Jimmy Rigged: Dirt Bike Test-Week One

So after a year and a half of working on this site we finally “soft launched” it to test things happening in the background, and debug what you see up front. We have finally been able to cash some checks, “Hey can I test your bike, but I can’t tell you what for?” I truly appreciate some of the people in the industry I work with trusting me enough to say yes, and believe it would eventually pay off. Still hasn’t–but now at least they can see what we’re up to.

Pretty soon we’ll start promoting this site through the regular channels, and we think it will grow. We hope it grows quickly. It has been a labor of love for all those involved, and we intend to keep it that way. We’re doing this because motorcycles are fun, we want to keep working with motorcycles for a long time, and eventually we’d like to make some money. Fun, Future, Money. I’m writing that now so everyone can see it and I can go back and look at this when things get tough. I know it will feel like the Erzberg Rodeo from time to time.

The tag line for Dirt Bike Test is The Authority On Motorcycle And Product Testing. Pretty ballsy, eh? Offensive to some, cocky to others. But we look at is as a challenge and a standard we need to uphold to do this right….for the right reasons.

All the time I have people ask me,”Jimmy, what do you really think?” When I had a voice at another magazine or another web site, I’d tell them I think exactly what I wrote. And it will be the same for tests you see here. It will be the same for anyone you see contributing here or they won’t be here for long. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a straight shooter and I have a bad habit of saying exactly what I think, sometimes before I really think about it. Honesty is the best policy.

We’re cranking on testing new products and bikes right now and we’ll be getting those up as soon as they are ready to go. Not because we have to meet a deadline, had pressure from an advertiser or wanted to be first despite not testing the product or bike properly. We’re getting quality riders and solid people to partner up with us on the testing, and teaching them our process. We’re back riding and hard on the gas.

So if we seem a little slow in the beginning, please understand we are a small staff. We’ll grow fast and improve. We’ll make a few mistakes, but we will learn from them and refine our process. We have big plans and brand new ideas for our arena. At the very least we will do some stuff the way it was intended to be done in the first place. And we are open to suggestions. My email box is always open.

So use our site. Learn about bikes and products in the tests. Comment on them and we’ll approve comments that add to the test with substantive information, positive or negative. Support the site by buying products through the links at the bottom of tests. Have a dose of fun in our Fresh Dirt section where we’ll be posting up stories we feel are interesting to a dirt bike rider.

And for anyone who thinks they can do it better than us, I want you to do it better than us, and do it for us. I basically thought the same thing when experiencing other moto media out there, and that’s why I’m here now and writing this. Just like me, you won’t get rich as a test rider, but you could be doing what you love and making a lot of friends along the way. And pissing off that one guy… There is always that one guy.

See you in the dirt!

JIMMY