Bike magazines

[podman]

theshrew said:

I quite like PB to. The only trouble I have is finding somewhere that sells it.

Im liking PB mag more and more now, mainly because its getting more and more like Practical Sportsbikes magazine, take this month, features on the project TL-R, the staffs early R1s,RGV and 90s Blade, Classic Bike racing, the 916....

[Pothole]

Harvey mush man said:

SuperBike has changed in the last 12 months.

does that mean the editor will no longer defend rididulous homophobic 'jokes'?

[SVS]

Biker 1 said:

There appears to have been several changes in editor over this time, which may explain things. I have bought a few copies of Ride & have to agree with the majority negative view here. Also, all these publications seem to be owned/run by Bauer Media & all have their HQ in Peterborough............

I wonder if that explains it: lots of changes of editor infers it isn't a happy environment, combined with limited competition because Bauer own most of the titles. Plus I wonder if printed magazines are struggling with revenues, what with so many of us getting info online. Could that be it?

It would be a shame if bike magazines declined, because that would be another nail in the motorcycling industry's coffin. We've already had bike instuctors going to the wall, caused by the DSA's inept implementation of EU licence changes. And a lot of bike dealers have gone too. We don't need bike magazines to fall by the wayside as well.

[andyp79]

cpl_payne said:

Interesting - I'd personally call it fecking useless, but then again it's just my opinion. 'Ok, here are 4 bikes you can watch us ride. At the end of the ride we shall talk (with very badly edited audio), stating that each bike comes in different colours, accelerates, turns and stops. We shall make no attempt at being objective or test anything for longer than 5 minutes. Now go forth and multiply'

Ride is like a print version of Pistonheads in a way - answer to every question seems to be MX-5 BMW R1200GS. They used to do more tests but some of the latest features are really bad, no effort at all.

Well, you've got a point actually now I think about it. I think I confused things a little, it's the Michael Neeves videos I like. Some are official MCN videos, some are his own and some seem to be both. He seems like a really decent guy, but now you mention the group test thing they do exactly the same as they do in the paper... "Watch our in depth superbike shootout video here" then you find it spends 90% of the video telling you what you already know (if you have any idea what the bikes are before watching) and you get 30 seconds of footage that somehow doesn't really show anything. I've stopped watching those as they tend to promise lots and fail to deliver. A critical and recurring theme with MCN in my view. I just fail to see how they are still on the go after so many years of this and other than the people in this thread, I don't know anyone who likes MCN and in fact most actively dislike it. It's a shame as it should be the leading bike "mag" in the UK but it's just an awful read. I gave up on it years ago when they seemed to love creating "stories" from half-assed snippet of truth. Stuff like "EU to Ban Bikes" and "Honda's New V4 GP Bike for the Road" on the front page week after week. Like I said above, I give it a chance every now and then but am always hit with the same disappointment as before.

Michael Neeves' videos are much better, more neatly put together generally and more interesting. His video diaries of his club racing are pretty good. If I could buy his articles on their own, I would, otherwise MCN is not my thing.

Edited by andyp79 on Thursday 22 May 07:55

Edited by andyp79 on Thursday 22 May 07:56

Edited by andyp79 on Thursday 22 May 07:57

[moanthebairns]

read a few the last day or so

Classic bike - not my cup of tea at all, bikes from the second world war era doesn't really appeal to me, actually anything before 1990 I cant be bothered with

Fast Bikes - really enjoyed this, ok the class of writing wasn't as high as other bike magazines but a lot more focused on what im interested in, sports bikes, racing, track days, track schools, few nice nakeds. I actually think id subscribe to it on the basis of what I read, was disappointed with only one lass in her underwear though...

performance bike - again quite enjoyed this, a nice mixture, maybe slightly better written than fast bikes, but plenty to keep someone who is interested the above type of riding

practical sportsbike - Hmmm it was ok but really did focus too much on custom bikes and peoples projects. it was ok for a read but I found myself sort of getting bored of it, it was a more maintenance, restoration and repair mag. not bad for the odd read mind you.

bike - now I have subscribed to this for the last 2 years. It used to be great, but in the last year it has went dramatically down hill. The reviews are always well written but now the content seems to be moving away from nice mix for everyone to almost all adventure/touring bikes. In previous months I have found myself skipping more and more articles, this one I read from front to back and I was amazed just how many "foreign trip" or "adventure/touring bike reviews" featured.

Honestly it was like picking up a copy of Ride (which is utter st) constant mention of how the market has moved to these bikes and now they are reflecting this constantly. Before when they got a 600-800 cc bike to test they would go on about how nice it is that they don't have traction control and they don't need it, now its, hmm well it doesn't have traction control, points off.

Now its all charley boorman this and charley boorman that, I'm sure he is a lovely man and what he has done is quite a feat, but just because some guy aged 45 buys a fking gs because he wants to be like him do we need to change a whole magazine to suit.

i'll give it another month or two but I can see my subscription being cancelled

[Prof Prolapse]

I'll sell you my MCN one week late for a £1.

[SVS]

Yep, I'd agree that much of the bike press has gone adventure bike mad. For those of us who prefer something a little sportier, it's a bit dull. Though perhaps we're a dying breed as GS-alike bikes take over.

I think Bike has some high quality writing, so I hope it avoids becoming another Adventure Bike Monthly like the rest.

[Gecko1978]

In my teens early 90s I read fast bikes, the page numbers were just for entertainment the stories and photographs were put together with a certain level of randomness and Colin Shiller was a militant left wing mental who used to write editorials about whatever was on his mind. Sean Emmet was riding for suzuki and took his Harris YZR500 out onto the road. Basically I loved it. Now its lost its shine.

Ride is so dull its just not why I am into bikes never was never will be.

Superbikes was ok but they used to have a a section where they laid into other mags which seemed pointless.

Bike was a alright read and had Emma franklin in it (female bike journo) and uttered the line " it hurt like buggery, not that I ould know " which I assumed was protest to much but still after a while got dull.

PB was good in the 90s and is still good now I still read it now an again last month feature on special editions was great.

Regular read is mcn its weekly £2.10 and a varied read with a good used bike section.