Pick Up A Copy Here!

Contributor's Info

Subscribe

Contact Us

Previous Issues

Home

Lost In America

Penned by the legendary and entertaining Fred Rau, you never know what he's going to talk about each month in his column 'Lost in America.' This section describes the Lost In America articles from previous issues. If you would like to order the magazine in which an article appeared, please fill out the subscription form by checking the "Back Issue" box and indicating the appropriate month.

---

September 2010 Telling It Like It Is

If you know me, or have followed my scribblings for any length of time, you know that over the years I have often criticized the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) for many of their policies and actions. I won't rehash all of those old disputes, mainly because they are virtually all, at this point, "water over the dam." What is done is done…

August 2010 Then and Now—How Things Have Changed

I am writing this from a motel room in Dillon, Colorado, where my wife Cherrie and I are on the next-to-last leg of our longest tour ever—a 10,000-mile loop of the U.S. Along the way, we are revisiting many of the routes and locales of our first-ever long tour, taken in the summer of 1971 aboard a Honda CB750…

July 2010 Ten Things We Hardly Notice

Recently, while checking over an evaluation of a new motorcycle that I had just written, I noticed a slight omission in one paragraph. Though I had criticized the bike's brakes for slightly less than stellar performance, I had not bothered to mention that the brake units were, nonetheless, disc-type. And yet, after re-reading that paragraph a couple of times, I decided to let it stand as it was originally written. After all, the fact that a streetbike has front and rear disc brakes is certainly not news these days, and is, in fact, so commonplace that it barely merits mentioning. Which got me thinking…how many more bike components have attained this status since I first started writing bike reviews?…

June 2010 I Blame Henry Ford

If you spent nearly your entire adult life working within a certain industry, such as I have in motorcycling, it would be difficult not to have formed certain opinions as to how and why things happened the way that they did. I have a number of such 'pet theories,' and thought I would share one of them this month. Just keep in mind that this is nothing more than a personal observation. I doubt that I could defend it very well against opposing theories, but still, I think it is at least worth considering…

May 2010 Out of the Mainstream

Recently, I stumbled across a website that carried nothing but 'Top 10' lists. Of course, they didn't specify how they came about rating the items in their lists or what criteria were used, so I have no idea how accurate they might be. But still, it was interesting. Out of curiosity, I typed in "U.S. motorcycle magazines," and sure enough, got not only a list, but cover photos of what are supposedly the top ten motorcycle magazines. I am assuming they were ranked by a combination of subscription and newsstand sales, but I really don't know. From my years in the publishing business, I know this isn't a very accurate system for determining actual readership, but then again, it is the best we have. For example, this copy of Friction Zone you are reading may have been picked up at a motorcycle dealership. Was it on a table in the service department? How many people read it before you? Or did a friend pick it up weeks ago and pass it along to you? Even magazine copies that are purchased by subscription are often passed along to riding buddies, circulated at club meetings, etc., so it is difficult to determine how many people actually read any given magazine. But it also stands to reason that those with higher circulation most likely are also those that are passed along the most…

April 2010 Who Can You Trust?

I have my computer set to automatically alert me whenever items come across on the news feeds that contain certain key words like "motorcycle." Because of that, this piece from the Lancaster, Ohio Eagle Gazette just popped up a few minutes ago…

---

Copyright © 2010 - Friction Zone