Archive for May, 2009

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American Motorcyclist Magazine Now Available Online for Free

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

American Motorcyclist magazineMagazine reviews are a great source of information when you’re thinking about buying a used motorcycle. Now the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) has made almost its entire backlog of American Motorcyclist magazines available online for free. From what I see, it looks like the only issues not available are the most recent ones, which stands to reason considering that the magazine is a member benefit.

In a partnership with Google, the magazines are available in a searchable format, although you can only search one month’s issue at a time. Too bad you can’t say “give me all articles about Eric Buell from between 1995 to 2000.” But hey, I’m not going to be a choosy beggar.

The way you get to the magazines is a little tricky, but having navigated it myself I’ll make it easier for you.

First you’ll want to go to http://books.google.com and enter “American Motorcyclist” in the search field. This will take you to a results page and at the top of the list is one for the magazine itself. That’s the one you want.

Click that and you go to the issue pictured, and if that’s the issue you want you’re set. If you want to see a different issue, click “Browse all issues” over on the right. Then dig your way through the archives.

Recent from Denver Motorcycle Examiner
Choosing your perfect motorcycle: If the scoot fits ride it

Biker Quote for Today

As the writer inscribes paper with ink and words, so the motorcyclist cuts a line through sheer space using angles and velocity as letters and punctuation. — Mark C. Taylor and Jose Marquez

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Posted in American Motorcyclist Association | 3 Comments »

Motorcycle Examiners Help Usher in New Era of Journalism

Monday, May 4th, 2009

I’ve mentioned a number of times that I write for Examiner.com as their Denver Motorcycle Examiner and maybe you’ve checked it out and maybe you haven’t. Well, what exactly is Examiner.com?

Cottonwood Pass, photo by Andy SimonsWe all know that newspapers are struggling. Here in Denver recently the Rocky Mountain News folded just two months shy of its 150th anniversary. The surviving Denver Post is not exactly raking in cash either, even with its main competition gone. But news is important, and if the old method of gathering and distributing it is falling away, something must replace it or we’ll all be in a world of hurt.

The internet appears to be the future, and part of that future may well be Examiner.com and other companies like it. Examiner.com is set up with home pages for cities across the country so that whatever city you choose, you’ll see local information. They bring on independent contractors, like me, to write on their topics of expertise and they pay us on page views. Then they sell ads related to the subject matter.

Because Examiner.com is headquartered here in Denver, Denver was one of the first local home pages to launch and as such, I was one of the first Examiners, as they call the writers. That meant that for a while I was the only Motorcycle Examiner in the country.

Examiners now number in the thousands, however, and when a new Motorcycle Examiner comes on board we make contact and invite them to join the group that we have created. There are 20 of us today, though that may change tomorrow.

The point is, there may be a Motorcycle Examiner in your city, or even two, and you may want to check them out. They’ll be bringing news of local motorcycle events, updates on local motorcycle-related issues, offering ideas on good rides in your area, and a lot more.

Here’s the list as of today:

Biker Quote for Today

If everything seems under control you’re just not going fast enough.

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Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »

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