We ran down 21-11 and now, here’s the top ten stories on Pulpmx.com in 2012
We ran down 21-11 and now, here’s the top ten stories on Pulpmx.com in 2012
We do this every year here at Pulpmx, a look back at the top twenty stories of the year in terms of number of clicks. The cut-off time was Dec 1 and by and large the stories that came out in October and November are at a bit of a disadvantage because they have the least amount of time to linger on the site and collect views but hey, tough cookie.
We didn’t take any Pulpmx Show’s into account as well as any of the sticky’s that are there (like Forum or MX History”) and that’s about it.
So without further aideu, here is part 2 of the top stories of 2012 on Pulpmx.com
1-RV Preps For the Outdoors http://pulpmx.com/video/ryan-villopoto-outdoor-prep
Matthes- The number one thing we did this past year was this Ryan Villopoto/Jake Weimer/Adam Cianciarulo riding video show down at RV’s house during the break in supercross. I’m just going to come out and say it right now, I’m not a video watcher. I’m not. I’d rather read a long-ass 4K word column than click on a video. There are so many videos that I just don’t watch (it used to piss Donn Maeda at Transworld off as when I worked there I wouldn’t watch any of his stuff) because, well, I’m just not into it. But I’m in the minority no doubt as computers, internet connections and people’s general laziness makes video more and more of a draw for you guys which in turn makes the moto websites produce more and more videos.
Here’s my thing, how many times can you watch a dude go through the whoops and blow up a berm in slo-mo while music plays? Not bagging on my moto media contemporaries but that’s just my thoughts. That’s why the JT/Rocky IV video, Tim Ferry/JT Two-Stroke Video/Jimmy Albertson Shadow video are the ones that I like to produce. Those ones are funny, creative and unique. Again, I know I’m in the minority here but just being honest. I will say that I found myself glued to the video’s of Stewart’s GoPro last year from the races because now THAT was real and right there.
Anyways, yeah, about this video. Swizcore, Teenwolf and myself all did a great job here and thanks to these guys for being cool with us doing it. I have to say, the one lap at RV’s place with AC92’s GoPro at the end of this video was must-see TV. How about me using Swizzle’s annual family vacation to Florida as a time when I could go down and film and therefore not have to pay Swizzle flight down there? Brilliant I must say!
Swiz- Hmm lets think for a second why videos are so popular, oh that’s right, people are lazy. Why burn your retina’s focusing on words on a screen or page when you can sit back, pop bon-bons and let the story unfold in high-definition technicolor!? Sure, videos are by and large the same formula but there is no interpretation, comprehension or confusion that can happen when reading. Again, videos, while far more work to produce, are far less demanding of ones time to consume. So suck it. We, the creators of motion-media, hold the upperhand.
Anyhow, yeah; so while I’m not surprised to see this video at the top of the list, I am surprised at why it is there. It’s either all the two-stroke lovers feinding for that zing at the end of the video or merely the chance to get an on-board glimpse of a full lap at RV’s personal outdoor track. Over 215,000 views on Youtube. Yup, print is dead.
Blaze- Well, I suppose I am not the first guy to lose out to that red headed rocket from Florida, so I suppose I should take a little solace in that. Either way, as they say, second is the first looser, so the Lambo will have to wait for another year.
On a more serious note, I totally agree with Steve on the video thing. I mean honestly, how many times can you watch basically the same video over and over? When Fox did it with Terra Firma it was new and awesome, but 20 years later it usually seems stale to me. My only exception is GoPro videos, which are always cool to watch. To me, the appeal is hearing the bikes, not the pounding base of one of Stefan Everts’ 90’s club remixes. So my advice is to fast-forward to the half way mark, and listen to the music of the sports future, running the absolute bejesus out of a good old-fashioned two-stroke mini.
2-Worst Bikes Ever http://pulpmx.com/stories/worst-bikes-ever
Matthes- Tony Blaizer, we here at Pulpmx.com speak your name. Your stuff killed it all year and you can see the passion and effort you put out in each column (he appears just a few more times on here as you’ll see) in 2012 (can’t believe it beat out my Roller-Rama ones but I digress) with his Worst Bikes Ever column. Why did it beat out the Best Bikes Ever? Because as a society, this is where we’re at now with this stuff. People would rather read the bad I suppose.
Anyways, Blazier does an excellent job with this as the ’71 Suzuki won it and the ’84 Husky 125 just made me laugh. We all have our worst bikes ever and Tony did a great job of compiling the ones that he thought should make it.
