Although he isn’t the editor anymore, I will probably always think of John Ker as the face of BMX Plus! magazine. And now because of his magazine’s seemingly hot and cold treatment of cruisers in recent months I feel compelled to write him this (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) “Dear John” letter.
John Ker: no love for the 24?
Dear John,
I thought we really had something. After not reading your magazine in what seemed like forever, I picked up your magazine at the local store and noticed you had changed over the years. No longer were you associating with Radical Rick or doing “who’s radder” features….you were actually showing some honest to goodness riding once in a while. More importantly, you showed some love for the cruiser with a couple of 24″ bike tests in 2009.
Your advertisers seemed to have noticed this too. One of them rewarded you with not one, but two 2-page ads for their cruisers.
But your self-destructive nature got the best of you, didn’t it? Out of nowhere in your April issue, you featured an article called Cruising into Oblivion: The Death of the 24.
How could you do this? Both to our fledgling relationship and to your advertisers? For the love of God, there’s a 2-page ad for Redline‘s top-of-the-line Flight 24 in the very same issue that you say 24s are cruising into oblivion!
It makes me so mad…and I imagine Redline isn’t any happier. I wrote a post about it, hoping to salvage things, to help you see the error of your ways and to let you know that 24s are not dead yet. After that I didn’t hear from you for a month.
Now all of sudden, in the June issue it seems that the ‘love’ is back with a 10-page race cruiser shootout. While it’s a grand gesture, after declaring our relationship essentially over, to try to win me back with a 10-page article, it seems just a little to late. I guess you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, right?
I know what you’re going to say, that you’ve changed.
But I’m not sure if I can bury the hatchet just yet. I think you’ll have to prove to me that you want this relationship to work.
How you ask?
A full-on 24″ freestyle cruiser shootout.
I think that’s what it will take to win me back.
So John, what do you say?
cruiser revolution 
Sunday vs. Fit vs. Mirraco vs. Giant vs. Redline vs. Liquor.
That would be nice.
But no one under 30 rides cruisers except racers.
Trent, I think you gotta add Jeremy’s Liquid frame in to that verses. I really want to check that frame out. Still haven’t had a chance to ride one yet. Speaking of that, Jeremy! When are you coming down to SoCal so we can ride some trails? Compound trails are up?
As far as completes go, you could also add the WTP Avenue/Avenger, Haro, Felt, Subrosa. More than enough to keep things interesting.
That was pretty funny man!!! Hey goride09, dude don’t leave free agent hangin. They make 3 different models of cruiser so i believe they would belong in that lineup as well. Even though they don’t make the model i ride anymore. And for some reason i don’t get bmx plus in vegas. i have looked everywhere but dont see it. I would get a subscription but if they aren’t showin luv 4 cruisers then i want nothing to do with them either. Great article man, thats why i check this site everyday!!
gnarbot dirt jumpers ride cruisers
Well said,let’s see what happens.
I meant Liquid!I was drinkin too much liquor and misspelled it!
I see a roadtrip in the near future,It’d be great to get a session goin with you Jon!Since Woodward didnt workout so well.
Any response? I amone of those over 30 guys so I guess thats why I see more crusers then ever.
No word from Plus!…
[…] like it was just yesterday that BMX Plus! ran an article talking about “The Death of the 24″. Now here we are, just a couple of years later and a major race company is buying up prime ad space […]
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