Is there really no more good motorcycle content? Part 2: Racing is boring.

“Racing: Don’t bother, no one cares. And modern racers are perhaps the least interesting people in the entire world.”
                                                                         —Wes Siler

That’s just a throwaway line in “How To Make The Next Great Motorcycle Blog”, and it shouldn’t, by rights, be the first point I dig into in this series, but I thought I’d try to post it while MotoGP is making a rare U.S. stop in Austin.

RE: “...modern racers are perhaps the least interesting people in the entire world.” If he means top level GP and Superbike racers, I agree. It’s not an accident that I’m writing this from Kansas City, on a weekend when MotoGP and MotoAmerica are in Austin (“close by” at 750 miles away.)

There are a bunch of reasons for that. Top-tier racers have become sponsor-thanking robots; they’re starting much younger and reaching the top level at an age when they have no life experience or perspective to share; few MotoGP riders speak English as a first language, which is a problem for American journalists who generally speak only English. And if a journalist gets too curious, there’s the problem of controlled access. MotoAmerica lost one of the handful of racers who had a real personality before the season even started, when Dane Westby was killed in a streetbike crash in Tulsa. Bummer.

So I get it, and I agree that I’d rather spend a weekend in KC—wondering if my grass seed’s ever going to sprout and finding the leak that leaves a tiny spot under my Vino every time I park it—than sitting in a MotoGP press conference, watching the race on TV in the media center, and trying to interpret Rossi’s mindset based on the glimpse I got of him scurrying out of his garage. The probability of me writing a good story with a unique angle is about the same in both locations, and staying home saves me a thousand bucks, all in.

It doesn’t necessarily follow that you shouldn’t bother or that no one cares.

CoTA, 2013: This guy cared enough to keep this T-shirt white for 20 years.

I did go to Austin for the first MotoGP race in 2013. I wanted to see whether fans were going to rise up in Kevin Schwantz’ defense; I was curious whether fans got good value for the price of their tickets; and frankly I was curious what it was like to attend a race as a punter, instead of a participant (at whatever level). I hadn’t bought a ticket and sat in the ‘stands for decades. 

CoTA drew a pretty impressive crowd and, unlike most journalists, I spent the whole weekend amongst that crowd. The racing itself was intense and impressive as shit, with lots of decent viewing even for those on lowly General Admission passes. The fans were happy and many were knowledgeable. There were lots of T-shirts from old GP/SBK/AMA weekends that I could tell were taken out and worn only on special occasions. And there was a really cool custom bike show downtown, along with a little bit of a sense that, for a few days at least, we were the cool kids.

So while it’s true that most American motorcyclists are ambivalent about racing, it’s not true that no one cares. And even working within the strictures of the MotoGP paddock, David Emmett, for example, manages to make a living putting up informative content.

All of that, though, was a preamble to get to this point: It’s true that top level racers are usually boring and uncooperative, and it’s true that most American motorcyclists think of top-level racing as, “A bunch of guys I’ve never heard of, doing a kind of riding that I don’t do.” 

But.

That doesn’t mean all racing is boring, or that you can’t write racing stories that resonate with ordinary riders. Here’s how: Go race yourself; participating in even the shittiest, low-level club race is a more intense experience than watching MotoGP. You might tell a story of accessible racing that actually lures a street rider into a “new racer” school and by doing so, save someone’s life. Take up trials, or ice racing; those disciplines are accessible and will help you hone skills that transfer to the riding “real motorcyclists” do, however they choose to define it.

Go to Pikes Peak. You don’t even need a racing license to compete there. Or, go cover any "real roads" race in Ireland or on the Isle of Man; I admit they’ve tightened entry requirements at the TT so you can’t just show up and actually race there, the way I did, but you can still get great access to a cast of characters who all have the gift of craic. The best racing story I've ever personally written, was written about a race open to rank amateurs.

