Sad News about Rod Gibson of CMM magazine

[Mervinh]

It has been announced by Writebike (Chris Pearson) on the RD club forum that Rod Gibson editor of classic motorcycle mechanics has passed away this weekend ,after suffering for sometime with cancer i believe, i will for sure miss him a whole lot more than a certain other person deceased this week
merv

[Bill Badger]

Rod Gibson was a really friendly guy and will be sadly missed. He always managed to spare time to reply to emails and chat at shows. I hope the magazine can carry on with the same format that Rod had got it to.

During the later part of Rod's illness, a couple of people took over as Acting Editors. Luckily, Chris Pearson didn't have too much chance to lose too many readers when he tried to change the format to that of two stroke racers. Unfortunately I see he's back now in a freelance role, and the day he's back on board in a permanent role is the day I cancel my subscription. Pete Kelly brought the mag back into line for the new Editor, John Carroll, who is now in the chair, and I just hope he can keep the magazine going as we like it.

[Mervinh]

Heres hoping Bill have ya seen my fat gut in this months yet thats me with the TDR and RD,s in the readers bikes section, Daves 250/350 hybrid write up is there as well and i know him fairly well and also i know the Mike with the Honda 750 resto fairly well too
merv

[bikejock]

well John Carroll didn't last too long
they sacked him last week

[Bill Badger]

That's a surprise. I was talking to John Carroll at the Stafford show. Seemed a decent bloke.

Classic Mechanics - If you are reading this, I am a subscriber. The moment Chris Pearson gets his name in the magazine as anything other than freelance contributor, I'll be after a refund on the balance of my payment..............

[bikejock]

you have a real problem with this guy
yes?
why so angry the mag seemed to have a balanced content all through last year
and went a bit off course this year i reckon

[Bill Badger]

Not really, but I took a bit of a dislike to him at Donington about three years ago. Rod Gibson and the others there were very friendly to folk, but he just seemed to be a bit up himself, as if he thought he was too good to talk to anyone. Other snippets were gathered from others who know him (who shall remain anonymous!).
He's probably not so bad really, but in my opinion he changed the articles in the mag totally to suit him. Take a look at the technical questions in the mag at the time he was in the seat - every one was answered by him, not always correctly either, and yet previously there was a team who seemed to know their stuff. Strange how they seemed to disappear when he was there.......

[Mervinh]

Hmm yes Chris did kinda take over thee a bit, never met him but he has been well helpful with the RD,s including a pm recently answering a clutch problem i had that came swiftly and was very helpful, but he was not flavour of the month with the mag for a while as well i was told by another contributer.
anyhow lets see what happens Rod is going to be a hard act too follow for sure, Alasadair Cowan does not appear to contribute lately dunno where he went, i know he has his own website that gives me direct acces to him as well

Merv

[Bill Badger]

Let's look on the bright side - Maybe we'll get Biking Lemons back.....!

[bikejock]

i know him well and also know he would be disappointed with this chat so ive asked for his side of the story

this from Chris this mornin;

"When i stepped in last year Rod had been very ill for some time and the mag was a real mess, half finished articles and pics with no words etc so i had no choice but to rush around and do the bulk of the work myself
i feel the articles were fairly well balanced 2 v 4 stroke but obviously being between a rock and a hard place i had to cobble together issues as best as i could mainly using stuff i was planning for others MCN etc.

i am not biased in any way, there is more 4t in my garage than 2 at the mo and if i was given more time and freedom i feel i could have made the mag something for everyone its a tough job, and to be fair it never was my job, with as many opinions as there is readers. we had GPz900s and even Guzzis and Harleys while i was editing the mag but i had to grab anything i could in double quick time too with little or no planning. i was forced to feature the RG500 on the cover as the stafford show was having revvin kevvin as the guest

as for the tech answers being done by me i once again had no choice as Rods contributors who were doing this job simply didn't answer calls or emails and i reckon Rod had been doing this work himself for some time
i was under serious pressure during this time if you recall i was also editing UBG, working as staff snapper at Mortons and producing the weekly classic articles for MCN plus my other freelance work with Quad mag etc

i was left ill from the experience and dont feel much better 11months on to be honest i had to pull out of the bulk of my work although i still enjoy a very good relationship with the magazine and the owners of it
my girlfriend even designs it so it would be hard for me to be "out of favour" as has been suggested by others, this simply is not true
i have been doing other things for the Mortons team and basically taking a back seat for 09

as for being a nob at Donington i can only apologise if this appeared to be the case
i am usually friendly, love a laff and meeting like minded folk and cant recall any thing opposite to this but i was mega busy that weekend having been guest of honour on behalf of Classic Racer at a dinner the night before and going through the painful and nasty separation with my partner at the same time, in fact i think that show was the first time i had to work without her by my side, so i may have been not my usual self. If anyone has the wrong impression of me i can only say sorry....clearly i owe someone a beer or three.

what ever happens with the mag in the future lets hope it remains what Rod, and Bob before him, made it, both were men with a real passion for the period and this showed in the magazine content."