Middletown Motorcycle Mania Attracts A Crowd

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Middletown Motorcycle Mania keeps getting bigger and better. The eighth annual event brought a crush of riders and motorcycle lovers to downtown Middletown on Wednesday night to ogle bikes, chat with friends and sample some tasty food. Four blocks on Main Street were shut down and accessible only to riders, and they came from all over the Northeast.

One addition this year was the presence of multiple motorcycle dealers, notably Libby’s Motoworld of New Haven, New England Cycle Center of Hartford and Gengras Harley-Davidson of East Hartford.

While it may have been easy to ride in, especially right when the gates opened shortly before 5 p.m., getting out after spending a couple of hours admiring the more than 5,000 bikes (estimated) on display wasn’t – unless you were skilled at duck-walking.

Celebrity guest for Middletown Motorcycle Mania was world famous custom bike builder Eddie Trotta.

He spent a part of the evening greeting fans; posing with them for pictures and signing autographs.

While heavy with Harley representation, Middletown Motorcycle Mania is “non-denominational” and welcomes all brands, both new and old, stock and modified. Steve Alfano of East Hampton was the first rider to park in the middle of the road at the north end of Main Street. He rode in on a 1965 Harley Sportster with a red sprung seat.

More on Middletown Motorcycle Mania, including comments from Trotta in Saturday’s RIDE-CT column in “The Republican-American” newspaper.