![]() I especially appreciate Response, Salvadori and Trow. After 28 bikes and more than 50 years of commuting, touring, sport and dual sport riding, Rider is my last best link to the moto world. Though you’re not the oldest title, it appears you will be the last one standing if you keep doing what you are doing, as Bonnier seems determined to kill off their competing titles by turning them into occasional coffee table books of little interest to real riders. Don’t blow it.Ĭongratulations on reaching 500 issues. I’m now down to three and when my subscriptions to Cycle World and Motorcyclist expire I’ll be down to one. I used to subscribe to five motorcycle magazines. I just received my latest copy of Cycle World. Rider has been our constant companion and essential tool, as I’m sure it will be for the next hundred thousand miles.Īlright. My wife and I (she on her bike and me on mine) have safely ridden this great country from border to border and sea to shining sea. If it were not for these same articles I would not have learned the countersteering and cornering skills that saved me from destruction when the radius of an unfamiliar corner suddenly decreased or I found myself entering a corner faster than I should. In his “Stayin Safe” column, Eric wrote about how much he learned from reading the safety articles in Rider magazine. It was the feel of the wind in my face along with my total exposure to the elements that made riding a motorcycle so totally fascinating. Riding that 125cc J&B (which cost $360 new) allowed me to see the country around our rural home in central North Dakota like I had never seen it before. Clem, I too purchased my first motorcycle at the age of 16. Though there may be a slump in motorcycle sales as stated in Clement’s “The Numbers Game” article, I have no doubt that people will continue to purchase motorcycles due simply to the awe and wonder of riding a motorcycle across the countryside. The May issue might well be the best read I’ve had since subscribing to Rider in 1983. Blech! The cover of your May issue screams “touring excitement” and that’s what I look forward to seeing every month in my mailbox.Ĭongratulations on your 500th issue! It’s amazing to see what has changed in “Blasts From Rider’s Past.” The ad you printed on the Slipstreamer windscreen, that you noted generated hostile letters even back then, would no doubt now generate self-righteous emails from an increasingly neo-puritanical American public. I am not one of them. I remember when a person’s heart rate could be raised at the sight of a beautiful woman or nearly anything Italian. Now, sadly, Rider feels the need to apologize. Maybe declining motorcycle sales are not a symptom of expensive gas, global warming or crowded roads, all of which are made better on two wheels, but rather the passion, the joie de vivre, is being sucked out of society by the PC police. I wonder if, after the American Cultural Revolution, we’ll be able to buy sexless Mao uniforms with Kevlar? Even that nice old cover shot of model Tuttle! Several competing magazines have gone to a bi-monthly or quarterly schedule and poor artsy-fartsy design with big photos, lots of white space and coffee table appropriate covers. It has a little bit of all the reasons I love Rider. I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed and appreciated the May issue. It’s my privilege to contribute stories that, in some measure, speak to my fellow riders. Congratulations on 500 issues and counting. Fifteen years later, Rider is still the moto magazine that speaks to me. Then came the epiphany: “Bones, you’re a writer and a rider…why aren’t you writing for Rider?” So I looked up the Editorial Guidelines and pitched a guy named Mark Tuttle with my story idea on touring western North Carolina in search of BBQ ribs and twisty roads. I subscribed to several moto magazines, but Rider spoke to me. After college, I started my career as a writer and soon after bought my first motorcycle. ![]() Growing up, I was the English nerd who snuck rides on friends’ motorbikes because my parents wouldn’t let me have one of my own. Those old ads in the 500th issue (“Blasts From Rider’s Past”) brought back memories of reading about motorcycles I couldn’t have.
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