Prime Time Replay:
Dan Koeppel
Avid mountain biker
and Editor-in-Chief of
www.charged.com
MsgId: *emedia(1)
Date: Mon Jul 7 20:50:04 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
Welcome to E-Media for Monday, July 7! Tonight's guest is well-known to readers of mountain biking magazines: rider/writer and editor-in-chief of www.charged.com, Dan Koeppel. Koeppel has been working in print publishing for more than 14 years, spending time at Harvey Comics, Marvel, and DC Comics. He has also worked as a senior writer at Adweek magazine, and wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation. If that weren't enough, while working at his first job out of college (for Marvel), he created Blip magazine, a video games publication for young readers. In other words, he's been there. Koeppel worked as senior editor at Mountain Bike magazine, which bills itself as the "World's Best-Selling Mountain Bike Magazine." He now writes for Bike, a rival mountain bike publication--and, as he will speak about tonight, he is also the editor-in-chief of www.charged.com, an online magazine about "extreme" sports, which began in 1995.Mountain biking is already the future of bicycling--and an appropriate alternative subject, in light of the road-bike-exclusive Tour de France (which began July 6 in Rouen), as well as the X-Games (June 20-28). As a writer for the two most popular mountain bike magazines around, Koeppel has a first-hand view about how this relatively new sport is changing biking, and the technology behind this and other alternative sports. (Koeppel is also a snowboarder).
MsgId: *emedia(5)
Date: Mon Jul 7 20:51:39 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
Hello, I'm here...
MsgId: *emedia(9)
Date: Mon Jul 7 20:55:08 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
Hi, Dan! Just giving an introduction for the show tonight....
MsgId: *emedia(10)
Date: Mon Jul 7 20:57:20 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
Thanks. It made me feel like either a slacker who can't hold a job, or the perfect combination of cool and geek. I can't decide. :)
MsgId: *emedia(11)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:00:55 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
All right! It's E-Media again--and tonight's guest is Dan Koeppel, editor-in-chief of www.charged.com and mountain biker/snowboarder. How did you get into these sports, Dan?
MsgId: *emedia(13)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:03:15 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
Well, I'd been a bike rider since I was a kid - I rode from New York to Montreal on a whim when I was 14 - but kind of fell off the wagon in college. In 1985, though, my brother got a job at a bike factory, and I ended up riding mountain bikes with him. I was already working as a writer, and hideously underpaid, so I figured why not get underpaid doing something I liked.
MsgId: *emedia(14)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:04:52 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
What about snowboarding? Have you ever played the "usual" sports--like football, baseball, tennis, etc.?
MsgId: *emedia(16)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:06:56 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
No, I never did. In fact, I was a classic nerd - totally uninterested in team sports. (I got -left back- in Little League as a kid!). Snowboarding I discovered a lot like mountain biking; I wanted something that would get me out-doors, alone or with friends, but close to nature and sort of, to use the surfing term, soulful.
MsgId: *emedia(17)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:10:45 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
And www.charged.com seems to be that way, too. It reminds me of SLAP or other print magazines, which spend less time on giving lessons and the rundown on the latest products, and spend more time getting into the emotion behind the sport.
MsgId: *emedia(18)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:12:19 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
It's funny you should mention SLAP; that was one of my models -a small, powerful magazine that spoke to it's audience. I will say, though, that I'm a firm believer in "service," meaning showing people how and where. It's just that I don't believe that doing that has to be boring.
MsgId: *emedia(19)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:18:23 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
It's also the difference between BIKE and MOUNTAIN BIKE--one is far more technology-oriented; the other focuses more on what it means to mountain bike. Still, both deal with issues about mountain biking's future--namely, that getting back to nature for bikers means destroying it to others (ie. hikers, horse-riders, etc.) Does charged.com deal with this issue--and how skateboarders, skaters, and snowboarders are affected by the perception that these sports are considered enviro-negative?
MsgId: *emedia(20)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:21:14 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
Not really. I'm very militant about access issues, but I don't really think that Charged is the place to talk about that stuff. At the risk of sounding too hard-core, I think the most important thing we can do is inspire people to get up and go outside and do what they do - bike, skate, board - whenever and wherever they feel like it. And to really understand what having fun is all about, because that kind of real fun, I think, engenders real respect. (Whew.)
