UK bike magazines go digital... | GTAMotorcycle.com

UK bike magazines go digital...

Priller

Well-known member
First off, indulge me in a bit of nostalgia. I promise there's a point to this, which I'll get to eventually...

As I've mentioned elsewhere recently, I grew up reading British bike magazines through the '90s and '00s. They were irreverent, honest, silly, funny, informative, and offered a take on motorcycling that US and Canadian publications seemed either too old or too timid to try. Sure, there were some great writers at Sport Rider, Cycle World and Motorcyclist, but road tests were broadly puff pieces, and the pages of useful info per issue numbered in the single digits. The Brit magazines, by comparison, were brutally honest and full of articles about bike maintenance, gear reviews, riding techniques, consumer advice, etc. Websites were still in their infancy, and even now are best at quick-hit newsy items, not in-depth stuff.

You had the insane squid magazines like Fast Bikes and Performance Bikes, with their 'how to wheelie' and 'how to get your knee down at a roundabout' pieces, as well as performance upgrades. Then there were the more serious titles like MCN, Bike and Ride, which had a bit of silliness, but felt a lot more grown-up and covered the full world of motorcycles, not just sportbikes and streetfighters. And then there were the extremely serious titles like Motorcycle Sport & Leisure and Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, which should have come with a beard so everyone could stroke one while reading.

I learned a lot from these publications, and definitely had my perceptions about what was cool and what wasn't shaped by their style. I also kept up with racing news through them, following World Superbikes, the TT, and GP's three to five months after the events happened. I was probably the biggest David Jefferies fan anywhere who'd never actually seen him race.

There were two problems with these magazines, though: first, they took forever arriving, so issues were two or three months out of date from the day they arrived. This was especially problematic for MCN, which is more like a weekly newspaper than a magazine. Second, and much bigger for broke teenage me, was the price. They cost between $10 and $15 per issue, which added up fast. Subscriptions were no cheaper, so I spent a lot of time perusing the racks at Chapters, reading three and buying one.

Which leads to my actual point (finally!): You can now get apps for these magazines, and for a reasonable monthly fee, read digital copies that are bang up to date. The best one is the Bike Unlimited app, which gets you Bike, MCN, Ride, Practical Sportbikes (formerly Performance Bikes), Classic Bike and Built for $11/mo. There's so much good s**t there on a monthly basis that it's a no-brainer for me. I've also subscribed to Magzter, which includes Fast Bikes, Motorcycle Sport & Leisure, and Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, as well as Aussie, Kiwi and South African bike mags. Magzter is less easy to recommend, though, as they do make subscribing and unsubscribing more opaque than necessary, and lots of folks sign up for something different than what they get. It works fine for me, but caveat emptor. There are other magazines included, like Automobile, so it definitely offers more value if you're interested in non-motorcycle magazines.

Some things have changed, like Practical Sportbikes now being a nostalgia generator for riders like me who grew up obsessing about sportbikes through their heyday in the '90s and '00s. I love it, but I'm also squarely in their demographic. Other things haven't changed at all, like Fast Bikes being a bit shoddy but also manically fun, Bike having a mountain of content every issue, Ride doing great in-depth product reviews, etc. For me, digging into these again has been huge fun.

There's one big problem, though: flicking pages on a tablet in the can is a lot less satisfying than thumbing though a big, glossy, paper magazine. Considering the benefits, though, I'll live with the loss of tactility...
 
I feel like as much as it would be nice to cling to nostalgia, any decent magazine would be better off improving and investing(like MCN has) in their online content production at this point

I personally like:
-44 teeth
-Ari and zack(revzilla at this point)
-MCN
and the bike show (out of south africa)

With these guys I always find out exactly what I need to know about a bike AND get entertained, where as with a lot of other guys its a lot of fluff and PR speak from the brochure and at the end of the 30 min video, not only am I not better informed, but also bored
 
I literally had a dozen boxes of those old motorcycle magazines, and quite a few of the UK ones you mentioned: Superbike, Fast Bikes, etc. The center pages in those British mags were aight... We sold everything a few years ago and tried to give away the boxes. Nobody wanted them. Thousands of dollars of car and bike magazines printed on high-quality glossy paper, all tossed away in the trash.

