These days, my sons Jon and Jeff and I are partners in our production company Ignition3 (www.ignition3.tv). We've done the ISDE shows since 2002. We did World's Fastest Motorcycle for Speed. It's now out on DVD, and we just released a 200-page book on the setting of the world motorcycle land-speed record. I partnered with the author and a couple of others on the book.
Jon and Jeff will be doing the USA backstory and content for the MX of Nations at Budd's Creek for Outdoor Channel.
I have a separate company (www.dukevideousa.com) that works as the North American distributor for Duke Motorsport DVDs. This includes MX des Nations, AMA MX, World MX season recap and over 180 titles.
1985
This was the year for 500s. All of the major players were liquid-cooled with the exception of Yamaha and Maico/M-Star. The feeling had been that a 500cc machine had plenty of power and a small loss to heat was insignificant, but with the leaps made in suspension and tire technology, it became apparent that liquid cooling was needed. By this time the secret of the Honda/Showa cartridge fork was out, and other manufacturers were attempting to come up with something that could compete. KTM fired the first shot when it fitted some models with the first WP inverted forks. Despite riding a production air-cooled Yamaha against David Bailey and arguably the trickest works bike ever raced, Broc Glover earned the 500cc title. Jeff Ward won his first 250cc and SX titles, and Ron Lechien won his first and only 125cc title.
All Good Things Come To An End
By Charlie Morey, Founding Editor, Dirt Rider Magazine
"Let's start a new dirt riding magazine," Motorcyclist Publisher Dick Lague remarked to me back in the summer of 1982. We'd met each other a half-dozen years earlier when, working as an associate editor for Cycle News/East, I did a story on the Canadian company Bombardier's Can-Am Motorcycle Division. He was their director of marketing at the time, so I spent several days outside Montreal at the factory getting to know and appreciate both Can-Am and the Lague family.
He'd later move to L.A. to take the Motorcyclist helm at Petersen Publishing Company while I'd been promoted to editor at Cycle News' home office in Long Beach, California. After I left Cycle News, he saw an opportunity to bring a brainchild to fruition.
"Why?" I asked, "Hi-Torque already publishes Dirt Bike and MXA."
"Which ones do you read?" he asked.
"None," I confessed.
"That's the point," he said, "I don't, either. Let's make one that we'd read." And with that, we conspired to create Dirt Rider, a monthly publication for grown-up dirt riders who enjoy riding with their buddies, crave in-depth product information based on objective testing rather than glibly turned phrasing and who were willing to work with government officials to assure that land would be available for years to come.
So I hired my friend, running buddy and former fellow Cycle News reporter Mark Kariya, and off we went. For me, working for Petersen Publishing Company was like getting a factory ride. The company was enthusiastic about investing in the new market, and our editorial freedom inspired creativity, camaraderie and all-around good vibrations that were transferred through the pages of Dirt Rider to our small-but-growing early readership.
Like most magazine launches, it was a challenge, but in a few years we'd stabilized financially and were featuring such early innovations as suspension dyno testing, Opinions (comments by individual test riders who were identified by riding ability, size and other characteristics), Trail Tips (reader-submitted tech tips to make the ride easier/safer/faster) and full support of our industry through new products pages, buyer's guides and comparison testing.