Bob Clark
Former Editorial Director
Being associated with Street Chopper magazine was much more than just a job; it was an experience that quite honestly humbles me for having been so fortunate to have been involved. Not only did it provide me with a valuable, hands-on education in the publishing industry, but more importantly it allowed me to make a living while working with the machines and people I choose to call family.
Prior to joining Street Chopper, I co-owned Chopper Specialties, in Stanton, California with the King Of Metalflake, Roger "Raja" Cassano. Steve Stillwell, then editor of Street Chopper, picked up many tech stories and feature bikes at our shop. He would come to us with an idea for a tech article and I would do the wrenching while Steve shot photos and took notes. Steve was a long time builder himself and more often than not wanted to handle some of the dirty work. So, he gave me a crash course in using the "magazine guy" camera gear. Along the way I picked up just about everything I needed to know about magazine publishing from Steve Stillwell and when he asked me to join him at TRM Publications I jumped at the opportunity. It didn't take long to realize I was home.
The riding shot of me on my Denver's bike was taken by Steve just prior to my being hired as Associate Editor in '74. Tom Mc Mullen and Jim Clark pretty much ran the operation, but left the magazine's content up to the editorial staff. Their philosophy, and one I adopted over the following years, was to hire enthusiasts first and non enthusiast journalists as a last resort. The rational being, you can teach an enthusiast to produce editorial on something they are deeply involved with, but you can't make a disinterested party an enthusiast. Within a couple of years I was promoted to editor and then editorial director for Street Chopper and numerous outdoor sporting and automotive titles, positions held over the next 23 years.
The next couple of decades with TRM which morphed into McMullen Publishing, then McMullen & Yee and then McMullen Argus, were like a dream come true. That was a whole different era. I mean it was like the old west, wild and crazy. Things we got away with on our bikes, at the shop, office and at events would get you 25 to life today. We and the readers, were the fringe element mothers warned their daughters about. We raised hell while still managing to get the magazines out on time and in a fashion that made Street Chopper the biker's bible. As part of our duties we were "forced" to build and ride daily. Getting to photograph and write about our adventures was just frosting on the friggin' cake. I truly wish every bike enthusiast could be so fortunate.
The way we assembled the early issues of Street Chopper stands in stark contrast to the digital, streamlined methods used today. What hasn't changed is the final product. A publication written by and for, chopper enthusiasts. Young guns running the show today are just as involved with the subject matter as ever before and it shows in the pages of every issue published. They are livin' the dream and Street Chopper remains the chopper enthusiast and builder's Bible.