Kit Palmer | September 6, 2023
Cycle News Observation Check
COLUMN
Time Flies
They say time flies when you’re having fun and I must agree. The current issue of Cycle News, #35, September 4, 2023, the one you’re reading now, marks a milestone in my journalistic career because issue #35, September 14, 1983, was my first as an official Cycle News editorial staff member. The first issue that my name appeared on the CN masthead was the issue with Hakan Carlqvist on the cover. Surely, you remember. Well, I do. That was 40 years and 2000 issues ago. Time has flown by and it has indeed been fun.
My title back then was editor, just as it is today. But, back then, I was not the editor. No, that honor went to Senior Editor Dale Brown, who took a mammoth gamble on this 22-year-old Southern Californian kid who chose to work in a Honda shop during the week and race motocross on the weekends over going to college straight out of high school. College could wait; racing motocross couldn’t.
Somehow, I landed a job in the motorcycle industry when, at the time, the motorcycle industry was chugging along on fumes, which explains why we had a lean staff of just four editors, including me, back then. (Years later, it would be more like six or seven editors.) Besides Dale, there were two other editors on staff before I showed up, Lance Bryson and David Edwards. Shortly after that, Edwards left to be the editor of Cycle World magazine, so at one point, it was just the three of us running the ship before we brought on Matt Hilgenberg. Later, Bryson was promoted to senior editor for our new sister publication ATV News.
At the time, I had no clue why Mr. Brown had hired me, but I wasn’t about to ask. I didn’t feel all that qualified to be an editor for such a prominent publication as Cycle News because I didn’t have any real writing experience or journalism education, but I guess I could write a basic sentence. Dale knew what my writing skills were, and he hired me anyway. Dale was aware of my credentials, having written for CN as a local motocross contributor for the Western Hotline section of the paper for a few years prior, so if a man I respected as much as Dale thought I could succeed in the industry as an editor, well, I thought I could, too. And since he took such a chance on me, I wasn’t going to let him down.
Besides my lack of writing skills, I did have a few things going for me. I could ride dirt bikes (and even street bikes) reasonably well; no one had a better knowledge of the sport of motocross than me back then (at least in my mind), I could take decent photos and develop them myself, I never missed deadlines, and I was single, so traveling to the races every friggin’ weekend was never an issue. Every Friday, it was like our travel agent would plop tickets down on my desk, and I’d go, “Oh, man, where am I going this weekend? Sand Hill Ranch, awesome.”
But, it really was awesome. I was going to a motocross race to watch some of the best in the world compete, so I didn’t care if I was going to a stinky dairy farm somewhere outside of Fresno or wonderful Lake Huron in the middle of nowhere California. (Come to think of it, I never did see the “lake,” and I’m not sure if there really was a lake. Just cows.) Plus, I was getting paid to do it!
When I started at Cycle News, I jumped right into the fire. My first assignment was covering the Mammoth Mountain Motocross. I was extremely nervous about interviewing some of the top riders there, like Johnny O’Mara, Danny Chandler, and the new kid on the block, Ron Lechien. I had never met Lechien or Chandler, and when I finally got the nerve to walk up to Chandler, who was alone resting in between motos in his Honda box van, he immediately invited me inside, and we chatted like we were good friends. I never forgot that. He made me feel comfortable; perhaps he sensed I was nervous. The ice was broken. I now had the courage to interview the stars of the sport whom I had been reading about for so long. Thanks to Chandler, I now had the confidence to interview Yamaha’s new factory racer and 250cc Mammoth winner, Lechien. For some reason, Lechien intimidated me big-time that day, but as it turned out, it was for no reason. Lechien was cool to me, too.
Mammoth was the start of a hectic schedule. The CMC Trans-Cal MX Series started in late summer and was followed by the CMC Golden State MX Series in the winter. And I went to them all! I think I single-handedly kept Western Airlines and PSA in business for a couple of extra years. I quickly learned even more about deadlines, airports, rental cars, hotels, transcribing tapes, and how to type faster and faster while living off black coffee and no sleep. It was not glamorous. But no high-dollar and prestigious four-year college anywhere in the world could’ve taught me more about the world of journalism than what I learned in the first four months working at Cycle News. No wonder CN had the nickname Cycle News U. It was an appropriate one. Good luck if you wanted to work at one of the glossies (monthly magazines) and didn’t have Cycle News on your resume.
I remember a lot about my first few months at Cycle News 40 years ago. However, a few things stand out, like being given a super-tech but used company typewriter on my first day on the job. You know, the one that had that little ball with all the letters on it and built-in white-out! How cool was that! I had my own push-button phone, too. I had made the big time.
I remember David Edwards’ desk butting up to mine, face to face. That’s right, face-to-face. Pretty unforgettable, really. I remember the god-awful cigarette smoke that stung my eyes horribly; I could barely see Dale’s office through the brown haze just two cubicles away. Nearly all the CN staff seemed to puff away like a raging SoCal brush fire. Every few hours, I had to take a step outside on the balcony to grab a few breaths of fresh Signal Hill air and then dive back in. The computer room was sealed off from the smoke; obviously, the computers’ health was more important than ours. I also remember our underground parking lot where the “cage” was that stored our test bikes. It held, I don’t know, maybe five bikes. When I got there, there was only one bike in there. I’ll never forget it, a beautiful Maico Sand Spider.
I could go on and on about my 40 years at Cycle News — the motorcycles, the races, the people, the racers, the travel, and all that. Perhaps another column someday. But those first few months 40 years ago were the most memorable of so many memorable moments working at Cycle News.
Wow. Forty years. All I can say is thanks, Dale. Thanks for giving me a shot and having faith in me 2000 issues ago. I’m glad you did. And I hope you—our readers—are glad he did, too.CN