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chris r
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Posted: Tue Apr 29th, 2008 10:40 am |
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Flicking through this months mag I see that there seem to be more older, second-hand bikes in the Bike staffers garage this month. A 2003 VFR800, 2001 Fazer (fancy throwing it my way when you are done?), 2004 Z1000, 2001 Blackbird & last but not least Khal's 2000 Firestorm (makes my ST2 project look like a wise investment!!) 
Personally I'm all for having more older bikes as long termers. Last years (or the year before) CBR600f project was interesting, but seemed to disappear after a few issues.
Granted, having the brand spanking new bikes as long termers is a good thing, but I hope these older bikes get some decent mag time as well
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DaveInTheVern
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Posted: Tue Apr 29th, 2008 05:33 pm |
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I'm torn with the new garage. Sure it is interesting to see some older bikes in the garage but to be honest I would rather see how the brand spanking new bikes get on being ridden/tested cos if i needed to know how a 2000 firestorm holds up I would use forums/owners bloggs/old reviews whereas you cant do this with the new metal.
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nickwiz
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Posted: Tue Apr 29th, 2008 08:12 pm |
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| Id rather see the new bikes too. Otherwise its going to turn into Ride or used bike buyers guide. Both of which bore the tits off me.
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chris r
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Posted: Tue Apr 29th, 2008 09:21 pm |
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| With the Firestorm though, it looks like going to need a bit of an overhall, not just replacing an exhaust or putting on a different screen, so I think thats going to be interesting to read about.
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nickwiz
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Posted: Tue Apr 29th, 2008 10:58 pm |
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| Maybe but I read classic bike for that kind of story! Just can't help feeling that Bike is losing its way a little. It'll find a new path eventualy but for now its not exactly right.
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Sotto Voce
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 06:36 am |
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DaveInTheVern wrote: I'm torn with the new garage. Sure it is interesting to see some older bikes in the garage but to be honest I would rather see how the brand spanking new bikes get on being ridden/tested cos if i needed to know how a 2000 firestorm holds up I would use forums/owners bloggs/old reviews whereas you cant do this with the new metal.
I'm torn too. One of the attractions of this is that it could be about the owners / riders as much as the bike. Or it should be. Trouble is it looks a bit derivative doesn't it? MCN did something similar last year; PB has a Staffer's Bike feature....but maybe all that says is that there's nothing new under the sun and the trick is to make what isn't new feel new and interesting. So let's see - which is my currently underwhelmed view of the whole "relaunch".
Last edited on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 06:37 am by Sotto Voce
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chris r
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 08:07 am |
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nickwiz wrote: Maybe but I read classic bike for that kind of story! Just can't help feeling that Bike is losing its way a little. It'll find a new path eventualy but for now its not exactly right.
True, but classic bike only fix up...classic bikes. If I wanted to know how to renovate a BSA Bantam, I'd buy Classic Bike, but where would you go to read about someone fixing up something a little more modern?
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lazzzydog
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 09:44 am |
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| The problem that any magazine faces is the fact that month after month, year after year they are recycling the same old guff to the same punters. The only thing that keeps a magazine fresh is an injection of new contributors, either staff or freelance, and it's their new and personal take on issues and bikes that keep regulers buying the mag. Unfortunately if said writers are a little bland and characterless then ditto the magazine. How many of you lament the absence of Dan walsh? Much of his rambling was non bike related but when on form and not drunk or stoned he was a brilliant read. Snooker on TV faces the same problem and is losing viewers hand over fist because snooker is just a pointless game to watch unless you are involved with the "characters".
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MarkShelley
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:16 am |
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How about this for a feature.
Wife Swap was a popular programme, mainly because they took couples who were polar opposites and mixed them up. . Why not do a motorcycle version.
Get your staffers to swap bikes for a whole month with staffers from other magazines who specialise in totally different areas of biking to BIKE then both mags could write about their experiences in their own mags.
e.g. Cruisers, choppers, streetfighters
I for one would be interested in learning the pros and cons of owning running a more `focussed` bike,. It could include visits to their pub meets/rallies/ride outs etc.
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PaulR
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:31 am |
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If I read Rupert Paul's Garage thing correctly, he's going to take an '03 VTEC VFR and take away the VTEC (!), then replace the entire braking system and the suspension.
I'm not sure what the point of that is, in a long-term test context? It won't really inform anyone on a practical level because you would only do such a thing in a magazine; who would spend that much on a bike, then spend the same again (more, in fact) and a great deal of time to end up with a good secondhand sports tourer? You'd just buy something more suitable in the first place.
