USGP offered great entertainment for any two-wheeled junkie, but for me, the most exciting part of the event had nothing to do with riding or racing. As is so often the case anytime there is a large-scale motorcycling event in California (home to something like 60 percent of the motorcycle industry), the USGP also turned into a trade show of sorts and a great opportunity to network with other industry types in an atmosphere that definitely gets you amped up about motorcycles. What made this so exciting for us was that, for the first time, the mainstream motorcycle industry seemed to be paying attention to Super Streetbike and the aspects of the industry that matter most to our readers. This has us anticipating big things happening in the extreme streetbike world very soon.
Our first indication things were different this year came during Friday night's "Motorcycle of the Year" awards ceremony, hosted each year at the chi-chi Carmel Valley Highlands by our sister publication, Motorcyclist. The MOTY awards are a must-attend by the movers and shakers in the U.S. motorcycle industry, and for the second year in a row I was invited to present an honorary "Super Streetbike of the Year" award (flip forward to page 72 to see our very deserving winner), and address the assembled industry types from the podium for a few minutes. This isn't the first time I've pitched the Super Streetbike universe to the mainstream industry, but this is the first time in my memory that they really paid attention to what I was saying. Many of the folks who hold positions of power in the motorcycle industry have been around for a few generations now and, for the most part, seem frankly baffled by our readership, who, many of them perceive (wrongfully, I might add), as nothing more than immature squids with Technicolor hair popping wheelies and ruining the world for more "respectable" motorcyclists. This isn't an inten-tional bias on their part so much as an utter unfamiliarity with our segment of the motorcycle world. In past years, anytime talk turned to stunting or anything else we feature in this magazine--stuff most of them have no first-hand experience with--eyes glazed over.
I'm happy to report, in 2005, things were very different. After the SSBOTY presentation I was flooded with questions about "my market." The mainstream motorcycle world, it seems, is finally waking up to the realities of the extreme streetbike scene. Three motorcycle manufacturers (Buell, Triumph and Ducati) are actively sponsoring stunters this year, and everyone else it seems is finally starting to pay attention to the "outlaw" stunting sport. Thanks to years of hard work by the sport's top professional riders (not to mention a positive portrayal of the sport on the pages of this magazine and elsewhere), the industry is finally warming up to us.Good vibes continued the next morning at the track when I attended the introduction of a new street-focused apparel line from a very high-profile clothing maker. Two years ago, when we first launched this magazine, this company would barely even acknowledge our magazine or our readers, but at Laguna they did a complete one-eighty. As soon as they spotted my Super Streetbike shirt I was shuttled off to the air-conditioned "conference room" in the back of the team transporter to meet with the company's president, their head of product development and the marketing manager to talk about trends in the stunt world. At one point the marketing guy pulled a business card out of his pocket, with the names of three top stunters handwritten on the back, and asked me all about these riders' skills and reputation.
That this company even knows the names of these stunt riders is huge news for our little corner of the streetbike world. We're talking about a company that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each weekend supporting its sponsored road racers--if they diverted even a tiny portion of their sponsorship budget to stunt riders it would have a huge effect on the future of this sport. It's common knowledge that the best stunters--Kane Freisen, Tony D, Kyle Woods, Dan Jackson, and many, many more--make less money off of stunting annually than the average high-school kid does working part-time for minimum wage at Pizza Hut. Sure, these guys have DVDs and fancy web sites and are doing shows in front of huge crowds all around the world, but the sad fact is they've all got day jobs, too--and outrageous credit card bills that have financed their stunt careers to this point. This can't carry on forever--these guys are going to have to start making some real money, and soon, before they give up risking life and limb with no financial reward. Then the sport of street freestyle, which has looked so promising for so many years now, will die off (taking a big chunk of this magazine with it).
Our big out-of-office trip this summer was the ride to Monterey to attend the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca (see story in this issue on page 26). Judging from the track's official attendance figures--153,653 spectators over three days--the USGP was the big summer trip for a lot of you as well. Seeing the snarling, 240-horsepower MotoGP racers ridden by heroes like Rossi, Hayden and Edwards was a huge thrill, not to mention all the great street riding we sampled between events--can you beat Carmel Valley Road, or any of the "G" roads in the mountains southeast of Monterey?
I'm happy to say then, at least judging from what we saw and heard at Laguna Seca, it looks as if 2006 is going to be the year stunting finally attracts the money, sponsors, and mainstream attention it so desperately deserves. Speaking for all the pro stunters that I count as friends, this can't happen soon enough.