THE WORLD’S MOST INTERESTING MAN

The third member of our less than Innocents abroad was The Most Interesting Man In The Motorcycle World, John Burns. After a recent stint with Motorcycle Online came to an abrupt end the original Bitter Little Man has been reunited with his former Motorcyclist magazine Editor-in-Chief Mitch Boehm. A made-man, Burn’s dreams of retiring to a cabana in Mexico have been put on hold as Boehm assigned him the global launch of Triumphs’s ground breaking new singles.

“Perhaps I should establish my credentials,” said Burns of a previous role. “Phil Schilling, he of Cycle magazine fame and protege of Cook Neilson, Gordon Jennings, et al, hired me to come to that magazine in 1988, which seemed at the time like being plucked from a sandlot softball game to play shortstop for the Yankees. Under Schilling, I had learned that motorcycles are important and deserving of careful scrutiny and a fair road test, and I think it’s hugely important to respect the work of the brilliant engineers who produce our favorite toys (in truth, motorcycles represent much more than playthings to me).

Unfortunately, a corporate coup shortly afterward saw Phil ousted and me sent from God’s motopark — Westlake Village, California — to the bowels of Orange County, where Cycle lived on “under new management” for a couple more years before being “merged”, yes that’s it, merged, into Cycle World…”

And then, depression set in.

The phone did eventually ring and I worked at Cycle World for a couple of years, good times. While there, I am maybe most proud of having taught Jimmy Lewis to ride a dirt bike. Anyway, the siren song of Mitch Boehm and Motorcyclist sounded about 1994 — more of a foghorn, really — and I moved there for the same reasons everybody changes jobs: mo money, mo freedom, etc. And it worked very well for a long time. Under Boehm, I learned to ride faster and fall off less…”

And that pairing led to the infamous Bitter Little Man columns until Motorcyclist was “restructured” and the golden era of monthly print publications abruptly ended.