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Was H&T
in competition with Ahrma? Not in theory; I
had always seen us a complement to the National Club in the Northwest.
However a foolish bushy tailed handling of what were doing - changing
the formula, adding 80s / 90s bikes - could easily tip the balance.
After looking at the two packages side by side, Vintage
Riders might just choose to contest the Ahrma series instead of ours.
Especially
with gas going through the roof. H&T
would take on water and start to slow. And correcting that impression
takes FAR more energy than just avoiding it in the first place.
From time
to time a cheap comment would be tossed out on the chat group that VDR/H&T
was looking more and more like an Evo Club. The reality was that
we had all Ahrma's Evo riders, because
they had been turned away at the door. So to my quiet satisfaction,
Ahrma digging in its heels kept Hammer & Tongs in business.
But
as I said Vintage won't last forever- and well aware that perception
is reality. And each year that goes by, the percentage of Vintage recedes
incrementally due to the fact that
A ) it is a revolving door, and we lose old guys and their bikes leave
with them.
B ) new riders tend to be younger, & are interested in later bikes
C ) fools are flipping bikes, shipping out of country, just for a for
a buck.
so
the last thing I wanted to do was add to the pile was losing
focus of Vintage itself.
AND SO.....
to make the presentation give the right impression, to make sure that
VINTAGE stayed right in the center of the spotlight, I ended up with
a complicated set of unwritten rules,
or guidelines for the website, which made doing the galleries take forever.
H&T Results example
Classes in a standard order,
in paralel columns
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ALWAYS
put Vintage Bikes on the two cover pages, and
ALWAYS make the bike on the first results is a Vintage Bike.
ALWAYS
alternate Vintage & Evolution in the Galleries, starting with
Vintage,
but NEVER put photos of the same corner consecutively - but
also make sure to NEVER showcase the same riders on month to month.
ALWAYS put results of Vintage and Evo on the same page, so
that riders & viewers get used to them being together....
- all this purposely - to send the signal that a) Vintage was
healthy, and that b) the American Northwest Standard was Vintage
& Eve together in a day.
Of course
a significant and maddening amount of time was spent looking and
looking for a shot of a specific rider - I often asked if
we had any new riders, so that they could get on
the webpage. I'd call up Mark Hector, or Nancy Richards, or Chris
Holzbach, and ask if they could find a shot of #4 on a Suzuki.
Sometimes there would be two different guys on yellow Suzukis-
both with #4.
of
course there exceptions to each one, but these are the ideas that
guided what I worked on. Sometimes the photographers themselves
were in the same moto as me so there would be a hole in the photogaphic
evidence where everyone for two or three motos were unclicked.
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Some riders
float to the top - always look good, every time they go by - and those
riders are almost always experts - so sometimes maddeningly I had a
number of incredible shots - and the rider in question had JUST been
on the front page. So I'd wander off, sort of sad, and try to find someone
else's shot to use.
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analogy
yes I did shoot this specifically for
this editorial.
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