Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TEARDOWN B Paul Carruthers, y s you may or may not know, Cycle News now has a home page on the World Wide Web . What's a home page? What's the World Wide Web? In layman's terms, our home page is nothing more than a com puter ized version of what you 're currently reading. If you have a decent computer, a modem and an Internet access provider, you sim ply switch it all o n, ente r our a dd ress (http: / /www .c yclenews.com) and you're on your way. It's a fairly simple process. Unless you 've been living in a cave, you've proba bly already been exposed to the Int ern et in one way or ano ther. It's a subject that's been we ll-documented thro ugho ut th e m edia, with many compa nies using it to further promote their p rod u cts. H om e pages can vary from a com pany 's catalog to a t rav e l brochure from the tou rism departmen t of a foreign cou ntry. Some are simple, others are elabora te. Our home page serves many purposes. In additio n to provi ding us wi th anoth er ave nue of provi ding the latest news and in formation to our readers, it also serves as a marketing tool for Cycle N ews and its sister publications, and as ano ther reve n ue builder for our ad vertisers. Editoriall y, it gives us the oppo rtuni-ty to make the fastest publication in the mo torcycle industry even faster. While the Sea ttle Supercross was go ing on some 1100 miles to the north. I was able to keep up with th e race action in my h ome b y sim p ly logging o n to Cycle News Online. I knew who won the first heat race min ut es after it was completed, and I went to bed knowing tha t Jerem y McGrath had won th e 2S0cc final (some wi ll argue that given McGrath's d om inat ion, thi s is possible witho ut a compute r). Up-to-the-minute resu lts and news updates as we get them. When the pri n ted version of Cy cle News leaves our buil d ing ~n route to the A printer on a Mond ay night, we gather everythi ng together and send it electronically to ou r Eastern sales office in Atlanta, Georgia, From there our on-line speci alis ts , Mark Mit ch e ll and Rick Matheny, somehow get it on-line and it is availa ble for public viewing late Mond ay night (Pacific time), earl y Tu esd ay morni ng (Eastern time). Wh ile the articles featured in the on-line ed ition are shorter and fewer in number than in the printed ve rs io n of the newspaper, it gives those who can't wait an option. Many publishers are sh ying a w ay from having a presence on the Internet, m ost likely due to a natural fear that thei r pu blications will become obso lete. We see it a little differently. Rather than hurt our circu lation figures, we believe that Cycle N ews Onlin e ca n actua ll y hel p. We rece ive subscri ptions on a daily bas is fro m th ose fill in g out th e form on the home page and e-mailing it back to us. We've exposed more people to Cycle N ews, people who ma y never have known it existed. And tho se people apparently like what they see online, and they want more. After all, there is still riothing like holding a magazine or newspaper in your hands, and th e portability of the Internet will ne ver match the portability of your newsp aper . Okay, so I've preached to you on the virtues of the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, with the good also comes some bad. In a nutshell, the Internet has made any wannabe edi tor with a computer into an information provider. For not a lot of money, you can sit in your garage and provide information to the rest of the world - and it doesn't even need to be accu rate. You jus t dress it all up with fancy gra phics an d you look like the real dea l. There's no print bill and not a lot of overhead. And exactly no accountability is required . While there are many qualified peo - 25 YEARS AGO... MARCH 2, 1971 finishing third . In ffi7ln:::r~",,"-,..-.~ round three, Bar- ~'-' · J...:....:IJ . : ne t t wa s se co n d ...~~- .....r..:..11 ah ead o f Kent Howerton... Rex St at en rocketed to the SOOcc Pro ti tle at round seven o f the DG Gold en State Serie s wi th t he w in at Southe rn Califo rnia 's _ -~~ Saddleba ck Park. Previous po ints leade r Eric McKenna needed only third overall but could d o no better than fifth. Staten also finished first in the 2S0cc Pro di vision on the day. U n d e rd og Boris Murray came out on top in the fin al round o f th e Top Fuel Eliminat ion s < a t the Second ' Annua l Un it ed St a tes Fu el a n d Gas Motorcycle '--Na tionals in -'Irwindale, California. Heavily favored Dave Campos ha d to settle for the runner-up slot... A broken throttle cable couldn't break the stride of Rich Thorwaldson who flew acros s the Cal ifornia d esert to w in the Oran ge County Motorcycle Club 's Ha re Scram- : bles. Bill Carr was top s in the Novice class at the SO-mile race. 15YEARS AGO... FEBRUARY 25,1981 fte r scoring hi s fir st-ever AMA Supercross Se r ies win in round two at the Seattle