I miss Mike

[racerone3]

Remembering the glory days. 40 new threads, tons of responses, cool pics in the gallery... old moderator ran a tight ship and people wanted to be on board... interest is down. how do we bring it back??

[ARGOJIM]

Remembering the glory days. 40 new threads, tons of responses, cool pics in the gallery... old moderator ran a tight ship and people wanted to be on board... interest is down. how do we bring it back??

I think we all miss Mike. Believe the only cure is interaction by others, Mike generally led the responses which intern spurred on others so it now must be carried on by members directly according to Bob's early responses. Johnboy has been at the ready at this time.

[john swenson]

thank you jim for that compliment ... when you love this sport and the machines we have like many of us do, this site is the only way to connect regularly for me and encourage fellow members ideas ,what they know and have discovered regarding riding , building , modifying etc. and sharing their riding experiences ( good and bad ) . i understand at some point peoples interest goes to other things and people get older , etc. i for one need to respond to new members post more often with a kind word and interest in their enthusiasm for joining the site . it was awfully hard to miss joining all the regulars at busco this april !! hope we can make up for it in october . j.b.

[jpswift1]

I saw this thread and had to chime in. When Mike ran the site, it was GREAT! That's when AATVs were in the prime (post 1970's when the original AATV boom occurred). I'll add a little bit of history and some stories to this topic as well.

Mike and I originally met when we were talking about AATVs on Myspace.com. Then one day when I was in class during one of my last semesters of college I got an email from Mike saying that he was starting a 6 wheeler website called 6X6World.com. I was absolutely thrilled that a new website for AATVs was up and running instead of that "other" one that sold overpriced parts and deleted messages on their message board when they didn't like the people that posted them. I knew from day 1 that 6x6World was going to grow to overshadow that "other" site and become the biggest and best site on the Internet. I started spreading the word to all of my friends, and everyone jumped on board. More and more people got on board and not long after Mike started the site, it did in fact became the biggest and best AATV site on the Internet. I met so many great new friends on here too. The friends, the stories, the rides, repairs, builds, races, parts bought, sold, traded and transported, the tech support, and good times were some of the best years of my life. Mike and Whipper and Bridget and the Fischer's even got AATV racing back up and running at Pine Lake after a decades long hiatus. This group of people that helped revive the sport are like family to me and I will always be grateful to have met them even though we don't see each other as much as we used to.

There are so many great stories I'd love to share about what we did on the site and at the rides, races, etc. Let's take a trip down memory lane and share some of them with everyone! Please, all of the folks that have been here on 6x6World from way back when, please chime in. Let's hear some good ones!!!

[techfx]

I saw this thread and had to chime in. When Mike ran the site, it was GREAT! That's when AATVs were in the prime (post 1970's when the original AATV boom occurred). I'll add a little bit of history and some stories to this topic as well.

Mike and I originally met when we were talking about AATVs on Myspace.com. Then one day when I was in class during one of my last semesters of college I got an email from Mike saying that he was starting a 6 wheeler website called 6X6World.com. I was absolutely thrilled that a new website for AATVs was up and running instead of that "other" one that sold overpriced parts and deleted messages on their message board when they didn't like the people that posted them. I knew from day 1 that 6x6World was going to grow to overshadow that "other" site and become the biggest and best site on the Internet. I started spreading the word to all of my friends, and everyone jumped on board. More and more people got on board and not long after Mike started the site, it did in fact became the biggest and best AATV site on the Internet. I met so many great new friends on here too. The friends, the stories, the rides, repairs, builds, races, parts bought, sold, traded and transported, the tech support, and good times were some of the best years of my life. Mike and Whipper and Bridget and the Fischer's even got AATV racing back up and running at Pine Lake after a decades long hiatus. This group of people that helped revive the sport are like family to me and I will always be grateful to have met them even though we don't see each other as much as we used to.

There are so many great stories I'd love to share about what we did on the site and at the rides, races, etc. Let's take a trip down memory lane and share some of them with everyone! Please, all of the folks that have been here on 6x6World from way back when, please chime in. Let's hear some good ones!!!

I didn't know the Myspace part of it before. I ran in to Whipper from the other site and was pointed to here around 2007? I remember finding Pine Lake on Google Earth and hinting at (wonder if we could run at the track again?) in a post. Things were pretty intense maybe 2007-13ish it seemed. Now that we're down a manufacturer of smaller, cheaper machines and parts are getting a little trickier to find ( looking for alternatives for Goodyear Compass knobbies for racing and not as many cheap old bodies around), I wonder if we'll get back to that.

