Up To Speed

STAMFORD – The death of a close friend in a motorcycle accident last week has prompted a Connecticut rider to launch a petition drive to pass a helmet law in the state. Dante Ibanez is seeking a “No Helmet, No Ride” policy in Connecticut.

SPRINGFIELD – The Indian “motocycle” brand dates back 115 years to the company’s founding here in 1901. Dana Faucher can connect the dots on history’s timeless back much earlier – centuries, in fact, to the 1600s – when talking about his 1936 Indian Chief that he’s named

SUFFIELD, CT – It was hot on the hilltop today as Hilltop Farm revived its vintage motorcycle show after a four-year sabbatical, and one old bike stood out in particular and required sunglasses to squint at. It was a brilliant all-chrome 1947 Indian Chief police edition with

Summer’s here, those days of soda and ice cream and chip-sealing. Before getting to two of those three items, a quick reminder that this monthly “If You Had Asked Me, I Would Have Told You…” column is a catch-all for news items, rumors, odd stuff that I’ve stumbled across as …

LOS ANGELES – The founding of Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee gets recalled in a new three-part miniseries from Discovery Channel titled “Harley and The Davidsons,” which will premiere at 9 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 5 and air on

A Yamaha recall of 11,280 of its YZF-R3 sport bikes from the 2015 and 2016 model years for power train and engine/engine cooling issues is underway. All were manufactured between

MINNEAPOLIS – Indian is recalling more than 18,000 motorcycles from the 2014 through 2016 model years due to a fire risk potentially caused by elevated exhaust temperatures. A total of 18,367 of the

SANTA MONICA, CA – A shrinking list of cities will participate in the 36th annual Progressive International Motorcycle Shows (IMS) tour for 2016-17. There will only be seven stops. That’s down from

DRACUT, MA – Corey Bourassa is a Honda collector. “I keep them original. Have a lot of fun with them. I own 29 Hondas right now,” he said when we met recently at the Falls Village Car & Motorcycle Show in Connecticut. A chef by profession, Bourassa has a sideline, …

It looks like a pint-sized scrambler and now Suzuki is bringing the VanVan 200 to the U.S. for 2017. With a 199cc, one-cylinder engine and a weight of only 282 pounds, the VanVan 200 is

KENT, CT – Besides being machines, motorcycles may also be regarded as artwork. Now, Gary Halby’s exquisite pictures of motorcycles and their riders have gone from high-end coffee table book to illuminating gallery exhibit. “The Art of the Ride” opened Saturday at The Good Gallery here with

WASHINGTON – Sudden brake failures involving Harley-Davidson motorcycles with ABS covering four model years are being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to published reports, including one story in the Journal Sentinel newspaper in the company’s headquarters of Milwaukee. NHTSA said the probe involves 430,000 motorcycles covering …

STONY BROOK, NY – It’s a bit of a journey, and time-consuming no matter whether you take the ferry from Bridgeport, CT to Port Jefferson, NY or drive the long way around to Long Island from New England, but the Ward Melville Heritage Organization is staging its

SPRINGFIELD – Sarah Van Buren and Skyler Ruderman are following in their ancestors tire tracks. They are the youngest descendants of pioneering motorcyclist sisters Adeline and Augusta Van Buren, who rode cross-country on Indian motorcycles in 1916

SPRINGFIELD – History is being recreated, and the vintage Indian motorcycle collection at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History provided the backdrop Tuesday for a launch party for the Sisters’ Centennial Motorcycle Ride from