Motorcyclist Magazine

About a year ago I wrote a blog commenting on my favorite motorcycle magazines (Motorcyclist, Motorcycle.com, and Motorcycle Classics), and in particular, I mentioned the new Motorcyclist format.   Before we left for Singapore, I picked up a copy of Motorcyclist to read on the plane.  On those rare occasions when I actually pay for a magazine, I always buy my magazines at the news stands; I haven’t had a subscription to any magazines in a decade or more (other than The American Rifleman, which comes with my NRA membership).

Wow, did I have a nice surprise.  This latest issue of Motorcyclist was, in a word, outstanding.   The crew at Motorcyclist broke completely from the tired format I’d come to expect from the motorcycle print media (other than Motorcycle Classics magazine, which, ironically, was way ahead of its time with stories on motorcycles that saw their best years decades ago).

I thoroughly enjoyed every one of the Motorcyclist stories.  One was about Steve McQueen.  Another featured the Isle of Man TT race.   There was a riveting piece about two war reporters riding out of Mosul on a sidecar-equipped Ural.   My favorite was a story about getting around the latest landslide blocking the Pacific Coast Highway on a couple of RX3 competitors (the bikes were the Honda and Kawasaki copycats of your RX3).  There was a short feature on three guys who, after returning from Vietnam, bought 305cc Honda Scramblers and rode them down to Guatemala in 1970.

The photography…all I can say is that it was just flat stunning.  The term “visually arresting” comes to mind.  There’s a photo of a bike at the Isle of Man leaned over with both wheels off the ground (a physics-defying photo if ever there was one).  There’s another of the Cuernos del Paine peaks in Chile, a photographic masterpiece.   And there were many, many more.  This is good stuff, folks, and it’s what a magazine should be…great writing and great photography presented in a great format.  I’d describe it as something of a cross between a collection of great stories and a first class coffee table photography book.

As we floated along yesterday at 500 miles per hour six miles above the Pacific Ocean, I realized that the layout, the format, the writing, and the photography in Motorcyclist are simply too good to take a chance on missing a future issue.  As soon as Susie and I settled in to our hotel here in Singapore, I did something I haven’t done in a very long time: I bought a subscription to a motorcycle magazine.   Motorcyclist, to be exact.  It’s that good.