Best bike magazine(s)?

[ms51ves3]

[hellkat]

Scandalous admission of the week:
I have a sub to Greasy Kulture but not to BSH
*hides behind the sofa*

Blue is a remarkable person. A veritable font of knowledge on almost any subject you care to think of, and then some.

I run hot and cold on BSH, depending on who turns up in the rally photos

I rarely bother with many of the others, unless one of them has a captivating byline that catches my eye.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Fisty]

PB, the best bike mag out there.
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Quietly and consistently taking the piss.
TL1000R | Hayabusa | ZXR400 | TL1000S | Bandit 400 V
Fatter and faster than Fret

[RVF_Mark]

PB is easily the best bike mag at the moment and has been for the past few years.
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- Kawasaki ZX636 2005 -
- Aprilia SXV 550 2008 -

[defblade]

Looks like I should try PB as well then before I throw my credit card into the ring - thanks folks.

Am I the only one who reads MSL?
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Honda Varadero 125cc => Suzuki Bandit 650 33bhp => 77bhp =>
BMW K1200R Sport 163bhp => Aprilia Shiver GT 750 95bhp

[the grim reaper]

I also loved Fast Bikes in the Emmett/Schiller/Harris days, a quality magazine with daft features that made me laugh. The day they took Sean Emmett's YZR500 GP bike out for a spin (with a daft stick on headlight and race slicks) and parked it up outside a newsagents. A copper walked past and commented that there 'wasn't much tread on the rear'

I don't buy magazines anymore and I threw out 400 that I had amassed from the early '90s to the early '00s. The only time I buy one is if I'm flying somewhere and want disposable reading material. I'll often get Bike or Superbikes, Fast Bikes is shite now, as is TWO and PB is written by a 12 year old.

Cheers

Grim
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Adverts don't always work: Remember that advert, where the army are running across the desert and they have a wounded man on a stretcher. They get to a ravine, the bridge is down and a caption pops up that says, 'What are you thinking?'. I don't know about you but I was thinking, 'Christ, I'm glad I'm not in the f***ing army'.

[0ddball]

I'd love a mag that is similar to practical performance car but for bikes. With some real technical articles, decent 4-5 page feautures on readers project bikes and a real 'no bullshit, lets get our hands dirty in the workshop attitude'.

PB was the only one i've been buying recently but having just seen this months online i was shocked to see....yes, another 600 shootout, another 1000 shootout and a couple of boring pages on dataloggers to find out with bike exits a corner 0.05 seconds quicker than another. Thats £3.75 saved

[Swim41]

[LankyPaddy]

Bike subscription: £13 from Tesco

https://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=721&bci=4294966467|Magazines
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Say, do you have any Gatorade? I'm afraid I left all my electrolytes with your daughter.
Current bike: SV650S K8

[KevTM]

TBM FTW BTW!

Just bought it since none of you lot seem to have any views on it (literally).

It' just as I remember, good reviews, good news, good pics, good articles.. no rubbish.

[Powderhead]

Sorry to resurrect an 8-year old thread, but it seemed cleaner than starting a new topic about the same thing

What bike mag is everyone reading these days? I am tempted by a subscription but I'm not sure what to go for

Also, if case it's any use to anyone, it seems you can still get some pretty good deals by buying a subscription with Clubcard vouchers:

- Bike - £8.50 for 6 months or £16.00 for 12 months
- Classic Bike - £8.00 for 6 months
- MCN - £8.00 for 3 months
- Performance Bikes - £8.00 for 6 months
- Practical Sportsbikes - £8.00 for 6 months


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"Now at inspector level!"

[NJD]

You pay the real monies?

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=316842
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The do it all, T̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶k̶e̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶,̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶i̶g̶ ̶l̶u̶m̶p̶,̶ ̶C̶h̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶N̶o̶o̶d̶l̶e̶

[Powderhead]

[Fizzer Thou]

I used to buy BIKE magazine a lot back in the '70s and '80s,but what they print now is pretty much what all of the other mags are printing.

Nowadays I only buy 'Performance Bike' and 'Practical Sportbikes'.

'Trail Bike Magazine' has disappeared.Which is not a bad thing as they started to print articles about vans as ideal transporters with full page pictures of said vans.It changed a lot from the earlier days and so lost a lot of its character.
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Just talk bikes.What else is there?

Always have a 'Plan B'

[stevo as b4]

Well thinking back to 2009 and earlier, magazines are another example of how much the world has changed, and how the old days were better!

I agree that all magazines vary in interest and quality content on a month by month basis, so I wouldn't have a subscription to any really. And our tastes and interests vary so much as do the bikes we are into so that any given mag can't please all.

There's some duds though, and nearly all of them have got worse/samey/more boring over time, as well as the casualties that have folded up too.

I find PS and CMM to be most interesting more of the time. I'd buy probably 7-8 issues of both a year, but if there's a test or resto on a bike I like/want (all are old bikes) then I'd buy it.

I've got my old reminiscent hat on now and have thought about the mags I used to like. UMG, Grey Bike, Supermoto magazine, and of course the hilarious nutter magazines done so well 20years ago by Fast bikes and PB. Ride was even a really good read in the early days too and the first honest product testing publication and they did their bit to help the industry and grow the standards of kit on sale, in terms of safety, performance and value.

All my favourite silly magazines the original road testers are either:
Dead
Racing superstars
Or boring old men now living in shacks hidden away from the world and have nothing to do with motorcycle journalism and probably no licence either.

Car mags went the same way, I had 8years of PPC mag almost every issue, but it's so samey boring and full of moaning old bastards now.

I've occasionally bought Scootering, as some of the specials are very much works of art instead of just old scooters, and what I like is that traditional Scootering is the only vibrant scene when it comes to two stroke engine tuning and companies investing in new developments today.

TL:Dr world is mostly shit now.

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

I'd credit Superbike magazine* with getting me into bikes in the mid-90's. I picked it up at random and there was a comparison of the RGV250, NSR250, FZR400 and ZXR400. I was particularly taken by the Kawasaki (still am) but I'd love one of the 2-strokes now. Wheelies, swearing and a centrefold.

After that I bought most bike-related mags on the shelves (What Bike, Fast Bikes, UBG,...), in fact I was insatiable, but I've never really taken to MCN. When I passed my test it was the heyday for grey imports so when I saw an XJR 400 at my local bike shop (First Line Motorcycles in Arnos Grove) I knew what it was thanks to Grey Bike, and it became my first motorcycle. I wish I still had it.

Performance Bikes was good for a while but I've tired of reading about how quick new sportsbikes are, or how you can make any bike better with expensive aftermarket tuning and parts. S'obvious.

RIDE can be rather anoraky but I still buy it occasionally if the cover catches my eye.

BIKE seems to vary from good to dull. I particularly liked it when Tim Thompson was the editor but that was ages ago. It's still one of the two I'll buy fairly often alongside Practical Sportsbikes. I bought Classic Bike recently. I must be getting old.

* Sadly the journalist known as 'Sonic' (John Cantlie) hit the news later for other reasons.

[bobbertandsam...]

Use the Readly app on a tablet. £7.99 a month and you get all the mike mags apart from fast bikes, practical motorcycle mechanics and motorcycle sport and leisure. Download as many issues as you want and take it with you. If you go through my referral link here we both get a free month on it. https://get.readly.com/Wk9mMEUWSeyoAHut
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Its never easy