Oil Drippings: News and Opinion

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Some riders were standing on the sidewalk in Kent yesterday afternoon when one of them observed, “You don’t see many Harleys at this time of year.” Even though there were a couple of Harley-Davidsons parked nearby, the comment still drew chuckles because it reinforced a stereotype that many Harley owners are fair-weather posers and polishers more than serious riders – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The comment reminded me of a RIDE-CT column that I wrote several years ago in which I compiled a list of traits of riders who I dubbed “Dunkin’ Angels.” They’re the ones who use their bikes to ride for coffee and donuts on Sunday morning and for little more. Noticing the many riders who were out on Sunday, I got to thinking…

– You might be a Dunkin’ Angel if you don’t own a pair of cold weather riding gloves.

– You might be a Dunkin’ Angel if, at this time of the year, you don’t have wires from your heated gear dangling from your jacket when you walk away from your bike.

– You might be a Dunkin’ Angel if you’ve never bitched about how low the sun is in in the sky in December and how it adds the glare.

One of these days I’ll dig out the original column and post it here as it appeared in “The Republican-American” long before the debut of RIDE-CT.com. If you think of any other traits of Dunkin’ Angels, let me know.

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I’m not sure what the point is, but the BBC in Great Britain has tallied all highway deaths between 1991 and 2010 – 36,371 in all – and recorded each crash site on an interactive map. On the map, it’s also possible to get a breakdown of motorcycle deaths. I suppose that one benefit of this repository is that it will divulge the most dangerous roads for riders. The BBC has the map posted here.

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Sometimes in my haste, I fail to get the names of people along the road and that was the case yesterday when I met some members of “The Greater Hartford Motorcycle Enthusiasts” at Toymaker’s Cafe in Falls Village. The group has 127 members and a page at meetup.com where they organize outings for interested riders. Check it out.