calling Ian Soady...

[Rex]

Judging by the amount of bikes he posts as "look what I've just bought" he's either a part time dealer or he has a garage the size of a small industrial unit to keep them all in.
He has a fore-and-aft Duggie a few weeks back that if it kicked back would spin the external flywheel off it's taper. He had no clue as to the fix other than to flog the central fixing nut ever tighter after applying Loctite.
The suggestion to lap it onto the taper was met with blank incomprehension.

[mini-me]

There is a dealer in West London, 'classic bike emporium ' with very expensive stock, eg a tiger cub at 6k, 1976 kawasaki 20k couple 16H nortons from 12-14k who he always had praise for and indeed bought bikes from, 
I often wondered..............were they pals?


reserved for Paul ??https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kawasaki-Z1000-Z1-Z900-Classic-L-K-AT-THE-VIDEO-BELOW-Reserved-for-Paul/133368030483?hash=item1f0d5aa513:g:DnkAAOSwrpNdDPay

[iansoady]

There was always a cosy relationship between dealers and the press but that's taking it a bit far.

I must confess to having a soft spot for real classic although I do skim over Mr Miles' contributions. I suppose now he's retired from flogging overpriced designer specs he needs to keep the wolf from the door somehow.,

[Rex]

RC is the only mag I take now.
His bike "tests" do seem to merely reiterate what's been said before. He recently wrote an article about pre-war bikes ("they come in SV, OHV and have mags and girders") CB450 Black Bomber ("innovative but boring") and the T160 ("lovely but flawed") so not exactly cutting edge journalism.

[mini-me]

I haven't bought a bike magazine since about 1995. The standard of journalism has deteriorated badly. Last straw for me was the writer who announced that AJS has the alternator in front of the engine,didn't know what a magneto was evidently. Same bloke insists that Matchless were taken over by AJS.

I have a stack of Classic Motorcycle from number 1 to the issue above, I failed to find anyone  give them away to so in this covid rubbish have taken to reading them again.
When Bob Curry died, the magazine in effect died with him, he was a mine of historical information.

Content of bike magazines these days is either boasting or advertorial. When its not laughable ignorance that is.
Once us old Uns with actual memory of the times have gone they'll repeat all the content on a loop, like the BBC does.

I have never bothered with RC because I can't stand the beardy one. Irrational, but true.

[Rex]

He can be a bit wordy but I've grown accustomed to him I suppose.
Old mags aren't worth lighting the fire with now. Someone recently gave me the first ten editions of Classic Bike in a binder. He had many years worth but I already have most of the rest so only took these.
They used to go for money once but I looked them up on Ebay to find a similar bound set that went for a tenner. This was about 6 weeks ago.
I have a load in the loft going back to the early 1970s so that'll be another load for the skip when I've pegged it.

[TGR90B]

Back in the 60s you reserved your weekly copy of whatever at the local newsagent. That way you only paid for it when you collected it. The publisher wasn't sat on your money for anything up to a year.

[john.k]

I cant say Ive  actually bought a bike mag since the late 70s.......they were Ok to read over lunch when they cost 75c,and you could give them to someone else ......Anyhoo,I get much fancier trade mags full of actual useful info into my mailbox entirely free.......and strangely enough ,there is less advertorial in a free trade mag than a $10+ bike mag......Oh and for those interested ,its raining cats and dogs here ,half a metre overnight ,supposedly.......the reason Im interested is I was to get some machines moved Friday,truck never turned up ,now the back paddock will be awash,and the truck wants to come first thing Monday......at $200 an hour......and they have my card details.