tim-
you got stones, man, i have to give you that. i respect that you had the moxie to post, although i wish you had included a bit more detail. however, it's a beginning, and i am curious to see if you or anybody else from mxa will address a few other things that have been...shall we say...less than helpful with respect to the magazine's credibility.
for example, when is mxa going to stop saying ridiculous things like pulling the decomp lever with the motor turning will crash the valves on your yz thumper? or that it is actually possible to overtighten your rear axle nut? as a 3 year owner of a number of yz 400/426's and a mechanical engineer who has heard of things like bearing spacers, i find your technical content a bit...lacking.
and what about kayaba fork seals and cracking yamaha gas tanks? everybody in reality-land knows the problems with the first, yet you guys never address them except with poorly detailed articles about how to clean them or install new seals...so they can leak again, and again, and again. you rag on yamaha all day for having graphics that come off within seconds, yet their piss-poor engineering decision to reduce the tank wall thickness and send all of us looking for warranty help before we turn into human candles has never been mentioned even once. i guess the real gas tank issues are the fact that you can't see how much gas a kx has in it, but that even though you can in a ktm, their translucent plastic is just too ugly for california, huh? my bad.
do i even need to talk about the negative tone you take with regard to cannondale or any racers that you don't feel are up to your moral and athletic standards? or the ama? or whatever? i think you get the message. i hope you get the message, because mxa could be better, and better at conveying the idea that you guys are actually participating in the same sport we are. consumer advocacy is one thing, but keep it real. to use mxa's own term, stop being such a naysaying nabob of negativity!