Up To Speed

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Wearing a varsity jacket with an Indian motorcycle logo embroidered on the back and holding a half-smoked cigar in his left hand, Mark Ruccio stood in the sun-drenched backyard of his Naugatuck home on a Sunday morning earlier this month assessing a small red motorcycle …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com A new visitors center will open in August at Harley-Davidson’s plant in York, Penn. as the company reorganizes the operation. “The York Dail Record” has the story here.

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com When a motorcycle blogger in another state recently posted that Ducati was going to loan him a Diavel for a week of testing riding, RIDE-CT was miffed to the point of emailing John Paolo Canton, public relations manager of Ducati, with a good-natured “What about me?” …

By Bud Wilkinson There probably isn’t a rider alive, and probably quite a few who are dead, who hasn’t had a near-miss with a distracted driver. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that 16 percent of all fatalities on the road in 2009 – 5,474 deaths in all – were …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Winter sometimes ends abruptly, which is a good thing for both riders and RIDE-CT. While the proprietor of RIDE-CT yearns to ride during the cold, snowy months like all others who own bikes, what’s sometimes really frustrating is the lack of fresh column ideas. Bikes …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com When New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation wanted to raise the rent that Americade pays for using state-owned land alongside Lake George from $52,000 to more than $90,000, the event’s founder threatened to move the annual June rally elsewhere. Coolers heads have prevailed and a …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com This video first landed in a my inbox a few months ago, but (as I recall) without subtitles. While the message was unmistakable, it makes more sense and is more impactful with subtitles. Here’s to the human spirit…

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com A key question that needs to always be answered when helmet shopping is whether the helmet is DOT-compliant; that is, government approved to protect your melon. The Motorcycle Industry Council has a website that lists 25 brands and 516 helmet models and which notes whether …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com The Harley-Davidson Foundation announced this week that it has donated $250,000 – a paltry sum considering that Harley CEO Keith E. Wandell was compensated $6.4 million last year – to support relief efforts in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. The foundation’s contribution was made to the …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com One of the first things that Max Stratton did upon buying Cliff’s Cycle Revolution in Brookfield back in December was to jettison the Ducati line. Max made his mark selling BMWs at stores in New Hampshire and New York and wanted his new Connecticut store to be …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Owning an old bike (or, in the case of RIDE-CT, bikes) is a blessing and a curse. An old motorcycle is inevitably rough around the edges, tempermental and prone to breakdowns. But there’s a romance to riding an old bike. Every old bike has its …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Newburgh, N.Y. gets a motorcycle museum when Motorcyclepedia opens on April 16. More than 300 motorcycles will be displayed on two floors in the 85,000 square-foot museum. The “Times Herald-Record” has the story here. RIDE-CT is already planning a visit to get pictures and details. — With …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Not all motorcycles have V-twin motors. There are single-cylinder “thumpers,” triples and inline fours. And not all V-twin motors are found in motorcycles. From spring to fall, I spend two to three hours each weekday morning atop a vibrating V-twin lawnmower cutting greens for fun …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com For the past two years, Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson has held its annual shareholders meeting at its museum, which opened in 2008 and celebrates the history of the iconic brand. Not this year. Seems the facility was already booked on April 30 when Harley inquired about the …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Moto Guzzi turned 90 today – having been launched on March 21, 1921 – and celebrated the milestone by unveiling a new blog at MotoGuzziHeritage.com. No need to gather in the piazza anymore. Just go online. — Registration for motorcycle courses at Naugatuck Valley Community College …