Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'dirtbikemagazine'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Inside XLADV
    • Help Desk
    • KTM 990 Bike Build
  • General
    • Staging Area
    • Ride Reports
    • Pictures and Video
    • Big Girls Don’t Cry
    • Adventure Touring
    • Racing
    • Wrenching
    • GPS
    • Gear, Farkles and Equipment
    • Beyond Starbucks
  • Big Bikes
    • Which bike should I buy?
    • Make/Model Specific
    • Big Bike Tech
  • Regional
    • United States
    • International
  • Marketplace
    • Classifieds

Products Categories

Vehicles Categories

Garages

Blogs

  • Eric Hall's Blog
  • The Great American Trek
  • Blog della Motostella
  • EarthRider's Blog
  • Ballisticexchris' Blog
  • PNWTenere's Blog
  • Nate J.'s Blog
  • Erx Blog
  • ridingfullcircle's Blog
  • One Wheel Wheatley

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


AIM


MSN


Website URL


ICQ


Yahoo


Jabber


Skype


Interests

Found 1 result

  1. Hey everyone, So for my current waste of your valuable forum space I'd like to hit up the crowd for some suggestions. I'm coming down to the Phoenix/Maricopa area some time this Summer probably quite late. My annual solo "ride off into the desert" thing is coming up and for this years' festivities I've given myself a treat. I got a hold of a man that helped me through my adolescence far better than the skin mags available back then. I obviously refer to Mr.Know-It-All himself, Mr. Rick "Superhunky" Sieman, the notorious editor-in-chief of Dirt Bike magazine. He set me straight on a few things when I came back to dirt biking after a long absence, thereby saving me quite a bit of heartache and coin. For a guy who is a legend amongst dirt bikers to take the time to answer his mail personally and actually reach out and help some fella is astonishing in this day and age. But that is how he ordered his troops to write, like they were talking to a friend. Which is what made "Dirt Bike" special and set the template for all the modern moto mags. Before that they pretty much ran some glossies and the faff provided by the companies wherein every bike was a winner, just choose a color and or style. Which led to some truly abysmal atrocities being foisted on an unsuspecting American public such as the TM250 Cyclone, a bike whose horrible reputation outlasted the actual bike by a long time. It was legendary even when I came up, a truly Evil bike. But because Joel Robert's factory ride looked like it, it sold in far greater numbers than it should have because no-one would say what a murderous pig it was. So a lot of weekend would-bes got a trip to the ER instead of the Podium, cementing the bike's evil reputation forever. However after Rick took over manufacturers were put on notice, no glitzy cover-up. If your bike was a dog expect the readers of Dirt Bike to know. They would make an actual level best attempt to use the aforementioned item in its' intended function, but with sometimes laughable results. Which led to even better magazine sales as people weren't used to the style of writers actually performing quantifiable, evidentiary-based tests on the bikes in question and reporting it in a friendly manner that was easy to read with relevant action shots. A true revolution at the time and the blueprint for mags that survive to this day. However, unfortunately that has NOT led to a moderate sized mountain of cash for Rick as he has basically been forced by medical bills to return to the US if I understand it correctly. Now this is a man who has given his all to Moto to the point of breaking his back testing at the first Supercross track in Anaheim, a true living legend of dirt biking and a great personal inspiration. I don't suit up for a ride in the forests that I don't think of him and the Duck fighting the good fight against the BLM in Federal Court for a few hundred greasy dirt bikers to be able to ride the LAB2V. And the then District 37 of the AMA didn't do squat on their behalf but nod along to whichever way the wind blew while the Duck and Rick sweated it out and paid through the nose for the Court case. Which they won but that is a story best told in either "Monkey Butt" or his newest book available from his Facebook page signed. I'm going to shamelessly hawk both here as I own several copies myself and after buying almost all the swag on his Superhunky site and his Facebook site I finally drilled up the courage to ask if I could arrange to visit him personally sometime this Summer to which he graciously accepted. So instead of my usual "go to remote mining road and bang along for 30 miles until remains on right" I have a destination with a purpose. Now however I have a total lack of information on what exactly is profitable as far as big bike exploration without making oneself a casualty in the Phoenix/Maricopa environs. Obviously first aid kit updated for the freakin' scorpions I remember from the area and I've already got snake stuff onboard. Shouldn't be a thing with aluminum sealed panniers and no overnight sand camping but forewarned is....as they say. I'll be packing both rotopax for about 1.75 gallons of water and fuel respectively to allow for expansion in the heat. Damn, just remembered Gila Monsters, anything special for those beyond good sturdy boots and a knife like for a snake? I will continue to "climatize" myself by increasing my exposure to desert heat and maintaining a proper hydration/electrolyte balance while doing so here this Summer by way of prep for the big ride. As I've already logged a couple of scorchers here (90+) I'm well on my way. But this will be a full-on multi day trip of some 3000 miles, the longest I've ever taken. I obviously will be staying at whatever fleabag Air Conditioned units I can throw my panniers and myself at, I'm not too picky without my Wife. And I damned sure REFUSE to superslab it down interstate 5 into California and over, yuck. I'm taking the 95 route out through Southeastern Oregon, Nevada and then into Arizona. So please any suggestions along or near that route would be great as far as big bike friendly things to do. I don't smoke or drink anymore and I think my Wife might frown at any "other" deployments one might get into as far as Vices in Nevada, but feel free to make any suggestions you might have as far as things to do. And now to wrap up, sorry for wasting all this space but this will actually be the first time I feel like I have anything worth documenting as far a "ride report" and I want to be able to do it some justice. I'm damned near certain that our little niche of ADV riding on public lands in America would not exist as we know it without the efforts of Mr. Sieman. There is a strong relevancy to "Monkey Butt" that resonates even today what with Mr. Chaffetz and his new-found friends at the BLM trying to dispose of a few billion acres of my Kids' and your Kids' land that was otherwise "unusable". So much for a guy who just started out wanting to know why the BLM needed automatic weapons, he all of a sudden was their champion of the disposal of excess federal lands to satisfy our huge national debt. But these are ruminations and thoughts I plan to discuss with Rick and I'm also interested in any questions you guys might have for him as well, so please use this space as a place to ask them. Obviously, given my age I attach a great deal of importance to what he might have to say as he is damned near a God to guys like me, like I say every time I suit up and go to the forests I think of him. I have become politically active this late in life in no small part due to his efforts even although we may or may not agree politically on every agenda. That's the beauty of the American system ~ when it actually is working for its' Citizens and they can share ideas freely without fear of appearing "contrary" or just plain simple because they are being mocked for having an opinion against the herd. So post up, let me know what a fool I am to ride all that ways, how many excruciating cramps I will have in my thighs for WEEKS afterwards, how it is all a hare-brained scheme to cage a few days' ride in the desert, whatever. All I know is that I'm not getting any younger and neither is he, so if I want to get the chance it's now or never and I'm going. The start for a rather good "adventure" I should think......
×
×
  • Create New...