Cycle News

CN III CARRUTHERS SAYS... P100 BY PAUL CARRUTHERS WHEELIE MAD READERS I 've been called several things from our readers over the past 28 years or so of working at Cycle News, but nothing like this week. Let's see there was the use of the word clown, knucklehead and idiot that was really quite popular… and those are just the printable ones. The general theme of the emails that made it to my in-box regarding last week's story on the Wildout Wheelie Boyz ("12 O'Clock In Baltimore") were: What were you thinking? Okay… here goes: At the risk of more email and name-calling, I thought I was giving our readers a story that they might find interesting and perhaps entertaining. I know I did. Like the million or so others, I'd seen the Wildout Wheelie Boyz videos on YouTube. Though I'd come to the party a bit late, according to the youngsters in the office who were surprised that I'd never heard of the Wheelie Boyz before, much less seen their videos. But instead of dismissing those in the videos as mindless thugs giving motorcycles a bad name, my initial thoughts were: Holy crap. Who the hell are these guys and how do they get away with that stuff? I wondered what the story was behind the obvious lawbreakers as they wheelied their way through city streets, sans any protective gear whatsoever. When I saw a story on the same group of "stunters" in Australian Motorcycle News not long after seeing the videos for the first time, I jumped at the opportunity to contact the author and his photographer to see if I could get the story for Cycle News. Turns out both were from England and they agreed to sell me the story and pictures. I actually thought the story was… okay, forgive me made to run the story. I thought it would give our readers some insight into this little segment of motorcycling. Yes, it's illegal; yes, it's rather stupid; yes, it's irresponsible. But, yes, they are doing it on motorcycles so I thought some entertainment value might be gleamed from it from our readership of mostly motorcyclists. Apparently not, as this one really hit a nerve. it's " Yes, it's illegal; yes,But, rather stupid; yes, it's irresponsible. yes, they are doing it on motorcycles so I thought some entertainment value might be gleamed from it from our readership of mostly motorcyclists. – kinda cool. And the editor in me really liked the job the photographer did in telling the story with his photos from Baltimore. The rest, as they say, is a… well in this case apparently a long stream of angry emails from our readers. Epic fail? Perhaps… or perhaps not. As I know from my quarter century here - only the angry ever write letters. When our readers don't like something, they write letters, when they like something, it's just a case of us doing our jobs and we don't hear from them. I'm okay with that. I'm also okay with the decision I " Some of those who wrote said the space should have been given to something else; someone wrote that we were undermining his passion for motorcycles; one said that Cycle News needs to "take a stand and make it clear that these thugs belong in jail"; others said we were promoting illegal activities; a few others said we'd lost "street cred'; and one even said that that article was now going to force urban dirtbike owners to be more vigilant in protecting their dirt bikes. Over-reaction? Perhaps. But I'm the last one who is going to prescribe chill pills to anyone –

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