Do we have any subscribers to Motorcycle Mechanics in here?

If so, have you already received this month's copy? I haven't got it
and neither have I received a renewal reminder...

 

You've probably been blacklisted.

 

Got mine last week... Give em a call, when I missed one before they
sent out a replacement with no problems.

 

Ross was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Supposedly mine is in the post, but it looks like the delivery has
been timo'd - nevertheless they expect me to wait two weeks before
they'd consider sending out a replacement.

Anyone care to explain to me why I subscribe to a mag so I get it two
weeks after it showed up in the shops?

 

Hopefully it wont turn up 2 weeks late every month, and there's not a lot of
choice if it's bikes from that era you're interested in.

It's a shame 'Japanese Classics' disappeared so long ago, I liked that
mag'......

Regards
Ross

 

Dunno, but I'm concerned after this latest issue. It was, IMHO, shite.
Layout is all over the place and the photography dreadful. So many pix
badly under-exposed. Some nicely composed shots - witness the RD350LC
wheelie shot - but so underexposed you can hardly tell what bike it is.

And some utterly *shite* writing in it, by readers who've sent in their
own deathless prose. The article about Fizzies is what I'm thinking of.

 

Ross was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Well, it's the first time that it's been really late. I was just
rather annoyed by their customer service attitude - "we don't consider
it late, sir" a week or so after it should've turned up. We got your
money so kindly go fook uff...

Never even heard of that one.

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Oh great, thanks. I was kinda looking ofrward to the issue like I do
every month, you know?

Cool. Maybe I'll try to flog them some of my deathless prose and my
own underexposed photos instead of sticking them on my website.

 

I subscribed to it for a year (mainly for 'my' MZ) but found on the whole
the pictures and text simply uninspiring.

Whereas Bike, which I've recently unsubscribed after over 15 years, the
photos and layout were great but, Dan Walsh aside, the content facile.

 

I understand there may be a move by Mortons, the owners, to include more
"readers' reports" in it. I fucking well hope not, because they do that
already and (Bruce's deathless prose aside!) it is not good.

I'd agree that some of it is poor. I really love their "Eyewitness"
series, and some of the stuff where they go off-topic slightly. The
roadtests vary: the trouble about the iunevitable five-bike 600cc
shoot-out is that in the attempt to be analytical it can get boring,
especially if you've read the same test in three other magazines
already.

Where it's sometimes very, very good is in the single-bike tests where
the writer doesn't have to say: "Well, it's 10mph slower than the XXX
and the rear suspension isn't as supple" but can actually write about
what riding the bike feels like, and makes him feel like. I like that.

And Bike's technical stuff is, IMHO the best. John Robinson in PB used
to be the best, but of course....

 

Someone lauched it as an independent title, some years back. EMAP
responded with a "spoiler" called, IIRC, "Classic Jap" and killed it
within a few months. And then folded their own title.

That's publishing politics, I'm afaid.

 

Agreed, I enjoyed those but they alone don't warrant the cover price.

For me they made them about as exciting as choosing the colour of a Ford
Mondeo.

Sometimes they were very good and captivating but mostly, to me, they
were trying to be aspirational but totally failing. However, I do have a
set approach to motorcycles and I appreciate I'm probably not the target
audience.

Some of the detailed stuff was excellent but on the whole I got the
impression I was being given the Play School through the arched window
version.

 

The Older Gentleman says...

I have a copy of the one with the immaculate RD400F in it, took me 2
years to track a copy down. Nice article about a GPZ750 Turbo too.

 

Scanable?

 

sweller says...

Donateable. You can have it if I can dig it out.

 

Cheers.

 

sweller says...

You doing BOSM? I can take it with me.

 

More than likely. I'm supposed to be working but I'm in the process of
abusing my position...

 

The EMAP one was called 'Japanese Bikes(from the sixties to the nineties)',
it had very little original content and was mostly reprints of old road
tests from the period. And, as you say, it was folded as soon as they had
put 'Japanese Classics' out of business.

Regards
Ross

 

I agree, the mag' seems to have lost something since Bob left. The letters
page seems to have become very self congratulatory, and I thought it was a
bit of a joke to send out a questionnaire asking what the readers liked and
disliked only to find that the format had changed substantially the next
month before the results could have been assessed!

Still, there's not much alternative if you're into bikes from that era.

Regards
Ross