THE RIDER'S DIGEST - ISSUE 127

Hello, and if you’re a first time reader, welcome! The fact that you’re reading this page suggests that you aren’t simply flicking through the magazine and looking at the pictures while you wait for someone to call your number and bring you a bacon sarnie. That’s not to say that you aren’t waiting for food – given our distribution network the chances are that you are – but the fact that you’re bothering to read this editorial indicates that you are probably interested in the written content as much as the images.

If that is the case, I’m pretty confident that you’ll enjoy what we have to offer; because although we use pictures to brighten things up, words are really what we’re all about. I know that a picture can be worth a 1,000 words, but I’m also aware that even the best of them rarely offer more than a minute or two of distraction; whereas a good article comprising of a couple of thousand well chosen and nicely arranged words, can provide the reader with more than enough entertainment and diversion to see them through an entire Desperate Dan size full English.

As you thumb through this issue, I’m sure a lot of you will be having the same reaction that thousands of motorcyclists across the south had when they were confronted by their first copy: i.e. how can I possibly have failed to come across a single one of the previous 126 issues? But it’s hardly surprising really. Until a little over two years ago we were circulating 5,500 copies almost exclusively within the M25; and although by last month that figure had risen to 22,000, and they were being picked up from outlets as far apart as Gt Yarmouth and Llandovery, that still left the biggest chunk of the country largely oblivious to our existence!

That’s the situation we’re happy to start addressing now. Even though the mag grew out of London and I’m based here (not to mention, born & bred), I’d like to believe that our universal passion for all things two-wheeled has an appeal that is no more limited to a particular region than it is to a specific group of motorcyclists. Besides, while I might well be a soft shandy drinking southerner, I only edit the magazine. Our publisher John lives in Huddersfield, one of our longest standing contributors lives in god’s own biking country in Powys, another regular emails her monthly column from a cottage called Sunnybrow in Cumbria, and in issue 125 we featured an article that came all the way from Borneo!

We simply cannot afford a team of staff writers, which means that we draw our material from a diverse group of contributors, most of whom have day jobs and choose to be involved with the magazine simply because they are passionate about motorcycles.

There’s that word again. It ain’t for nothing that John wanted to take out some sort of legal protection to prevent anyone else nicking the expression “Two Wheel Passion”, because we’ve now got it splashed all over our mugs and t-shirts, as well the web site. I talked him out of it in the end by reminding him there was no point in wasting money we could use to increase the print run, hiring a lawyer to copyright something that was already as integral to the Digest as the word Blackpool is to a stick of rock.

Check out the TRD Family Album in the mag and you’ll get an idea where all that passion comes from.

Be careful out there

Dave Gurman