Or, go cover a Grand National flat track race; that paddock’s full of unguarded characters; it’s easy to get a press credential and once you’re in, you’re in. I’ve had racers invite me into their campers and offer to share their lunch with me. I’ve never met a GNC racer who didn’t volunteer his (or her) email address and phone number when I asked for it, and they all answer and speak freely. It doesn’t matter that the grandstands are full of Duck Dynasty reject, Murica-love-it-or-leave-it Neanderthals*, because the pits are full of the best kind of Americans. It’s no accident that motorcycle racers around the world hold their manhoods cheap, whilst any speaks who's made a GNC Main.

So, Wes, “Racing: Don’t bother, no one cares. And modern racers are perhaps the least interesting people in the entire world"? I know what you mean, and you're right.

But you're also wrong.

*And yes, I realize that's an insult to Neanderthals.

UPDATE After I posted this, Jim McDermott (who is one of the part time motorcycle journalists who definitely does post content worth reading, by the way) noted, "Don't blame the riders, it's the sponsors' fault they're boring."

Now, I wasn't going to digress this far, but since Jim's opened that door… Years ago, when the Red Bull Rookies Cup had just started in the U.S., Red Bull invited Road Racer X Magazine to attend a session and try one of the bikes, with the first crop of young rookies. Chris Jonnum sent me to Barber, where I spent a day watching the young rookies practice and, incidentally, get trained in "media relations" by some guy that Red Bull had brought in for that exact purpose.

The first irony of this was, Red Bull had invited journalists to come and watch them train young racers to be the kind of interviewees that journalists hate. The second irony was that the main coach/figurehead of the U.S. 'Rookies' program was Kevin Schwantz, who became one of the most-loved American racers precisely because he wasn't that guy.

So, yes Jim, you're right to point out that much of the responsibility for this lies with sponsors. And I won't argue that money's the root of this particular evil. I can't, because all the "good" racing that I cite is, essentially, amateur stuff.

Is there really no more good motorcycle content? Part 1...

Last week a friend of mine forwarded a link to a story on Gizmodo entitled, "How To Make The Next Great Motorcycle Blog". That story’s been read by quite a few people, I surmise, because a.) my friend doesn’t even ride motorcycles, and b.) the story contains a link to a story that, in turn, contains a link to a story here on Bikewriter.com. And that third-order link has led to a measurable uptick in my traffic in the last week.

Phew. Pretty complicated thought there. Hope you’re still with me. Anyway, the story that started all this, which I’ll call HTMTNGMB was written by Wes Siler. 

Siler’s credentials are, he created a blog called Hell for Leather, which was almost as good as its name. H4L sadly morphed into one called RideApart, which is almost as crappy as that name.

He launched into his piece with a provocative statement, "There's no good motorcycle content anymore." That was bound to rile a few of the people who make a living (or, as in my case, part of a living) putting up motorcycle content. And, when he followed it up with a somewhat self-aggrandizing "That's partly my fault", it was a cue for some eye-rolls amongst motorcycle journalists. 

At least he didn't say, "It's all my fault." 

Before I agree with some of what Wes has to say, I am going to disabuse you of something he wrote in order to establish his bona fides. In HTMTNGMB, he claims that he "...grew [H4L/RA] into the most widely read motorcycle website in just a few years." 

Maybe he's basing his claim that H4L was the most widely read blog on his estimate that "the biggest scoop of the year" on other sites is lucky to pull in 10,000 viewers. 

I've written for both MO and (recently and regularly) Motorcycle-USA.com. I think both those sites always drew a lot more readers than Hell for Leather. While I informally track 'likes' on my own posts and, otherwise, kind'a want to stay out of their business, I’d say that for either MO or MC-USA, a post seen by 10,000 viewers a day is solid but not record-breaking. 

To put Siler’s audience estimates in perspective, Motorcycle USA’s video review of the new YZF-R1 has been watched over 200,000 times in the last six weeks, according to YouTube. Asphalt & Rubber claims to have built it’s audience up to 650,000 unique viewers a month.

