01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, September 7, 2004

BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Fred Tomolillo has spent much of his 60 years looking for a space to park his motorcycle.

He has been chased out of nearly every town on Cape Cod and bounced from his beloved nighttime haven in front of Providence City Hall.

These days, Tomolillo has settled along Thayer Street on the East Side -- perhaps the most ideal of biker hangouts -- with its strip of cheap food joints, a 24-hour coffee shop and plenty of people to ogle his vintage 1980 Kawasaki, which he parks outside the Gap.

Other motorcycle riders, who congregate by the dozens on some nights, agree that Thayer Street is the place to park and socialize.

Eric Costa, 53, a Harley-Davidson rider from Pawtucket, explained the Thayer Street biker ethos: "We talk about sex, we solve world problems and we look at each other's bikes."

But some East Side residents are sick of the motorcycles, which can rumble and roar so loudly that windows rattle and conversations go mute.

The police are ticketing aggressively and pulling over packs of motorcycles before they even reach Thayer Street, the bikers say. In June, the City Council beefed up the Providence noise ordinance to prohibit "blatantly excessive engine revving" and altered mufflers, which can make an already loud motorcycle even louder.

City Councilwoman Rita M. Williams, who represents College Hill, has proposed banning motorcycles from parking on much of the street.

"It just has been horrendous for the past three years," said Williams, who lives near the Brown University stadium and sleeps with earplugs to block out the motorcycle noise.

THE BIKERS SAY they are being picked on. They cite a vast conspiracy of wealthy property owners, politicians and the police -- all aligned against anyone on two wheels.

Many say they sympathize with the residents, and blame hotheads for smoking their tires and revving their engines to announce their entrance and exit.

"We are getting caught up in the wildness perpetrated by the younger crowd," said Tomolillo, a hair stylist. "It's testosterone gone wild. They can't help it. I was there once."

The issue of motorcycles, while not new, highlights a problem facing the East Side in particular and Providence as a whole. While much of downtown can appear deserted after dark, Thayer Street remains one of the few areas that stay alive at night.

Or in the words of Councilwoman Williams, who says she comes weekly to Thayer because she likes the salad at Johnny Rockets, "It's where all the action is."

But this strip of coffee shops, bars, a music store and rows and rows of gleaming Harleys, Hondas and Yamahas also bumps against streets where handsome Victorian homes sell for more than $1 million.

"I am not saying they don't have a right to be on the street," said Williams. "If they were all respectful of being in a residential neighborhood, we wouldn't mind. But many of them aren't."

Lt. David Lapatin, police commander of the East Side, said most complaints are not coming from Thayer Street, but from homes lining the streets leading up to the commercial strip.

"NINETY PERCENT of complaints are that they are going by their houses," Lapatin said. "It's blowing them out of their beds."

The bikers say the loud exhaust systems are for safety; they want motorists to hear them before they see them.

Lapatin has ordered additional officers to patrol Thayer Street on foot,and he said the number of complaints from neighbors is decreasing.

"We realize that they are good people," Lapatin said. "We have nothing against them because they are bikers."

Williams' proposal, which she submitted to the City Council's Public Works Committee, would ban motorcycles from parking in the heart of commercial Thayer Street -- between Cushing and Angell Streets.

The bikers say this would be a draconian measure against decent people who happen to ride motorcycles.

They say they are not bar hoppers.

"That's why we're all still alive," said Joe Casali, a retired Teamster from Providence.

Nor are they like Hell's Angels.

"I come to Thayer Street to have a nice raspberry frozen yogurt," said Tommy Musumeci, 48, a home-builder and biker from North Providence.

Born to be wild?

"It's a mild wild," said Bill Pandozzi, who initially declined to give his age, but later admitted he was 67. He's a disc jockey on a Johnston radio station spinning Big Band and Frank Sinatra.

His friend, Russell Etchells, 70, of West Warwick, installs draperies for a living. His Harley has a chrome skull on the end of its ignition key.

ON A RECENT summer night, Pandozzi and Etchells stood next to dozens of glimmering motorcycles that stretched along the sidewalk from The Gap to Dunkin' Donuts.

The bikers arrived in small groups starting at about 9 p.m. and gradually filled in the parking spaces as cars left. By 10 p.m., they had built a line of dozens of bikes, displayed like trophies.

Discussion meandered from the troops in Iraq to a recent episode of Charlie Rose, the erudite talk-show host on public TV. Necks swiveled, owl-like, as young women in tank tops and flip-flops passed by.

On this warm night, the women seem uninterested in the motorcycles or their graying riders. The bikers are predominantly male, but they say female riders like to frequent Thayer Street as well.

The Harley riders say it's the sport bikes -- the bright-colored Hondas and Suzukis driven by much younger riders -- that are largely to blame for the noise.

The sport-bike riders, meanwhile, blame the Harleys for shaking windows. But they admit that there are some riders among them who like to smoke their tires and raise the front wheel.

The sport bikers also sympathize with East Side residents, but say city officials have gone too far.

Spencer Owens, 30, said he rides up and down Boston's tony Newbury Street without a problem. Yet when he comes to Thayer Street, he feels harassed by the police.

One night, he said he had parked his bike outside the Avon Cinema for only a few seconds when an officer threatened him with a ticket.

"It's complete discrimination," Owens said. "What's so special about Thayer Street?"