Mutch's Diary
The Road's editor
We've talked about it and argued about it for years and now we've finally done it. Welcome to 'The Road' the first A4 full colour version of MAG's organ. Our hopes for the new format are high and reflect both consideration of our member's expectations and our ambitions for taking MAG's message to a wider audience. Our last membership survey identified an appetite for this format but I want to emphasise from the outset that 'The Road' will remain totally committed to MAG's essential purpose and philosophy.
As your features editor, news editor, production Editor, columnist, designer, photographer, roving reporter chief cook and bottle washer, I am hoping that this first magazine isn't going to look hilariously incompetent but I'm on another steep learning curve so please bear with me and help us make this the best read in the world of motorcycling.
I'm afraid I upset a member recently to whom I'd returned a letter that I couldn't read. He seemed to think that someone here must have been able to read it, thus betraying the misconception that MAG's organ is produced by a team of journalists sitting around waiting for jobs like Boy Scouts on Bob-a-Job week. I still sometimes get people sending me printed letters with email addresses on them ironically, presumably motivated by the presumption that I enjoy re-typing thousands of words or need the practice, don't answer that !
I'll say this again - it's just me and Pamela the cat here at the publishing house, and besides Pamela's reading skills being on a par with those of a dyslexic bat in a fog, she is absolutely unashamedly, bone idle. I don't mean to be rude to readers but please remember I am very much alone, barring her excellency so please try to make my job simple.
Travel
The UK motorcycle scene is evolving and our intention is to move editorially in a manner sympathetic to those changes. Foremost among these elements of change is the growing interest in adventure biking illustrated by the success of the McGreggor/Boorman odyssey. 'The Road' will be covering travel stories in every issue, a priority in tune with our policy of using motorcycles to discover this world rather than as a short cut to the next. You'll find two travel stories in this issue and in December we'll be bringing you the first in a serialised story of a trip across the Sahara to West Africa. It's a definite case of don't try this at home, cos you can't.
Clubs
MAG recognise that clubs form the backbone of the UK's motorcycle community and we want clubs to feel that in 'The Road' they have a natural home where they can enjoy profile and benefit from the forum this medium represents. It's a two way street though and we want the clubs who affiliate to us to encourage their members to join MAG as individuals. If you want your club to appear in these pages, just send us a good high resolution picture or two and a few words. Affiliate clubs get priority.
Campaigning
Back from a week of riding around legally in a bandanna, my enthusiasm for freedom is reborn. Those who think it's impossible to ride a motorcycle without dressing up like a GP racer should go to South Dakota where shorts, T-shirts and bandannas rule. You must leave any racing ambitions at home though, relax and enjoy the scenery.
Expect more aggressive campaigning in The Road. The days of the rider's movement being on the back foot are over and the launch of The Road marks a more assertive approach supported by the fact that motorcycles can play a crucial role in addressing environmental issues. We have to get commuters out of cars and on to two wheels, at least for some of the time.
Against that background, any unhelpful legislation that discourages biking and any negative journalism that paints a grim picture of us as a public liability is going to be fiercely resisted. I am sick of do-gooders telling me that I have to be dressed in body armour and dayglo to be responsible - utter cobblers ! Road safety lies inside your head not in what you wrap around it or below it.
We now hear that the Government is resigned to indefinite traffic growth and the environmental threat that poses, grat eh, very responsible ! This complacency gives us a lever to argue as never before for the Government to Back off Bikers and encourage two wheels.
All this said, I've gone and fallen off my bike again. I was caught in a torrential downpour on the A3 near Kingston Upon Thames where I was fiddling with my feet at the traffic lights. I'm testing some new waterproof overboots by Weiss which are fine at keeping the rain out but you have to be careful to fit them on properly so they don't catch on your footpegs when you come to rest. It was in an effort to position them correctly that I got all confused about my sidestand and fell over. Oh bother ! I said. Now I can pick a Dynaglide up on the flat but not with the camber against me, as I soon realised and there was no way I was giving myself a hernia. No-one was leaving their car in the monsoon so I left my lane blocked, unbuckled the huge bag from the back of the bike, and wandered off to the pavement as the lights changed colours a couple of times. Eventually a driver from another lane helped me, which left 2 of the 3 lanes of the A3 out of London blocked while we heaved vigorously and got the bike upright. Now what was I saying about bikes beating congestion ?
Ian 'bandanna man' Mutch
^top