Quite like Performance Bikes, got it on trial sub at the mo. Used to get Bike years ago but its all roadtests now.
Practical sports bike as its a great mag. 100% Biker ... Hector's been in it and often photos of me , lucky for the men not draped over a bike but usually pulling some face by accident.
I subscribe to Racer magazine as you get some pretty good insights into what's going on in the world's race paddocks. They test some interesting racebikes and so on as well.
Italian motorcycle magazine. Adam, the editor/owner//publisher is a true enthusiast and features some lovely bikes and the odd special car. It's a shame it's a one man operation otherwise it'd be more regular but he has to earn a living and publish this as well!
Totally given up on them. For many years I read them cover to cover and had subscriptions to TWO and La Moto (Spain) and very often bought Moto Journal (France). Now I just find them repetitive. I have all the gear I want, I'm not looking to change my bike and I understand how an internal combustion engine works so there's not much of interest there. I only read books now - don't read any magazines at all (But quite like a Sunday newspaper if in the UK - a book in itself.)
Ohh I love magazines for my fix, always buy Ride and usually buy Bike, there are so many under our bed that its legs are dangling(the beds) and I need a ladder to get in and out
Used to buy them all when I first started riding. Now I'm down to Bike as and when as I felt they went round in circles and repeated.
Have/had a two year subscription to Fast Bikes (runs out in two months) but only 'cos I got a free pair of Pirelli Corsa Rosso as part of the deal for the 998. Tend to buy mags asa and when there's an article that interests me, or I'm on a flight somewhere.
That’s the trouble with all magazines no matter what subject they do tend to repeat. I used to subscribe to T.W.O or VisorDown as it was called after the first issue that I received. I thought that was the best mag out there, it had a nice balance of reviews of new bikes racing and of course Whitham and McKenzie who were both funny in their columns and informative in their reviews. I was quite gutted when they dropped the mag in preference for the website. The web site just doesn't do it the same, you cant beat flicking through the pages. I find RIDE ok, if you can put up with their seeming obsession with BM’s. At least they have some stories about people out and about using the bikes but I do miss the racing stories.
Subscribed to Racer because of the tests on race bikes, and read the other ones if there is anything of interest. Thinking of subscribing to Practical Sportsbikes, but that could be an age thing :biggrin:
I've got a subscription to Fast Bikes mainly due to being mates with one of the journo's, that and the fact it doesn't have twenty pages of 'Top10, tank bags, disc locks and pile cream'. Oh and my bikes have been used by them as well.
I do a lot of train trips between Taunton and London so I pretty much buy the lot. In order of preference: Performance Bike (subscribe) Bike (subscribe) Motorcycle Racer (subscribe) Practical Sportsbikes (subscribe) Ride (usually buy) Fastbikes (usually buy) Superbike (sometimes buy) MCN (sometimes buy) Motorcycle Sport and Leisure (rarely buy) errrrrrrrrr - I think that's it I also collect foreign ones when I go away on hols or on business. I have some fabulous English language Indian ones - including one featuring Ducatis.
Doesn't it all get very repetitive, as they are often testing the same models? Do you speed read them, or just select the articles that look interesting, or do you read the whole lot? That is true bike mag reading dedication. A decade or so ago, I used to find them fascinating and it was always a great day when TWO was delivered from Blightly. Now, I can barely raise the energy to turn the pages, even on a train trip.
Used to subscribe to Bike, and when I was younger used to buy Motorcyle Mechanics every month, but that went the way of the dodo, and now that Ogri has been dropped from Bike it too has lost its appeal. As one of the other posters said I've got the bikes I want, I'm reasonably able in the workshop and I know what kit works for me. I still scan the book shelf to and if there is an article or two of interest I'll buy that particular magazine.