[ARGOJIM]

I saw this thread and had to chime in. When Mike ran the site, it was GREAT! That's when AATVs were in the prime (post 1970's when the original AATV boom occurred). I'll add a little bit of history and some stories to this topic as well.

Mike and I originally met when we were talking about AATVs on Myspace.com. Then one day when I was in class during one of my last semesters of college I got an email from Mike saying that he was starting a 6 wheeler website called 6X6World.com. I was absolutely thrilled that a new website for AATVs was up and running instead of that "other" one that sold overpriced parts and deleted messages on their message board when they didn't like the people that posted them. I knew from day 1 that 6x6World was going to grow to overshadow that "other" site and become the biggest and best site on the Internet. I started spreading the word to all of my friends, and everyone jumped on board. More and more people got on board and not long after Mike started the site, it did in fact became the biggest and best AATV site on the Internet. I met so many great new friends on here too. The friends, the stories, the rides, repairs, builds, races, parts bought, sold, traded and transported, the tech support, and good times were some of the best years of my life. Mike and Whipper and Bridget and the Fischer's even got AATV racing back up and running at Pine Lake after a decades long hiatus. This group of people that helped revive the sport are like family to me and I will always be grateful to have met them even though we don't see each other as much as we used to.

There are so many great stories I'd love to share about what we did on the site and at the rides, races, etc. Let's take a trip down memory lane and share some of them with everyone! Please, all of the folks that have been here on 6x6World from way back when, please chime in. Let's hear some good ones!!!

Good to see you stop in, figured you may have been lurking occasionally. You were a large part of the reply conversations for a long time.

Hope all is well.

[tbone9]

Remembering the glory days. 40 new threads, tons of responses, cool pics in the gallery... old moderator ran a tight ship and people wanted to be on board... interest is down. how do we bring it back??

Unfortunately in my opinion we are overshadowed by the side by side craze. I’m kind of alone on an island here in my area due to the extensive trail systems and it being legal to run all roads except for state highways with an ATV. Not sure how to bring back interest. In the ten years I’ve been on here it’s been a very knowledgeable rather small group. More members and more interest would be great however the smallness of the group makes it more personal too. I felt like I new many members before I even met them in person at Ashtabula. Not sure how to get more members but maybe some new shirts and bumper stickers would at least boost morale.

[Laird]

I have owned three wheelers, quads, a Yamaha Rhino sidexside, a Jigger, which I should have kept as a project, and two Argos. One was an early 80s, and my current 91 Vanguard. All were fun, exasperating, expensive, mindboggling pieces of pure enjoyment. Most ,probably all if I we truly honest, we're bought for something to either work on or thought I needed it. The side x side was nice that you could go most places a quad can go but had a steering wheel and foot controls, roll cage, and a place to carry stuff. It got used as a small pickup for the yard work, carried hunting gear etc. at a reasonable speed. It also let a couple sit side by side as opposed to quad seating. The bigger units can carry four or maybe five people. I have returned to the Argo because I am pushing 70, I don't need to go fast, like working on them, it suits my style of hunting and I can go places that the quads can't. I don't need a trail cause I can make my own. Younger people, guys and gals, can probably get into atvs lot cheaper than aatvs. Less maintainence, cheaper to repair, usually and they go a lot faster,. In our area, I know of2 Argos maybe three, and I live an hour from the factory. Also run in the same situation of very few places to ride. The quad riders have peeved off so many land owners that the trails have been shutdown.So far, I still have a place that I can use the Argo. Also, when was the last time you saw an ad for an Argo on a TV broadcast? I don't have broadcast TV anymore so don't know about ads for Argo but utube has tons of Canam and Polaris and Honda ads.

[tbone9]

That’s a very good point. There is a lack of advertising. It was the small ad in the back of the outdoor magazines that got me into this 20 years ago.

[milkman5687]

Where did Mike go?

[Hey_Dan]

I would like to say hello to everyone, I have not been around here much lately. Jeff - I wanted to see which one of us joined the site first, and we have the same join date 6/6/2007! Jeff told me about this site back then, I guess he must have told me the day he joined, and I joined the same day. I miss the days of huge rides at Humphrey NY, Copper Ridge in Olean NY, and Ledges in Ohio. I enjoy Ashtabula, but it is not the same as Humphrey was. Humphrey was a long dice run through a marked trail, so everyone could ride at their own pace and not have to stay in line. Big groups of machines would stop and watch as the other the riders challenged the mud holes.

