A look back at the (sometimes silly) ads & editorial from Rider‘s first 500 issues.
On a long shelf in the Rider editorial den of two-wheeled delight?err, office?rests a row of thick white binders. Inside these binders are physical copies of every single Rider issue, going back to the first one: Summer 1974. Flipping through them is like time traveling, which is exactly what we did in researching this feature. We were swept up in the free loving spirit of the early ?70s, chuckled at the somewhat chauvinistic attitudes juxtaposed with frequent stories by female contributors throughout the late ?70s and into the ?80s, and then rode into the brave new world of liquid cooling, catalytic converters, ABS, forkless front ends and computer-controlled fuel injection. And then there were the ads. Viewed from today?s modern, aloof sophistication (ha), most are quaintly old-fashioned, some are silly?and a select few are worthy of our ?Blasts From Rider‘s Past? collective retrospective. So sit back and get ready for a road trip back in time. 
It?s summer, 1974?
?the birds are chirping and the bees are buzzing, and Rider has published its first issue. According founding Publisher Denis Rouse, this spread, essentially an ?ad? for the motorcycling experience itself, was penned by then-Editor Bob Mendel as ?a typical relaxed/romantic moto lifestyle day that…harkened back to the peaceful dreamy ether of the ?60s, when love and life were a lot simpler, when idealism re...