That said, Hell for Leather was—in its heyday—one of the sites that I checked daily. Wes put up some decent content, and I'd be very interested to read a follow-on post from him about how H4L, which started out as a bit of a prodigy, ended up as RideApart, a purveyor of shitty clickbait listicles. In the meantime, if I'm going to be upset by a little hubris, or a post that plays fast and loose with facts, I need to get off the Interweb.

That's most of my Wes-bashing, done. His post raises some interesting points. Over the next week or two, I hope to find time to address some of them in two or three follow-on posts.

• Is there really no interesting content?
• Is that the fault of "old media" brands like Motorcyclist and Cycle World?
• Would it really be easy to make $10k/mo as a motorcycle blogger?

Check back in, why don’t you?

Monday Morning Crew Chief, Friday edition: All about arm pump

UPDATE: After I posted this, my FB friend Mick Fialkowski informed me that Julián Simón had the same surgery by the same doctor, back in 2009, and that he's "as good as new" today. He warned me not to write Pedrosa off.  Simón won the last 125cc GP title in '09, and came close to winning the first Moto2 title in '10. He may indeed be as good as new, although he's now a 10th-place runner in Moto2, happy with a few points per race. He never showed his dominant 2009 form again, perhaps because he was physically incapable of running right at the front on the heavier Moto2 machines.

The MotoGP opener had more than one race's worth of drama; it's a shame no one saw it live, eh?

Post-race, it emerged that Pedrosa's arm-pump issues remain rate-limiting. Since all the usual surgical solutions have been tried, he's now in the same "let's-just-try-throwing-out-this-one-small-part-maybe-we-don't-need-it" club that Nicky Hayden's in. In Nicky's case it was a few small bones in his wrist; there are so many in there, could they all have a purpose? Surely those are just vestigial/disposable, like your tonsils or appendix. In Pedrosa's case, it was "dissecting and removing" the fascia (a tough, fibrous wrapping) around the muscles of his forearm.

Fascia are made of collagen and engineered to stretch primarily in one direction. They allow for some expansion of muscles as blood flows in when the muscle's exercising. But, once they're stretched to the limit, they can restrict additional blood flow. Hence, 'arm pump', which sports physiologists more accurately label, Chronic Compartment Syndrome.

Viz, Wikipedia:

Chronic compartment syndrome[edit]

When compartment syndrome is caused by repetitive use of the muscles, as in a cyclist, it is known as chronic compartment syndrome (CCS).
When compartment syndrome is caused by repetitive use of the muscles, as in a cyclist, it is known as chronic compartment syndrome (CCS).^[10][11] This is usually not an emergency, but the loss of circulation can cause temporary or permanent damage to nearby nerves and muscles. The cause of compartment syndrome is due to excess pressure on or within the muscle compartments. This pressure can occur for many different reasons, many are due to injuries. Injuries cause the swelling of tissue. The swelling of the tissue forces pressure upon the muscle compartments, which has a limited volume. Due to this pressure, the venules and lymphatic vessels that drain the muscle compartments are compressed, and are prevented from draining. As arterial inflow continues while outflow is decreased, the pressure builds up in the muscle compartments. This pressure will eventually decrease the amount of blood flow over the capillary bed, causing the tissue to become ischaemic. The tissues will release factors and will lead to the formation of edema.

'Ischaemic' means, oxygen-starved.

The normal treatment for this, which Pedrosa's already undergone, is a fasciotomy. You can look that up on Wikipedia, too, but I don't recommend looking at the pictures before lunch. The more radical approach that Pedrosa and his Spanish physician just tried, was essentially removing the fascia.

Yuck.

So, what remains to be learned is, essentially, was Pedrosa's fascia actually doing anything useful, before arm pump set in? 

