What would you put in a BIKE magazine?

[Bob]

I specified BIKE magazine, as I'm not really that interested in certain other 'art' titles... ;)

Bit of a two-part question this - part one can be answered by anyone, part two really is just for the UK KBers.

So here we go...

PART ONE - WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO SEE IN A BIKE MAGAZINE?

Remember, you have limited pages in a 'paper' magazine (unlike the WWW where file size is your only limitation), So lets say you're looking at 70 sheets of A4 (I think that is about the average 'content', cutting out all the adverts etc).

This is going to be a general biking mag, as opposed to 'narrow focus' (eg Superbike or Performance Bike - talking a title that has to appeal to a wide range of readers), so you've got to cover a range of subjects.

So what makes up your 70 pages?

I'd have thought you go for:

1. New bike reviews (if you have the money)
2. Used bike reviews (not shiny, new and being played with on a track after setting up by the makers top mechanic)
3. Product news - what is new out there
4. Product tests - anyone tried anything that is any good?
5. Letters pages - the paper equivalent of this forum!
6. Maybe a page or two for readers to cover an opinion "in depth" rather than a short letter
7. Events calendar
8. News - short 100 word items of interest
8. News items that need more depth of reporting (500+ words)
10. Features - how to guides, anything that isn't bike/product specific

That is 10 sections - so if you split it evenly, that leaves just 7 pages for each. Obviously, nowhere near enough for the bike sections and 7 pages of letters? Way too much!

So how would YOU allocate the pages? Bearing in mind you need to fill this space EVERY month. To make life interesting, lets say you don't get a lot of access to new bikes, so maybe if you were going to run a 2nd hand bike mag, how would you then allocate space between the other 9 items?

PART TWO - FOR THE UK KBers OUT THERE

MCN - what do you really think? Are there parts you like? Are there parts you hate? Are there parts you think are made up?

I'm trying to get a feel for what people would like to see in a magazine - and in the case of UK readers, if MCN really is relevent or not, or is it genuinely treated as a 'comic'?

Hope this is going to be interesting - people love knocking magazines, so wonder how those of us who should really count - the people that BUY them, would set space aside to meet the public's demands?

[Motu]

A general bike mag is an impossible task these days - Kiwi Rider tries hard and gets slammed from every corner,everyone wants their piece of cake to be the biggest piece,cause their particular interests are the only ones of interest.....eh?....

[vifferman]

Sounds like you've pretty much covered it, but like Motu says, general bike mags don't seem to work as well as specialist ones.
I think it's important that tests aren't too 'sanitised' and 'nice' (difficult to do, I guess, when you don't want to piss off the companies letting you test bikes), but people want to know what something's really like, and I think sometimes we get a bit much of testing only by ex-racers on racetracks, popping wheelies etc. Yeah sure that makes for good pix and so on, but I want to know about real world stuff. Like apart from the riding, what about maintenance? How hard is it to clean? Has the bike got some features that'll get right up your nose after a while, like a sidestand lever thingo that's in a stupidly awkward place?

But mostly I guess it's about entertainment as much as useful information. I've got mags that I've worn out from re-reading, and mostly that's the snappy writing, interesting topics and great pix.

[merv]

Being a general type of biker I'm quite happy with the general format of Kiwi Rider and it is the only mag I subscribe to. To me the issue is it would be difficult to produce something that would really lever extra money out of my pocket given the ready access to the internet info. I probably only continue buying Kiwi Rider through loyalty to the mag having been a subsciber from the 70's of NZ Motorcycle News which eventually merged and became part of Kiwi Rider.

The list of things you suggested basically descibe what is in Kiwi Rider anyway, but the gripe from a few seems to be it does dirt and road in those areas, but that suits me as I'm into both.

[Posh Tourer :P]

I'd add in a maintenance section. Or a "how does it work" section for those laymen among us who have never seen their cams etc.....

[rodgerd]

I'd add in a maintenance section. Or a "how does it work" section for those laymen among us who have never seen their cams etc.....

Seconded. Kiwi Rider have been doing this with their dirt bikes (which don't really interest me...); a good monthly series on, eg, how to tune suspension on a road bike and the like would be good.

And a decent chunk of used bike reviews don't hurt, especially on the ex-Japan models that never appear new in New Zealand.

Pet peeve with reviews: why the hell don't they focus on the things I can't discover for myself on a test ride. I can tell if a bike has neck-snapping acceleration for myself, thanks all the same. I can't tell whether the headlights are any good on a country road, or how comfortable it will be after a couple of hours in the saddle...

[White trash]

Wheelies, stoppies, knee down, burnouts, usual shenanigans. :devil2:

[Motu]

Me too Merv - I'm happy to have a magazine that has road and dirt,that's my interests.I've been going through some of my old mags to clean them out - and PT,all the old ones I've kept have some techo article in them,that's why I've saved them....seems that's what I want too.

