My time with RideApart is at an end. I’m quite proud of the work I’ve done for them over the past two and a half years, two of which were as the weekend writer. Highlights include attending and reporting on the New York International Motorcycle Show, documenting my journey into dirt riding, and of course my trip to Sturgis in 2019. Out of the ten most popular articles in 2019, three were mine, despite writing far fewer articles than the weekday folks. “Is A Cheap Chinese Dual-Sport Any Good?” ranked #10, “Cycleweird: The Diesel Kawasaki KLR 650” took the #5 slot, and “Weekend WTF: Harley Gave Charley And Ewan The Wrong Bike” was the most popular article of the year. They didn’t publish a comparable list of popular stories for 2020, but I’d like to think I had some on there.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing about potentially controversial opinions and topics to open conversations and build a sense of community. They say “never read the comments,” but the majority were positive and constructive, whether people agreed with me or not. In November 2020 they vastly expanded my weekend role, only to end it a few months later in February 2021. It wasn’t my choice, and I’ll leave it at that.
So what’s next? The van build is making great progress, and hitting the road is still the plan despite (or perhaps now because of) the current lack of income. While I don’t expect to make a living off Instagram posts or YouTube videos, they’re still arrows in the quiver. I have some other ideas in mind that I now have time to pursue. More on those once they’re ready. And I’m wide open to taking on writing gigs. Unemployment from my previous day job has me covered for now, and hopefully I’ll work something out for the long term.
Justin Hughes 