Because motorcycle racing is very, very hard on your right forearm, which is tightly packed with the muscles required to flex/extend/stabilize your wrist under acceleration and braking, clench your fingers as while gripping the throttle and braking. If that fascia is an essential piece of that biological machine; if that part of your body's not working, that's your career as a MotoGP rider, done.

The upside to this is that there's increasingly talk of getting rid of brolly dollies in MotoGP. Pedrosa, tiny, perfect, and often pouting, will make a perfect umbrella boy.

But seriously, folks… I'm sure that Honda's done everything they can, to the motorcycle, to minimize stress on Pedrosa's arm. But the consensus among sports physiologists is that while different athletes have a different tolerance for the kinds of stresses that lead to arm pump, each person's response is consistent. That's why Pedrosa chose that dramatic, last-ditch surgical solution: because he knew that if his arm pump came back once, it would keep coming back.

By the way, it's happened to me. Not only does it hurt like hell and result in a dramatic decrease in fine motor control, I found myself wondering, Will the next braking zone be the one where I attempt to squeeze the brake and nothing happens? Or will I get to the turn-in point, wrench on the bars, and have my hand just fall off the grip? It was fucking scary, and I raced at half-speed, compared to Pedrosa.

Pedrosa's not the only high-level racer whose results and career have been limited by the problem, but I don't remember anyone else going to such surgical extremes to resolve it. For the record, I admit that  last year, when Nicky had his wrist surgery, I predicted it would be the end of his career. I was wrong; Nicky's letting his heart rule over his head again.

That won't prevent me telling you that this will be the last year for Pedrosa. Mainly because I don't think that he'll be willing to circulate at the back of the grid, clawing for a point here and there. Although years on shit bikes beat him down, Nicky fundamentally loves the riding. That's not something Pedrosa ever really projects; I don't think he's a guy who will ride for the sake of riding. (Marquez would, though.)

What I wish I knew was, has Honda tried to datalog Pedrosa vs. Marquez, specifically looking at the rider inputs, not their bikes' responses? David Emmett, any insight here? Obviously, they're capturing brake pressures and turn-in rates, but what about other factors, such as grip pressure?

I am sure that Pedrosa's sure he's tried everything in terms of adjusting his riding style, but in the absence of data, even he's just speculating. It's entirely possible his problem's physiological, not behavioral; I suppose he may have to work his tiny, Tyrannosaurus arms extra hard because he's too small for his body inputs to have much influence. (Yes, Keith Code, I am aware that body inputs have no influence. Whatever.)

Logging total rider effort/input in a scientific way would be a great project for someone like Dainese.

By the way… There was a little bit of "draft Nicky" chatter when it emerged that Pedrosa wouldn't race Austin. With the Aspar team sponsorship in shambles, and as a contracted Honda rider, the idea of putting an American on the factory bike in Austin seems like a no-brainer. I don't know exactly why it didn't happen, but I wonder whether Nicky himself even wanted it. Why submit yourself to an apples-to-apples comparison with Marquez? It's a recipe for embarrassment. 

Local TV, for once, gets a motorcycle fatality right

In the days after Dane Westby's untimely death, local Tulsa television showed conspicuous care and judgement in the way they covered the story. That included balanced, sensitive, and non-sensational coverage of his funeral.

NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com |
I don't know whether credit for this should go to News on 6 news director (I believe that's Scott Thompson, a much awarded, very experienced journalist) or whether it reflects the fact that the Westby family is long-established and respected in the community—there's a 'Westby Hall' at University of Tulsa.

Whatever the reason, though, I was pleased to see such respectful coverage of an event that would usually have been reported with a macabre, schadenfreude-laden "another motorcycle death" spin.

So thanks, News on 6.

Although I didn't know him, I'd say his death is a large loss to the nascent MotoAmerica series. Not only was he fast and destined for on-track stardom, but he was real person—not a characterless sponsor-thanking robot, raised from birth to be a racer with no other life experience. As such, he was the kind of guy who could appeal to a new generation of fans, who take an ironic view of sponsorship and value authenticity.

