Cycle News

influential in getting Americans to realize that there was a bigger world out there and more op- portunity for them outside of our domestic racing series." Motor Cycle Weekly also brought together a talented staff. "We stole some of the best contributors from Cycle News," Gavin Trippe laughs. "Ralph Springer, whose father was Wilson Springer, automo- tive editor of the L.A. Herald Examiner, was the first general news editor. He'd grown up in the world of journalism. Ralph was succeeded by John Weed, one of the few American racers to contest the Isle of Man TT in its genuine World Champion- ship period. Tom Beesley, who succeeded John as editor, had already been with us for some years—first, as our Texas corre- spondent and then as a photog- rapher/journalist. "We also commissioned fea- tures from freelancers and actu- ally employed full-time two of the finest feature writers in motor- cycle and motoring journalism of those days—Joe Scalzo and Sam Moses. They are still well known and respected worldwide as magazine feature writers and book authors." The office, while business- like, also reflected the laid-back atmosphere of 1970s California. It sat on the end of a runway at John Wayne Airport, and one afternoon Evel Knievel unexpect- edly showed up to ask Gavin to come to Las Vegas with him. "I got a new plane," Knievel bragged to Gavin. "But you don't fly," Gavin said. "I got a new pilot, too," Evel came back. With that, they were off to a crazy 12 hours in Vegas. While editorially Motor Cycle Weekly set new standards, financially it was behind the eight ball, never able to penetrate the market as deeply as Cycle News had from the start—despite the best efforts of Dick Mann's ex-wife Susie. "Susie was the advertising manager for most of MCW's existence," Cox said. "I could have done with three like her but, still being a journalist at heart, I made what I now realize was the mistake of having far more writers on staff than commercial people. But at least that meant we had an interesting paper! However, it was Susie's efforts that kept our heads above water." In the final period of Motor Cy- cle Weekly's run, Trippe began going from print shop to print shop trying to string out credit as much as he could. In the final months, Trippe, a learning pilot, flew edit boards to printers as far away as Bakersfield as progres- sively more printers in the L.A. area refused to extend credit. In the end, they ran out of options. "Our decision wasn't the result of much thought and anguish," Cox remembered. "I remember sitting in the office one Monday night. The artwork was ready to go and only Gavin and I were left in the office. We were wonder- ing where to find the money to pay the printer the next day and we just kind of looked at one another, said something to the effect of 'Well, that's that then,' left the artwork on the desk, walked out the door and drove down to Newport Beach for a couple of beers. "Telling the staff the next day was tough but, thankfully, another publisher did a deal with us for the title and carried it on. So, the editorial and advertising staff were only 'out of work' for a matter of a few days. Unfortu- nately, the new publisher went belly up a few months later but 'our guys' all moved quickly on to good jobs elsewhere in any case. So, I guess that having MCW on their résumé didn't do them any harm." While Motor Cycle Weekly didn't survive, its legacy sur- vives in how it shaped the way motorcycle racing is covered in the American motorcycle media today. CN This Archives edition is reprinted from the April 2, 2008, issue of Cycle News. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to pre- vent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still plan- ning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor CN III ARCHIVES P108 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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