Wwjd?

WWJD?

UP FRONT

Mark Hoyer

EVERYBODY NEEDS A BIT OF GUIDANCE now and again, don’t they? One of the things that I’ve tried to do during my time at Cycle World is be cognizant of the publication’s history and let that inform our future progress. It is in this effort that I’ve always asked myself, “What would Joe do?” in hoping to capture the spirit of CW's founding publisher, Joe Parkhurst.

It’s a bit of a tall order. Not everybody has the vision (and stones) to bet the whole farm on starting a new venture, as Joe did with CW, making the first issues in his home kitchen, selling his boat and his Porsche and laying it all on the table, as it were.

Obviously, he was a huge motorcycle enthusiast, and the famous quote about why he started the magazine—“I couldn’t find anything worthwhile to read about them”—is a classic.

In Joe’s day, getting into media wasn’t easy or cheap. Now, with the Internet’s democratization of publishing, the threshold to broadcast ideas has been lowered significantly. This is a great thing, because lots of good stuff has popped up digitally, but it still can be a challenge to find something worthwhile to read. And, just as important, who do you trust to give you unbiased information? Having been a CW reader since 1982 (when I was 12) and now having worked with the staff here for more than a decade and seen the expertise and continuity, I trust us...

One of the great perks of the job (beyond testing motorcycles and having great adventures) is the depth of the archives. The item of particular interest to me as we wrapped up CWs 50th year was the unfinished manuscript for Parkhurst’s book, “The Story of Cycle World: As Long as It has Two Wheels.” He was working on it at the time of his death in December, 2000, and it is essentially a memoir about his life, how it led to starting the magazine and what happened after he did.

It begins, literally, with his birth in Arkansas and goes from there. A great early anecdote after the family moved to Southern California was the day his brother taught him to ride on a ’47 Indian Chief: “One quiet Sunday we went to the nearly empty parking lot of Ralphs Market on Ventura Boulevard. He started the big Twin for me and showed me how the controls worked. All boys can ride bicycles, so I thought it would be easy. I rode in circles and around the lot. Only one car was parked; the market was closed. I saw the car, fixated on it, and rode straight into the back end, ending my first experience with a motorcycle. For certain, I didn’t forget it.”

Not long after, Joe got his first bike, a Czechoslovakian ’46 Jawa 350cc twostroke Twin for $350. “It was really fast for the time, and butt ugly,” he recalled. After that, it was a ’49 Triumph Trophy and countless other machines to feed his lifetime love affair with two wheels.

Parkhurst got his magazine start with our former brother publication Road & Track, becoming art director in 1957. “This was my first encounter with the power and influence wielded by a good magazine,” wrote Joe. “I was fascinated by the complex decision process used in selecting cars for test, and the broad scope of knowledge essential to evaluating them. The editors walked a tightrope, with the pitfalls of advertisers on one side, duty to readers and truth in journalism on the other. How did you editorially savage a car sold by an advertiser spending considerable money in your magazine? The answer, of course, was quite simple: Readers of the magazine are customers for the advertiser’s products. A magazine serves both by, on one hand, exposing the advertiser’s message to the readers, and, on the other, telling the reader what the product is really like. Though Road & Track occasionally lost an advertiser for what its editors wrote, in time, they usually came back because the magazine’s readership was irreplaceable.”

After transforming the look of R&T and seeing how a quality magazine was done, he wondered, “Why isn’t there a magazine as good as Road & Track for motorcyclists?”

In that question, Cycle World was born, the first issue published in December, 1961, with a January, ’62, cover date.

Parkhurst had the fortune of being both lucky and good. Under the “good” heading came this after four years of work: “The January, 1965, issue was our 36th. I confirmed that circulation was growing and now at least four times larger than our competitors. The reason was simple: We produced a magazine for motorcycle enthusiasts that was honest, straightforward, independent, and played no hankypanky with advertisers.” Parkhurst also paid attention to the growing Japanese manufacturers, something most traditional motorcycle magazines at the time were definitely not doing.

And the “lucky” part? He started CW at the precise time the two-wheel market in the U.S. began to explode. From a story later in ’65: “Only 45,000 (motorcycles) were sold in 1960. Total sales this year (1965) will reach 298,000, 433,000 the next year, 744,000 by 1967.” It went on to explain that in ’63, of the 151,680 units sold, 65.9 percent were Hondas (you met the nicest people, and lots of them). The next-closest player was Berliner Motor Corp. (importers of Norton, Matchless and Ducati) with 7.3 percent, then Yamaha with 7.1.

Parkhurst delivered a great new product just when hundreds of thousands of new enthusiasts were coming into the sport/lifestyle. The magazine has evolved over the years and always been the number-one source for the best, most balanced information on the machines you love.

It’s been my honor to ride with you as the editor-in-chief the last three years, to have been part of the effort to build cycleworld.com into a great motorcycle experience, to see the magazine thrive in print during difficult times and to extend its reach to Nook, Kindle and the Apple Newsstand with digital tablet editions.

Cycle World is 50 years old. Fifty years without a change in title. Fifty years of continuity, consistency and quality. I pledge to keep it simple and produce a magazine for motorcycle enthusiasts that is honest, straightforward, independent and plays no hanky-panky with advertisers. Cheers to that guy with the big vision, huge enthusiasm and twinkle in his eye. Thanks for the guidance, Joe.