Learnt my lesson. Haven't bought a magazine ever since.

These days, I get my info from articles on websites. No cost, no accumulation. I find videos way too slow. I can skim and read a lot faster than the narrator can talk. Same as the news websites. I just pause the video and read the article in 1/10th the time of the video.

I do occasionally watch the shoot-out videos, especially when I am shopping around for bikes. Camera technology has come a long way with the drone, GoPro and 360 footage adding a lot more visceral information to the cross-shopping experience.
 
I feel like as much as it would be nice to cling to nostalgia, any decent magazine would be better off improving and investing(like MCN has) in their online content production at this point
Don't get me wrong, I love the online stuff. But it doesn't do as well for going in-depth as something print based. Producing quality video takes a lot of effort, which limits what they can do. A typical issue includes things like long-term bike tests with reviews of aftermarket options, riding skills (there was one about how to ride with a sidecar recently, but it's more commonly things like chasing vanishing points), gear tests, and a whole pile of other stuff that wouldn't justify a video.

You're especially right about how the business has moved online, though. Cycle World and Motorcyclist are dead as magazines, and it's obviously a dying business. I just think there's a lot lost if print (even digital print) goes away for the reasons above...
 
I literally had a dozen boxes of those old motorcycle magazines, and quite a few of the UK ones you mentioned: Superbike, Fast Bikes, etc. The center pages in those British mags were aight... We sold everything a few years ago and tried to give away the boxes. Nobody wanted them. Thousands of dollars of car and bike magazines printed on high-quality glossy paper, all tossed away in the trash.

I had that experience about 15 years ago when I moved to BC. I shudder to think of how much I spent on hundreds of issues. Ironically, I'd love to have them back now. Reading the early '00s superbike group tests would be fun...

The advantage of these apps is you just hit delete when you're done, no fuss, no muss, no crates of old magazines to dispose of...

can

I do occasionally watch the shoot-out videos, especially when I am shopping around for bikes. Camera technology has come a long way with the drone, GoPro and 360 footage adding a lot more visceral information to the cross-shopping experience.
Some videos are better than others, and I think some are still learning the medium. I don't mind the length, but I find they sometimes don't spend the time well. On-board footage with someone talking inside their helmet can get dull quick unless it's somewhere spectacular. It's great if I'm really into in the bike they're talking about, but I don't want a half-hour thing about a bike I'm only peripherally interested in. I would skim an article, though...
 
wtf go to bed, jesus
What can I say, it's winter and I can't ride (sorry @Trials , no trials bike in my immediate future) and I spent the weekend finding a whole bunch of new ways my RC51 is going to cost me money after more disassembly. I needed a distraction from yet another Partzilla order...

Also, brevity has never my strong suit. I tend to write like I'm getting paid by the word...
 
What can I say, it's winter and I can't ride (sorry @Trials , no trials bike in my immediate future) and I spent the weekend finding a whole bunch of new ways my RC51 is going to cost me money after more disassembly. I needed a distraction from yet another Partzilla order...

Also, brevity has never my strong suit. I tend to write like I'm getting paid by the word...
I keep it short and sweet to the point that some read it as terse.
Snow got all hard and crusty last night so I'm going riding now :cool:
 
What can I say, it's winter and I can't ride (sorry @Trials , no trials bike in my immediate future) and I spent the weekend finding a whole bunch of new ways my RC51 is going to cost me money after more disassembly. I needed a distraction from yet another Partzilla order...

Also, brevity has never my strong suit. I tend to write like I'm getting paid by the word...
I was really speaking to the gents above me. We were all up at 3am!
 
I know all you guys bought Superbike and Fast Bikes for the articles.But i bought them for the crumpet!
 
