Up To Speed

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – A bike dream coming true for Motorcycle Cannonball rider John Pfeifer of Houston, TX was quickly shattered Saturday when the 1916 Harley-Davidson that he was riding was destroyed by fire. Pfeifer was unhurt, although

Craig Johnson is a best-selling author and a motorcycle enthusiast. His “Longmire” mysteries about a Wyoming sheriff have sold more than 1.5 million copies and been turned into a television series that shifts from the A&E cable network to the Netflix streaming service

Is “Harley and the Davidsons” accurate? My answer to those folks inquiring today following last night’s premiere of part one of the three-parter is probably somewhere between

BRATTLEBORO, VT – It’s not often that you hear the word “whetstone” used in conversation; a whetstone being a sharpening stone for knives. Having grown up on Whetstone Road in Harwinton, CT, though, it’s a word that always perks my ears. Hearing of a craft brewery and restaurant here called …

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT – Riding on a divided highway is supposed to be safer than riding anywhere else. No one can pull out from a side street and an oncoming vehicle can’t drift across the center line. That doesn’t mean accidents can’t happen – as a Connecticut state trooper discovered …

MILWAUKEE – Layoffs are coming to Harley-Davidson with some 200 jobs being cut at U.S. plants. Workers at the factory in Springettsbury Township in Pennsylvania were notified at a meeting Wednesday with the local union reporting that 117 full and part-time positions will be lost. The layoffs will begin in …

UPDATE: Having received its certificate of occupancy, Brookfield Indian Motorcycle is now open.

SOMERS, NY – Harley-Davidson may have been founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, but an interesting element in the company’s history can be traced to Somers, which west of I-684 in Westchester County. That’s where William B. Johnson had the first Harley-Davidson dealership owned by an African-American. Johnson opened the franchise in …

FARMINGTON, CT – Motorcycle training classes run by CONREP are held rain or shine, but it was another kind of intrusion from above that provided a teachable moment at the Tunxis Community College training site on Sunday morning. Hot air balloons from the nearby Plainville Hot Air Balloon Festival began …

OK, I’m thoroughly confused… Having not grown up around motorcycles, I’m not up to speed on a lot of motorcycle history. Consequently, when Harley-Davidson unveiled its new “Milwaukee-Eight” engine this week, it got me wondering about the power-plants that had preceded it. While I was aware of some of the …

NASHUA, NH – Rocket Moto Sport will soon become the first New England dealer of Tilting Motor Works three-wheelers. Already a dealer of American-made Motus motorcycles, Rocket Moto Sport will by mid-fall start converting Harley-Davidson and Honda touring models into trikes using Tilting Motor Works kits. Tilting Motor Works is …

MILWAUKEE – Harley-Davidson this morning unveiled a new engine, the ninth Big Twin in its history, dubbed the Milwaukee-Eight. It will be offered in two displacements: the Milwaukee-Eight 107 (107 cubic inches/1,750cc) and the Milwaukee-Eight 114 (114 cubic inches/1,870cc). The company says the new engine “is a clean-sheet design that combines …

BROOKLYN – The date for the eighth annual Brooklyn Invitational Custom Motorcycle Show is now set. It will be staged Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Root Studios, 131 n. 14th St. in Brooklyn, NY, according to a new post on Facebook. Using a gallery setting, the motorcycle exhibition showcases unique …

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown today signed into law legislation making lane-splitting by motorcyclists legal in California, becoming the first state to do so. The law gives the California Highway Patrol the authority to

MILWAUKEE – Harley-Davidson has settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over illegal engine devices that the EPA said caused excessive pollution. Harley-Davidson will pay a $12 million civil penalty plus $3 million to mitigate air pollution as well as buy back and destroy thousands of “super tuners.” The EPA …