MsgId: *emedia(21)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:23:43 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
I was going to explain charged.com in the intro, but perhaps it's better for the EIC to do the summary....:-)
MsgId: *emedia(22)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:26:47 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
OK...well, Charged is action sports for people who love action sports, but refuse to take it seriously. We're for "doers" and "watchers," and we try to give people five or ten minutes of fun while they're digesting lunch and stealing a few moments online at their corporate desktops. We believe that there is an action sports community, despite the fact that skaters are supposed to hate surfers, etc...We're definitely not "dude" oriented - most of our staffers are women - and we probably get injured much more frequently, thanks to the fact that we're spazzes, than the staff of any competing action sports publication, print or online.
MsgId: *emedia(24)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:30:41 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
And skateboarders hate skaters (SLAP again). Do most of the staff at charged.com participate in more than one sport as you do? In getting email from the audience, do you find that you're speaking to converts, in terms of those who tolerate other sport communities?
MsgId: *emedia(25)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:32:49 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
Yes, absolutely. Folks who read Charged regularly, definitely believe in the one-world sport thing. That's not to say a lot of people don't hate (or at least misunderstand) us - and that's especially true with skaters. I routinely hear them say that we're "weak." It's funny, because I have more skaters on my staff than anybody (all of them ride mountain bikes now, but none did before starting. It's a requirement! :) )
MsgId: *emedia(27)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:38:54 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
Well, I can't really see the MTB requirement as being wrong... :-). Are the skaters-turned-MTBikers using rigid frames, or suspended? Why has mountain biking overtaken road cycling?
MsgId: *emedia(28)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:42:39 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
They ride rigid - and modified BMX bikes. I think that MBing is more popular than road riding for three reasons: it's more fun - because you get nature as well as thrills; it's a better workout (an hour on a mountain bike is harder than an hour on a road bike, and feel free to flame me if you disafree); and it's - paradoxicaly - safer, because as Missy Giove once told me, "there's nothing God put out in the woods that can kill you worse than a NY taxicab. I know; I'm currently recovering from a cab/bike smashup that required hand surgery.
MsgId: *emedia(30)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:54:04 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
Missy Giove is a leading women's mountain bike racer, known for her attitude as well as her specialty: downhill racing.
MsgId: *emedia(29)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:51:12 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
Your injuries are well-chronicled in your articles for BIKE and (used to be for) MOUNTAIN BIKE. MTBiking is a sport that, as a friend said, "requires that you get hurt". Yet the bikes being made now seem to be built so that you can't. For instance, the Cannondale Freeride bike, which, as it is built, is an extremely expensive bike whose purpose seems to be to avoid off-road riding. This bike (at $4,000+) is a far cry from when mountain biking basically meant taking your bike into the mountains. How would a cyclist with a limited income get into mountain biking?
MsgId: *emedia(31)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:54:06 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
By avoiding bikes like the Cannondale! Seriously, you can get an excellent aluminum framed bike for about $800. Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, and GT all make worthy models. Then, ride the bike. Avoid upgrades until you really are good - and then, when you want an upgrade, add three things (in this order): clipless pedals, as good a front shock as you can afford, and lighter, name-brand tires. You'll end up having spent under $1200 for a bike that is lighter, faster, and easier to take care of than any free-ride rig.
MsgId: *emedia(32)
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:58:17 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
Will we ever see a 21-day, 2500-mile race like the Tour de France for mountain biking? Or does the land-access problem put a damper on having something of this stature? [Land access means being able to use trails for hikers, equestrians for riding, or being able to create MTB-specific trails on lands closed to this type of riding.]
MsgId: *emedia(33)
Date: Mon Jul 7 22:00:45 EDT 1997
From: Dan_Koeppel At: 208.200.103.177
Well, there is now an off-road Tour de France - though it isn't well-known, well-funded, or well-attended. I'm afraid that the die has been cast for tv-genic, weekend-oriented events - which isn't a bad thing, because even as it has grown, mountain bike racing is still fundamentally an open, participant sport.(For the non-bikers, that means that anybody can enter a mountain bike race, though by category. There is even a specific beginners class - imagine if you could ride a "beginners" version of the Tour de France, or play in a "beginners" super bowl at Giants Stadium...)
MsgId: *emedia(35)
Date: Mon Jul 7 22:03:39 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 205.186.166.47
We're out of time. The problem with talking about a favorite subject online is that I can't type as fast as I think or talk. :-(. But thank you, Dan, for coming online tonight and discussing charged.com and mountain biking. Again, it's www.charged.com, an action sports online magazine headed by Dan Koeppel. Good night!
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