Kingdome, Darrell Sh ultz wen t on to rack up his second on the very next da y. In round two , Mik e Bell and Mark Barn ett were d icing for runner -up position when they cr ash ed in a hea p o ff th e fin ish-li n e jump. Bell salvaged second with Barnett A pie out there providing accurate motorcycle-rela ted in formati onon-line, the re are others who ar e sim p ly throwing things out, either in the hopes of making m oney (yes, some of them have even coerced credible companies into advertising on their home pages) or just for the sheer pleasure of living out a dream of being an ed itor (don't ask me why) • or what they like to refer to as motojou rnalists . Though many of them may "mo to," I can tell you that very few of them come close to being jou rnalists. This past week I decided to do a little re search - "su r fi n" the net" - to find exactly what was ou t there for motorcycle en thusiasts. There's plen ty, and no tall of it is good. To protect the guilty, I won't give names. I stu mbled up on one home page that fea tured news item s (t he majority of whi ch seem to read a lot like those featured in Cycle News, but that's ano ther story), intervie ws, etc. No t a bad -looking page, bu t looks can be deceiving . Scott Russell is spelled consistently as Scott Russel. One "I". An interview with Wa yne Rainey quoted the three-t im e World Champ ion as saying his team received its money from Yamaha, Marlboro a nd Metzeler. Trust m e, Ra iney didn't say Metzeler. Rainey said Michelin. Inaccurate info rmation, constant misspellings of nam es... It was a good e xampl e of garage journalism a t it s worst. Theft on the Internet also runs rampant. Copyright laws apply, but apparentl y not to all of those who are building and maintaining home pages. I get upset when Cycle N ew s gets scooped. It makes my blood boil when I read so mething e lse w he re th at we haven't yet covered. I realize we can't do it all, bu t we can come pr etty darn close. We hear of somethi ng, we follow it up wi th sources developed from 30some years of publishing, the info rmation is checked and rechecked and then it 's p ri n te d . Journalism 10l. Now we do all of that, and read it on someone else' s home page on the World Wide Web. Case in point: I brin g my cellular phone to t h e Anahei m Supercross . After each and every heat race, I call Ma then y a nd he u p d a tes o u r re su lts se ction on Cy cle N ews Onl in e, giving those at hom e th e opportu nity to follow the event. It' s nothing more tha n an added service to our rea de rs. Twenty m in utes later, ther e' s updates on ano ther ho me page. This guy is p robabl y doi ng nothing b ut si tti ng on h is couch and eating cheese puffs. All he has to d o is read the in for ma tion on Cycle News Onli ne and the n place it on his own home page. Okay, so how do I know he wasn 't there? How d o I know h e d id n't use hi s ext ensi ve ed ito ri a l trave l b udg et to ac tu ally attend the race? Easy. In our An aheim re sults, we omitted the 12Scc Last Cha nce Qu alifier. Voila! So did cheese pu ff. The following week in Se attle, we tr anspo sed two names from a heat race . A mistake we later corrected. Cheese puff didn't. Now wh at are the chan ces of him /her transposing th e sa me two nam es, omi tti ng the same 12Scc Last Chance Qualifier...? Abo ut th e same chance tha t I have of beating McGrath. I commend those who are making an honest attemp t at "publishing" a home page on th e World Wide Web beca use the effort th at it takes to do it rig ht is immense. But I loathe those who believe the y have the right to steal others' material, or to simply report incorrect 'information to people who may take their word as the gos pel. I also find it hard to believe that an upstand ing comp any in the motorcy cle industry would see fit to advertise in such a forum. I gue ss it's all about cred ibility. Some have it, some don't. I"X Healey had th e go lden touch in the . final rou nd of the Golden State' Nationals, w inning all four motos in 250 and SO Occ Pro com petition a t California's Glen Helen OHV Par k. Healey' s sweep ena bled hi m to come from beh ind to edge ou t Willie Surratt for th e SOOcc Pro crown, but Su rr att d id take home the 250cc Pro title . ,~ 5YEAR SAGO... F BRUARY 27, 1991 E oming back from a DNF in rou nd one, Ted Hunnicutt won the second round of the AMA National Cham pionship Hare and Hound Series b y n earl y tw o m inut es over Don G rie w e near Red Mount ain in the Sout he rn California desert, earning his plac e on the cover of Cycle N ews. Firstround winner Danny Hamel had been enjoyi ng a two- minu te lead in the first third of the race before a broken chain put h im out of the running... Mik e C Three-time AMA Grand National Cha mpion Bart Markel. circa 1967. Markel won 28 Nationals In a career that spanned from 1960 to 1971. Photo from the Cycle News Archives. 59

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