Up To Speed

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The snow from last weekend’s blizzard is slowly melting, but the predicted highs for the next 10 days are only in the 30s. The prospect of doing any riding in New England in near future is pretty dismal, making vicarious riding the only option. A …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Happy Valentine’s Day! What to get for the Valentines in RIDE-CT.com’s life? Some hard bags for the Suzuki V-Strom 650 would be nice. Getting the gas tank in the Honda CB750 Four sealed would be beneficial. Deducing the electrical problem in the vintage Triumph T100R …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Slug today’s post “a little late and who the heck cares?” The “a little late” portion refers to a post yesterday on the “Wheels” blog of “The New York Times” touting the fact that BMW plans to build a production version of its Lo-Rider concept …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The California Air Resource Board (CARB) took a chunk of change out of exhaust-maker Vance & Hines bank account in January. It fined the the company $500,000 for selling emissions-related parts not approved by the board. The notice noted that CARB applied a penalty of …

Besides being a 1909 graduate of Cornell University and an astute mechanical engineer, Norbert Schickel was also a pack rat. Even after his Connecticut-based business went out of business, the self-described “born mechanic” retained financial statements, contracts, photos, correspondence, schematics, promotional literature and even parts from his creations. “Grandpa never …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Honda this morning unwrapped some models for 2014 in a new CTX line. The initials stand for Comfort, Technology and eXperience and the 670cc parallel twins feature lightweight handling, a low center of gravity and “Urban Roadster” styling. They are the CTX700 (shown above in …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Years ago – OK, decades ago – when I toiled for “The Columbus Dispatch” in Ohio, I was a member of the “Dispatch Speakers Bureau.” That was the newspaper’s fancy way of promoting the fact that some of its newsroom employees were available for public …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Motorcycle sales in the U.S. showed 2.6 percent increase in 2012 over 2011, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, with retail sales totaling 452,386 bikes. Sales of street bikes were up a modest 1.8 percent and totaled 318,105 units. The category excludes scooters, dual purpose …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com It’s not a motorcycle, but to call it a car would be a bit misleading, too. From the just-released picture from Toyota, it looks a bit like an enclosed Can-Am Spyder, although it’s impossible to tell how many wheels are in the rear. The Spyder …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com It’s no secret that Billy Joel is a motorcycle enthusiast. He’s an avid rider and collector, who has been known to show up at vintage meets and blend in with the crowd. Last weekend, Joel rode into the Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show in Florida. …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com January’s poll question(s) got a divided response from RIDE-CT.com voters, with only half of those casting ballots liking the idea of Harley-Davidson building a model smaller than the Sportster. A total of 50 percent approved the idea of Harley building something sporty like an XR750, …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The deal’s done. In what it described as a “strategic realignment” of its business, BMW Motorrad today announced the sale of the Husqvarna motorcycle brand to Pierer Industrie AG, a company owned by KTM chief executive officer Stefan Pierer. The price of the purchase was …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com It’s an alphabet soup of bike builders. The British website MCN is quoting “high-placed motorcycle industry sources” as saying that BMW is negotiating the sale of Husqvarna to Austrian bike-maker KTM. The German giant BMW bought Husky from MV Agusta in 2008 and has put …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Motorcycles don’t come to mind when I think of France. Wine comes first, then Paris, followed by memories of exploring the French countryside on separate trips with my dearly departed parents back in the 1980s. There was the girl behind the desk at a hotel …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Here’s a definite “find” on eBay. Up for grabs today is a 1976 Suzuki RE5 rotary motorcycle. What makes it special is that it has 0 miles on the odometer. It’s brand new. Never been ridden. With less than 14 hours remaining (as this is …