The Demise of Two Great Motorcycle Magazines

I always wanted to be in a doctor’s office. Not because I enjoyed being sick or was looking forward to yet one more awkward sports physical where my elderly family physician was without warning replaced by his young attractive female intern, but because I wanted to be in the waiting room. In print.

It’s an absurd life goal to want to be a moto journalist for a magazine. I cannot explain such an absurdity, yet I would sit there and happily flip through short attention span magazine articles in my doctor’s office for hours dreaming of how one day I could end up in glossy print. It took my mind off wondering which doctor I was going to get.

Reading them at home was my guilty pleasure. For many endless years of two jobs, three young children and no motorcycle, I had subscriptions to Cycle World and Motorcyclist and devoured every word like I was starving. I wanted to ride with Don Canet, sit in Peter Egan’s garage as he told stories or discuss computational fluid dynamics with Kevin Cameron.

In my hand I hold the last issues of each magazine, the July-August 2019 issue of Motorcyclist and issue #4 of Cycle World printed in fall of 2020. Both magazines stopped their presses then but continued to exist online until this past July, when their owners at Octane Lending shut down Cycle World and Motorcyclist completely, along with Dirt Rider, Motorcycle Cruiser and other ATV, UTV and electric bike publications. Advertising dollars that shifted away from print and killed their paper publications continued their shift and pulled away from their websites, making them no longer viable.

The last issue of Cycle World features a desert explore on Honda’s then new Trail 125, Peter Egan’s Assault On Pikes Peak on its sister bike the Super Cub 125, and a letter from editor Mark Hoyer announcing the move to digital-only publication.

Social media might be to blame, funneling advertising dollars to influencers who litter Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and more. People are becoming more likely to pick up their phones in a doctor’s office than pick up a magazine, and advertising dollars follow the eyes of the buyer. However, there is a glitch in the influencer-driven cyberworld. In a recent conversation, my former editor Eli Madero sat down with me and eleven others while on tour and we discussed the trend. He summarized it well.

“There is a difference,” he said, “between influencers and riders like you and your group. Influencers do it for the social media posturing, clicks and likes. They are driven by it, even owned by it. You and your group are real riders. You do it because you love it.”

Eli was right, as usual. That conversation happened at the summit of Lolo Pass on day two of a week long tour. None of us made videos, social media posts or sought clicks for our epic adventure which would be worthy of such things. It was a dream tour with fast riders in a breathtaking land and yet I never wrote a single word about it. Me and the others in our group were in it because we love it. If we stopped riding, we would all surely burst into flame.

The last issue of Motorcyclist displayed an MV Agusta 500 on the cover and featured a ride on California’s coast on two, three and four wheels on a Honda Goldwing, Polaris Slingshot and Chevrolet Camaro. Author Chris Cantle announced that the current issue would be its last.

Such is the entire crew at Road Dirt Motorcycle Media, some of whom were former editors or contributors for those now defunct publications or others. No one here is getting rich doing this because this is a matter of the heart and we hope it comes across in what you see and read. As for being an influencer, the people I wish to influence most sit across from me at morning coffee and the dinner table. I hope my influence is positive.

Just a few days ago I was at the doctor’s office and there were no magazines on the tables for me to read. As I surveyed the room, everyone there had their heads down, staring at their phones, scrolling with their thumbs. Then I realized that maybe my dream of being read in a doctor’s office was not dead, it had just changed from print to digital. I have no idea if anyone there was on Road Dirt’s website because staring over someone’s shoulder in a doctor’s office is creepy. Enough uncomfortable things already happen at a doctor’s office.

Keeping the “Ride Life” alive,

Ted Edwards