South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

hi there guys and gals

i am doing a bit of research on motorbike magazines and would be grateful to receive your comments as to which bike magazine you think is the most popular

many thanks

MCN (if that counts!)

taz68 wrote: which bike magazine you think is the most popular

Depends on what you mean by that, most popular based on sales, or most popular on the forum or which is our own personal favourite?

If based on sales, then probably agree with Milky, MCN.

Personal favourite is Performance Bikes, though enjoying the new (ish) Practical Sportsbike and will pick up Motorcycle Racer and Superbike when in need of browsing material. I also buy MCN but mostly through the racing season to follow the results ( can't afford Sky and don't have time to access all the various websites for results and race reports.)

taz68 wrote:hi there guys and gals

i am doing a bit of research on motorbike magazines

I started doing that once, have bought about 12000 since then !!

You will find it's different mags for different people.
I collect
Bike
Classic Bike
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
Classic Racer
Fast Bike
Motorcycle Racer
Performance Bikes
Ride
Superbike

but have loads more titles, and am still collecting almost anything with bikes in

Bunny wrote:I started doing that once, have bought about 12000 since then !!

You will find it's different mags for different people.
I collect
Bike
Classic Bike
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
Classic Racer
Fast Bike
Motorcycle Racer
Performance Bikes
Ride
Superbike

but have loads more titles, and am still collecting almost anything with bikes in

Do you collect old ones? I have boxes in the loft going back to 1984 and some older ones too, including first PB, last Mechanics, first Streetfighters, a couple of BSH year books, some US sportsbike ones. If I list them on ebay for 99p each I'd probably get a couple of grand. Open to offers!

Back to OP, used to regularly get Superbike but more recently (since the b00bs have gone) it's become what bike & boring monthly. I get Bike given to me as my Dad has it on subscription - best descibed as the old mans mag. PB has gone a bit too retro - it's like reading issues of it from the 90's. Pick up Practical Sportsbikes occasionally but thats mainly full of restored standard bikes (which were ignored in the 90s when things got better). Fast bikes can be good sometimes but usually childish & opinions swayed by who evers paying for their advertising. Used to get Motorcycle Sport & Leisure because it was Cornish but not recently.

Problem is, there's only a certain number of roadtests of bikes I won't buy that I'll read.

I'm sounding like a moaner but to be honest, I'll pick up a mag a month depending what's in it rather than what mag it is - internet is too easy to read lunchtime at work, only seem to read bike mags when on holiday or on the bog!

May occassionally pick up a car mag if it has some interesting articles.

Last mag I picked up was Streetfighters purely because it had a Hillclimbing article in it.

graham22 wrote: If I list them on ebay for 99p each I'd probably get a couple of grand. Open to offers!

I do sell my doubles on ebay, and if you listed them at 99p each you'd be lucky to break even, as you'd only sell about 10% of those you advertise, and by the time you've paid ebay and paypal fees it's a lot of work for pennies.

I have complete sets of
Bike (39 years worth !!)
Biker
Classic Bike
Classic Motorcycle
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
Mechanics
Motor Cycle International
Motorcycle Racer
Motorcycle Racing
Motorcycle Sport
Performance Bikes
Ride
Which Bike

am still collecting other titles, have Superbike from no1 to 2003, Fast Bike, Classic Racer


have about 6000 in my collection, and about 12000 in the shed to sell !!

RIDE is in my collection and the odd fast bikes

Ride is good as it covers plenty of gear as well as just the bike bits

Streetfighters - The best bikes, brilliant ideas, nuff said!
Superbike - Mocking the other mags as they are all the same company who owns them. Funny to read, great items.
Performance Bikes - Good read

Used to buy the others every month but cut back to only the best ones

Ride (diRe) is ok for the reviews but they are swayed into rated products highly by getting freebies from them.
Bike is crap these days, biggest mag but can never remember anything interesting in it.
Fast bikes.......... don't get me started, only have kept 1 issue, that's because they borrowed the other half's bike before she even had it (she got a mention though)
As for MCN......... More Crap than News! After looking at all the doom and gloom I'm amazed if anyone still rides a bike after reading that!