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 ..
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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 ..
Its a shame. It was the only bike rag I bought.
Could have done without the american 'wank chariots' though.
I came for the bikes.
I stayed for the boobies.
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.
x 2 ^^^^
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.
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.
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.
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.
amen
I reckon I could sit at the pub and listen to Dynomutt for hours, anyone else?
are you going to stare into his eyes and stroke his hair too ......lol
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.
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.
I like bikes
Wash your mouth out Mr Nitrous !!!!
Is that an option lol :pQuote:
Originally Posted by BANDITROD
maybe hahaha
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.
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.