Up To Speed

By Bud Wilkinson Jim Hamlin is targeting a March 1 opening for his new Hamlin Cycles dealership in Bethel, CT. Pending zoning approval that will allow a service department, Hamlin plans to open the new store in a building that formerly housed a power equipment business. “We’re working on the inside …

By Bud Wilkinson All-terrain vehicles are designed to be ridden off-road, but many owners illegally take their ATVs on paved public roads, and the result has been the deaths of more than 1,700 riders in the U.S. between 2007 and 2011, according to a new study just released by the …

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact motorcycle rallies, shows and other events scheduled for 2020. Most have been canceled. Immediately below are events still scheduled to take place: Aug. 8 – Rotary Club of Mansfield (MA) Vintage Motorcycle Show, British Car Show and Aircraft Fly-in from 10 a.m. …

Happy New Year and Thank You! RIDE-CT.com/Ride-NewEngland.com set a readership record in 2013 with the number of unique visitors to the website increasing nearly 58 percent  (57.95 percent to be precise) and the number of page views rising nearly 30 percent (29.9 percent) over 2012. According to Google Analytics, RIDE-CT.com/Ride-NewEngland …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Given the popularity of Harley-Davidson’s Sportster variants, you’d think that any company making a similar mid-sized cruiser model would want to sell it in North America. That isn’t the case, though. While Triumph has the America and Speedmaster models and Yamaha has several V-Star 950 …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Eat less. Exercise more. No matter how hard we try, these two traditional New Year’s resolutions usually fall by the wayside before January has expired. Good intentions often don’t translate into action because lasting results are just too difficult to obtain. Marie Osmond may be …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com There are countless motorcycle shops around the world that customize bikes. For his “Link of the Week,” Bob Rosen has found one in Copenhagen, Denmark that does superlative work whether the machine being modified comes from Japan, Europe or the U.S., such as the pictured …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com It’s question men have been pondering for centuries: How do you make a woman happy? The answer may be to buy her a motorcycle. A new study commissioned by Harley-Davidson and conducted by the Kelton research company determined that women who ride their own motorcycles …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The process of writing is work for anyone who does it for a living. That doesn’t mean that stringing words together, rearranging them or pinpointing the most precise word can’t be enjoyable. It often is. It’s just that whenever you sit down at a keyboard, …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Max BMW owner Max Stratton has been mum on the matter, but a letter to customers posted on the website of Bergen County BMW Motorcycles in Rochelle Park, NJ and on its Facebook page reveals that Bergen County BMW is going away and that Stratton …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Sure, there are few days left in the year, but the odds are pretty good that with all of the holiday distractions there probably won’t be any motorcycle news of significant value before year’s end to displace any of the posts that currently rank as …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The dealership’s website hasn’t been reactivated yet but the sale of Burt Ives Honda in Columbia, CT by Ken Ives Sr. to his son Kenny has finally closed, meaning presumably that new Honda motorcycles will once again be available. The younger Ives already owns Chaplin …

The tech team from Max BMW did it! In four days, they built from a scratch a “new” 1975 BMW R90S from parts purchased from the company. The cost of those parts? More than

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Ever read a motorcycle review in a magazine and had to read between the lines or wondered what the point was? When you’re dependent upon ad dollars to stay afloat, you’d better be damn sure you don’t piss off a potential advertiser by saying that …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com There are winter projects and then there’s the one being attempted by Max BMW. Techs from Max BMW’s three locations have come together at the store in North Hampton, NH to build a BMW R90S from scratch using new parts ordered directly from the company. …