There's still no explanation for Westby's street bike crash. It happened on a commercial strip, and there would surely have been witnesses, if he'd been riding like an asshole. So, I think it's safe to assume he was riding responsibly. But something happened, he ended up running up on a curb and hitting a pole.

If there's a lesson in this, it's a lesson for the most skilled street riders who feel that the rest of the motorcycling public desperately need better machine control skills.

The skilled guys, rightly, point out that almost every motorcycle crash—especially single-vehicle crashes, as Westby's may have been—could be avoided if only the (usually) newb/drunk/reckless rider had been able to brake harder or change direction faster. The skilled guys, who are racers and track-day riders, who train on dirt bikes, etc., often derive a sense of security from the knowledge that they're in the skilled minority.

The lesson is: Even Dane Westby—a national-caliber racer at the height of his powers—got into a situation that he couldn't ride out of. If it can happen to him, it can happen to you.

It's spring. In the midwest and across the northern tier, car drivers who don't see us at the best of times are now unused to seeing us at all. And the sides of the road are still covered with gravel, salt dust, and a winter's worth of detritus. You're almost certainly a little rusty, too. If you have to take evasive action out of the main travel lane, there's a good chance you will not be able to make that second change of direction that will keep you on the road.

So pay extra attention and increase your following distance. Because if you kill yourself, your local TV station won't pay you the same respect.

Lane-splitting in the mainstream? Here's a two-step program to get those laws passed

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a neutral-to-pro-motorcycle story about lane splitting, noting that several states are at least considering legislation that would make it legal for motorcyclists to travel between lanes of stopped or slow-moving cars (at least, when certain conditions are met.) That would actually give lane splitting a status it doesn't have in California, where I believe it's merely "not illegal", as opposed to specifically permitted by statute.

Duh! In most European countries, you have to prove you can competently "filter" (aka lane split) in order to get a motorcycle license.

The ability to keep moving when cars are stuck in stop-and-go traffic is the killer app for motorcycles and motorcycle sales. And the motorcycle lobby (as fractured as it is) has finally done a decent job of convincing legislators across the U.S. that it can be done "safely". The challenge is that a significant number of drivers (read: most voters) are still against it.

When surveyed, uninformed drivers cite "danger" as the reason they're opposed. They also claim they're frequently startled by motorcycle traveling between lanes (solution: pay attention) and, less frequently, claim it's unfair that motorcycles can get through stalled traffic when cars can't.

In my work in the ad industry, I've organized many consumer surveys, and I can tell you that even anonymous respondents tell interviewers what they think is the best answer, not necessarily what they really feel.

The primary opposition to lane splitting is that rarely-mentioned issue of fairness, or its corollary, cage-drivers' territoriality. So if the people lobbying for lane splitting want laws to pass, the argument they need to make is, allowing motorcycles to filter helps everyone get to where they're going faster.

Every vehicle that moves out of the traffic column (and into the interstitial space between lanes) speeds the flow of the column, not just the flow of motorcycles. And traffic engineers can prove that sometimes even changing the number of cars/hour by a few percent can make the difference between flowing and stop-and-go traffic patterns. By allowing lane splitting, legislators will

• improve traffic flows for cars, as well as motorcycles
• improve the economy and sales tax revenues by encouraging motorcycle sales
• increase the number of commuters who choose motorcycles
• free up parking spaces
• reduce the production of CO2 and hence, reduce global warming

To recap: the way you get lane splitting laws passed is, by making it clear that lane splitting will improve traffic  and parking congestion for cars.

As for safety, you can easily protect motorcyclists in the long term by writing a proviso into laws that lane spitting is only legal when motorcyclists wear helmets, and by specifying that if states with mandatory helmet laws repeal those laws, that the right to lane split is automatically also repealed.

Friction between "AMA" and "AMA Pro Racing"

The other day, DMG-slash-AMA Pro Racing—in the guise of Fan's Choice—issued a press release saying that as part of the run up to the season opening GNC short track races down in Daytona, they'd broadcast the "DAYTONA Flat Track Amateur Championship".

