Motorcycle life earns Dorset man fame
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:51 am
Motorcycle life earns Dorset man fame
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - By REBECCA ROBINSON, Staff Writer - Bennington Banner - benningtonbanner.com
DORSET — Southern Vermont has a bonafide hall of fame celebrity in its midst.
In a ceremony conducted last month in Pickerington, Ohio, Dorset resident Cook Neilson, a former drag racer and editor-in-chief of Cycle magazine, was one of nine motorcycle greats inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Neilson, who learned of his nomination in June through a call from a member of the American Motorcycle Association Selection Committee, said in a phone interview that the news was "completely and totally out of the blue. It was utterly unexpected."
Even more unexpected were the eight friends of Neilson's who flew out to Ohio from Dorset to attend the induction ceremony. They "were in cahoots with AMA", said Neilson, and planned their attendance while keeping it secret from their friend.
"I was really thrilled", Neilson said. "It was nice to have that kind of support."
Neilson currently resides in Dorset, but the story of how he became a motorcycle legend begins in Pennsylvania, where he grew up. As a teenager, Neilson became obsessed with motorcycles. Soon after, he convinced his parents to let him buy a Vespa motorcooter.
Later, while attending Princeton, he worked at a Harley-Davidson dealership to pay for his 1963 Sportster model — a purchase that would lead to his suspension from the Ivy League campus.
At the time, Princeton banned students from having motor vehicles on campus. Nielson, however, defied the rule, and continued to ride his bike around town, though he did make an effort to store it secretly in the basement of one of the university's dining halls. Not surprisingly, though, the secret was short-lived. Nielson was pulled over while on the bike and, shortly thereafter, suspended from Princeton for a year.
This institutionally imposed hiatus led Nielson to join the National Guard. Upon returning to Princeton, he focused on economics, and worked for a summer as an assistant municipal bond trader.
However, his love for cycling led him to become even more deeply involved with the sport, and, in addition to running his bike at local drag racing events, he submitted articles on drag races for Enthusiast, Harley-Davidson's magazine. In 1967, Gordon Jennings, editor of Cycle, hired Neilson straight out of college to be part of his magazine's staff.
Four years later, Jennings moved to Car and Driver, leaving Neilson at the helm of the world's largest motorcycle magazine. Neilson quickly demonstrated that he was ready to make some serious changes, starting with the relocation of the magazine to Southern California. As Neilson said in an interview with the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, "It made no sense to try to do a motorcycle magazine in Manhattan ... we were constantly flying to California to test bikes."
Using connections from Princeton, as well as from his time in New York, Neilson assembled a team of gifted writers to the magazine. While good copy was essential to Cycle's success, however, Neilson had larger goals in mind. Perhaps the greatest was realized when Cycle became the first publication to conduct and feature head-to-head comparison tests. In the world of motorcycle enthusiasts, this was considered one of the great publication breakthroughs of the time, and apparently contributed to Cycle's peak subscription base of nearly 500,000 people.
Despite his full-time commitment to running Cycle, Neilson managed to find time to race his bike on the drag tracks of Southern California. When the American Motorcycle Association launched its Superbike Series in 1976, Neilson was there and finished a respectable third in the inaugural race. The next year, he impressed everyone with his easy victory at Daytona, which propelled him to a second-place finish for the overall AMA season.
Having accomplished his main goal of logging a Daytona victory, Neilson retired from the racing scene in order to focus full-time on his work with Cycle.
He sent shock waves through the motorcycle industry in 1979 when he resigned from Cycle and moved with his wife, Stepp, to Dorset. He all but disappeared from motorcycling events, and devoted his time and energy to starting and managing a commercial photography business.
When asked about the sudden change, Neilson said his main reason for leaving was to give his long-time collaborator Phil Schilling the chance to run the magazine, which Schilling accepted. "It was his time," said Neilson.
Another contributing factor, added Neilson, was that he had simply had enough of the motorcycle industry, and that "it was time to expand my narrow focus."
He describes himself as "something of a mono-maniac ... I can take something and stick with it obsessively for quite a while ... and you pay a price for that, in that you don't have a well-rounded life." Once he had decided to move on from motorcycles, he had no doubt about what other passion of his he wanted to pursue.
As a child, his interest in photography had been encouraged by his father, himself a photo enthusiast, and he was taking black-and-white photographs with his own camera by age 12. While at Cycle, he also contributed a significant amount of photographs to feature stories.
Since 1979, Neilson and his wife have co-run Crystal Clear Photography, building a studio and darkroom in their home where they could shoot and process film. At first, Neilson recalls, he was told he would never make it as a commercial photographer in Vermont. But he believes that "if you do what you say you're going to do the way you say you're going to do it, you'll be successful in Vermont."
Through running a reliable photography business with such lucrative clients as Orvis, Neilson has done that.
Neilson still reads all the motorcycle magazines and maintains some of his connections to people within the industry. He'll even ride a bike every now and then. Last October, Cycle World magazine, which bought out Cycle in 1991, offered Neilson the chance to test-drive the 2005 Harley-Davidson SuperGlide, the modern version of a bike Neilson had reviewed 35 years earlier. Calling this "an offer I couldn't refuse," Neilson accepted, and within days the shiny new model arrived in Dorset.
Neilson took it for a spin around Southern Vermont, and then embarked on a road trip to return it to its place of origin — in Milwaukee. "It was a fun jaunt", he said, adding that the opportunity to talk to the new Cycle World editors and write one more feature story was well worth the trip.
