Hello AriZona Riders!

Transitions ~ Learning Curves ~ Crossroads

Happy 24^th Anniversary to AZ Rider Motorcycle News!

Yup ~ for 24 years, AZ Rider has been bringing news & info to the motorcycling community. Thank you all for your continuous support! In these 24 years, with 285 editions, we’ve shared stories, recorded history, and watched things change.

Also, in those 24 years there have been a LOT of changes in the news media industry and here in the AZ Rider office.

Bruce & I began AZ Rider with home built light tables & a used typewriter. The pages were all black & white… No digital. No word processors. It was LITERAL cut & paste; with scissors and glue sticks on cardboard layout boards. We hand-delivered those boards to our print house at whatever time of day or night they were ready.

As time passed, we transitioned to digital files – working in COLOR ~ woo hoo! And sending those files to the printer over the internet was just amazing.

Another advance ~ another learning curve.
2005 found us creating a digital presentation to share AZ Rider on the World Wide Web. Not only popular here stateside; people we met at events who were visiting from other countries liked it ~ As the cost to snail mail a subscription of hard copies to them back home overseas was prohibitive.

Circumstances in the world led us to a crossroad in 2020. In May 2020, facing c’vid-based quarantines, we made the decision to transition to the online-only presentation you read these days.  

And now ~ there’s a new crossroad to face. Changes in how people read their news and market their businesses have caused me to re-evaluate how best to keep AZ Rider going forward in a positive manner for Advertisers and Readers alike.  I am proud to maintain the longest continuously operating biker publication in AriZona & look forward to keeping it going as a part of our biker community.

There are some new ideas percolating over here. I am blessed with good advisors ☺ It’s too soon to say much more than “it’s gonna be cool” … but please send positive thoughts this direction. ☺

In the meantime,
There are numerous new & returning advertisers to welcome, as they promote their upcoming annual events. As summer reaches its end, { Thank Goodness! } it is time to add the Hassayampa Music Festival, Bikers For Boobies, Run to the Rez, CMA’s State Rally, and Troll’s Teddy Bear Run to your calendars. Also, Damian of Hell Mary Holsters is back in the shop after his April motorcycle wreck. Stop by his booths during the upcoming Crossroads of the West Gun Shows.

The picture on the cover’s ¯  from Winslow Arizona ¯ Such a fine place to be ☺ This photo was captured by Patrick Ryland of Patrick Ryland Photography on Saturday during Too Broke For Sturgis. See the article on pages 16-18 of this edition. Patrick is a commercial portrait and documentary photographer based in Los Angeles, CA. He learned about Too Broke For Sturgis & came out for the weekend – camera in hand of course. My thanks to Patrick for my current Editor’s photo as well.

Well…. As our friend Waldo used to say… This is about 10 pounds of stuff in a 5-pound sack. So, I’ll sign off for now and wish you all a great month.

Read the September 2023 edition of AZ Rider Motorcycle News at https://azridersouthwest.com/

Ride safely, choose wisely, and
Keep Your Butts On Your Putts!