Well friends, it's finally the new year. What a year 2018 was, eh? Like many of you out there, RideApart had its ups and downs, strikes and gutters over the past 12 months. We made great strides but we made mistakes, too. We missed some opportunities, but we also got some scoops and did some amazing things. We tasted, as they say, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. So, since it's January 1 and we're all a little tired and pensive today, I figured I'd take the opportunity to reflect on RideApart's past and talk about its future.

To start off, you may have noticed that it was hell among the staffers last year. Directors came and went, along with writers, shooters, reviewers, and assorted other bike nerds. I'm happy to say that, after so much tumult, we're going into 2019 with one of the best—if not the best—editorial teams RideApart has ever had. After a baptism by fire that involved migrating to the new Motor1 platform during EICMA and dealing with yet another staff shuffle, we came out the other side leaner, meaner, and ready to tackle anything.

You may also have noticed that the number of stories we post a day increased. Since we're in online publishing we live and die by the click. More stories, more clicks. More clicks, more Yankee dollars to spend on serious business motorcycle journalism like reviews, trips, first rides, etc. Essentially, if we want to bring you well-researched motorcycle history lessons and exciting travelogues—which we definitely do—we also gotta write about Russian dashcams, funny crashes, dumb criminals, and our old pal Florida Man. It's the nature of the beast, you know? While you may see some stories that don't strike your fancy for one reason or another, rest assured we're writing that story so that we may better afford to write something you do like. 

I guess those were the two biggest changes last year, and trust me, they were big changes. A new editorial team with new goals to hit only improves the quality and quantity of our stories. The stories we write for you, dear readers. 

So, what's in store for next year? A whole lot, in fact! First off, I plan to publish more reviews and better features. We'll get our hands on more bikes and ride the wheels off 'em so that we can bring you, the devoted commentariat, up to the minute news and opinions on new bikes from your favorite OEMs. Along with that, I hope to expand our reach across the globe, recruit new writers with diverse and interesting voices to the team, and increase readership by inviting in readers who may not have felt comfortable or well represented by us or the motorcycling culture in the past.

So, there you have it. That's our plan to be even more awesome in 2019. Will we pull it off? If we buckle down, eat our Wheaties, and work our collective asses off we will. We plan to entertain, enlighten, and occasionally enrage you, thereby making us all better motorcyclists and gearheads. What about you, dear reader? What do you want to see from RideApart in the coming year? Let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate. Thanks for sticking by us friends, we appreciate each and every one of you.

Yours, 

Jason, Sabrina, and the RideApart team

PS: Sorry if this is a little bit of a ramble. I wrote it on about four hours of sleep after NYE celebrations that included lots of Slavic food, board games, rye whiskey, and defending a hastily-constructed basement fortification from heavily-armed feral children using only a pair of NERF revolvers. Saying I'm a little tired and scatterbrained is an understatement.

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