Bike magazines

This is 100% accurate. They buy 50cc scooters and then old Novas.

And they spend their money on other things besides bikes.

I'm always saying the bike trade is cyclical. It is. This is *precisely*
what happened in the early 1980s, for precisely the same reasons, and
the Japanese manufacturers are trying precisely the same solutions as
they tried then[1].

The bike biz is going into meltdown, in the UK. It'll last... ummm....
five years minimum.

The mainstream magazine pool will shrink. Oddly, the specialist journals
may hold up well - any malcontent can become a publisher in his back
room these days[2], and Real Classic, Streetfighters and the like should
ride the storm.

I'd be worried[3] about TWO, Ride, MC Sport, and one or two others.

[1] Shortening model lives, bringing out new models more frequently to
tempt the consumer, thereby hammering residuals, and ultimately putting
off purchasers altogether.
[2] Thought about it myself often enough
[3] If I really cared, which I don't.

 

Dingly ding ding.

I have such a teenager, plus a TS50 in pieces, a neglected NSR125 and a
slightly dented, blinged Renault Clio.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R (Going)
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

If I was an advertiser I would be very worried indeed.

 

I stopped getting CMM as it was dire and then unsubscribed from Bike a
few months ago; after over 15 years or so it was a bit of a wrench. Now
I don't really care as it was as shit as I thought it was.

"Nice pictures though".

 

Hmmph, you snipped the bit where I said "but they'll probably just
pocket the extra profit" ;-P

JL

 

I think there are other article ideas they could develop. The eyewitness
pieces in Bike are very good but not enough to keep me, even with Dan
Walsh.

Some years ago Bike were doing a series showing bikes taken apart after
20,000 miles - a stupidly low mileage for a modern Jap 4 - a nice idea
but poorly done.

Why not strip some poor dispatchers trillion mile GT550 and show the type
of wear and causes (poor oil, damaged rings, chassis bearings etc. etc)?
Or my 100,000 mile Guzzi and compare wear with a 100,000 mile Jap V twin
to show improvement in technology and manufacturing.

Articles on how the fucking things work - the tyre efforts were a start -
but less of the 'electrickery it's scary and you're (we're) stupid' type
they ran once.

Other small column stuff - say following on from a review or tale of
hugger fitting to a CBGSX whatever - how to actually drill a hole in the
place you want it. It may seem simplistic but done in the right style
could amuse and assist those not as confident with their own abilities.

Other "how to use tools" space fillers wouldn't be too bad.

Although, I'd suggest they give the Mark Williams rock reviews a miss.

 

That's because it wasn't necesary. The idea of being able to charge the
advertisers more is the amusing bit....

 

Thanks. I now have an image of you in Spandex tights, that will never,
ever go away.

 

I *love* them.

Fair comment.

Yes. I remember that. Julian Ryder's old GS550.

Some years ago, Top Gear built their own long-term test Primera at
Nissan's Sunderland plant. I wanted to do the same thing with a Triumph
bike. Nobody went for it.

A few years I suggested they get a CBR600, and simply run it and run it
with *no* maintenance (apoart from safety stuff like replacing tyres,
brakes and maybe chains) until it broke. Honda would have gone for it, I
reckon. Just keep topping up the fluids, as necessary. And when it
finally went pop, strip it down and see what broke and what was worn.

Again, nobody went for it.

Agreed, but there are surprisingly few really good tech journos who can
take a really complicated subject and make it entertaining, informative
and easy to understand. John Robinson was (the only?) one.

Agreed again.

I mean, just incredibly basic stuff like "How to adjust a chain",
detailing the sort of adjustment and wheel securing systems you usually
find, would be good.

Yup.

Hey, sweller, shall we start a magazine?

 

They can be fun, yes - but that's the sort of low-circulation specialist
mag I've mentioned elsewhere. It's hardly mainstream.

 

I haven't read it for some time - I preferred, and in the early 90's
subscribed to, UMG - but the articles in both can veer between "here's an
/interesting/ fact taken from my meticulous records of ownership of my
Z750 twin" to "I'm an outlaw countersteering riding God on my GPZ305".

It's probably worth noting that in this context "real-world motorcycling"
comes in at either clueless or impoverished.

My favourite ever comment (as in I've remembered it) was from a chap who
bought a newish Laverda Jota and decided it must be a man's bike because
it made his watch stop on the way home. It was then I decided I wanted
one.

 

Paul Corfield says...

If anything was going to seriously confirm your BCB status here, this
is it.

Well done

 

PB in its heyday was excellent at this stuff.

 

The PB revamp is a step in the right direction, imo.

 

Seriously ? If there's all of a sudden only say, 2 magazines servicing
the X million bikers in the UK, the bike manufacturers aren't going to
cop an increase in order to be able to keep reaching their audience ?
It's not like Honda is about to start advertising in the Financial Times
is it* ? What if there were only 1 mag, wouldn't it have some pricing
power ?

While ever there are substitutes, sure your ability to manage the price
is constrained, but the bangs for bucks of spending a couple of thousand
pounds (or whatever the going rate is ) vs what, 10-100 times that for
TV advertising, has to be with the magazine.

Particularly where the magazine can guarantee the vast majority of
people viewing the ad are at least interested in bikes generally, if not
necessarily in that specific model. A TV ad even in prime time may not
reach the same number of people who are interested, and will definitely
cost more.

Economics theory says where there is an oligopoly there is some market
power with the supplier, I can't figure out why that wouldn't be the
case here.

JL
*might be worth it for MV Agusta or Ducati though

 

On Fri, 3 Jun 2005 20:01:01 +0100,

Doesn't surprise me at all that.

Classic Bike, is that Classic Motorcycle?
(http://www.classicmotorcycle.co.uk/)

Kind of, my best man works for the mob who publish Classic Motorcycle.

 

sweller wrote

You are my hero you are, can I have your babies?

 

Don't forget the legwarmers...

 

The UK bike market seems to have a will of its own. And it is
*incredibly* amateur.

For example, people flogging bikes and bike kit often advertise in bike
mags simply because they like the magazine, not because it actually
services their target market.

I hope Lozzo will back me up on this.

Secondly, motorcycle manufacturers, if bike mags hike their prices, will
look at other media. The equation is always the same - what does it cost
to get your advert in front of a customer?

If your ad costs 1000 quid, and the magazine sells 100,000 copies, then
it's 1p a punter - less per reader, because each mag is read by x number
of people.

Now, in a declining market, and with falling circulations and
readerships, magazines that jack up their ad rates are simply pricing
themselves out of the market. Let's say that in the above case sales
halve to 50,000 and the ad rates go up by 50% to 1500 quid. Your ad is
now costing, effectively, three times as much as it did before.

Then we get onto readership profiles, and the sort of people who are
likely to buy your product, and what else they read, watch, pass by, etc
etc.

It is an absolute miefield, and I can assure you that upping your prices
in a falling market isn't a bright thing to do.

 

Heh. A FOAF bought a CB500T way back when and it had the same effect on
his watch.....