Streetfighters Mag is no more

[BANDITROD]

I just read this on FB

Dear Streetfighters readers,

It’s our gut-wrenchingly sad duty to inform you that Streetfighters Magazine has become another victim of the recession, so the June issue (#232) was the last to be published in the form you’ve come to expect.


However, you don’t get shot of us quite that easily, because Streetfighters will be returning to the ample bosom from whence it came and continue as a 32-page supplement inside our sister custom bike title, Back Street Heroes, starting with the July issue (BSH #351) which goes on sale at the beginning of June. Inside you'll find the best high performance custom machines, hand-picked for publication, to whet your whistles like only Streetfighters Mag can.


All subscribers will be receiving separate correspondence relating to their options as far as their subs go – where you can either switch your sub to BSH, or request a refund for the remaining balance of your subscription.

FighterFest UK will be going ahead as planned, and Streetfighters merchandise will be available as normal from G&J Merchandise via the magazine website.


All of us at SF Towers, past and present, want to thank our loyal readers, contributors, industry colleagues and friends for their continued support over the last twenty-two years. We'll no doubt see you all on the road at some point in the future – and, of course, at FighterFest UK in September.


The Streetfighters Crew

[fimpBIKES]

holy fuckbucket!!!!

[BANDITROD]

yeah thats pretty well what i was thinking too fimp

[Large]

That's not good.

[Gitzy]

Well thats shitburger..

[hyofighter]

Shit hey thats fucked . Stupid goverments causing recessions and generally fucking shit up

[stiffsimon]

Well that sucks that does that Hardly Ablesons aka BSH are more popular than GSXR's aka Streetfighters. RIP Streetfighters, something that brought so much to so few and not understood by so many

[yuma bizl]

WTF am I going to read now>???

[hyofighter]

Pete broke it . I blame pete too much orange and the mags fucked now

[safighter]

such a sad sad day,spent many an hour on the loo with those mags.

[BANDITROD]

lol
Pete broke it . I blame pete too much orange and the mags fucked now

[sharky]

Streetfighters is dead...

Long live the English chopper :)





Wonder how long til rabib gets on it ??

[Gix11]

Yea, as mentioned above, the official post was here: http://streetfightersmag.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/a-reluctant-announcement.html#comment-form

[hyofighter]

Pete broke it . I blame pete too much orange and the mags fucked now


lol

at least this takes the heat off Jacktar for a bit

[Jinx]

Well that's a pisser. Only good news is that we get the 32 page supplement in BSH where it all started. So not really dead but close to comatose and on life support. If the economy in the UK ever recovers we might see it resurrected. Until then there's always ASF.

[Tony Nitrous]

I know folk who have stopped buying it.
Not due to cost, more due to content.
I normally flick though it and then buy
Performance bikes, Practical Sportsbikes or
Motorcycle Mechanics. Like if of not many folk
find German tails and headlight masks cringeworthy
and think that's what the scene is now all about.

I haven't bought a copy in months and won't miss it.

I do wish Dave and Will all the best and hope
things turn out OK for them and all involved.

[K6Thou]

G'day Tony.

[Jinx]

Hi Tony. I haven't seen you on here for a few weeks.

[stiffsimon]

I know folk who have stopped buying it.
Not due to cost, more due to content.
I normally flick though it and then buy
Performance bikes, Practical Sportsbikes or
Motorcycle Mechanics. Like if of not many folk
find German tails and headlight masks cringeworthy
and think that's what the scene is now all about.

I haven't bought a copy in months and won't miss it.

I do wish Dave and Will all the best and hope
things turn out OK for them and all involved.

Nothing to do with your er more senior age bracket then me old mucker ;)
I agree though, mask for front headlight is just so shit IMO and the phrase "trying too hard" springs to mind.It's a modern take on rim tape and Renthals really. and those Germanic tailpieces are just fuckin awful, always have been and always will be.
It's a shame that Streetfighters have gone tits up but as Tony says content was getting a little - not my thing really.Apart from some awesome recent ASF members bikes being featured :cool:

[TonyOW31]

I think it will happen to the majority of printed magazines eventually, places like this will see to that.
I prefer the print medium, and don't mind waiting for the next issue, but that's probably because I'm an old bastard, my kids can't understand why I would want my subscription to classic racer, when it's all available online anyway. Todays society is moving more and more towards instant everything, and print magazines probably wont exist in 15yrs.

