BMX journalism. What a joke. The history of writing in this sport is a sad and sorry one, a long tale of bribery, bullying, and just plain B.S. The only difference between advertising and "content" in most BMX magazines and websites is the rather more restrained tone the advertisements take when praising their products. Are you sick of it? So am I. Would you like to see honest, no-holds-barred, no-punches-pulled, no-products-left-unbroken coverage of BMX? Yeah, me too. The problem is that sooner or later, everyone who works in this sport falls prey to that most disgusting of authorial ailments, the "hook-up" syndrome. The story that follows is a true tale of one man's attempt to tell the truth on his website, and the storm that followed.
The standard for BMX journalism was set by Bob Osborn back in the sport's Golden Age. Mr. Osborn took to heart that old saying of everyone's mother, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," and further modified it to, "If you can't say anything nice, say it anyway, and make sure you sell some ad space doing so." And thus began our sport's age-old tradition of fibbing to readers. The product reviews were particularly, almost laughably, bad. Items which broke on the first jump were called "mega-durable"; those which broke during the actual installation, injuring the mechanic and damaging his tools, were "super-sano". Readers quickly learned that anything labeled as "ultra-qual" had an expected lifetime of three racing weekends, with "econo-qual" stuff being unlikely to survive a vigorous loading onto the bike rack. "Trick" meant that it didn't fit on your bike. "Gnarly" meant that it would fit on your bike if you hit it with a hammer. And so on. Perhaps the low point came during a review of the Auburn (GT) CR-20R, when one reviewer, after riding a bike with a GT "mallet" stem that couldn't hold the bars upright, GT hubs with instant-break bearings, and a set of GT aluminum cranks that were infamous for stripping-out during installation, wrote "GT is really getting to be a recognized quality name in components." Yeah - recognized low quality. Naturally, there was a two-page advertisement for the CR-20R in that month's issue, for those who didn't find enough hype in the review itself.
When i tried to break the mold of so-happy-together product reviews in Bicycles Today back in 1991, I had my hand slapped faster than you can say "This is Jay Becht calling... I'd like to pull my advertising from your publication." It was explained to me that "everyone wins" when you "concentrate on the positive". Advertisers are happy, the paper makes more money, there's an opportunity for free stuff down the road, and the people who read what you write... who cares about them? As Dan Duckworth, who just made eleven million dollars selling Dan's Competition, once told me, "We all know kids lie." And if they lie, why should you upset the gravy train by telling them the truth?
That's why there are two worlds in this sport - the "little people" and the "hooked-up people". If you pay for your parts, race on your own dime, and contribute money, time, and effort to the sport, you're a "little person". If, on the other hand, you are sponsored/compensated/paid by the sport or entities within it, you are "hooked up". The first rule of being "hooked up" is to shut up and play along. Don't criticize people, don't cause trouble. If you do cause trouble, do it in a "cool" or "marketable" way, like holding up the NBL Worlds because you aren't satisfied with the track you are being paid to ride.
The hooked-up types tend to look down on the little people. They party in the hotels while you try to eat a cheap meal and get some rest. They run up to the gate to take the same practice lap you've been waiting twenty minutes to get. They walk up to the back of the NBL trailer and register while you sweat in line. Every racing weekend, they take money out of your pocket - registration, parts, spectator fees. That's the way the game is played. Most people really, really want to join that "hooked-up" crowd, and they'll do anything to make it happen.
When I began writing for Bicycles Today, I was swarmed by the hooked-up people. I received free stuff in the mail. My entry fees were waived. People I had idolized for years came up and talked to me. Everybody assumed I was going to join the club and play ball, just like everyone else. They were wrong. I had this crazy idea that if I told the truth, that if I wrote for my audience and not my advertisers, that good things would happen to me. In the end, of course, I was booted unceremoniously from BT, not before being told I probably wasn't welcome at the races, either. When I was invited back, it was under the condition that I remain strictly anonymous. My name had become poison in the industry. To the people who had used promises of power and influence to make monkeys out of silly sycophants like Steve Buddendeck and Brian Fell, I was an enigma - a young man who wouldn't shut up and couldn't be bought.
