• Stories from the Road

    You Can’t Go Home Again

    You can’t go home again Or can you? I’m hear to say of course you can, and it’s something you should do again and again. It doesn’t have to be an actual physical location you go home to but also a mindset, a feeling in your heart and peaceful place in your mind. I just went home again today. It was a mountain road that crosses into the state of New York. Funny thing is I’ve never lived in NY or anywhere near this beautiful twisty road but Oh yes I was home again. See it was the summer of 86, I was just a young 19 year old kid…

  • Stories from the Road

    Passionate people ride red bikes?

    Passionate people ride red bikes?   Do you think that’s true, do they ride other color bikes too? Let me ask you, when you think of red motorcycles do you think of one brand? Ducati, moto Guzzi or Honda? I was chatting with my good friend Rich Grant one morning about motorcycles, motorcycle racers and brands of bikes. The moto Guzzi v11 Le Mans came up. A bike I would love to own someday, but surprisingly not the red one, but the ultra sexy silver and Green version. I described the bike as a typical Italian motorcycle a little heavy, slow and sometimes unreliable. However stunningly beautiful, refined and full…

  • Stories from the Road

    Western MA Journey

    Western Mass Journey As you turn left onto Route 66 and head west you will find yourself crossing into the little town of Westhampton. Now we’re not on “that” Route 66 or in the famous Hamptons of Long Island, but instead we are traveling through a little section of Western MA. Route 66 travels between the towns of Northampton and Huntington, it will bring you west to route 112. It’s not a long road, maybe all of 20 miles or less however it’s a beautiful road to travel. Rolling New England hills quickly come into view when you reach about a 1/3 of the way into your ride. Just a…

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    Jack, jack attack!

    John Cormier, or Jakie as he was known to many people around the leominster area.  He was my dad, we called him Jack. My dad never rode a motorcycle in his life, or got a chance to ride on the back of mine.  Something I really regret as the one year anniversary of his death is approaching.   Although when he was close to the end him and I had a nice talk about doing things in your life before its too late, he never really had a desire to go for a motorcycle ride.  However he loved to hear about the rides I took.  He knew how much I…

  • Stories from the Road

    8/8/08

    Yeah I know, Im in the middle of my 4 day Maine trip report, it should be finished by Sunday night.  But I gotta tell ya all about Friday’s ride.  It was a blast! I left WB at 6:45 am.  Roads were wet, temps were cool, but the duck is hot! I had to get to Hartford by 9am,  normally it takes just about 1 hr via highway, but I had just a hair longer than 2 to make the ride.  Back roads thru Holden, Paxton, Spencer and Sturbridge got me to the CT line.  I haven’t been on New City rd yet this year, and its such a fun little road. …

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    A first ride….report

    Remember your first ride? The anticipation before the ride had you really excited and slightly nervous. As it got closer to the time of the ride you felt those little butterflies in your stomach. Then when sitting on the machine waiting for it to start a little voice inside your head said ” this is not a good idea” When the ride starts and for the first few minutes you are terrified and quite sure you made a big mistake. But after a few minutes you open your eyes and start to enjoy the speed and the feeling of leaning side to side. By the end of your first ride…

  • Stories from the Road

    Hooky for a Harley…with a new suit to boot!

    Today was the first day in a long while I got a chance to ride my red Ducati.  And of course I wanted a few friends to come along with me.  Not all my usual riding buddies could join me today, but I did get Gary, Dave and Phat Pat to come along with me. The other thing I was looking forward to was wearing my new one piece riding suit I just bought.  The local weathermen were warning us of rain for the day so I figured it would be a great time to see if this thing is really waterproof. We all met in Worcester near Gary’s place…

  • Stories from the Road

    woods, snow…a super sport, no way!

    It started the night before,  I was reading several trip reports from bikers with KLR’s & BMW GS’s and I got bitten by the dirt road bug. I had to go find some dirt roads my duck could do. I knew today’s temp was going to be under 40, it was 33 when I left my office and headed out. I was careful on the side streets for the standing water was starting to ice over, including the ponds So I figured the small dirt roads would be safer because I would be going a lot slower.   My first road brought me by a water fall and then another road just…