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - By REBECCA ROBINSON, Staff Writer - Bennington Banner - benningtonbanner.com
DORSET — Southern Vermont has a bonafide hall of fame celebrity in its midst.
In a ceremony conducted last month in Pickerington, Ohio, Dorset resident Cook Neilson, a former drag racer and editor-in-chief of Cycle magazine, was one of nine motorcycle greats inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Neilson, who learned of his nomination in June through a call from a member of the American Motorcycle Association Selection Committee, said in a phone interview that the news was "completely and totally out of the blue. It was utterly unexpected."
Even more unexpected were the eight friends of Neilson's who flew out to Ohio from Dorset to attend the induction ceremony. They "were in cahoots with AMA", said Neilson, and planned their attendance while keeping it secret from their friend.
"I was really thrilled", Neilson said. "It was nice to have that kind of support."
Neilson currently resides in Dorset, but the story of how he became a motorcycle legend begins in Pennsylvania, where he grew up. As a teenager, Neilson became obsessed with motorcycles. Soon after, he convinced his parents to let him buy a Vespa motorcooter.
Later, while attending Princeton, he worked at a Harley-Davidson dealership to pay for his 1963 Sportster model — a purchase that would lead to his suspension from the Ivy League campus.
At the time, Princeton banned students from having motor vehicles on campus. Nielson, however, defied the rule, and continued to ride his bike around town, though he did make an effort to store it secretly in the basement of one of the university's dining halls. Not surprisingly, though, the secret was short-lived. Nielson was pulled over while on the bike and, shortly thereafter, suspended from Princeton for a year.
This institutionally imposed hiatus led Nielson to join the National Guard. Upon returning to Princeton, he focused on economics, and worked for a summer as an assistant municipal bond trader.
However, his love for cycling led him to become even more deeply involved with the sport, and, in addition to running his bike at local drag racing events, he submitted articles on drag races for Enthusiast, Harley-Davidson's magazine. In 1967, Gordon Jennings, editor of Cycle, hired Neilson straight out of college to be part of his magazine's staff.
Four years later, Jennings moved to Car and Driver, leaving Neilson at the helm of the world's largest motorcycle magazine. Neilson quickly demonstrated that he was ready to make some serious changes, starting with the relocation of the magazine to Southern California. As Neilson said in an interview with the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, "It made no sense to try to do a motorcycle magazine in Manhattan ... we were constantly flying to California to test bikes."
Using connections from Princeton, as well as from his time in New York, Neilson assembled a team of gifted writers to the magazine. While good copy was essential to Cycle's success, however, Neilson had larger goals in mind. Perhaps the greatest was realized when Cycle became the first publication to conduct and feature head-to-head comparison tests. In the world of motorcycle enthusiasts, this was considered one of the great publication breakthroughs of the time, and apparently contributed to Cycle's peak subscription base of nearly 500,000 people.
Despite his full-time commitment to running Cycle, Neilson managed to find time to race his bike on the drag tracks of Southern California. When the American Motorcycle Association launched its Superbike Series in 1976, Neilson was there and finished a respectable third in the inaugural race. The next year, he impressed everyone with his easy victory at Daytona, which propelled him to a second-place finish for the overall AMA season.
Having accomplished his main goal of logging a Daytona victory, Neilson retired from the racing scene in order to focus full-time on his work with Cycle.
He sent shock waves through the motorcycle industry in 1979 when he resigned from Cycle and moved with his wife, Stepp, to Dorset. He all but disappeared from motorcycling events, and devoted his time and energy to starting and managing a commercial photography business.
When asked about the sudden change, Neilson said his main reason for leaving was to give his long-time collaborator Phil Schilling the chance to run the magazine, which Schilling accepted. "It was his time," said Neilson.
Another contributing factor, added Neilson, was that he had simply had enough of the motorcycle industry, and that "it was time to expand my narrow focus."
He describes himself as "something of a mono-maniac ... I can take something and stick with it obsessively for quite a while ... and you pay a price for that, in that you don't have a well-rounded life." Once he had decided to move on from motorcycles, he had no doubt about what other passion of his he wanted to pursue.
As a child, his interest in photography had been encouraged by his father, himself a photo enthusiast, and he was taking black-and-white photographs with his own camera by age 12. While at Cycle, he also contributed a significant amount of photographs to feature stories.
Since 1979, Neilson and his wife have co-run Crystal Clear Photography, building a studio and darkroom in their home where they could shoot and process film. At first, Neilson recalls, he was told he would never make it as a commercial photographer in Vermont. But he believes that "if you do what you say you're going to do the way you say you're going to do it, you'll be successful in Vermont."
Through running a reliable photography business with such lucrative clients as Orvis, Neilson has done that.
Neilson still reads all the motorcycle magazines and maintains some of his connections to people within the industry. He'll even ride a bike every now and then. Last October, Cycle World magazine, which bought out Cycle in 1991, offered Neilson the chance to test-drive the 2005 Harley-Davidson SuperGlide, the modern version of a bike Neilson had reviewed 35 years earlier. Calling this "an offer I couldn't refuse," Neilson accepted, and within days the shiny new model arrived in Dorset.
Neilson took it for a spin around Southern Vermont, and then embarked on a road trip to return it to its place of origin — in Milwaukee. "It was a fun jaunt", he said, adding that the opportunity to talk to the new Cycle World editors and write one more feature story was well worth the trip.