I liked the series in which he refurbished an old Fireblade because someone might actually do that: useful, pertinent stuff. But I can't help feeling that re-engineering a VFR in this way is merely self-indulgent.
Last edited on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:32 am by PaulR
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KhalH
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:39 am |
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In the same way that we retuned an R6 with ZZ-R600-like power and torque curves - no-one's likely to do that, but it proved a vastly important point - it'd be very easy for a factory to make bikes significantly better if they changed but a little.
If Honda had taken the VFR down the practical route, rather than getting carried away with chest-beating and corporate cock waving, how good could it have been? Would it still be king of the sports-tourers?
We're going to find out.
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dooley
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:40 am |
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MarkShelley wrote: How about this for a feature.
Wife Swap was a popular programme, mainly because they took couples who were polar opposites and mixed them up. . Why not do a motorcycle version.
Get your staffers to swap bikes for a whole month with staffers from other magazines who specialise in totally different areas of biking to BIKE then both mags could write about their experiences in their own mags.
e.g. Cruisers, choppers, streetfighters
I for one would be interested in learning the pros and cons of owning running a more `focussed` bike,. It could include visits to their pub meets/rallies/ride outs etc.
that idea should come with a complimentary badge
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MarkShelley
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:47 am |
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dooley wrote: MarkShelley wrote: How about this for a feature.
Wife Swap was a popular programme, mainly because they took couples who were polar opposites and mixed them up. . Why not do a motorcycle version.
Get your staffers to swap bikes for a whole month with staffers from other magazines who specialise in totally different areas of biking to BIKE then both mags could write about their experiences in their own mags.
e.g. Cruisers, choppers, streetfighters
I for one would be interested in learning the pros and cons of owning running a more `focussed` bike,. It could include visits to their pub meets/rallies/ride outs etc.
that idea should come with a complimentary badge
It must have taken a while to extract the badge from your lapel on that picture of you during the Gay Pride march in Brighton last year. Good old Photoshop!
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PaulR
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:49 am |
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KhalH wrote: In the same way that we retuned an R6 with ZZ-R600-like power and torque curves - no-one's likely to do that, but it proved a vastly important point - it'd be very easy for a factory to make bikes significantly better if they changed but a little.
If Honda had taken the VFR down the practical route, rather than getting carried away with chest-beating and corporate cock waving, how good could it have been? Would it still be king of the sports-tourers?
We're going to find out.
But is that the purpose of the Bike Garage? I thought that it was a long-term test thing, where the staff experience new model bikes day-in, day-out and tell the readers what they're like to live with. So that the readers can decide if they are the bikes for them.
Does a one-off like the VFR that RP's proposing have any relevance in that context?
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dooley
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:51 am |
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1 - too complicated to be funny
2 - not funny in principal
3 - not offensive (to me at least)
3x grand slam FAIL!
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MarkShelley
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:56 am |
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dooley wrote: 1 - too complicated to be funny
2 - not funny in principal
3 - not offensive (to me at least)
3x grand slam FAIL!
Now then, don`t be too harsh on yourself.
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dooley
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:58 am |
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oh, ok.
that's you that is!
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PaulR
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:58 am |
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I'd like to add (this to KalH, by the way) that the VFR thing makes an especially stark contrast to RP's year with a Gixxer thou': that had great pertinence for the readership, and I remember it provoking a lot of discussion - not to say favourable comment - at the time. Now there, the readers really learned something that applied directly to them and their own riding. Buying a litre sportsbike is a real probability for many, and in that series RP was able to report back in such a way as could, and probably did, constructively influence readers' buying decisions and attitude to riding. For me that's what Bike has always been best at, not speculative R&D.
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TimmyMagic
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:58 am |
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I think Paul has got a point. To me, the bike garage should be a long-term test fleet and describing what new bikes are like to live with.
Anyone can find an owners forum and find out about older bikes.
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KhalH
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Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2008 11:59 am |
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This is just my thoughts on the matter of used v new bikes. Five used bikes are sold for every new one. I've never been able to afford a new bike, it'll likely be a long time before I can. Back when I read magazines (TWO at first, then Ride and then Bike) I cast my eye over new bikes but my heart sank when I saw the price and knew the chances of me ever so much as cocking a leg over one (without being asked to leave the shop without making a scene straight after) were slim to none.
The most I could claw together for a new bike (trade in, cash, loans and promises not to take my clothes off) was about £3000. That was my ceiling. The bits I read were bikes I could just about afford. They felt like they were written for me. The rest was for rich folk.
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