My new neighbor looked at me a little befuddled as I finished my answer to his standard line of introductory questions. He had just bought the house directly behind mine after it sat vacant for over a year. It was one of many foreclosures that have littered neighborhoods across the lower 48 as of late. He scored a great deal on the home, while I was just happy the lawn would now be measured in inches versus feet.

We covered the basics, asking each about our own superficial aspects of our daily lives; kids, relationships, marriage, hometown and employment. The first few were relatively easy and met with an agreeable north/south head nod. Then I dove into what had become for the lack of a better term, “my life” for the past 20 years.

I told him of chance meetings and the twists that we all encounter in our lives. How I had worked as an editor for both regional and national snowmobile and ATV publications for nearly 10 years, then moved on to corporate life; first in Milwaukee working for “mother” Harley-Davidson in a media relations role, and then moving back to Minneapolis and being employed by Polaris Industries as a marketing manager for their snowmobile division. All told, the corporate side of things occupied another 10 years of my employed years.

By this time we had worked our way from the backyard to the garage, where my current arsenal of “work related resources” was neatly shoehorned into place. There was the line-up of motorcycles, one for nearly every application from dirt to street, two collectible automobiles, my daily driver, a refurbished Honda scooter, two vintage snowmobiles forced out of storage due to lack of space, and two current year, all terrain vehicles still glistening with showroom hang-tags.

Like a haunting echo from girlfriends past, he surveyed the garage and made the matter-of-fact statement, “You’ve got a lot of toys for one guy.”

Having heard this all too often from friends, neighbors, and yes, past girlfriends (note key word, past), I was well prepared to defend my position. I explained to him what he saw as toys, I saw as not just a lifestyle, but also a living. After 20 plus years of living, breathing and writing about all things that “make noise with gas”, my collection had become more than toys, but rather an extension of my office, similar to my computer, camera or trusty pad and pen.

“And you get paid to ride them?” he asked with puzzled disbelief.

His raw, blanketing statement, which I had heard before on more than one occasion, still caught me a little off-guard.  I suppose in the simplest of terms he was right. Every year I have the opportunity to ride the latest and not so latest snowmobiles, quads, motorcycles and side-x-side vehicles, and in the process, photograph and write about them in hopes of producing an informative, objective and entertaining collective work.

Truth is, I’m not by any stretch of the imagination an excellent writer, photographer, or rider. I see no Pulitzer in my future and you won’t find me whipping a snowmobile or ATV across a 100-foot gap for the lens of the latest extreme video. Instead, I’d say I’m downright average on all three counts. And I’ll venture out on a limb to say that many of my colleagues in the publishing business fall into the same category.

Yet, despite my self-proclaimed lack of talent, what the editors of ATV World and I bring to the pages of this publication every issue is what I like to call a “smart donkey.” Or, in other words, a well tuned gluteus maximus, among other things, and the ability to decipher what and why an ATV, snowmobile, or motorcycle is doing what it does and then relate that feedback to you in a concise and entertaining way.

Impossible? Not at all. Difficult? Certainly. I believe at times there is nothing harder than starting the day by staring at a blank computer monitor, waiting for words to flow from my fingers. Still, I’ve been doing just that for nearly 20 years, and now as I join the ranks of ATV World and sister publication, On Snow Magazine, I hope to convey to you the inner thoughts of my donkey for seasons to come.

The words had barely finished rolling off my neighbors tongue as I raised my focus to find him staring with a whimsical smile, awaiting my reply to his somewhat loaded question. I shrugged my shoulders with a sheepish grin and joined him with a scan around my garage of toys. “Yeah,” I said. “I guess you could say I do.”

by Richard Kehoe

The past few months have been pretty busy to say the least. We have been here and there, but most importantly, we have all been out and about on our ATVs & UTVs, enjoying the fresh new season.