[latheboy]

It is a shame, I buy it every now and again .. well did .. I got sick of all the bullshit articles full of lies, not going to point the finger at anyone... Cabbie..
Hopefully they put it up online and not just faceface ..

[Weaselman]

Its a shame. It was the only bike rag I bought.

Could have done without the american 'wank chariots' though.

[Large]

I came for the bikes.

I stayed for the boobies.

[Redmohawk]

I'd flick through it most months , buy it maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I only bought an issue if there was info I wanted or a bike I really liked.

[ALBI]

x 2 ^^^^

[Gitzy]

I have nearly all 232 in my collection and have been reading them religiously for over 16 years and found every issue invaluable I will miss it.

[Dynomutt]

Unfortunately the "Streetfighter" scene seems to have lost its way somewhat over the last few years. Bike that were featured were starting to be built to a formula and very little in the way of the original ethos remained. The raw brutal powered machines that were being built in the late 80s and early 90s gave way to bikes that owed more to the American baubles and trinkets ideals that underpin the Yank custom bike scene. Long low GSXR/R1 etc with ridiculously wide rubber a plethora of bolt on shiny shit and garish paint jobs replacing the big power, lithe and nimble aggressively stanced fighters that are designed to do exactly what the word "Streetfighter" implies. Headlight fairings that look like faces, spikey nuts, and bollock crushing seat units along with other fashion statements like "low boost" turbo systems that produce not much more power than a well built bigbored and cammed version of the same motor with decent flatslides and exhaust system, had over time reduced "Streetfighters" to a sad parody of their original creation. I truly hope that by returning to the birthplace of the magazine that in time the bikes will also remember their roots and get back to the concept that less is more and rather than bolting on loads of unrequired tarty bits and building what are no more than show ponies and trailer queens that rarely get used in anger, the scene returns to big brutal powerful motors with improved handling to match etc. There are some extremely good bikes out there to use as a basis to build pared down aggressive streetbrawling motorcycles from. We don't really need to go backwards in terms of the machinery we use, but stepping back towards the ideals that spawned our particular little part of the two wheeled movement will hopefully breath new life into what has in my mind become a rather stale and formulaic area of motorcycle building in general, you've only to type in "streetfighter" on ebay or google to see the amount of garbage that has been wrongly labelled a streetfighter, we were always and still should be the kind of bikes that couldn't be taken to places more than twice, and the second time was usually to apologise for the previous visit. Streetfighters is unfortunately dead, lets get back to basics and get the resurrection of the whole scene underway.

[Gix11]

Good sentiment Bill. The vast majority of feedback has been based on it. After talking to the other side of the fence, I think suits are also the crux of the demise.

[Dynomutt]