Blaze- This was a real fun article to write, because if there is one thing I have experience with its buying crappy bikes (I actually bought a Honda Fat Cat brand new off the showroom floor once…don’t ask). Today all the machines are absurdly good and it is actually hard to buy a truly bad one, but 20 years ago, you actually had about a 50/50 shot at getting a total POS. Nearly all the bikes had serious deficiencies, and it was up to you to turn that roach into a winner. As for me, I have spent many countless hours polishing turds, so this was a subject I knew a little something about.
The feedback I get from pieces like this are always funny, because no matter how craptacular the 83 KX500 might have been, there will always be some dude in Omaha that will insist on blowing up my Twitter feed to extoll its virtues. Lists like this, are by their very nature, subjective, so you will never please everyone. In the end, I am just glad people took the time to read it, and I hope they got a chuckle or two along the way.
3- Best Looking Bikes Ever http://pulpmx.com/stories/best-looking-bikes-history
Matthes- And with that, the next best story is the Best Looking Bikes Ever by Blaze (someone get this guy a raise! What? It’s me that determines these things? Oops.) and I chimed in on this column as well. Tony was stuck on 1990 as three of the bikes made the list (number 1 I agree with) and he was Honda-crazy but hey, whatever he wants, it’s his column. The ’88 YZ250 should be higher, the ’90 RM250 should be lower but that’s what makes this an interesting read and one that makes you think about your own list.
Blaze- This article was another one that was real fun to put together. As life long professional bench racer, one of my favorite Moto topics has always been the debate over what machines were the coolest looking. My buddies and I have bantered about this for years, and I thought it might be fun to actually sit down and make a list of my favorites.
This one actually stirred up a lot of controversy on Vital (shocker, I know), as many people took umbrage with my unusual (some have intimated unnatural) affection for 1990 machines and my omission of any bikes from the seventies (What is it with the Maico fans anyway? They are worse that the two-stroke Taliban.). While I stand by my 1990 picks, upon further reflection, I believe I made a mistake not including the 1978 Honda CR250R Elsinore. That bike still looks badass today, and in ’78 it was the absolute height of cool. If I had to do it over again, I would ditch the 2010 KTM and add the Elsinore. I’m still not sure about Matthes’ love of the ’85 KTM125, but hey, opinions are like…well, you know
4- 2013 Projected National Numbers http://pulpmx.com/stories/new-projected-2013-national-numbers
Matthes- What an epic failure this column was the first time around. My buddy Dan Truman of GET Ignitions keeps track race by race of the national numbers because, well, I don’t really know. Clearly Dan needs a girlfriend but we’re grateful he doesn’t have one as I posted the list and immediately patted myself on the back of a job done well. And as you can see, the column was popular. Or actually, the first AND second ones were popular because right after posting the list, I was informed that 250SX points WERE counting for the national number points for the first time in history. Yeah, it’s incredibly dumb and ridiculous to reward guys who are racing a regional series the same amount of points as a guy doing 17 races in a best of the best format but whatever, our list was effed. Who knew? So I had Dan go back and do it again and posted it again a few days later with the updated points. Now we know how Marvin Musquin got a permanent number.
Props to Dan for correctly knowing what number Barcia was going to select by simply asking him at the races. He was pretty close on all his picks and too bad the AMA (who whomever) changed this rule to give 250SX guys full points. Anyways, clearly all of you felt it was interesting as well.
Blaze- I don’t want to come off like Jody at MXA, but holly crap is the AMA numbering system a colossal POS. The fact of the matter is if you really want to do a PERMANENT numbering system then assign one with your pro card and keep it until you retire. Either that, or go back to the old school system where you earn your number yearly. Either one would be preferable to the cluster-fudge we have now.
With the addition of the 250SX points wrinkle, the system has become even more of a joke. Motocross fans are not idiots and 80% of the riders change their number from year to year anyway, so why all the unnecessary complications? Well, at least they finally killed the stupid Lites name so maybe there is hope for the future-end of rant.
5- Bikes That Changed MX http://pulpmx.com/stories/bikes-changed-motocross
Matthes- Not sure why Blaze didn’t put the YZF four-stroke up higher as I think that bike changed a lot of things in the sport from racing to plain old riding but again, it’s his list and he did a good job. Putting the YZinger in there? Brilliant and not something I would have thought of. Of course, Tony being Tony, he had to get his beloved ’88 CR250 in there despite it not really changing much besides color and a low-boy pipe that Blazier seems to think was like curing cancer.
Blaze- I’ve always thought it is funny how in this sport there is so little access to historical information. Sites like RacerX’s Vault are finally making inroads in this area, but for the most part, it is nearly impossible to locate any usable information online. When I sit down to do an article like this one, or the History of American MX, I am hoping to offer a little perspective on the sport to young people who seem to think Supercross started with the arrival of James Stewart.
