Dirt Action Magazine - Can They Walk the Talk?

[VMX Andrew]

i would have done the same thing to lach mac ...you gotta show a bit of respect for other peoples bikes when riding them...as for adb i got my subcription renewal form in the mail last month but after 25 years of reading, its  just not the same anymore i chucked it in the bin...dont ask me why it just dont appeal to me anymore for some reason or another..it  means that ive gotta wait every three months... not every month... for vmx

Respect..That's the hard one. At the final meeting at Amaroo I loaned my Maico to ADBs Lachlan Mac so he could experience Amaroo Park on a vintage bike for a proposed piece on the history of the track. At the dummy grid for his first ride I started the bike and passed it over to him thinking all was OK and returned to my officials position. The starter then called the bikes up for the next race and they all took off towards the line, all except dear Lachie. Imagine my horror when, after the dust settled I saw Lachlan revving the shit out of my old bike and trying to bang the bike into gear with the heel of his boot. It'd be bad enough doing it once but he was doing it over and over. Before I could get down to the track a mate who was there taking shots went and explained to him to stop revving the bike and it'd go straight into gear. Lachlan ignored my mate and continued to boot the crap out of my gearbox. Neil my mate immediately grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him off the bike. Lachlan couldn't understand why this had happened and protested, calling my bike a shitbox and vintage bikes "laughable". My mate then jobbed him (ta Neil!). By then I'd arrived and after getting right up the dickhead I picked the Maico up off the ground, kicked it over, clicked it into gear and rode off in disgust.

The end result from that experience is that no journos from the 'straight' dirt bike press will ever ride any of my bikes again. It's your call Magoo but you run the chance of the same thing happening to your bike. Do you want to take the risk mate? ...........btw, I ended up doing the Amaroo piece.

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[huskyrider78]

I now subscribe to RacerX - ever since I first came across I have always enjoyed it. It just seems to have good balance of racing, editorial, travel and they definitely show respect to the 'old' times, there seems to be at least one article a month on the 70's or 80's.

[huskyrider78]

Sorry firko - it was the hardcopy Transworld - pretty sure it's the Feb08 issue (with Mike Alessi on the cover). I saw it in Borders - they usually get an Airmail copy a month ahead of the newsagents. The new ones due so it should be in newsagents any time now.

[Yamaboy]

I witnessed Lac Mac bashing his boot on Firkos Maicos gear lever at that Amaroo meeting and it really was ugly. These young magazine guys generally think that vintage is a bit of a wank so expecting them to respect a bike that they deem to be an old clunker is a big ask. I wouldn't let any of them near my bikes either.

I don't know what it is about ADB that turns me off. When you compare the production quality, content, photography and number of pages to both Dirt Action and the American opposition, it's a much better product. What it lacks is intelligence and soul. The magazine tends to lower itself to the 12-20 demographic thereby bypassing the more mature reader. In the GE days I felt like I was part of the ADB 'family' but with the current set up it's hard to feel even the slightest bit of that warm and cosy family feel. Despite all of the external glitz and glamour, ADB has no inner soul. The opposition no little better except for Racer X. Publisher Scott Wallenberg is a serious vintage racer and it shows in the balance within the magazine. He has a similar outlook to GE and I tend to think that if Eldridge was alive today, ADB would have taken a similar route to Racer X. MXA is stuck in some sort of Jody Weisel time warp. Has his Jodys Box column ever changed from his dumb Crazy Dave and Jody at the races crap? Pick up a 1980 copy and the current copy and with the exception of the feature bikes, nothing has changed. It's yesterdays hero.
Thank god for VMX. That 'part of the family' feel that was such an attractive facet of GE era ADB is alive and well in VMX. There's a  good vibe in VMX that really brings the world vintage family together. Classic Dirt Bike from the UK is attempting to emulate the VMX vibe and while still being way off the standard of VMX is still a good magazine and worth supporting. So, for me these days it's Racer X for my modern touch AMCN for my general news and gossip and VMX and CDB for my old bike fix. The rest have lost me.