Without a doubt Gix, the market for a specific monthly publication based on the fairly narrow appeal of "extremely modified high performance custom motorcycles" AKA "Streetfighters" is and always has been very limited, when you consider that motorcycling generally has been in decline for several decades, and "our" particular small slice of that market is a pretty small percentage at best, and fairly negligible in terms of market opportunities for mainstream marketing strategies and products, the manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon with the increase in high performance naked machines based on the Sportsbike engine platform albeit in a sanitised form in terms of overall power, many people lacking in either the skills, time, or funds to take a modern machine and alter it in such a way as to make it utterly unique have opted for the easy option of buying into this sector. Why spend endless hours in the shed/garage and a small fortune when you can buy a new FZ1 Z1000 Bking etc etc and save yourself all the hassle of building something, the desire to be different and be able to spot your own bike amongst a sea of identikit bikes at a Sunday meet is less appealing. This leads to a decline for all sectors of the supporting industry, tuning shops, parts manufacturers, fabricators/welders, painters etc etc if these guys are not doing much business then they look at the targeting of their advertising and ad space gets reduced, especially if the circulation of the particular publication is waning. Most monthly publications especially those of low to mid volume readership rely hugely on the advertising revenue far above that of the revenue from magazine sales, if nobody is buying the magazine then nobody is reading your advert and flocking through your doors. Monthly motorcycle publications are a business and as such need to turn a profit, it is a vicious circle as readership goes down so does advertising revenue and once it reaches a tipping point the printing presses fall silent. Streetfighters are and always have been a very small eclectic slice of the motorcycle market, and because of this ANYTHING that is soley dedicated to the genre will always be at risk of being financially non viable. The motorcycle within the UK is struggling anyway due to the ongoing financial bollocks, coupled with the atrocious weather we have had over the last couple of summers, and the overwhelming reduction in numbers coming into motorcycling generally, under conditions like this small niche markets will always be vulnerable to financial problems. You can look to many reasons for the decline including the changing demographic of the motorcycle sector, habits have changed motorcycling is no longer a year round form of transport, despite the huge advances in wet weather riding apparel most riders will not get the bike out if it looks like raining, the knock on from this is obvious far less mileage is being travelled annually and therefore the staple diet of most motorcycle concerns of tyres/chains/pads/ servicing are massively reduced, and motorcycle shops are going out of business in extremely large numbers. Ultimately if you want any form of motorcycling to survive then it is down to US to get out on our bikes and ride the fucking things more than we are doing now, IF the average rider only completes around 3500 miles annually then tyre manufacturers for example are not going to sell the volume of tyres to make production financially profitable, economies of scale dictate that the unit cost of 1000000 tyres is cheaper than 100000 tyres. If people don't get out and ride their bikes, buy the magazines, products etc and support the industry behind your ability to indulge your passion then don't be surprised when it is no longer there for you. The demise of Streetfighters Magazine should if anything be taken as a warning of the state of things to come, the biggest danger to motorcycling is not government legislation/health & safety bullshit, far from it the biggest danger as I see it to motorcycling is from ourselves and our collective laissez faire attitude towards it. Ultimate responsibility for the demise of Streetfighters Magazine rests with us and us alone and unless we want to see a repeat of this across ALL the resources we use then WE have to support them.

[ozzy1100]

amen

[Gitzy]

I reckon I could sit at the pub and listen to Dynomutt for hours, anyone else?

[BANDITROD]

are you going to stare into his eyes and stroke his hair too ......lol

[Jinx]

As Dyno said its all changing and not exactly for the better. When streetfighters started to appear in BSH, I seem to remember they were stripped down sports bikes or nakeds with go fast bits, better suspensions and brakes. Basically a cross between a bobber and café racer, built on a budget and ridden hard. Unfortunately that concept has been lost for some in the last few years.

[Tony Nitrous]

Early issues had Harley's and hard tail japs too,
A bit chop"ish" but more tough dragbike style.

I suppose it was bound to happen,
Many moan about "just another Bandit with Renthals and Dominators"
or "yet another GSXR with no fairing"
whilst other dislike those who try and be different because their bikes
end up being more looks/image/show and lack the "fight"

Grab a copy of "Practical Sportsbike" if you see one.
LC's, Zeds, GSXR's, Kats, CB1100, etc etc.
stuff like a tidy 350LC with a reverse cylinder TZR motor,
last issue I bought had 4 hotted up GSX1100ET's.
suits me better than Streetfighters has for a while.
Back to hoon toys and big serious muscle bikes.

Fuck buying BSH, I'd have to buy a porn mag to hide it in.

[Redmohawk]

I like bikes

[sharky]

Wash your mouth out Mr Nitrous !!!!

[Gitzy]

are you going to stare into his eyes and stroke his hair too ......lol

Is that an option lol :p

[BANDITROD]

maybe hahaha

[blackvisor]

The magazine folded because not enough people were buying it. Not enough people bought the mag as there has been a steady decline in the numbers of people who are interested in streetfighters and custom biking. There always were young blokes getting into building bikes and they replaced the older ones who retired from biking due to family etc.

