Ridley Motorcycles

Ridley Motorcycle Company was founded in Sarasota, Florida in 1997 by Clay Ridley and his son Jay, after Clay began experimenting with automatic-transmission motorcycles as a personal project in 1995. Marketed under the slogan "America's Automatic Motorcycle," Ridley built cruisers using a continuously variable transmission (CVT) instead of a conventional clutch and gearbox, starting with the 3/4-scale Speedster in 1999 - built around a nearly 600cc Ridley V-twin with a low 24-inch seat and a curb weight under 270 pounds. Its success led to the full-size Auto-Glide cruiser, which went on sale in 2003 and helped the company reach annual sales of around 4,000 units by 2009. The 2008-2009 recession, combined with the cost of defending a trademark lawsuit brought by Harley-Davidson, pushed Ridley into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010, ending its run as a production manufacturer after roughly 15 years.