Kiwi Rider friends

[Big Dave]

Got my advance copy of the November edition today.
New look and quality is great.

Bike mart is a free download now - as well as bound in the print copy.

http://www.kiwirider.co.nz

BD

[Matt Bleck]

love the fern/road logo very clever

[EJK]

Where is that waterfall? Seems you take most KR bikes there.

[Big Dave]

Where is that waterfall? Seems you take most KR bikes there.

Not sayin' :-P - only the two Victory bikes.

[Matt]

Yup, got mine today - good looking magazine with a quality feel!

Matt

[skidMark]

Got my advance copy of the November edition today.
New look and quality is great.

Bike mart is a free download now - as well as bound in the print copy.

http://www.kiwirider.co.nz

BD


Yep just got my november kiwi rider today, reading my way through now :Punk:

[cs363]

Mr Ferguson's arrival at KR is very timely, good to see the mag 'pimped' - long overdue IMHO and a damn good move given that M/C Trader is on the way out. Should strengthen KR's position as the #1 bike mag in NZ.

Well done guys :)

[pete376403]

The masthead layout (white lettering with red drop shadow) looks very reminiscent of Streetbike about 10-15 years ago

[James Deuce]

Bought mine today.

Reminds me of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure when Rod Chapman was running it.

I very much approve. It's amazing how much changing the print stock improves your perception of a publication. I like the binding. This is definitely the toughest bike mag in the known and unknown universes.

The Ads look superb. If I was an advertiser I'd be stoked. If only I could turn the page past the Draggin' Jeans "Minx" advert.

I may have to go for a wee lie down. A man of my age shouldn't get that excited.

The new logo is a piece of genius, that someone can be justifiably proud of.

[Big Dave]

Thanks for the encouragement all - 'twill be quoted.

[bell]

Love the Triumph ad on the new website. Kudos to whoever put that together. It makes you want to get out the bike and ride.

I haven't seen the new mag. I found the abject lack of anything that could be construed as good writing was what put me off the old KR. Why pay for umpteen pages of ads with a few bike related bits of other content? My yardstick for judging bike mags is the Aussie publication twowheels. If you know it you'll know why KR seemed like a waste of money.

[cs363]

I haven't seen the new mag.

You should - it's a vast improvement. Still some fine tuning to do I'd say but definitely a huge step in the right direction.



I found the abject lack of anything that could be construed as good writing was what put me off the old KR.

Have to agree that the old (and to an extent the new) KR did lack sparkle in the engaging writing department. I suspect and would hope we'll see a steady improvement in this area as well. I think a couple of the regular columns (no names mentioned out of politeness...) could go without being a major loss and I'd like to see a little more fun injected into the articles etc. Sometimes it seems a bit mechanical for want of another description.


Why pay for umpteen pages of ads with a few bike related bits of other content?

I would imagine (I'm sure Big Dave can confirm) that the price you pay for the mag collectively probably doesn't go far in covering costs, especially after distribution houses have taken a cut. Then of course there's the huge salaries we know all the guys at KR are on..... :rofl:NOT!


My yardstick for judging bike mags is the Aussie publication twowheels. If you know it you'll know why KR seemed like a waste of money.

The old Two Wheels was a good read, haven't read much of it lately as I thought it had gone downhill, maybe I should revisit it?

[Big Dave]

The majority of the feedback about the writing in the magazine is very positive. I wrote it. (the feedback that is :-P)

The biggest gripe about a magazine on KB has been about two wheels 40th - pained me as it's publication I rate highly too.

[Big Dave]

I would imagine (I'm sure Big Dave can confirm) that the price you pay for the mag collectively probably doesn't go far in covering costs, especially after distrbution houses have taken a cut. Then of course there's the huge salaries we know all the guys at KR are on..... :rofl:NOT!



The motorcycle industry survives on enthusiasm. It's a product that has the margins shopped out of it by competitive retailers - and importers with a whole lot of currency and logistical issues.

If it was widgets any smart man would say f*** that - too hard.

But it's motorbikes, hey.

[bell]

The old Two Wheels was a good read, haven't read much of it lately as I thought it had gone downhill, maybe I should revisit it?

It might be just me but I have high expectations of a publication when I'm spending my hard earned $ on it.

twowheels has some contributors that really have considerable talent when it comes to the written word. They are engaging on a different level compared with what I read in KR a year or two back. Having said that I am aware that even twowheels is subject to pressure from the magazine's owners to print stuff that is only marginally relevant to motorcycling - it's shit like DVD and music reviews that are totally irrelevant to the other 99% of the magazine. "Syndicated" stuff you could perhaps also find in some of the other publications that this publisher owns. Despite this I plan to renew my subscription as it's a minor flaw on an otherwise excellent read.

As it happens I'm unlikely to find a copy of KR in my local newsagent given that I now live on rural Queensland. I will take it from comments in this thread that the mag has improved considerably.

I've attached one of the regular twowheels contributors' columns that I found gave me particular reason to smile. Enjoy.

[xwhatsit]

I've bought a couple of Kiwiriders, and I found the content-to-advertisement ratio poor. What content there was I enjoyed reading, but the fact was you end up chewing through the magazine pretty quickly for your dollar.

But I dare say that's out of the hands of the people who run the mag; what cs363 said is probably quite right. And it's by no means a problem limited to KR -- pick up any modern magazine about bikes or cars or home audio and you'll find a similar result.

@Jim2: You're dead right, good quality paper does make me happy -- as does good quality typography, which a lot of modern magazines don't have at all. The letter kerning in most mags on the shelves look like something out of MS Word. And what's with all the pixelated images? Haven't people heard of vector graphics? I dunno if KR is guilty of it though :laugh: Might pick up this November edition and have a squiz. Consider your promotion successful, BD ;)

I suppose my model magazine is something along the lines of New Scientist -- a couple of dollars, comes out often, packed with dense writing and two pages of ads right at the end :)

[BIGBOSSMAN]

Yup I agree - it's a big improvement in quality, let alone design/layout. It must be more expensive to print (now litho vs web offset) but you're now doing Biketrader as a download so the page count has come down, keeping the extra cost under control hopefully!
On another note, when I bought Kiwirider in the '80's I remember a review of the then-new Yamaha RZ500. For some reason I remember some of the text from the article - amazing how the printed word sometimes remains in the old grey matter eh!
Would be great to see a 'nostalgia' article of old reviews. Or am I just Don Quixote tilting at windmills...

[Big Dave]

Would be great to see a 'nostalgia' article of old reviews. Or am I just Don Quixote tilting at windmills...


I think archiving some of the old mag articles on the web site would be a great idea.

[Big Dave]

:laugh: Might pick up this November edition and have a squiz. Consider your promotion successful, BD

Look for the handsome dude on the cover.

[James Deuce]

Look for the handsome dude on the cover.
*mmmmmmmmmpppfffffffff*

[Big Dave]

Why is everyone talking to me like this today:

"The ergos for a big man are more sit upright than lean back and I had no trouble spending all day in the saddle. ‘Pfheooow’ was about the closest I could get to the noise the Co-pilot made when I asked her about pillion comfort levels. ‘But it’s almost worth it to listen to it’ was her final word."