But who'd've thought they would change so much over time? Since starting this page, Performance Bikes went downhill, Fast Bikes followed it, and as a final straw Superbike disappeared up its own arsehole and all was lost.
So at the moment, I don't read any mags, and rather than risk giving the impression that I'm recommending any, I've reduced this page to the mags which got me started.
This issue of Which Bike? (August 1983) was my first bike mag. A friend
(Simon West) had a KH125 and I read his copy in the Sixth Form common room. I
hadn't considered a bike before, but the contagious enthusiasm and the writing
style quickly convinced me that these were my kind of people, and as soon as
I started work I'd get a bike.
Many of the UK bike journalists started their careers with Which Bike?, including former Motor Cycle News editor Chris Dabbs and Fast Bikes editor Colin Schiller.
For me, one of the joys of bike mags is reading ten-year-old road tests: to read journalists cooing at performance figures (and prices) on super-sports bikes which would barely qualify as commuters today.
It's fun to see how riding styles and bike clothing has changed too. Ten years ago there were no knee-sliders to be seen, and bike tests were mercifully free of the knee-down/wheelie/stoppie formula shots so essential in road tests today.
It's entertaining to compare write-ups of now-classic bikes with
sunk-without-trace models, and to see how the announcements of new bikes were
greeted by the industry (the launch of the CBRs caused much cynical comment,
as Honda had eschewed the in-line four for the V4 for the past couple of
years).
Some bikes' classic status was never in any doubt though. This February '84 cover (click for a bigger version) is fully aware of the impact the Ninja will have. I got this copy just after my 18th birthday, and I announced to Simon, Wayne's World-style that "It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine."
My beginnings were, more humble of course, and later that year I bought my
first bike (also tested in this issue), a Honda 125. I didn't get my Ninja
until July '86. Was it worth the wait ...? Oh yes :-)
Bike got more sensible over the years, but in '84 it was hard to
distinguish from Which Bike.
This May '84 issue had a test of the bike I most wish I could've ridden (the Z750 Turbo), and contained this two-page ad from Kawasaki:
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