The Internet: would you go back?
If you're old enough to have lived a life before the World Wide Web transformed our world 30 years ago, perhaps you have an opinion about whether it's improved life or not.
One thing it has done is end motorcycle magazines' long reign as prime source of entertainment and information for whatever area of the two-wheeled world you're interested in.
And, yes, it's nice and convenient to be able to Google a name, make or event and get photos and (AI-generated) info in a millisecond, but for me there's a hollowness to this instant gratification that makes me sentimental for the days when print mattered.
Iron Horse was the magazine that really inspired me in the early 1990s, under David Snow's editorship. Grimy New York street choppers (totally unlike the glossy fare in the centre-pages of Easyriders) and a focus on the east coast 1%er community, conveyed by sassily-written articles, made a big impression. I'd on;y just grown out of buying 'Live to Ride' doodads to adorn my Ironhead Sportster, so this mag opened my eyes. I'd check the local corner shop every night after work, when I knew a new issue was due. They only got a couple of copies in, so you had to be quick.
I remember writing the mag a letter (a real letter, with a stamp on it) enclosing a couple of snaps (real photos, from Boots!) of the Shovel I'd just bought. After months of waiting, it appeared in their readers' section.
The excitement I felt has not been matched by any subsequent online experience. And perhaps that's the point: the anticipation. Waiting for the mag to come out, to appear on the store's shelves, to feature something you'd been waiting for. There was something special about tucking the newly-acquired copy of Iron Horse – which had travelled all the way from America! – into my jacket, impatient to devour its features back at home.
I miss that feeling. And the best I can hope for is that sometimes, somewhere, readers might experience similar anticipation when a new issue of Greasy Kulture is announced.
Would I go back to a world without Internet? Well... would you?
1 comment
For me, the mid-70s to mid-80s were dominated by reading Easy Rider. I loved the anticipating the arrival of each new issue. Today, I feel that way about GKM. I have never felt that way about any web publication. I love sitting in the garage pouring over every new issue. Print will always be my preferred method of reading a magazine.
Would I go back to a world without internet? No way! Searching for rare parts is so much easier today. But at the same time, the old adage “let the buyer beware” is more meaningful today than ever. Another internet upside, being able to pick the brain of an entire vintage bike community when it comes to technical issues. Of course the internet has brought us a lot of negative crap too. But all-in-all, I’ll keep it.