I lost my gig yesterday. (“Oh no, where did you last see it? I’ll help you look!”) Ha. Yeah, I know, it is not funny at all but can’t blame a hack for trying. In all seriousness, I am sorrowful to say that I have been dropped by BikeMag. Gutted.

I could say it was a shock, but in all honesty, all these years getting paid any amount of money to write about my mountain bicycling passion has felt like a bit of a dream. I mean, in the sense that I was going to wake up and find out that I had only imagined the paycheque. These past months have been a lot of fun, but everyone in the bicycle media sphere told me it would be short-lived, and they were right. 

Indeed, I had already, previously, come to terms with not scribbling for my silver when Cy approached me about ‘selling out’ and joining some passionate, talented, mountain bike nerds in breathing new life into the classic BikeMag title. And here I have to honour him because I think Cy does a wonderful job. I wish I had more time. 

The past few months have been excellent. Yes, I have received plenty of reader feedback about shitty ads on the site. Yes, I also wish reader commenting had been sorted out (as I wish I could sort it out on MEATengines). The flipsides are (were) not having to rely on big bike brands for advertising money, meaning there was no pressure from my boss to carry their water, and no astroturfing to push back against.  

But, the quality of the content was solid and my totally biased feedback loop (AKA echo chamber) reported that it was unique, interesting, and engaging. I am particularly pleased about the series Secondhand Postilions, Tilting At Windmills, and Conflict!. 

Indeed, (thank you, Cy) there was no pressure from my boss at all, just a mutually held love of humanity’s most beautiful machine, a rolling conversation, and respect for passionately held differences of opinion about shit that really doesn’t matter. It’s riding bicycles in the forest for fun! 

It is a crappy situation in many ways, but most of all in being unable to fulfill the commitments I have made to write reviews about products on BikeMag. I will do my best to do a thorough job in covering that review material here on MEATengines but I do understand it is a small audience by comparison and the product-review side of what I do will likely die on the vine. 

Not so my passion for writing about cycling & mountain bicycling and certainly I intend to continue regularly publishing content here as time allows. I cannot say what I am doing for work right now, as I don’t know. It is always interesting trying to sort out employment around Claire’s schedule but I am positive that we’ll figure that out – most likely turning wrenches soon at a shop near you (if you’re North Vancouver adjacent). 

That’s it for now. 

Cheers,