In 2007 I was working for RI, and I asked Mike to send me a stamp that said 6x6world.com on it. I used to stamp the boxes of the parts getting shipped out to help spread the word about this site.

-Dan

[marauder]

I heard a rumour that Mike got into trouble with the IRS and that as part of his plea deal he had to give up this website, anybody hear anything similar? I always thought it was strange that he would walk away from something that he obviously was passionate about, but if that rumour is true then it makes a lot of sense.

[jpswift1]

Good to see you stop in, figured you may have been lurking occasionally. You were a large part of the reply conversations for a long time.

Hope all is well.

Hi Jim! Thanks for the kind words. I still get on here every now and then to see what's going on. It's great to hear from you and I hope to see you and the rest of the group soon.

I would like to say hello to everyone, I have not been around here much lately. Jeff - I wanted to see which one of us joined the site first, and we have the same join date 6/6/2007! Jeff told me about this site back then, I guess he must have told me the day he joined, and I joined the same day. I miss the days of huge rides at Humphrey NY, Copper Ridge in Olean NY, and Ledges in Ohio. I enjoy Ashtabula, but it is not the same as Humphrey was. Humphrey was a long dice run through a marked trail, so everyone could ride at their own pace and not have to stay in line. Big groups of machines would stop and watch as the other the riders challenged the mud holes.

In 2007 I was working for RI, and I asked Mike to send me a stamp that said 6x6world.com on it. I used to stamp the boxes of the parts getting shipped out to help spread the word about this site.

-Dan

Dan, I can't remember which one of us joined first, but I think I sent a mass email out to all of the original folks as soon as Mike told me he was starting the site. I forgot about the 6x6world stamp! You really helped spread the word about the site when you were working at Recreatives. That was great! Those huge rides were always a great time. I think those rides you mentioned are non-existent now because of insurance reasons or something. If I remember correctly a lot of the Humphrey and Copper Ridge rides were right before 6X6World started up.

I heard a rumour that Mike got into trouble with the IRS and that as part of his plea deal he had to give up this website, anybody hear anything similar? I always thought it was strange that he would walk away from something that he obviously was passionate about, but if that rumour is true then it makes a lot of sense.

That couldn't be farther from the truth. I wonder who in the world would come up with some nonsense story like that? If anyone knows what it takes to run a site like this, including moderating the forums, keeping spam bots off here, etc, they'd realize that it's not easy and it requires a ton of time and effort and money. He did it for something like 10 years in addition to his regular corporate job, which had him extremely busy with all of the added workload and traveling. It's pretty demanding being a homeowner, having a corporate career, being a big forum moderator, trying to maintain a fleet of machines, set up rides and get togethers for the 6X6 community, etc. You just don't put a site like this on autopilot when you're the moderator and just check in on it whenever you feel like it and think that it's going to run itself without and effort or money. People apparently don't think of these things.

[smudvapor]

I think a lot of people have migrated to FaceBook. Many of the folks that I used to talk to on here I talk to all the time on the FaceBook page. I am seeing it in classic cars pages as well as the minibike pages. I think one way to keep people interested in the site is to come to the gatherings and actually meet some of the people who post on here. I joined about 10 years ago and since I started going to the meets and racing there are many people I met on here that have become almost like family to my wife and me. We never miss a chance to get together with everyone. Pine Lake is our "home away from home".

[techfx]

I think I'm noticing this working tech support too: More people (especially younger) seem to be using apps/phones instead of websites/computers. That might explain a few more people popping up on facebook. I think I have also seen the same for VW msg boards vs fb pages. More ads for AATVs on fb marketplace than Craigslist.

I think a lot of people have migrated to FaceBook. Many of the folks that I used to talk to on here I talk to all the time on the FaceBook page. I am seeing it in classic cars pages as well as the minibike pages. I think one way to keep people interested in the site is to come to the gatherings and actually meet some of the people who post on here. I joined about 10 years ago and since I started going to the meets and racing there are many people I met on here that have become almost like family to my wife and me. We never miss a chance to get together with everyone. Pine Lake is our "home away from home".