Great. With respect Graeme, I will respond and then return to the shed.
Rick and I were indeed good friends and I have positive good memories of my time at his house. I was in awe of his restoration abilities (and still am) and amazing knowledge and love of the sport and was eternally grateful for his kindness and hospitality (still am). I enjoyed his company and that of his lovely wife Karen and his boys. We parted as friends, but unfortunately
six years later I was placed in a difficult position by Rick where I was the innocent man in the middle in a business dispute between two friends. On the one side, my dear friend Ray Ryan and VMX magazine and on the other side, my friend Rick Doughty. Being friends with both men put me in an extremely uncomfortable position and when I told Rick that I didn't want to be involved and was not interested in hearing either parties version of the dispute (
I also told Ray the very same thing.)he became quite agitated and started acusing me of disloyalty. Ray on the other hand respected my wish to stay right out of it despite offering to give his version of the situation. To this day I have no inkling of what the dispute was about and still don't want to know. Mr Doughty however saw my action as taking sides against him and as they say "the shit then hit the fan".
Remember now that I'd stayed at the Doughty home in 1995 and this situation didn't arise until 1999 or perhaps 2000 (
I'm a little shaky on the dates but let's say five years had intervened). During that five year period, not once was the situation of my card supposedly bouncing arise and not once was it mentioned that I'd trashed his sons bed. I would have thought that my "bouncing" card would have become apparent over the following five weeks I travelled in the USA.
Upon my return I sent Ricks lads a couple of books on Austalia and Rick and I continued our friendship by phone and later email as if nothing had occured.
He used my shop to dismantle bikes he had purchased
That didn't happen. Sure I used a small corner to store the packing case for the bare Metisse frame and WP shocksI bought from Vintage Iron and some other minor parts purchased from local Fresno shops. There was no dismantling. I also used his shop to weld up a cracked steering head on his Metisse, help dispatch orders after he fired the warehouse guy while I was there. I also used his shop to help Bill West his shop foreman to finish a Triumph for a customer and help prep Ricks Road racers for a meet in Las Vegas. I also helped him to transport his trucks and equipment from Bakersfield back to Fresno after his roofing business had ended. I was also the only person besides family there to offer support to an obviously upset Rick. He seems to have forgotten those details.
During my time in Fresno I also got to know a good cross section of local racers and it surprised me to find myself in the situation of having to continuously defend Rick to people and couldn't understand why he was so disliked by other bike people. I couldn't see why at the time but after he turned on me it all came into focus.
Now..Maybe I have been a little theatrical in a quest to make a point in my writings about Mr Doughty and he's perfectly within his rights to defend himself. I am however reflecting the many, many situations that have been brought to my attention over the years concerning items not recieved, even items for myself, purchased through a friend took months to arrive and it was not quite what I'd (He'd) ordered. Emails were repeatedly ignored and after two phonecalls at my friends expense (reimbursed by me) a conclusion was arrived at. None of this bitterness would ever happened however if Rick would have accepted my wish for neutrality and his unfairly expecting me to take sides. The shouting me down over the phone and bringing up a supposed credit card debt five years after the fact just added salt to the wounds. If we were really such good friends he would have respected that wish. He may also have forgotten that I didn't write for VMX at the time due to a conflict of interest so I had no bias either way. I just wanted to stay friends with both but he made that impossible. As far as my other points in regard to Mr Doughty, I won't go through each one individually because it only adds fuel to the fire. Let it just be said that I don't back away from any of them.
I'm out of this now. I've made my point and Rick his. If I was the only critic out there, there may be good reason to accuse me of being unreasonable but I'm only one voice in a sea of VI critics as a perusal of American VMX forums will attest to. It's a shame this situation has eventuated but I didn't start it. I genuinely liked, respected and
defended Rick until he turned on me. That's the thing that hurts me the most.
