If you missed out on dirt bike riding, motocross, or desert racing from the 1970s on, we have good news—the late Rick Sieman has left us a 638-page time capsule. It is in his 1995 book Monkey Butt! Tall Tales, Bench Racing, and the Inside Story of 30 Years in the Sport.
Sieman’s book has the unmistakable ring of authenticity and real-life absurdity that makes it a truly enjoyable page-turner for anybody into motorcycles, in general, and especially those interested in off-road riding and racing. His unvarnished insights into the world of being a motorcycle magazine editor, test rider, racer, and author pull back the curtain on the seldom-seen workings of that side of the business. And, sometimes, it ain’t pretty.
Sieman, who became widely known by his nickname, Super Hunky, takes us into the struggles of the publishing biz from both the financial and editorial perspectives. As the editor of Dirt Bike magazine, Sieman’s fearless approach to motorcycle reviews made the magazine hugely popular on the newsstand.
More than once, his acidic critique of bikes that just didn’t do the job put him at odds with manufacturers who were also advertisers and, consequently, with his boss, as sometimes those manufacturers would pull their ads, impacting revenue.
Management’s response was to try to force Sieman and his editorial staff to soften their critiques of poor-performing motorcycles or products, or not mention it at all. However, the other side of the coin is circulation, and Sieman ultimately proved that readers wanted those uncompromising views, which more than offset any decrease in ad revenue.
Editorial content struggles aside, Sieman tells some great racing, wrenching, and testing stories. With wit, insight, and self-effacing humor, he takes us along from his editorial offices to motocross tracks and to the desert as he and his collaborators test-ride and race all manner of dirt machines.
One of the most interesting events he chronicles is the Big Bike team entry in the Mint 400. A magazine devoted to choppers, it was at Big Bike that Sieman got his editorial start. In an audacious attempt to bring more attention to Big Bike, Sieman got publisher Bill Golden to sponsor Sieman and teammate Jim Connolly to compete in the big-time desert race—on a Triumph chopper!
Despite the bike being clearly intended to be cool on the street, complete with sissy bar, zoomie pipe exhaust, kicked-out extended forks, and a Captain America paint job on the tank, the pair made a surprisingly good show of it—and it makes for a good story. There’s a lot more where that came from, too.
Note to readers: Many of the books we feature in Rider’s Library may be out of print, and some may be difficult to find. That could be half the fun. The Internet should make the search relatively easy. However, none of the books currently scheduled for eventual retro-review for the Rider’s Library section were found with the help of the Internet. They were all found at bookstores, used bookstores, antique shops, motorcycle shops, yard sales, and so on.
This is not to imply that Sieman confined his off-road racing to the dry, sunny confines of the desert southwest. In 1981, after considerable cajoling, he went back east to compete in the Blackwater 100 in West Virginia.
The five-lap course included multiple deep-water crossings, endless deep muck, and plenty of rocks, much to the discomfort of the intrepid Sieman, who dared challenge it on a factory Maico 760 two-stroke single. It’s a race with only 20 of the 500 starters completing all five laps. Sieman managed to complete two Blackwater 100 races, relating, “I could sit here and relate a horror tale to you, giving you reams of gruesome stories. And they would all be true. Mostly.”
Not all the racing stories he tells in Monkey Butt! are light, laughter, and fun. When Sieman and other media types were invited to preview the track set up in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the upcoming supercross race, he misjudged the speed necessary to clear Goodwin’s Gorge at the base of the peristyle jump. He tells of the epic fail that ensued:
The frame rails of the bike hit right on the square-edged lip of the far edge of the gorge, and the bike stopped dead. Instantly! The bars bent down and slammed on the tank. The left peg sheared off the frame and my torso slammed forward. My face hit the triple clamp like a pile driver. Red and white flashed through every cell in my body. Strangely, there was no pain. Just this terrible, awesome sensation of a heavy weight descending on me and trying to crush me. I didn’t go over the bars. It would have been better if I had, no doubt. But, like I said, the bike and I just stopped dead on the track, from 55 miles per hour to zero—instantly.
The result was a broken back—two vertebrae cracked and three crushed. The chin bar of the full-face helmet Sieman was wearing was demolished, and he credited it with saving his face from destruction. With the help of friends, he left the hospital against medical advice, devised his own home-based therapy plan, and made an amazingly rapid recovery.
Sieman also chronicles his protracted legal battle with the Bureau of Land Management over the running of the legendary Barstow to Vegas desert race. Anyone who has had confrontational dealings with a government bureaucracy will be able to relate to it.
Sieman included some of his great humor, such as how you can know when you’ve spent too much time in the garage. Here’s a sample:
- You’ve been in the garage too long when you cut your finger and it doesn’t even bleed through the grease.
- You’ve been in the garage too long when your shorts start to feel like they’re made out of old wet rope.
- You’ve been in the garage too long when you’re too tired to get up from the milk crate and go to bed.
Rick Sieman’s Monkey Butt! is the well-told story of a life well-lived. Was it easy and smooth as silk? Not by a long shot. That’s what makes it such a rollicking, relatable read.
Monkey Butt! Fast Facts
- Title: Monkey Butt! Tall Tales, Bench Racing, and the Inside Story of 30 Years in the Sport
- Author: Rick Sieman
- Published: 1995; republished in 2003
- Format: Paperback, 638 pages, 44 black-and-white images
- Publisher: Rick Sieman Racing
- Monkey Butt! Original Cover Price: $20 (available from Super Hunky’s Dirt Emporium for $25)
