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KENT, CT – Royal Enfield has gone to rural northwestern Connecticut and a town of fewer than 3,000 residents to line up another dealer in New England.
Iron Horse Customs, a custom builder and motorcycle repair shop at 21 Bridge Street here, is adding the name Royal Enfield of Kent. The store is located in what used to be Southworth Dodge, which closed nine years ago.
A truck filled with new motorcycles is expected to arrive this week. Iron Horse Customs/Royal Enfield of Kent is a partnership of Guy Mauri and Rick Dolson, who opened their business in May 2014 on Route 7 south of town and moved to the current location in late 2015. The shop will continue to sell used motorcycles, too.
Dolson said a magazine article on Royal Enfield’s aggressive plans for new models and expansion in the U.S. prompted him to contact the brand in December to investigate becoming a dealer. Up until 2016, an independent distributor handled Royal Enfield in North American. Since then, Royal Enfield has handled distribution through a North American division based in Milwaukee.
“It looked like the right thing. They’re saying the right things,” said Dolson. “We’ve got something going on here. We’ve got a really good location.”
The dealership will be the second Royal Enfield outlet in the state. It’s joins Mark’s Motorsports in Enfield. The expectation is for Royal Enfield of Kent to get customers not only from Litchfield County but from Fairfield County and adjoining counties in New York. “They really want us to draw from the Danbury-Ridgefield area,” Dolson said.
Up until now, Royal Enfield has only offered classically-styled 500cc models in the U.S. For 2018, however, it is bringing out a 411cc adventure model called the Himalayan and two 650cc models, the Interceptor and the Continental GT. “I’ve got a lot of adventure riders around here,” said Dolson. The Himalayan has an MSRP of $4,499.
Iron Horse Customs/Royal Enfield of Kent plans to use the center section of the showroom to showcase Royal Enfield models.