But the young blokes getting into biking are few and far between, not sure why, as they have far tastier bikes available now than we had in our day, and it's always been expensive to get into bikes, I don't think these days are any more or less expensive than when I was a kid. I paid 300 quid for my first bike (a GSX250) in 1992 and then paid 440 quid to insure it. I got stopped by the plod 3 times and had to prove I had insurance so good job I did,

Without the young blokes coming into it, all grassroots custom biking in general is slowly but surely diminishing, not just streetfighters. Its becoming a sad parody of its former self when the choices for Chops are just bolt on Harley tat or an expensive Orange County Choppers ripoff, and the new cafe racers are equally sad, taking a slow 250 or 400 and fitting exhaust wrap, firestones, clip ons with no rearsets and calling it a cafe racer build is a parody of the original rockers actually tuning the nuts off the fastest bikes they could buy at the time.

THe neo-rockabilly-retro crowd seems to have a few young faces in it, but I don't see many bikes among them, lots of cool tattoos and American hot rod type cars, but few bikes.

Those of us who go into a garage and make parts for our bikes are a dying breed. We are old. How many of us are under 40? very few.

But 20somethings dont read magazines anyway, paper magazines are as relevant to them as vinyl records, so streetfighters etc are battling hard against digital media.

I don't know what the answer is, the only thing I can suggest is help out the young bikers, show them how to wield spanners, build cool bikes and not get ripped off. And we should ride our bikes more, so new bikers see cool bikes and want to build their own.

[Tony Nitrous]

In sure the numbers sold are only part of the story.

I'm very willing to bet there are several magazines
still on the shelf that have a LOT lower sales.

I worked in the print trade for 23 years,
saw a lot of culls due to greedy suits or low
profit margins or bad "restructuring" decisions.

[Hagarr]

The magazine folded because not enough people were buying it. Not enough people bought the mag as there has been a steady decline in the numbers of people who are interested in streetfighters and custom biking. There always were young blokes getting into building bikes and they replaced the older ones who retired from biking due to family etc.

But the young blokes getting into biking are few and far between, not sure why, as they have far tastier bikes available now than we had in our day, and it's always been expensive to get into bikes, I don't think these days are any more or less expensive than when I was a kid. I paid 300 quid for my first bike (a GSX250) in 1992 and then paid 440 quid to insure it. I got stopped by the plod 3 times and had to prove I had insurance so good job I did,

Without the young blokes coming into it, all grassroots custom biking in general is slowly but surely diminishing, not just streetfighters. Its becoming a sad parody of its former self when the choices for Chops are just bolt on Harley tat or an expensive Orange County Choppers ripoff, and the new cafe racers are equally sad, taking a slow 250 or 400 and fitting exhaust wrap, firestones, clip ons with no rearsets and calling it a cafe racer build is a parody of the original rockers actually tuning the nuts off the fastest bikes they could buy at the time.

THe neo-rockabilly-retro crowd seems to have a few young faces in it, but I don't see many bikes among them, lots of cool tattoos and American hot rod type cars, but few bikes.

Those of us who go into a garage and make parts for our bikes are a dying breed. We are old. How many of us are under 40? very few.

But 20somethings dont read magazines anyway, paper magazines are as relevant to them as vinyl records, so streetfighters etc are battling hard against digital media.

I don't know what the answer is, the only thing I can suggest is help out the young bikers, show them how to wield spanners, build cool bikes and not get ripped off. And we should ride our bikes more, so new bikers see cool bikes and want to build their own.

just come in from shed to read this.

I don't know more than three people that I know of that actively modify stuff, in particular actually machine and modify!

But why would you? All the stuff out there is better than anyone can build, excluding the real professional builders (Ben!) with great original ideas.

I'm still finishing off my Harris yet I constantly cast a glance at my B-King and shake my head sometimes and go ........why?

It's because my ideology about bikes is different, Old!

We had to make bikes better back in my day and you could but it is a hard task to better anything out of the box nowadays unless you have lots of time, money and inspiration.

Spoilt for choices now.

[Gix11]

Tough call. I think Streetfighters have more to do with being an indiviual these days, and kids still crave that.

The internet killed magazines (ASF included), plus Tony is also on the money.

