why don't we get aluminum tanks? | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

why don't we get aluminum tanks?

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Priller said:
Well played. I seem to remember you getting a trailer set up once upon a time, too.

As for the Soapbox, I miss it too. I was known as gmazza then. Got to know Blackie (not his evil twin) quite well out in BC, and he's still a good friend. Not as prickly in person as online. Also did some riding with Bondo out there before he got sick, and he was a total gentleman with a million great stories. I think Stagman ended up going out and buying his Tiger after he passed.

I have no idea where Larry, Matt M or some of the other regulars ended up. I had hoped to find more here, maybe some (like me) have different usernames. I've seen @Rob MacLennan here, and a few others, I think, but the vibe is different from that old system. After Editor 'Arris passed, that site was never the same...
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Things were definitely different after Rob passed. Larry was still refereeing at Shannonville until the end of the 2019 season.

The new forum software at CMG was subjectively better, but lost the feel of the old Soapbox. Somewhere along the way I lost admin access to it, during an upgrade, and they never straightened it out. When the new ownership took possession they came to me to get the password, which I no longer had. The new board would have been better if if anyone had put even a few minutes a day into purging the spammers. I reported for a while and then just gave up.
 
Rob MacLennan said:
Things were definitely different after Rob passed. Larry was still refereeing at Shannonville until the end of the 2019 season.

The new forum software at CMG was subjectively better, but lost the feel of the old Soapbox. Somewhere along the way I lost admin access to it, during an upgrade, and they never straightened it out. When the new ownership took possession they came to me to get the password, which I no longer had. The new board would have been better if if anyone had put even a few minutes a day into purging the spammers. I reported for a while and then just gave up.
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Yeah, that old Soapbox layout was hilariously antiquated, though I seem to recall a fair bit of resistance to updating it.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, as I wasn't around much at the time, but I got the sense that the new owners weren't particularly interested in continuing that side of the site or possibly offering a platform to some who weren't entirely happy with things. I've only heard one side of the story, but I know some who were involved during Rob's time didn't always see eye-to-eye with the new group.

Besides the Soapbox, I was mostly there for Rob, Steve and Larry's offbeat, knowledgeable, and sometimes acerbic take on motorcycling, so I haven't had much reason to return.

Either way, I learned an unquantifiable (?) amount of stuff about motorcycles on that Soapbox, especially as a new rider. Consider this a belated "thank-you" for the work you put in behind the scenes...
 
Priller said:
Yeah, that old Soapbox layout was hilariously antiquated, though I seem to recall a fair bit of resistance to updating it.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, as I wasn't around much at the time, but I got the sense that the new owners weren't particularly interested in continuing that side of the site or possibly offering a platform to some who weren't entirely happy with things. I've only heard one side of the story, but I know some who were involved during Rob's time didn't always see eye-to-eye with the new group.

Besides the Soapbox, I was mostly there for Rob, Steve and Larry's offbeat, knowledgeable, and sometimes acerbic take on motorcycling, so I haven't had much reason to return.

Either way, I learned an unquantifiable (?) amount of stuff about motorcycles on that Soapbox, especially as a new rider. Consider this a belated "thank-you" for the work you put in behind the scenes...
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The old Soapbox was clunky, but it fostered a sort of conversation that you couldn't find anywhere else in its heyday.

Rob gave me my first shot at professional motorsports photography. Let me operate under the CMG banner and would shell out for the shots he needed. I trusted Rob and Larry with access to the back end of my web server, so that they could get what they needed, and they never let me down.

I think that what I miss the most about those times, were the CMG meetups at places like The Bull & Firkin. A bunch of random folks from Soapbox, Rob, Mr. Seck back in the day. Maybe Mark Richardson or the guy from The Toronto Sun, whose name escapes me at the moment. Those went on for a couple of decades, at least, and only ended when Rob moved out east.
 
Didn't even think about it, grabbed my mangetic tank bag and put in on my new (to me) 1199 and no worky, aluminum.
012753a166dbede6211267a0e0286d17.jpg


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Rob MacLennan said:
The old Soapbox was clunky, but it fostered a sort of conversation that you couldn't find anywhere else in its heyday.

