#editorial

The four stages of man are infancy, childhood, adolescence, and obsolescence.

News flash: Motorcycling can be dangerous. Illustrating this fact are the left hands of myself and international roadracer, Jeremy McWilliams, seen in the above picture, a photo I imagine many would think is more than a touch morbid. The missing digits are the result of crashing motorcycles while racing.

Motorcycle journalism is a pretty distant cousin to journalism journalism, but when I got here a few years ago, whether we always stayed on the right side of it or not, everybody was very aware of The Wall that’s supposed to exist between Editorial (the people who write the magazine/web content) and Advertising (the people who go out and twist the arms of advertisers to make money). The reason for that wall should be obvious; a big bank shouldn’t be able to buy its way out of a scandal by buying a big bloc of advertising in a newspaper. A motorcycle shouldn’t win the Big Shootout because its manufacturer spent the most ad dollars. Sure the advertising people might buy an editor lunch now and then, sometimes even with an advertiser at the table, but attempting to influence editorial for profit was, and remains, strictly forbidden at any respectable publication. It’s common sense, really, but the older I get, the less common sense seems to be.

Maturity. For me, I look back at the point I became a mature human as the time in my life when my voice deepened, I was hungry all the time, and I was incredibly awkward talking to girls (some things never change). I’m guessing it was an awkward time for many of us, but the term “maturity” is also one I hear a lot when it comes to electric vehicles. As I noted in my long(ish)-term review of the Zero SR, my wife and I had contemplated an electric car for our daily transportation.

It’s something of a coincidence that as I was working on this piece, John Burns’ column on the CDC, helmet laws, Rob Dingman and the AMA broke last week. Some sort of synchronicity I suppose. It affirmed my belief in something positive I have witnessed here at MO for almost a year now. Namely, the powers that be at MO have an editorial vision that allows, encourages even, the editors and contributors to address contentious issues in their op/ed columns. There are no topics that are sacrosanct. I’m of the mind that discourse like this is good, unanimity is best left to Quaker meetings and jury verdicts. And so, onward and upward; there are always more dragons to slay and windmills to tilt at.

No disrespect to Dani Pedrosa, but I was really hoping Marc Marquez was going to win the Czech round of the MotoGP championship this past weekend. It would have been his 11th win in a row, a record-breaking achievement, surpassing none other than Giacomo Agostini. More to the point, it would have strengthened my argument about the 2014 MotoGP season so far: the racing has been kinda boring. It’s not Marc’s fault; the kid is amazingly talented and will surely receive Hall of Fame status when he eventually hangs up his leathers. Sure, the resurgent Rossi has been inspiring to watch, and other riders (Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Aleix Espargaro) have shown flashes of brilliance, but c’mon, at the end of the day, we all know Marquez is going to wrap this thing up.

I’ve never been much for team sports. Instead, I’ve always been attracted to more solitary pursuits: skiing, bicycling, running, and, most importantly, motorcycling. When I consider this bent, the common thread I unravel is the constant opportunity for self-reflection and learning that these activities allow.

To my knowledge Confucius never specifically referred to moto-journalism in his writings, but when the 6th century B.C. philosopher issued a proverb loosely interpreted today as “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” what other occupation could the man be implying?

We know you all want to see reviews of the latest motorcycles, as they consistently bring our largest influx of traffic. So it’s no surprise that our number-one goal at Motorcycle.com is to bring to your eyes tests of nearly every new bike that comes to market. And that won’t change.