Am finding my subscription to motorcycle sport & leisure to be mostly a waste of time, (reading it), and money. ( spending it) ... I’ve looked at other bike mags but they seem even less relevant to Triumph classic bikes so am a bit stuck as want to keep up to date with biking things so half think a magazine is useful. MS&L does what it says on the tin but I generally read the bits that interested me in 10 mins and chuck it in the bin. I’ve a Street Scrambler so thought the test update this month would be of interest but half the article is about sorting a flat tyre.. so wonder if they’ve lost the plot a bit with all this Covid stuff.... shall I just scrap my subscription and look on the shelves each month in WHSmith for anything of interest. I don’t want motorcycle mechanics style stuff nor backstreet heroes stuff... perhaps I’ve answered my own question ha ha
They are all the same these day's the best part of a fiver I just get the online free ones like https://sumpmagazine.com/ and https://www.morebikes.co.uk/read-online/ they cost nowt. You may as well spend your money on a spank mag at least you will enjoy it more and get to exercise one or maybe both arms
Picking and choosing in Smiths isn’t such a bad idea. You’ll find a lot of stuff online as well, as mentioned. I’ve been a Bike subscriber for years as I like the continuity of the format and you get used to the crew who run it and write the articles. These days they focus quite a lot on the travel aspect of biking, which makes for some good reading if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
Yes thanks ... I used to like the columnists in MS&L but feel they’ve currently little to say as obviously not been doing much over the past few months .... not into the travel ideas or routes now as my SS is just local bumbling about which I enjoy every time I take it out ...but can’t think of a mag that caters for just bumbling about .. perhaps bee monthly is worth a look?? .... what’s everyone else reading motorbike wise ?
I still get a few motorcycle mechanics magazines if there is something of interest. The only one I subscribe to now is classic bike as its well written and a bit more diverse these days (not just british stuff). The ex racers bit is good, bit like 'lunch with...' that motor sport used to do.
I don't subscribe to any, as such. We have a family subscription to the Readly app, more magazines than you can read, quite a few bike mags. Have a trial subscription of it, see how you get on.
I’m so old I hate ebook things and trying to read articles etc on my iPad so do prefer printed info on bikes and other interests ... as most mags seem to feature adventure bikes and touring I think the solution is to swap my bike to another Tiger 800 and go touring in Istanbul as that seems the trend ... usefully MS&L has put me off Royal Enfields as they appear to be rather prone to breaking down and bits falling off both in Siberia and Watford so clearly part of my subscription has paid off ! ... thanks for suggestions and I’ll keep thinking on it
Yeah, I get you.... I found it a bit of a pain using an e reader too, at first. Now I have a huge library of books (mostly free ones, have a daily email with free and cheap books, from bookbub. Linky if anybody's interested. https://bit.ly/3ghjL1s) and read a lot of stuff that I wouldn't normally read, happy to try it if it's free! As much as I have a large collection of 'physical' books, I have got used to the digital variety too.
If you bank with Lloyds, their free account for those putting a regular pay check in gives a free EMAP magazine subscription - I use it for Bike mag, which I was already subscribing to anyway so was happy to select. Will pick up others when needing some reading matter for a flight, etc - Practical Sportsbike is a good one for me as it mainly deals with older machines. DS
I've been a "REAL CLASSIC" subscriber since edition one, mainly because of Frank Westworth's writing. I think he and Rowena moved over from Used Bike Guide (?) when it got bought out by EMAP. RC can be very oddball and very mainstream within the same edition so usually has something of value and interest to say, and usually says it in a highly readable way. I also subscribe to Old Bike Mart but that's more of a habit than anything else!
I subscribe to Practical Sportsbike. I used to subscribe to Performance Bike for many years, then it amalgamated with Practical Sportsbike, with a Performance Bike section, and I just continued. I find it a good balance of older stuff, rebuilds and up to date bikes. I used to subscribe to Bike magazine int 70's and 80's, but stopped when Ogri stopped.
I agree. I don't subscribe any more but pick one up from the shelf in the store if it looks interesting. I like flipping through the pages of a real magazine on occasion.
I subscribe to 2 Ride and Practical sports bike. I find most of the rest are full of ditch pumps and Italian, Austrian and Yank tanks, all priced out of reach of most of us.
I just bought the autumn What Bike, it's £6 but has loads of content. I think it's the best value mag and refreshing to have more content than adverts! It's a proper bog mag as you can keep going back to it, comparing bikes etc. It is about half bike comparison, kit and tinkering type articles and half the 'Top Trumps' tables of bikes. Some articles look familar, like one comparing Street Triple RS, Speed triple and Speed Twin, so maybe they buy in bike comparison articles. I think the best info is from forums like this and online searching, but as a bit of a bike fix I like this mag in the same way I like to pour over an OS touring map when starting to plan a ride out rather than being online!
I've got the long haired brunette - but there is NO WAY she is going to be allowed to have a scooter....any motorbike yes.... but Scooter.... NO.... 8)