And you know the rest, so I'll shut up and get to the tale of the day. Many of you are familiar with Rich Hetzel; if you aren't, here's his story in a nutshell. Rich raced on the East Coast before moving to Ohio in 1985, where among other things he made a powerful impression on a chubby, ill-tempered thirteen-year-old later to be known as "Jim Boswell", who decided to start racing so he could be just like Rich. Mr. Hetzel quit racing and joined the Army in 1987. He returned to our sport in 1997 and has been racing the National circuit ever since. He is the webmaster of BMX Basement, a site devoted in equal parts to old-school bikes and the NBL National schedule. He was this year's Ohio #1 30-34 Novice.
"BMX Basement" has been quite successful and has gradually led to the "hooking-up" of its webmaster. S&M, Atomlabs, and others all contribute free or low-cost products in order to obtain a favorable mention on the site. Rich has met many people, made many friends, and has happily sung the praises of many a rider on his site, which has made him quite popular. His website currently draws more visitors per week than mine, even though he certainly does not feature more than eighty unique and interesting columns about our sport. (As you can see, I'm not above a bit of self-promotion.) Things have worked out pretty well for Rich so far.
Until, that is, this year's Ohio State Championships. The race, which was held at Fort Hamilton, had a variety of problems, from an annoying layout to a five-minute, anonymous "closing ceremony" that many felt did not adequately recognize the riders who had worked hard to win state plates. Rich was there, and he didn't like what he saw. When he spoke to one of the track workers, and that track worker spoke in a combative manner to him, he got a little angry.
Rich went home that night and wrote a fairly critical report on the event, citing numerous problems and detailing his general dissatisfaction with how the race had been planned and executed. This wasn't like any of his previous race reports, which tended to be light-hearted recounting of his various friends' victories and defeats. This one was different. "I try hard not to be political and to just promote the great sport of BMX," he wrote, "but after Saturday it's really difficult not to say anything." So he said something. Good for him, if you ask me.
Rich sent me a link to his race report and asked for my opinion. I was a little surprised to see him write something critical, but I didn't think there was anything unfair or libelous in the report, so I told him it looked fine to me. He put it up, and his site's visit logs started clogging with the hundreds of riders who had heard about the "BMX Basement controversy". Supportive e-mails came in by the dozens. Rich had spoken his mind, the people agreed, and all was right in the world.
I have read that if you could travel back in time and poke an Apatosaurus in the tail with a stick, it would take four seconds for the big dino to react and do something about it - probably squash you flat. The organized racing community is like that. It took a few days for the Fort Hamilton folks to hear about Rich's race report, but once they did they were fierce in their action. The track president sent a long, rambling, e-mail to Rich, more or less calling him a lazy idiot. The track director's son expressed his opinion that Rich was a poor rider and a suck-up, doing so by sending one profanity-ridden e-mail to that effect each and every day. Rich began hearing through the grapevine that he was not welcome at Fort Hamilton any more. The "controversial" report which had won him acclaim was now making him some rather prominent enemies. Rich responded to everyone, restating his case, defending himself, but it didn't really matter. He had stepped out of line. With one race report, he had crossed the line from "useful" to "troublemaker" - at least in some people's eyes. Rich has told me that he is "done" with Fort Hamilton - a sentiment that I suspect is mutual. You see, everybody likes to see their name in print - until, that is, you have something other than gushing praise for them. It only takes one slip of the keyboard to make an enemy for life. I know - I've been making enemies for more than a decade.
Luckily for Rich, Fort Hamilton, Ohio is not the whole world of BMX - but I think he will find that if he examines the NBL and the National scene with the same critical eye that he turned upon his state championship, he will find enough material for a lifetime's worth of controversial columns. Will he write those columns? If he does, he will find out quickly how the hooked-up crowd treats those of us who rock the boat. The NBL doesn't pay its reporters for negative race reports. Companies don't hand out free stuff to people who are likely to provide honest, objective reporting on that stuff. Riders don't like to hang out with people who "cause trouble". This sport has a lot of ways to punish people who stand up and speak the truth, and I have experienced nearly all of them. I don't wish the same experience on Rich. I won't blame him if he never reports a negative detail again - why not just sit back, write the happy stuff, and enjoy the ride? It's enough for most people.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people. I can't shut up. I can't keep my nose out of stuff. You can bet that when I line up on that Pro gate this Thanksgiving, I'll be ready to poke at the soft, seamy underbelly of bicycle motocross. Perhaps Mr. Hetzel will join me, perhaps he won't - but in the long run, we're both riders who want to see the sport improve and grow. I think most of us want that to happen, so we really all have a common goal. Common goal. Doesn't sound very controversial after all, does it?