The month's Bike (June) comes with a reprint of the 1971 first issue, which makes fascinating reading for old rockers like me. In those days, it was a spin-off from Car magazine and had similar editorial standards (i.e. high) and I wonder if the current publishers will come to regret reminding their readers how much better written it was back then! There is a 6000-word (!) article on the relative merits of the BSA Rocket-3 and the Norton Commando and an excellent piece on stagnant m/c design by the peerless LJK Setright. In fact, it's a fascinating window on an industry about to commit suicide, floundering round for ideas too late (although there is a lovely Carl Vetter design based on the Rocket-3 that might have helped, if BSA hadn't ignored it).
Good nostalgia trip, anyway, and a reminder about inflation - the cover price was 30p!
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thanks for that, I too used to love the early days of Bike, with Mark Williams, Wild Bill Haylock etc.
The journalism still stands up today.
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I want that one.
Anyway I wonder what they would have made of the modern British Motorcycle Industry. Oft compared with the motor industry and its demise, ironically we can still make world class motorbikes in big numbers....
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I still have the original version and what a refreshing change it was in those days. My copy well thumbed having been loaned to many people over the years..
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Bike was the first motorcycle magazine that pulled no punches, it was compelling reading. I remember an issue where two testers went out on restored British bikes (I think one was a Vincent Black Shadow) to see how they compared with the Japanese bikes of the day. They slaughtered them in their write up, leading to a Holy War in the letters pages that ran for months. I believe they even received death threats, this being in the days when Brit vs Jap was a highly emotive subject.
The last time I bought Bike it had turned into yet another "We test half a dozen Sports 600's for the fifth time this year...zzzzzzzz".
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Motorcycle Sport and Leisure still maintains a high editorial standard.
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My favourite motorcycle magazine, but very hard to get in this rural locale.
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"I still have the original version"
As soon as I saw it (it isn't visible on the newsstand, as the two mags are combined in a card envelope), I remembered it, especially the girl on the chopper! I wonder where she is now..?
I know 37 years is quite a long time, but even so, it looks and reads like something from a distant age. There's (far) more editorial than ads, for one thing, and there's an article about a young upstart called Barry Sheene, who they think might do quite well...
Edited by J Bonington Jagworth on 09/05/2008 at 21:41
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30p cover price!
hey - that was 6 bob and a pint of cooking bitter was only about 1/6 so using my infallible "price of beer" rpi surrogate, if you take the current price of a pint to be £2+ that's over £8 for the mag.
Les
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Any mention of PU's Dream
PS. PU. Was yours one of those with the rounded-off, rectangular shockers?
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To be honest, I think Bike is still very well written. Dan Walsh's month by month account of his travels through the Americas on his BMW F650GS was compelling and addictive, and they've even made significant progress in reducing their sportsbike bias in recent years.
Of course, no mag is perfect.
I'm going to pick up this month's issue today - it will be great to look back.
Cheers
DP
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"cooking bitter"
Is that like cooking sherry..? :-)
The mag was £4, so if you base your RPI on that, beer should be nearer £1, which sounds better to me!
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Gosh, this takes me back as I used to work for National Magazines on another new magazine, but got voucher copies of all the house magazines. After a quick flick through Bike as part of my job, I used to donate it to a motorcyclist who parked his bike opposite my flat in Belsize Square. I often had a quiet giggle when I wondered what he thought of the Bike fairy who slipped a copy of the magazine onto his bike each publication day.
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just bought it thanks for the info..........;- ]
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mmm a preliminary canter through it, pausing here and there. Sadly it seems that the writing was on the wall for the British stuff. Double page ads for BSA and Triumph and a half page for Honda - guess whose still around ?.
A little column on the Honda 250 seems to sum it up really.
Attractive bikes, still, for me were the two trailies - an AJS (very modern looking) and a 250cc Triumph - now lets hope that will appear with modern mechanics. I'd buy one.
Hours of reading in this magazine, not looked at the 08 version yet !
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What happened to the bike mag I used to read at school in the early 60`s? was it `Motorcycle` and a staff tester called John Ebrell?? another called Nixon (perhaps)
What happened to them all? I remember the tech drawings and road tests of the day..The desperate new BSA Beagle up against the Japanese but sounding great in the Mag.
I wrote to them once (aged 16yrs) about Japanese superiority in clutch/brake cable and lever design... No response ;)
Regards
Edited by oilrag on 10/05/2008 at 17:06
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Wad that the magazine known as the "blue 'un" ?
Well before my time ( being a '59 model year)
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