and wondered what became of it? In some cases, the dealer may have simply tied a price tag to the handlebar and put it on the showroom floor for resale, not even bothering to inspect or clean …
Read More »RIDE-NewEngland: Customizer Eric Pleil Ups Workload
WINSTED, CT – Sometimes moving forward in life requires a leap of faith, a belief in one’s abilities, and the guts to take a chance. And there’s no better time to move ahead than the start of a new year. Eric Pleil recently gave his employer
Read More »Riding Requires Taking Responsibility
The life of any motorcyclist can be snuffed in an instant. All it takes is for a distracted, unobservant or impaired driver to cross the center line or make an improper turn across the path of an oncoming rider. In just seconds, a rider can go from enjoying the wind …
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