Let's see, highlights of my tenure at DR? There are about 71 million of them, but here are a few off the top of the noggin. For several years we went to Texas for our enduro shootout. Karel's parents live there, and I can remember the dry (grim) counties, the ballistic riding and the hoot-at-the-moon fun we had working. Qualifiers. I rode a jillion of them trying to make the Six-Days team. Being slow never dampened my ambition, and I ended racing in four ISDEs and had Kato (Mark Kariya) with me at all of them. Playing. Dick Burleson was a great friend, so I coaxed him into playing a role as our East Coast test guy. Actually, it was just an excuse to ride, and over a 10-year period we rode, raced, screeched and giggled around the country riding dirt bikes. The company. Petersen Publishing was a monster, yet was driven by the passion of a man who liked fast cars and shooting things. The entire magazine was always held accountable for its success, but they gave us the tools, the budget and personnel to either hang and croak or blossom. Dirt Rider exploded because of this mentality, and I was incredibly fortunate to be a small part of the team.
Today, I'm back at my roots working at Dirt Bike Magazine. The passion remains, the joints are rustier and the roost is a skosh lower, but I'm really the most blessed man on the planet. Not a lot of folks get paid for doing what they like; I make cake doing what I love.
1988
With the April issue of DR, Charlie Morey became editorial director of Dirt Rider and SuperMotocross, and legendary photographer Fran Kuhn had joined SMX. By 1988 Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha were ready to respond to the challenge that Honda had extended with the '86 and '87 models. The three brands had all-new 250s, and all three were excellent machines. Honda had a new bike as well, but in some ways it went backward, so the competition among the various brands was as close as ever. Plus, the Big Four brands had cartridge-type forks and front and rear disc brakes. Off-road racing in the U.S. was transforming. The change had begun in 1987, but by '88 all of the Big Four Japanese brands had sponsored off-road racers in some series or another. Randy Hawkins was the most notable of these, and he began his string of national enduro titles on Suzukis. One of DR's interviews in '88 was with then motocrosser Colin Edwards. The Texan commented at the time that he wanted to try roadracing; that seems to have worked out for him. A more successful motocrosser, Jean-Michel Bayle won his first World MX title. He, too, would later switch to roadracing, though with less success than Edwards.
Making A Magazine For Riders
By Ken Faught
I was flying in a helicopter over Hawaii with Jeremy McGrath and Greg Albertyn a few years ago, and I remember thinking that I had the best job in the world. Indeed, being the editor of Dirt Rider was the one position that I dreamed about from the time I started freelancing for Cycle News in the late '80s.
During my time at DR our sport underwent some of the biggest changes of all time. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the filming of Terrafirma during the birth of freestyle, saw Carey Hart pull the first backflip at the Gravity Games and witnessed Doug Henry debuts the YZM400 four-stroke in Gainesville, Florida. I watched McGrath's career from start to finish, and even managed to take him to a professional hillclimb event and got him to do a little night riding at the infamous Dirt Rider 24-Hour at Glen Helen.