Rob gave me my first shot at professional motorsports photography. Let me operate under the CMG banner and would shell out for the shots he needed. I trusted Rob and Larry with access to the back end of my web server, so that they could get what they needed, and they never let me down.

I think that what I miss the most about those times, were the CMG meetups at places like The Bull & Firkin. A bunch of random folks from Soapbox, Rob, Mr. Seck back in the day. Maybe Mark Richardson or the guy from The Toronto Sun, whose name escapes me at the moment. Those went on for a couple of decades, at least, and only ended when Rob moved out east.
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Rob gave me the handle TK4 when we were discussing starting a new technical column (there had been 3 tech writers previous). It never panned out for some reason, I think his moving east was part of it. I gave him the infamous Marvin the Martian helmet at one of the Mad Bastard Rallies - he wore it proudly. Over the years I took a few people to task (and was taken in turn) over lots of stupid sh*t. My fight with Joe Berk/CSC Motorcycles and Jason Black over the proper way to pronounce Hore-Hay Lorenzo are just a couple. When Auto Trader took over CMG lost its spirit, became corporate and now that the staff has been cut back even more (we see very little from Zac) all it does fluff pieces and press release regurgitations. Sad...
 
TK4 said:
Rob gave me the handle TK4 when we were discussing starting a new technical column (there had been 3 tech writers previous). It never panned out for some reason, I think his moving east was part of it.
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Didn't you do a Q&A for a while as part of the Tech-Know Bag?

Edit: Of course, hence TK. I learned a lot from that series...
 
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Rob MacLennan said:
The old Soapbox was clunky, but it fostered a sort of conversation that you couldn't find anywhere else in its heyday.
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This is very true, but it had a heady mix of people who'd been around the industry, sometimes on the periphery, and some very old hands. The clunkiness of it actually seemed to be a bit of a filter, where you had to really want to participate.

Rob MacLennan said:
Rob gave me my first shot at professional motorsports photography. Let me operate under the CMG banner and would shell out for the shots he needed. I trusted Rob and Larry with access to the back end of my web server, so that they could get what they needed, and they never let me down.
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Rob was great that way. He actually asked me to do some writing for him, as I was in BC at the time and he was looking for someone out west. I'm ashamed to say, it just didn't fit in with my full time work, and I didn't last long. I remember struggling to write a Friday Fudge from a Las Vegas hotel room with the absolute mother of all hangovers, as I was there for a convention. I got it done, but it's not easy to be witty when your head feels like the bass drum in a pipe band. It became pretty clear pretty quickly that I didn't have consistent enough time to do it justice, though I always wonder how it would have turned out if I had better time management skills. He was certainly an encouraging boss...

Rob MacLennan said:
I think that what I miss the most about those times, were the CMG meetups at places like The Bull & Firkin. A bunch of random folks from Soapbox, Rob, Mr. Seck back in the day. Maybe Mark Richardson or the guy from The Toronto Sun, whose name escapes me at the moment. Those went on for a couple of decades, at least, and only ended when Rob moved out east.
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I didn't do enough of these, and only really participated when they had them in Ottawa.
 
TK4 said:
Rob gave me the handle TK4 when we were discussing starting a new technical column (there had been 3 tech writers previous). It never panned out for some reason, I think his moving east was part of it. I gave him the infamous Marvin the Martian helmet at one of the Mad Bastard Rallies - he wore it proudly. Over the years I took a few people to task (and was taken in turn) over lots of stupid sh*t. My fight with Joe Berk/CSC Motorcycles and Jason Black over the proper way to pronounce Hore-Hay Lorenzo are just a couple. When Auto Trader took over CMG lost its spirit, became corporate and now that the staff has been cut back even more (we see very little from Zac) all it does fluff pieces and press release regurgitations. Sad...
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My picture (and your mysterious status) were still on the site for quite some time, even after the buy-out. The list is much shorter now.

Last year GTAM put me up for an Eddy award, at the bike show. While I was there to receive it I heard CMG had put up a photographer, that I'd never heard of, for one also. So much for almost 20 years, eh?
 
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