[Motoracer]

I can't believe no one has mentioned pix of super hot chix modeling on top of the bikes. How can you have a decent bike mag with out the chix?? :blink:

[rodgerd]

I can't believe no one has mentioned pix of super hot chix modeling on top of the bikes. How can you have a decent bike mag with out the chix?? :blink:

There are specialist magazines for when I want to look at scantily clad women. And the Internet. I generally have a pretty low opinion of bike mags and whatnot that use sex to sell.

[geoffm]

While topless women are all very nice, it is not on the list of must haves for a bike mag, nor can you leave them in the doctors surgery after you have finished, to spread the Word on bikes ;-)
A good thing on some bike tests I have seen in the past is a strip down the bodywork, and estimates of servicing costs and hassles. Made interesting reading if you are spending your own money. It comes back to the tiem and detail - the US mags are the worst for not saying it like it is. They never seem to test a bad bike, even reading between the lines you can see it is a heap of crap. The '80s PB were the best for this, especially anything by John Robinson. Speaking of which, some of the tech articles these days are terrible.
PB (when it was a decent mag, that had 2 strokes in it) did used bike guides. Take a bike, test it, go over known faults, improvements, recommended suspension settings, costs, maintenance, etc. The one on my GSXR750 was good when i had it.
To many of the articles in modern car and bike mags are advertorials and a waste of paper. Written for the baseball cap brigade who are into shiny boltons.
And thus ends the rant for today.
Geoff

[vifferman]

And thus ends the rant for today.Awwwww, geoffm - I was just starting to really get into the groove on your rant. And then it finished abrup

[Quasievil]

BOOBIES :devil2:

[Motoracer]

BOOBIES :devil2:

( o Y o ) :Punk:

[moko]

Your "ideal" sounds a lot like RIDE to me Bob,I think from the comments here it`d sell well in N.Z.,for the info of N.Z. riders they do pretty much all the stuff Bob said,they do a massive survey every year and rate 100+ most popular bikes,or rather the owners do.Also when they test used stuff,which they do a lot,they get owners from their database to give more detailed opinions so you get to hear from blokes that have actually paid there own money for the machine you`re intersted in and run it every day.They also destruction test bike gear and are recognised as THE benchmark,anything they reccomend has to be good,if it leaks,rips or shrinks they`ll tell you.
MCN? If I had a budgie I`d buy it to line the cage with,cant see any reason to buy it apart from the adverts,how many of their "exclusive" pics of new bikes ever turn out to be anything like reality?And I`ve yet to see anything but praise for any bike they`ve tested.
If you want tits and bikes buy Easyriders,plenty of real big tits on Harleys...........and topless women as well.

[FROSTY]

developing a race bike and up and coming racer might make for interesting reading. Especially if its a class of racing semi affordable in the uk

[James Deuce]

Pet peeve with reviews: why the hell don't they focus on the things I can't discover for myself on a test ride. I can tell if a bike has neck-snapping acceleration for myself, thanks all the same. I can't tell whether the headlights are any good on a country road, or how comfortable it will be after a couple of hours in the saddle...
Really, really good point.

[Bob]

Must say I always like to read tests of used bikes - that way any niggles are highlighted. Launch test reviews (on a lovely track in Spain or somewhere, top mechanics fettling machine and so on) really don't give the picture for me.

More UK mags (thinking mainly Bike, RiDE and TWO here) will go along on the launch test, then get hold of a normal, demo model from a dealer to see what the production models are like.

Bike has what it calls "The Test" - they've come up with a test route of something like 150 miles, which is a combination of major and minor A roads, B roads and motorways. So the bikes are tested out on as wide a range of different conditions as possible, they can test the tank range and the comfort factor as well. This is normally done with borrowed bikes from dealers. Always worth reading.

As Moko says, RiDE would go down well in NZ, given the comments you guys have made. New and used tests, technical features and the best product testing there is - personal opinion is taken into account (after all, it may be the best lid in the world in terms of construction, but if it is designed badly and is really uncomfortable, then it'll not get used), but they have a big test rig where they test stuff until it breaks.

And the Rider Power Survey is excellent - they get feedback from something like 12,000 to 15,000 readers. It covers the top 100 bikes (which is the result of something like 20 categories to be rated on each bike), helmets, gloves, jeans and boots, one and two piece leathers and lids.

They also name and shame dealers - which was a result for me, as I discovered (after having all sorts of problems with the dealer I was using) that the dealer that was top London dealer - for the last four years - was just a couple of miles from me.

Btw, Moko - I should be in the next issue (out August 11 I think) - I sent in some product reviews and one is supposed to be going in the next issue. No idea which one (I covered a full set of riding kit for them).

[Posh Tourer :P]

While topless women are all very nice, it is not on the list of must haves for a bike mag, nor can you leave them in the doctors surgery after you have finished, to spread the Word on bikes ;-)

I dont think leaving topless women in doctors surgeries would be acceptble anyway, but they'd certainly get the attention of the punters if they raved about bikes :D