Motorcycles and rock 'n' roll have been linked together since the 1950s, and this connection is vividly made with the introduction of Dirico Motorcycles. Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler lends his star power to the Dirico project, boasting a love of motorcycling that he says creates a sense of freedom he can’t find elsewhere. Dirico Motorcycles is a collaboration between Tyler, his neighbor Mark Dirico, and his cousin Stephen Talarico. “The talent and brains behind this is Mark Dirico,” says Talarico plainly. The man whose name is on the tank has an engineering background and specializes in machine design, a field in which he holds more than 20 patents. One of his other companies has the capacity to produce 4 million boxes a day! Talarico’s role is in providing marketing savvy as well as the facilities to build the bikes out of his impressive Manchester Harley-Davidson dealership in New Hampshire. Three full-time builders work out of the shop, and the company says it takes about 10 days to build a bike from start to finish. As for Tyler’s contributions, the rocker says it’s mostly in “tweaks and details,” adding, “It’s an ongoing process with Mark.” It was back in September 2007 when the company first announced its debut under the Red Wing Motorcycles brand, a reference to Aerosmith’s winged logo. But Honda didn’t take kindly to another motorcycle company having ties to the red-wing theme that is part of its trademark. “It was a fiasco,” Talarico comments. “Honda came after us and they were relentless.” And so the company’s name became the less imaginative Dirico Motorcycles (I personally think “Aerocycles” might’ve been more provocative…), launched at a time when boutique chopper brands aren’t really in step with a tanking economy. “The V-Twin market is really constricting right now, and we’re carving out a little niche” says Talarico. “We’re not giving up.” “We’re trying to have fun with the products we’re doing,” Tyler interjects.