Up To Speed

  BROOKFIELD, CT – Pete Celona has made his home in Brookfield for the past three years, but his belongings have been in storage since July to enable him to enjoy an enviable vagabond life. This past summer, Celona got to drive bikes for Ducati on a cross-country demo tour. …

PITTSFIELD, MA – As a lifelong motorcyclist, singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie knows about the camaraderie felt by riders. Thanks to one of his best known compositions, a silly song in which he tells of riding off a cliff “doin’ 150 miles an hour, sideways, and 500 feet down at the same time,” …

PITTSFIELD, MA – Arlo Guthrie is as well known as a singer/songwriter and a bit lesser known as a children’s book author, but he’s also a “famous moose-ologist” – at least that’s how the person who approached him a few years ago to write a preface to

BROOKLYN – Have you ever been to a place, maybe a restaurant or a bar, and had a good experience but figured another visit was needed before making it a regular habit or haunt? I’m that way with motorcycle events. Most are largely the same every year. Miss a year …

STURBRIDGE, MA – If the brand names on all the bikes on the show ground end in a vowel, it’s a safe bet that you’re at IMOC. The Italian Motorcycles Owners Club held its 32nd annual motorcycle show today at the Hamilton Rod & Gun Club, and riders turned out …

NEW HARTFORD, CT – The bride didn’t want a diamond. What she really wanted was a ride on vintage Indian Chief on her wedding day. This tale of matrimony began for RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland a little more than a week ago when I received an invitation in the form of an …

Not all TV commercials are designed to hard-sell a product. The purpose of Honda’s new two-minute, stop-motion “Paper” ad, which debuted during an NFL telecast on CBS on Sunday, is simply to reinforce brand identity by

THOMPSON, CT – A press release hasn’t been issued yet, but vintage motorcycle owners will want to save this date: May 15, 2016. That’s when Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park plans its first-ever Thompson Vintage Motorcycle Classic. Held on a Sunday, it will piggyback with

Another month has passed, so I guess it’s time for another installment of “If you had asked me, I would have told you that…” And even if it isn’t, here goes. If you had asked me, I would have told you that: – Lane-splitting on freeways while on a motorcycle …

  Just for the sake of comparison, imagine Boston without Fenway Park. It would still be Boston, but it wouldn’t be the same without the compact ballpark filled with Red Sox partisans as well as the crowds and vendors on Yawkey Way. Even a life-long New York Yankees’ fan such …

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kawasaki is recalling nearly 12,000 of its Voyager and Vaquero heavyweight cruiser models due to an ignition wire that may chafe after coming in contact with the fuel tank. This may result in a short circuit, causing the bike to stall. The NHTSA says 11,826 units, including …

FRANKFURT, GERMANY – Ducati has unveiled what it says is “the most powerful Ducati naked of all time,” the 2016 Mobster 1200 R. “Equipped with a 1200 cc Testastretta 11° DS “R” version twin-cylinder engine, the Monster 1200 R takes

UPDATE: A website has now been launched to help get motorcycle collector and Torrington, CT businessman Mike Wallace a new kidney. It’s at mikewallacekidney.com.

TORRINGTON, CT – The downtown bike show known as Torrington Thunder got rebooted this evening after a two-year absence, and the modest crowd that turned out on Main Street got treated to splendid weather and some interesting bikes. While Harley-Davidsons were predictably the favored ride among those attending, sprinkled in …

HARWINTON, CT – It’s the first one sold in New England and Ernie Torizzo is loving his new American-made Motus. The Harwinton motorcycle collector, who has such brands as Ducati, BMW and MV Agusta in his garage, picked up the 1,650cc MSTR model from Rocket Moto Sport in Nashua, NH …