1984
Technology rolled on, and Jeff Ward and Rick Johnson won their first titles, while David Bailey earned his third. Honda introduced the four-valve RFVC XR250R, and it enjoyed decent success, but the engine had overheating and reliability issues. Honda kept the chassis as the XR200R for nearly 20 years. It retired it when the CRF230F was released. But historically other factors ultimately had a greater effect on the sport. Shaun Kalos traveled to amateur races in a converted bus, and that inspired decades of envy from fellow racers, and now you can barely see an amateur race through the big rigs parked there. Visionary Mad Scientist Dave Miller of DMC fame built the world's sickest mini for Eddie Hicks. The little YZ had the first motocross success with a tubular aluminum frame. Team Tamm entered the scene, and with it the beginning of satellite privateer race teams like those that populate the pits at all professional racing venues, motocross and off-road. Finally, as a sign of his amazing talent and the narrowing gap between factory bikes and production bikes, Rick Johnson won his title on a production Yamaha.
Editors
Building A Better Magazine
By Dick Lague
I can't believe it has been 25 years since we started Dirt Rider. It seems like yesterday that we decided that the world needed a magazine about dirt bikes that was different and better than what was already out there.
How did Dirt Rider begin? I had always been an off-road rider. Before I got to the magazine business, I worked for Ossa importer Yankee Motors and had been the director of marketing for Can-Am Motorcycles. I joined Petersen Publishing in 1976 as the publisher of Motorcyclist.
Dan Ashcraft
In 1981, I spent a week in the Colorado Rockies riding Wally Dallenbach's Colorado 500 event. On this ride I discovered that guys like the Unsers, Dan Gurney, Chip Ganassi, Jerry Grant and many other well-known drivers were very good dirt riders and very big enthusiasts. I met an interesting collection of off-road motorcycle enthusiasts who were very deep into dirt bikes, and I found out they didn't read any dirt-bike magazines. Nothing spoke to them. I felt that this was the tip of the iceberg, and there had to be a big audience for a better dirt magazine.
My friend Charlie Morey had just left Cycle News and was looking for freelance work. We decided to do a one-time publication titled Dirt Bike Guide that would go in the direction of exploring the fun of dirt bikes. As we moved ahead with this one-issue magazine, we got excited about launching a monthly dirt magazine. Dirt Rider seemed like the most descriptive name, so we used that.
I was very fortunate that my boss at Petersen, Fred Waingrow, and owner Robert E. Petersen liked the idea of launching Dirt Rider. Our plan was approved and we moved ahead to launch the first issue in December 1982. The early staff consisted of Elke Martin, Mark Kariya and Charlie Morey. We knew we had a great idea, but the early days were really tough. Reader acceptance was very good, but getting advertising support was difficult. Many dirt-industry advertisers were reluctant to support us at first, they were worried that they would not get editorial support from the existing dirt magazines in the market if they advertised with us. It took longer than we liked, but the ad community's support caught up to the great reader support. Within a couple of years we had a great magazine and a viable business.
Al Baker
The Dirt Rider I enjoy today takes that original idea to a level we could not imagine in those old days. Jimmy Lewis and I had a long conversation a couple of years ago and I told him how very impressed I am at the job he is doing with "my baby." I'm sure Karel Kramer, the old timer from the original staff, keeps everyone aware of the tradition and history of Dirt Rider.
Keep the great issues coming guys and congratulations on 25 great years.