I make time to get out and ride quite a bit, not just because of the job, but mostly because I enjoy it so much. Sure, I’m able to ride and test machines a little more frequently because of what it says on my business card, but I also get out to our test track and log miles on with the guys from the office for fun after work. Almost every week I’m geared up and in the ARGO, messing around the camps road. It’s not a road really, our camp has a driveway about a quarter kilometer out and it’s cut trail fit for ATVs or an ARGO only. It’s more of an adventure this way, and hey, anyway we can use an ATV or ARGO a bit more, the better! 

This spring has turned out some great rides. Actually, I have had one of the best spring rides ever on ATVs. Early this spring, Virgil and I made our way to North Carolina to test ride the 2010 Can-Ams. It was grueling; we were able to ride every style of terrain in this riding compound for a few days. The NC red mud sucks, period! Don’t let anyone tell you different. Photo guy extraordinaire, Big Virg, asked me to ride in the red stuff for the photos and we ruined three jerseys. Rule of thumb; don’t wear anything white when riding in the red stuff. While we were out there, yours truly took in his first GNCC race, by far the craziest type of woods racing and fans that I have ever witnessed.

Our Technical Editor, Jeff Edwards and Warren Geer from our sales team, and myself  made our way to a ride in Bancroft, ON with the group that put on the huge mud run / poker ride. This trip had us venturing in all sorts of things like man made pits of mud that could swallow ATVs whole. Edwards showed everyone why he is the man behind the wheel of a side-by-side. The RZR S, triumphed every time through the disastrous area. At times the dust was so thick that Warren had difficulty with his contacts, and I think he broke a nail. The riding was second to none on this trip, and we even shot a real cannon. Yes, we were able to shoot a cannon! We used several ounces of gun powder to achieve the boom power to launch. Shortly after our cannon ball experience, a Canadian Armed Forces Hercules airplane flew over top and made a few laps around the area. Probably just looking at the group of 15 ATVs in the woods, but the timing was perfect. How big was the cannon? Big enough to make a boom, but our cannon balls were only golf balls. Trust me we were not a threat. (ATV World Magazine does not recommend, or want you to try this at home.)

In this issue, ATV World Summer ‘09, Pat Bourgeois has a new column named “Detonation,” get ready to be entertained with “SMART DONKEY!” ATV World Magazine has been riding upstate Minnesota on Arctic Cat ATVs, through the woods and downstate with the 2010 Polaris, which will be featured in the next issue of ATV World. Pat just received a new wardrobe of Shift Gear; he now needs more closet space than your wife or girlfriend to house it all. This is going to be interesting, being that Shift is ahead of the fashion police. Will Pat wear his plaid suit for the cameras? Hope he can back it up! No doubt though, we are going to be entertained, learn something, and we’ll be looking forward to the next installment of “Detonation”.

Another new column in ATV World is “In the Shop with Jeff Steenbakkers”. My last column mentioned that Jeff sleeps with ATVs, but at the time I was only kidding. I am now rescinding the joke, as he might just be sleeping with them. One thing is for sure; Jeff loves All Terrain Vehicles, a true passion of his. He’s even been busy making custom ATVs. A few of us, including both Edwards and Steenbakkers, made our way to the Mike Holmes Foundation ride, sponsored by Can-Am, just a couple weeks back. The ride was at the military base, Base Borden. This place was a blast to ride at, with the troops, tanks, and other weaponry, we had a great time. Because of the intense training facility, we had all types of riding to take advantage of. Sand dunes, water, mud, to any obstacles that the troops might encounter in the world was there, and we experienced it. We got stuck in mud holes that tanks struggled to get through while training. I had my Polaris Sportsman 550 XP stuck in the muddy tank trap, but surprisingly enough, Steenbakkers whittled a Yamaha Griz 7 to the other side. I felt a bit of shame, but tanks also got stuck in the line I took. Hey, Edwards got stuck as well.

Spring of 2009 was filled with fun and entertainment for us, and we can’t wait to get into full summer mode with more riding and more experiences. Get out there and enjoy it while you can, being an ATV enthusiast is who we are, it’s who you are, and it’s what we all enjoy doing. Send us your Ride Shots; we might just publish them in our next issue. Be sure to send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and show us how much fun you’re having this season! Until then, like you, we honestly can’t wait for our next ride!