And I know what you dirt guys are saying, and I agree.
However, there are is segment of the readership that would like to see local road race reports produced locally. Bikemart doesn't do the job as a the vessel for roadracing in NZ. I pull it out and give it to the kids. It's an afterthought tacked on to niche magazine. The only guy I've seen report and represent both dirt and road racing is Bernard Carpinter. If his stuff is ending up in Bikemart then I apologise, but I've only spotted him very ocassionally in the Dom Post, and his rare reports in AMCN.
We either want motorcycle sport to grow in NZ or we don't. Dirt stuff is just irrelevant for me. It is really boring to watch for me. I've tried. I enjoy SMX, but that's a gladiatorial sport. It's the same old story. Everyone (and I've been guilty of it) will bag someone else's ride because it isn't them. But to the average non-motorcyclist there is no difference between a Gas Gas trials bike and a KTM 640LC. And I stick up for dirt racing. I've get the derisory comments at work, and the "how do NZ riders do overseas. Haven't heard of a NZ world champ lately" comment gives me a good lead in to Ben Townley. I probably bore them rigid. Shuts them up but.
Big Dave, don't take this the wrong way. I know how hard designers work, and I know that it is 1 percent inspiration, 1 percent art and 98 percent hard work. KR would do better to proof read their articles than to spend money on a redesign. This month's was particularly bad for spelling and grammatical errors. There have been times when part of multi page articles have missed a bit, or the paragraphs have been layed out in a way that makes it very difficult to follow. I hope the new design fixes that.
But! If they are going to cover road races, then a race report would be nice. Not some waffle about the crowd, or a couple of significant people. Dale's report was nice, but it only touched the surface of the event I feel. Ross's reply could and should have been condensed to, "Thanks for your feedback Mitch, but we reserve the right to manage both the content and editorial tone of KR. It may change in the future but for now we feel we serve our readership's requirements best the way it is."
The rambling reply did him no good in my view.
Mitch helped me out a lot after my accident last year, both with the Insurance process, and by telling me that, "yes, you are a fuckwit for falling off, but we all do that. What are you gonna get next?" I don't think she deserved to be browbeaten.
BD you obviously missed Mr Owen's venomous letter to BRM about their review of the Rocket III. I don't read the dirt section of KR, so I might well be reading RM wrong, but the tone of the road section feels like sales brochure, and I'm sure it's only there so that born agains will buy the mag.
Bookmarks