NZ motorcycle magazines?

**jimbo600** · 21st February 2004, 14:17

I keep tellin' ya, I'm a kiwi now mate. Sweet as and all that. And my woman is an Aussie god damn it.

Go the black caps.

Got ya bike back yet?.............Ho ho ho and you reckon you're funny.

**James Deuce** · 21st February 2004, 16:45

Originally Posted by Hitcher

The kiwi bike magazines do OK given that they have no financial backing. Kiwirider has the odd good article and some of their contributing reviewers do a pretty good job. BRM is starting to improve, and the glossy paper and colour pics help its look and feel. Motorcycle Trader and News is the real bolter in this field, drawing heavily on Alan Cathcart reviews and also helped by glossy paper.

I enjoy the Aussie "Two Wheels" and the UK "Motorcycle Sport and Leisure" -- both mags proving that it's possible to inject a bit of intelligence into the study of motorcycles, rather than having to rely on tits and minge to make a sale!

I like these two as well as AMCN. I also enjoy Cycle World because I'm a huge fan of Peter Egan's writing.

I got a bit POed when Performance Bikes went over to the softcore porn side of the market about 10 minutes after John Robinson (Best motorcycle technical writer EVER) died of cancer. They used to be humourous and informative. Now they're just a bunch of fat lechers.

**James Deuce** · 21st February 2004, 16:53

And back one track, I'm not a huge Dirt Bike fan, so I don't buy Kiwi Rider. I'd give it a 4.5 out of 10 for effort.

I enjoy BRM because they involve people from the NZ motorcycle community, and as others have said, are developing a personality and style of their own. I'd give them 6 out of 10 at the moment.

**Lou Girardin** · 22nd February 2004, 20:51

Kiwi rider = OK. Except I'm not keen on paying for dirtbike stuff.
BRM = also OK.
The trend in both of these is too much info on cruiser type bikes and cruiser type rides.
Granted, in a market as small as NZ it's unavoidable. But I still prefer O'sea's mags.
Lou

**yessum** · 22nd February 2004, 21:22

Originally Posted by Lou Girardin

Kiwi rider = OK. Except I'm not keen on paying for dirtbike stuff.

Not that 8 bucks [or whatever it costs] is a huge expense or anything, but no I haven't even glanced at any of the KR dirtbike stuff.

Definitely love UK's Performance Bikes.. I have a number of issues spanning the last few years, which is funny since I only started riding 3 weeks ago..

**tlronny** · 23rd February 2004, 06:00

Kiwirider 2.5/10 - too much dirt stuff nowdays and product reviews are just soft c**k !
BRM - who reads that ?
MT 3.5/10 - too much of the 'old boys stuff
AMCN 5/10 - just OK
PB 9/10 - porn ?
SB 9/10 - ditto
Anything american - cant believe any of it really ??

**What?** · 23rd February 2004, 10:28

I, for one, do read BRM. Cover to cover. What I like about it that it is all written by real-world people; not professional (sycophantic) journalists.
KiwiRider has definitely gone off the boil since Bentman departed, and I think was actually going down before he arrived. Lately I find myself reading Nash, Moroney and DragonLady and pretty-well ignoring the rest. When my sub runs out, that will likely be the end of it for me.
As for OS mags, Two Wheels, Streetbike and Ride. Occasionally a copy of Classic & Motorcycle Mechanics makes it into the shopping list.

**merv** · 23rd February 2004, 11:06

I've been subscribing to Kiwi Rider and the previous NZ Motorcycle News for over 30 years now. I'm quite happy with its content, both road and dirt as I do both things myself. These days with the internet you can find anything you want but I still enjoy reading the local stuff. I'm not fussed on BRM or Motorcycle Trader as I only fork out the one subscription. I'd rate Kiwi Rider probably an 8 given the environment they work in (i.e. limited Kiwi market). No need for me to compare it to pommy mags which I might look at occasionally and maybe buy only once a year.

**Oscar** · 23rd February 2004, 13:21

Originally Posted by merv

I've been subscribing to Kiwi Rider and the previous NZ Motorcycle News for over 30 years now. I'm quite happy with its content, both road and dirt as I do both things myself. These days with the internet you can find anything you want but I still enjoy reading the local stuff. I'm not fussed on BRM or Motorcycle Trader as I only fork out the one subscription. I'd rate Kiwi Rider probably an 8 given the environment they work in (i.e. limited Kiwi market). No need for me to compare it to pommy mags which I might look at occasionally and maybe buy only once a year.

(I'll have to declare an interest up front, in that I occasionally write for KR.)
I'm a great fan of Cycle World (and Kevin Cameron).
As far as the local efforts, it is a difficult life balancing advertisers and subscribers in a small market. Not surprisingly, KR is my favourite, and I am interested to see the ref. to "dirt stuff" in it, as I thought they had the balance about right.

I've only seen a couple of issues of BRM, and I thought it was a bit strange (quirky?). Fer instance why would they would test a 1150GS and a Kawasaki ZZR together?

Trader is OK if you're looking for a new bike. The articles in it are 90% overseas sourced - even the "spannerman" talks about what are obviously Aussie letters. I was pissed off to see where in the latest issue they had a pie graph showing their market dominance - only to see in the fine print that these figures only related to service stations and supermarkets....tossers.

**Oscar** · 23rd February 2004, 13:27

Originally Posted by What?

I, for one, do read BRM. Cover to cover. What I like about it that it is all written by real-world people; not professional (sycophantic) journalists.

Interesting.
The new KR Editor is definitely a "write it as you find it" kinda guy.
I recently slagged a bike in an article and expected to have the reference removed as the marque was a big KR advertiser. It wasn't.

I also recently gave less than fulsome praise to an event I reviewed and the Editor has received several letters from readers complaining about my “negative attitude”.

**Motu** · 23rd February 2004, 14:17

Yeah,as far as I can see KR is a 50/50 split,nothing biased about it in any way - and the dirt bike section with reviews by overweight testers is in the back anyway - no complaints from dirtbikers that they have to go looking for their section.The real bikes are in the front - what more do you need.

Advertising? shit,how do you know what's out there? I'm always thumbing through old issues to find something I'm sure I read about last month...no?,maybe it was the month before?

**Solarwind** · 23rd February 2004, 14:34

Originally Posted by moko

For example they did a long-distance run using an SP2,an ER5 Kawasaki(500 commuter twin) and a 1200 BMW,guy on the SP refused to ride it back because he was in agony and the little Kwack held up well against the BMW which cost about 4 times as much.

*cheers*

**Oscar** · 23rd February 2004, 14:37

Originally Posted by Motu

Yeah,as far as I can see KR is a 50/50 split,nothing biased about it in any way - and the dirt bike section with reviews by overweight testers is in the back anyway - no complaints from dirtbikers that they have to go looking for their section.The real bikes are in the front - what more do you need.

Advertising? shit,how do you know what's out there? I'm always thumbing through old issues to find something I'm sure I read about last month...no?,maybe it was the month before?

You coming to Pukemanu, Shortarse?