12/09/2023
Another one bites the dust...and he's loving it.
in 2003 I had asked bicycle industry friend and journalist Jim “Jimmy Mac” McIlvain at Hi-Torque Publications if he knew some one who knew motocross legends Brad Lackey and Marty Smith. We were looking to shoot a pilot for a new biographical TV series that would be called "The Motocross Files". Jimmy said "Super Hunky" Rick Simon knows those guys!". So he put me in touch with Rick who was living in Rosarita in Baja, Mexico with his lovely wife Tina. I went to meet Rick down there and he was everything his words on the page appeared to me growing up reading his "From the Saddle" columns in Dirt Bike Magazine as a kid. Funny, full of life and what was obviously some tall tales. He thought the show was a great idea and he did all the research and traveled to interview both Brad and Marty with me in late 2003 and January of 2004.
He was instrumental in helping get off the ground one of the most important TV programs in the history of motorcycling and something we are very proud of.
Rick had been suffering from Alzheimers in recent years and last year I tried getting him inducted into the AMA Motocycle Hall of Fame for obvious reasons (if you are a motorcycle fan...you know). He got on the ballot but was third in the voting behind Travis Pastrana and Rita Coombs...both completely worthy Hall of Famers. We had hoped Rick could stick around in the "pits with us" to perhaps be called up on the AMA stage in 2024 if it happens since now he is automatically on the ballot. But, no instead Rick went to the starting line of his last race last night as was posted by his daughter Cindy Sieman.
He created a whole new genre of motorcycle specialty magazines with Dirt Bike in 1971 and many followed. With his funny columns and sometimes scathing reviews of less-then-stellar reviews of new motorcycles some the world's biggest companies, he left a mark and sometimes bruises in the business.
Rick was gritty, funny, grumpy, determined, feisty, fierce and stubborn. A guy who could use his wit and drums full of ink to ruffle feathers and make a point on paper but would put his cause (and his safety and freedom) where is typewriting mouth was on his dirt bike out in the California desert staring down the US government while 60 Minutes cameras capture all the action.
He will be missed but everyone who is eligible to vote in 2024 for the AMA Hall of Fame should make a clear choice...for Super Hunky.