I bought and followed most of the popular US and overseas mags since the late '70s and also had boxes of them that sadly I could not give away.

As for the Brit mags, I knew the airport stores had them weeks before we did in our mailboxes so I would go to Pearson on a monthly basis to buy them. I agree that they really were the best of a read altho i was always envious that they had great bike models that sadly never made it to our shores.

I was particularly disheartened when Cycle Canada went paperless a couple of years ago and right after my two-year subscription payment. Maybe I missed the notice to do so but I have trouble reading it on-line for nostalgic reasons.

Anyway, Motorcycling Experience on TSN is still enjoyable for my Canadiana experience even tho some of the regular guests are a bit lame.
 
The advantage of these apps is you just hit delete when you're done, no fuss, no muss, no crates of old magazines to dispose of...

Are they monthly issues?

If so, I think the whole periodical concept is outdated. Content these days tends to be published more immediately, not released on a schedule. It suits me since I'm basically online every single day. As you alluded, magazines tend to be consumed when you've allocated a block of time - like when you're sitting on the throne...
 
I know all you guys bought Superbike and Fast Bikes for the articles.But i bought them for the crumpet!
I always got a kick out of how they did a double sided centrefold, one with just the bike and one with the bike and 'glamour' model. I guess it depended on whether customers came into the shop or whether mum cared what was hung on the teenage bedroom wall...
 
Are they monthly issues?

If so, I think the whole periodical concept is outdated. Content these days tends to be published more immediately, not released on a schedule. It suits me since I'm basically online every single day. As you alluded, magazines tend to be consumed when you've allocated a block of time - like when you're sitting on the throne...
Definitely monthly (or weekly in the case of MCN), though you can read them like a traditional magazine or with digital formatting a bit like a website, which works better on a phone.

I read them before bed on a cheapo Android tablet, which lets me get the nostalgia kick by reading the published version...

The real difference is you have to pay, but after seeing the consequence of 'free' in things like newspapers, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc, I'm more inclined to fork out for quality these days...
 
I mourn the loss of paper magazines, I'll read online but there is something tangible in holding an actual publication. I dont keep them much past about 3 months, they go to friends for a read or in the bin.

I like the mobility a magazine offers. If I pass out in the backyard with a magazine on my chest and get woken up by the drizzle, I got a soggy periodical not a fried laptop.
I stick two or three in my breifcase, sitting in a waiting room I have something not called Womens Decorating. I can also take them when we travel , you can leave a magazine on a bar table and go to the pisser, you cannot leave a tablet on a table in Guatemala.

Never have I had "internet unstable" flash on my magazine cover.

I spend about $5-600 per year on subscriptions , I'll keep it up until they are not available.
 
I bought and followed most of the popular US and overseas mags since the late '70s and also had boxes of them that sadly I could not give away.

As for the Brit mags, I knew the airport stores had them weeks before we did in our mailboxes so I would go to Pearson on a monthly basis to buy them. I agree that they really were the best of a read altho i was always envious that they had great bike models that sadly never made it to our shores.
The airport! Genius!

I was particularly disheartened when Cycle Canada went paperless a couple of years ago and right after my two-year subscription payment. Maybe I missed the notice to do so but I have trouble reading it on-line for nostalgic reasons.
I could never get into Cycle Canada. I appreciated they were covering things from a Canadian perspective, but it was just too dry for me. Inside Motorcycles at least had coverage of Canadian racing...

Anyway, Motorcycling Experience on TSN is still enjoyable for my Canadiana experience even tho some of the regular guests are a bit lame.
To be honest, I had no idea they were still on. I don't watch broadcast TV anymore (like most don't read magazines!), so am out of touch. Will be perusing their YouTube archives...
 
Still have some of mine...and the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics are safely stored in the basement .

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Gave up on Cycle Canada years ago. It died when Bruce left imho.
My Inside Motorcycles sub is great. The editors and contributors are the real deal.
 

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