As for the order of the machines in the article, I guess Steve did not notice that I put them in ascending order from oldest to newest. I did not mean to infer that the ’73 Elsinore was actually the most important bike (although it could have been). Nor did I think the YZF should be #8 ( in terms of importance I might place the YZ400F at #1). And yes, I did put the ’88 CR250R on the list. Maybe I could have picked a better choice in this case, but the lure of that gorgeous blood red bodywork always gets me. To be honest, you should just be glad that I did put all the ’90 MX bikes at the top.
6- Small Man, Big Heart http://pulpmx.com/stories/small-man-big-heart
Matthes- We here at Pulpmx.com should do more videos, every one we do gets a lot of hits and turns out, in my opinion anyways, pretty good. It’s just that every site and their brother does videos (some crappy) and I don’t want to just put one out there to put one out there you know? Anyways, we’re a good team here with myself directing and coming up with a concept, Swizzle editing, building and contributing ideas and we had a real live camera dude (Teenwolf, who was ambivalent about the whole thing) in Florida with us for this video. And of course, JT was ALL about the Rocky idea and threw himself into it 100%. We tried to make it a lot like the training montage in Rocky IV and in some ways, we succeeded. Thanks to Reed and Byrne for helping out and thanks to those cows that stood there.
Swiz- While Matthes is usually the concept-magician, this concept was all me and JT(hashed out the day before shooting I might add), though I will give Matthes credit for dictatorial directorship and fine-tuning the comedy to much higher levels.
This is my favorite video we’ve done just because it all came together so quickly and JT is just a deliverer. He wanted it as much as us and it shows.This video is far better than it’s view-count suggests.
Blaze- This is a fantastic video that cracks me up every time I watch it. In my opinion this is the kind of stuff that separates PulpMX from all the other MX sites. You come to Pulp to get a different take on events and a little levity with your MX fix. Good Stuff.
7- Blue Crew http://pulpmx.com/stories/blue-crew
Matthes- Not to be a humblebrag but this is sort of the thing that I like to put on Pulpmx and I don’t think you’ll find it anywhere else in the media. It’s not that I’m looking in people’s trash to find the dirt to talk shit but there are real issues going on that most media people don’t want to/can’t talk about. There’s no disputing Yamaha’s presence is a long way off the glory years of only a few years ago and it’s partly due to the new-ish YZ450F and an outdated 250F as well as aligning itself with some teams that can’t seem to get out of its own way. Honda’s approach to the 2009 CRF450 and conversations with those guys got me thinking about Yamaha and how they could turn things around if they had more interest (and money) in the race team.
I highly doubt it’s from my column but for 2013 Yamaha IS doing something about the disappearance of blue from the starting lines and I also wrote about this HERE which is mostly a pat on the back of Yamaha column. Once again, I just calls it like I sees it both positive and negatively.
And for whatever reason, this blog caught a lot of people’s interest. I’m glad it did.
Blaze- As Kenny is fond of noting, articles like this probably do Matthes no favors in the pits. Even so, I think they are important to do and if a few guys get their feathers ruffled, so be it. Love him, or hate him, pieces like this are compelling to read and necessary for the growth of the sport. Unless we want sport’s media to be a bunch of backslapping, Luongo apologists, like the ones that run rampant in the GP’s, we need more no BS coverage like this.
8- RV2 Funny Farm http://pulpmx.com/stories/rv2-funny-farm-2012
Swiz- It’s a look inside the private training grounds of a top-pro and these are always popular just because they are so rare.
9- Honest Look at 450 MX Points http://pulpmx.com/stories/honest-look-450-points
Matthes- These columns have become sort of a standard here on Pulpmx and truly, like the title says, it’s my honest look at the points. There are times where I’m like “Should I really say that?” and I owe it to you guys to indeed say whatever it is. It’s just my look at the finishes, the reasons why a guy finished where he did and any sort of irregularities at his season.
10- Classic Commentary 25 http://pulpmx.com/stories/classic-commentary-vol-25
Matthes- Chad Reed and I produced the most watched Pulpmx Classic Commentary we’ve ever done and it comes in at number 10. We did this right after we finished filming the JT Rocky IV video in his garage and because filming went later and Chad had somewhere to go, we could only do the main event but what a main event it was. By the way, these Classic Commentaries just don’t get the audiences they should and they’re a lot of work. If you people don’t watch them, one day they’ll be gone (like the DoDo) and you’ll all regret it.
Blaze- If you have not taken the time to check out one of these little slices of video awesomeness, stop reading right now and click on that link. There are dozens of classic races to watch, and the commentaries are almost always Moto gold. I recommend this Daytona race, Ping’s ’96 Anaheim whoop torpedo, and a very enlightening Gainesville ’95 video with Greg Albertyn just to name a few. Moto gold friends…Moto gold.
