Jim Lindsay 1955-2021
MCN is saddened to report of the death of former editor Jim Lindsay, who passed away on April 10, aged 66. A lifelong full-time motorcyclist, Jim was at the helm of MCN in the early 1980s and also helped launch Performance Bikes in 1985. He maintained a presence in the industry as a respected freelance contributor, and in 2011 even turned his hand to bike building with his bold Triumph powered Enigma sportsbike project. Former MCN publisher and Jim’s friend of 40 years, Mark Revelle gave us this tribute: “Before Christmas he had ridden his KTM over for a beer. A month later he was diagnosed with cancer.
“Jim and I first crossed swords when he edited Mechanics and I edited Which Bike? Jim mistakenly accused us of making up a launch report. I sued him. So began a near 40-year friendship. Jim’s approach to life was to laugh at it while grabbing it with both hands and demanding more, from club racing to road testing to hosting legendary parties in his tumbledown old farmhouse.
“Seize the day, he’d say, and his appetites and his energies were prodigious. Yet he was just as happy walking 10 miles in the country with Margaret, his wife and soul mate. “Jim edited MCN when I was publisher, but he was a rider and writer rather than the manager MCN needed then. Unhappy with the huge demands MCN made on the production side, Jim quickly saw that Apple Macs were the future and he left to launch his own successful consultancy with Margaret. His passion for bikes never faded. Nor will his memory. He was a real mensch.”
MCN extends heartfelt condolences to Jim’s wife Margret and his family.