When that phrase showed up on my monitor, I thought, Hmm… it's a little early in the season for the Amateur Championship. But, I chalked it up to promoter hubris. After all, although the press release put the amateur races in the context of the AMA Pro Racing season opener, the claim was only that it was the 'Daytona' championship, not an AMA or national championship.

But within a day, the AMA issued a pissy clarification.

Through the purchase of specific professional racing assets from the AMA in 2008, the Daytona Motorsports Group acquired the right to use the AMA Pro Racing name in conjunction with specific professional motorcycle racing disciplines. Daytona Motorsports Group's use of the d/b/a "AMA Pro Racing" frequently causes confusion between Daytona Motorsports Group and the AMA, the not-for-profit 91-year-old membership association and sanctioning body. Daytona Motorsports Group is an independent for-profit company and is not governed by the AMA.  

Daytona Motorsports Group's issuance of a statement as AMA Pro Racing stating that an amateur flat track event held just prior to a professional flat track event they are promoting conveys the apparent authority to grant amateur championship status. Daytona Motorsports Group has no authority over any amateur racing activity, nor does it have the authority to designate an event an amateur championship.

I can't say that I can remember any recent incidence of such a detailed, passive-aggressive clarification of the admittedly confusing AMA-has-nothing-to-do-with-AMA-Pro-Racing arrangement. And, I was surprised when AMA Pro didn't immediately pull down the release or issue a retraction of its own.

Expect more of this kind of thing, now that the AMA is back in the pro racing sanctioning business, courtesy of MotoAmerica. Don't be mislead by the fact that MotoAmerica is asphalt-only (for now) and AMA Pro Racing is dirt only; the two are competitors for fans, sponsors, and status. And although we're all told in no uncertain terms that the deal for the Daytona 200 has nothing to do with DMG/AMA Pro, the people who own the Speedway control DMG. You can be sure this year's '200' is a burr under the MotoAmerica saddle.

One thing DMG should do, to eliminate this confusion, is drop 'AMA Pro Racing', which is a less-than-worthless trademark anyway, considering the bad memories associated with it. The only flat track trademark worth anything is 'Grand National Championship'.

The GNC is the real American motorcycle racing championship, and DMG needs to firmly re-establish it, if it's to have any hope of maintaining or improving its status. Those aren't footsteps DMG hears behind them, that's the sound of MotoAmerica's engines warming up.

#1 with a Bullet: Enfield shoots past Harley

A lot of people in India want to get on a new Royal Enfield.

According to Forbes Asia, Royal Enfield has outsold Harley-Davidson for the first time. Figures for 2014 suggest that Enfield sold over 300,000 bikes, compared to about 270,000 for Harley.

Harley's net income is still about twice Enfield's, mainly because the cheapest Harley's about twice the price of the most expensive Enfield. But, Enfield's passing Harley in the number of units sold does illustrate the fact that in the developing world in general (and India in particular) more and more people can afford motorcycles. By contrast, it seems that fewer and fewer people can afford them here in the U.S.

Harley's response has been to produce the Street 750 and 500 models, which are 'world' bikes—they don't expect to sell many of them in the domestic market. But even a 'cheap' Harley is expensive by developing-world standards. A new Street 500 in India will set the buyer back about Rs. 400,000. That puts it well into the range of new cars in India. What that means is that even in places where motorcycles are purchased as functional transportation, even the cheapest Harley will be sold to people choosing it for a reasons that have little to do with functionality.

The Forbes story reminded me that Enfield's a subsidiary of Eicher Motors, a company that manufactures and sells Volvo heavy trucks and buses in the Indian market. Eicher's also got a joint venture with Polaris, which in a roundabout way means that Indian (as in 'brand') is now a cousin of the most famous Indian (as in 'subcontinent') motorcycles.