[JtownJJA]

I’ve been subscribing to Cycle World for almost 2 years, and my original subscription is coming up for renewal. At first, I found this magazine wonderful and exciting, but lately it seems like they keep doing articles on the same models over and over (usually these are 1000 CC or more bikes). Helpful information for beginners has been few and far between. I still get excited each time it arrives in the mail, but several times I have been disappointed to find that none of the articles seem to pertain to me. This is not true for every issue, but seems to be happening more frequently than when I first started subscribing.
Does anyone here have recommendations for a better Moto Mag, or do you simply have something good or bad to say about a particular Moto Mag? I would like to hear about it.

[WeaponZero]

I like Motorcyclist because they are obviously sportbike biased but still do just enough coverage on cruisers to keep you informed. Their articles are very informative.

That being said, the most informative and unbiased moto publication I’ve seen is the web-based motorcycle.com

[Spool]

I like Motorcyclist as well. As WeaponZero stated the are biased towards sport bikes, but do cover cruisers and beginner bikes as well. This month they had a nice write up on the new Suzuki TU250X as well as a nice section on vintage bikes.

[briderdt]

Rider, Motorcyclist, and Cycle World. I can make it through a VERY interesting issue in a couple hours. Most are a half-hour or so. I skip the articles on: cruisers, touring bikes, huge displacement bikes, races, and the letters. Now you know why I get through them quickly…

[Rab]

I get Motorcyclist (going to drop that one and ignored a free gratis one-year give-away), Cycle World (going to drop that one too although I quite like it), Rider (going to keep that as it’s a friendly little mag), American Motorcyclist (don’t like this at all but it comes free with my AMA membership) and Motorcycle Consumer News (going to keep that too).

Rider is slanted towards motorcycle touring but has the usual fare too (without the embarassing advertisements).

http://www.ridermagazine.com

Motorcycle Consumer News (MCN) is different in that it is entirely subscriber supported (no advertising). It also has intelligent, accurate reviews, the usual mix of letters and general fare along with medical issues relevant to motorcyclists, safety issues and tips, etc. It’s basically a little more cerebral than the other mags. The cost of admission is higher of course given no advertising revenue, but it’s one that I usually read from cover to cover whereas the others are usually flicked through only stopping at anything that grabs my attention. This month MCN is reviewing the Triumph Bonneville, Moto Guzzi V7 Classic and Ducati Sport 1000 (all retro bikes this month).

http://www.mcnews.com

But yes, pretty much all of the magazines concentrate on the biggest, fastest or heaviest bikes on the market (which is probably exactly what their advertisers want them to help sell).

[JtownJJA]

Thanks for your comments everybody. I’m intrigued by MCN, Rab. I had not heard of that one. I also like what I’ve seen on motorcycle.com, WZ. Also sounds like I may enjoy Motorcyclist better than Cycle World. I’ve got some thinking to do before I pay for another subscription, but I don’t think I’ll renew Cycle World.

[Author]

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