Easy riding attracts bikers

KENT — Drive through the center of town at any point on a Saturday or a Sunday and you are guaranteed to see Main Street lined with motorcycles. 

Since the majority of these bikes don’t belong to town residents, one may ask why are they here? 

The center of town offers stores, restaurants, art galleries and clothing stores all along Main Street but none seems designed to attract the Harley crowd. Yet motorcycle enthusiasts from as far as Westchester County, Bridgeport, Stratford and Derby flock to town each weekend. This reporter set out to find out what the attraction is.

“This place right here,” exclaimed one rider dressed in a Harley-Davidson T-shirt and a red bandana, sitting outside Kent Coffee and Chocolate. 

“We stop here every time for a cup of coffee and to take a break from riding.” 

While a good cup of joe is definitely worthy of a drive, making an hour-and-a-half journey just for a cup of coffee seems a little extreme. 

“Honestly, it’s the people,” said another rider. “I’m from Westchester. Not everyone is nice there, but every person in Kent is one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met.”

One family of riders (also enjoying a cup of coffee) described Kent as “a very quaint little town. It’s one of the most beautiful rides in Connecticut, and there are so many different ways to get here you never get bored of coming. We’ve been coming here for years, and every weekend we ask ourselves, ‘How are we going to get to Kent this weekend?”

“Being able to drive along these roads with the scenery you see, it really is something special and something we enjoy doing no matter how many times we’ve been here before. You can never get sick of riding up in this area. It’s a motorcyclist’s dream.”

After a little digging it became apparent that the real draw for these motorcyclists is just their love of riding. Since most of them live in more urban areas, riding becomes very difficult as their options are limited to highways and major roads with a lot of stop and go at traffic lights. 

Kent’s rural roads provide the perfect mix of 45-to-50 mph speed limits and very few lights. Bikers can ride for miles without having to stop, and it’s exactly that which brings them back every summer. 

There’s also the social aspect. As these bikers visit town more and more frequently, they begin to meet other riders and look forward to the opportunity to catch up with old friends. 

“I see old friends every time I come to town. Whether it’s someone I met the last time, or an old classmate from 40 years ago, I always run into somebody I know.”