Editors note: The following letter was posted last weekend on the message boards by "Cydonia." It was taken down because the title was a bit too derogatory, but we felt compelled to respond to it. We'd also like to see what you guys think about all this. We encourage everyone to be candid, but please keep it clean: ______________________________________________ Has anyone noticed that the quality of Dirt Rider magazine has really gone down in most of the things that matter? I have been a subscriber for about 10 years and I am ready to dump my subscription. This mag has gone from the best most complete mag to the worst form of ego boosting/boasting I have ever seen. Alot of the new changes that the new editor Jimmy Lewis has made are making this magazine go downhill just like MXA is. MXA turned into Jody Cross Action (So I dumped that subscription too.) and Dirt Rider is turning into Jimmy Rider. Here is my supporting evidence. After reading thru this ranting, if you agree or disagree, please chime in. This is just my opinion an based soley on my own observations. After each rant I will provide what I would think as a solution. As I said before, just my observations....Here goes.... PROBLEM 1: It seems that every other pic in the magazine is of Jimmy Lewis. I have seen him ride many times and I can tell you he is amazing on a motorcycle and has accomplished many big things. Can we just leave it at that? Do we need to have about 15 different pics of him blasting a corner or going over a log or whatever and giving him a column where he can brag about how great of a rider he is? ("So you want to go riding with me?" No you don't") etc..... SOLUTION: Put Jimmys' ego back in his gear bag, take some pics of some other test riders and other racers at some of the events. Seems pretty simple to me. I know that down there in Socal that there are HUNDREDS of pro/int riders who can blast berms and would jump at the chance to be in photo shoots. Kris Keefer is awesome. Looks like you guys are using him less and less to make room for more Jimmy and some of his other buddies. Instead of having Jimmy write a column about himself and what a great rider he is, how about having his column be more entertaining and insightful like Ken Faughts used to be? Instead of a place for the new guy to blow hot air about how great he is??? PROBLEM 2: Race Coverage- OK now, this is where Dirt Rider used to rule.....They used to have the absolute best race pics and stories and that has all GONE!!!! Example: Daytona is the BIGGEST supercross race of the year and there are more riders, motos, publicity and stories surrounding it. Now go and look at the race coverage of Daytona in the July 2005 issue (with Jimmy Lewis on the cover no doubt!) There are a total of 5 pictures and 6 of them have blury backgrounds, there is no picture of the track, there is only one paragraph about the 125 class, and some really stupid camera filters and not really much else. SOLUTION 2: Show us the track, show us the bikes, show us the pits, show us the bar banging with out the stupid camera filters and Photoshop tricks. This sport is about riding and racing, not about quirky visual gimicks. Get back to what you used to be great at...... PROBLEM 3: Product Ratings systems- OK now this one is really dumb. You have differnt limits in 5 different categories that total 100 points. I have no problem counting to 100 or even doing math, What was wrong with a scale of 1-10? Now you have rating ranges that go from 10 points to 50 points. Seems pretty lame and unneccessarily confusing to have different point limits for different categories. SOLUTION 3: Go back to the simple 1-10 point system. If it isn't broke, don't fix it....... PROBLEM 4: Riders letters...Where did they go?????? Why did you get rid of that feature? Those things were fun to read and colorful and occassionally informative. SOLUTION 4: Bring back the rider writes SOME GOOD THINGS!!!!!
I love the ads! Ads let you know what is available to purchase and see what is new in the motorcycle world. The magazine makes money by selling its ad space and that is a good thing. The ads are cool. I don't mind them one bit. There is more focus on some of the unkown riders, up and comers, weekend warriors and privateers. This is always a good thing and ispiring. Keep it going. The bike tests are still decent allthough I prefered the older method of scoring and averaging. The interviews are still pretty good (re. Doug Dubach) I could probably go on but this is getting too long. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this stuff? | 