It's just progress and it will return in one form or another; this is just a transition.

[ozzy1100]

I beleive that maybe there will be a move back to hand built bikes.
We are more conected than ever before and people will always be driven to be diffrent
The sheep will still follow but there will always be a % of people wanting to look at something they built with their own 2 hands.
My nephew is 14 and has been in nothing but trouble for some time now, much as I was. A few weekends ago he stayed here for the a few days, the look in his eyes as for one of the 1st times in his life he felt apart of something he could understand and not be judged for not playing by the rules took me stright back to when I was his age. Somewhere sometime most of us had a exp like this in some dirty back shed looking on in wonder as men played with fire and teated you like a yng man not a boy. That look in his eye gave me hope that what I do and what keeps me sane when the world is lost will not die with me. Above me I am lucky enough to have old masters share their wisdon and Im proud that I will get to pass it on.
streetfighters is just a name given to a way of building, Im shore a lot of us built bikes long before we even knew the word and will continue to long after the lastest fad has gone and if anyone thinks the next gens wont be as smart as us well you havnt been paying attention

[MDM]

In sure the numbers sold are only part of the story.
I'm very willing to bet there are several magazines
still on the shelf that have a LOT lower sales.
I worked in the print trade for 23 years,
saw a lot of culls due to greedy suits or low
profit margins or bad "restructuring" decisions.
Nail. On. Head.

[Jockney Rebel]

thought so .. so dave whats on the cards for you now

[MDM]

What's on the cards?.... Hmmm, they appear to be blank...

Actually, that's not 100% true, but I do have another seven days from today before I'm booted out of the door...

[hutch]

good look on what ever you do

[ozzy1100]

X2

[safighter]

Yeah one door shuts another opens good luck in the future

[hooligan]

Rapid bikes here in Aus could use a better editor;).

[fimpBIKES]

LOL


good luck MDM and the rest!!!! end of an amazing run, i dont know of any magazines who are happen to reject the latest flagship models and turbo some old clanger instead quite like you did
you have changed my life for the better and i will miss my monthly dosing of madness


ps- spare time to finish up some long forgotten projects??

[MDM]

Thanks guys, your kind thoughts are really appreciated!
Hopefully a bit of spare time to get stuck into forgotten projects - there are four that all need attention...
Although I will have some news for you in a week's time ;)

[wackyrider]

Do tell...

[Tony Nitrous]

I keep reading folk have got the latest BSH
and the cover say "incorporating Streetfighters"
but there is no S/F insert, section or anything fighter related?

[hooligan]

Do tell...
Might be this
http://www.flat-out.com/

[K6Thou]

Might be this
http://www.flat-out.com/

Or this

https://www.facebook.com/worldwidebomber?directed_target_id=0

[sharky]

Ive got it tony....issue 351

[Neo Dutch]

Last 2 issues of BSH has Streetie stuff. 20 pages or so in the middle.

[Tony Nitrous]

Yeah, few folk had their subscriptions swapped over,
got a big of fighter stuff for 3 issue's then... gone.

[Neo Dutch]

Maybe they were using up the stories they had on the desk.

[hutch]

yes I know I paid sub got one sf and one bsh then fuck all rang them up got promise after promise rang them Monday told them to give money back they said they did it there and then but still fuck all in bank

[sharky]

Issue 354 has 32 page insert

[MDM]

Maybe they were using up the stories they had on the desk.
To do that there would need to be some kind of organised, pre-written features on hand. And there was never any of that... :D
I have been assured (confidentially) that there will continue to be Streetfighers content within BSH, and I'm hoping that confirmation of what form that will take (ie supplement, additional pages, one-off mags, whatever) will appear within the next couple of weeks. But don't hold your breath. And don't shoot the messenger either. :p

In the meantime, there is always flat-out.com... ahem.

[MDM]

PS Hutch - I'll chase up your subs, see if I can find an office wallah to shake the tree...

[Neo Dutch]

Hello there Mr Dave Manning.

[Tony Nitrous]

http://i44.tinypic.com/ddcn15.jpg

[hutch]

cheers mate

[MDM]

You've got a PM Hutch! ;-)