Bryan Harley from Motorcycle USA. is reporting:

Having a personality like AEROSMITH's Steven Tyler as your pitch man gives Dirico Motorcycles a fighting chance to make it in a carnivorous market.

It’s amazing what can result from a great day in the saddle, a few cold beers afterwards and spirited conversation amongst friends. Hell, it might even result in the founding of a motorcycle company.

Such is the case with Dirico Motorcycles USA. What started as a fantastic ride through the mountains of New Hampshire between Steven Tyler, his brother-in-law Mark Dirico, and long-time buddy Stephen Talarico, ended with the idea to build and market their own motorcycle. Of course it didn't hurt that Tyler is the frontman for the popular band Aerosmith, Mark just happens to be a master engineer, and Talarico owns several Harley-Davidson dealerships, a custom shop, and tons of manufacturing equipment.

The company officially launched in January 2008 under the name Red Wing Motorcycles. But it appears that a Japanese manufacturer who flies a red wing under its banner contacted them about use of the name. The Red Wing moniker the new motorcycle company was marketing its bikes under came from Aerosmith’s corporate identity from the ‘60s. Just check out their old album covers (remember Get Your Wings). But the Japanese manufacturing giant didn’t want to let the name go and the Dirico gang didn’t want a long, ugly court battle, so they switched it over to Mark’s last name in 2009.

“Mark is the brains behind the design of these motorcycles,” said Stephen Talarico, president of Dirico Motorcycles USA.

Talarico also owns AC Custom Motorcycles in Manchester, NH, a custom shop that has been building a name for itself on the East Coast for over a decade, and was the one who just happened to have an extra frame and engine laying around for Mark to start tinkering on. Not long after, Mark had worked up the first prototype. Two years and countless miles later, the bugs had been worked out of seven or eight more prototypes until they had the motorcycles dialed in.

Dirico Motorcycles USA debuted two motorcycles in 2008, the Red Wing Pro Street and the Retro, and followed up their initial effort with three more models in 2009. One of them, the Speedster, just made its first public appearance at the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo.

Who needed the name Red Wing anyways? Dirico has a certain ring to is and is unique. It doesn't look bad on the side of the 2009 Speedster, either.

Cincinnati V-Twin Expo. The ‘Retro Flyer’ has all the accoutrements of a classic cruiser – a beefy Springer front end, deep-welled fenders, black-spoked wheels, a vintage-looking round air cleaner, and spacious floorboards. It sources a Harley-Davidson Twin Cam 110B engine with a claimed 1450cc of power mated to a 5-speed H-D left-side drive transmission, all packaged neatly within a Kraft-tech frame. Small details like its fat-bottomed black leather seat and the decorative leather strap that runs up the tank-mounted console I’ll wager are Tyler’s styling touches. I do know for a fact that the brilliant orange paint scheme is straight from the creative mind of the singer. Steve Cantos out of Massachusetts is the man responsible for the paint. With a little coaching from Tyler, of course.

“Steven worked directly with Cantos, describing things like a sunset he had seen during a ride while Cantos does the work of capturing Steven’s visions in paint. That’s how we came up with the oranges and reds that we use,” Talarico stated. “There was a blue where Steven was riding with KID ROCK up in Michigan and they had come up to a bar. It was a Blue Martini, and that inspired the blue that we used on the Pro Street. Steven’s got a memory like a steel trap and he can translate that into the art,” he added.

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