Tough world for motojournalists

When you're a motorcycle magazine and you rely on advertising to survive, sometimes the truth forces  you to set a staffer free.

According to jalopnik.com, long-time motorcycle journalist Dexter Ford had his association with Motorcyclist magazine severed for a story on Snell-rated  helmets that ran in the New York Times.

Ford is the trouble-maker who researched and ran Motorcyclist's gutsy, hard-hitting, fact-proving story in 2005 that showed the Snell 2005 standards actually were more dangerous than the DOT standards.

Snell since changed its standards for 2010, but those new helmets went on sale late in October 2009, meaning bunches of 2005-standard helmets were up for sale.

Read the story on Jalopnik for a fascinating look at the publishing world today. As far as helmets, a good quality helmet, whether DOT or Snell, is going to protect better than nothing. The 2005 standard Snell will be great on a race track where secondary impacts are more likely to occur, while DOT may be better on the street.