Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. CIl ! M ..... '" ~ ",' . e: .., ~ W Z W ...J C,) > C,) READ TEST: THE MOTORCYCLE MONTHLIES by j. G. Krol .. According to. the. Wall ~treet journal, the nation's second largest newspaper. Hardly a workmg Journalist could deny that one of the gravest weaknesses in coverage exhibi~ed by. the American P';"ss is its coverage of itself'·. Now Cycle News may be dull. bIased, maccu~atc:, amateunsh and full of typographical erors, but it Isn t weak. and the proof IS m the Read Test of motorcycling periodicals - a first·time-ever effort to epitomize and evaluate the bike books from a reader's point of view. awarding kudos or clouts as seems deserved. WHAT IS BEING TESTED or exclusive coverage nglIts . 8) Vigorously criticizing trivia - which a huyer can easily and probably will change anyway - to create credibility and to draw attention away from significant problems that are overlooked. 9) Product reports that ramble on for pages but are simply not informative. 10) Slanting a test accordingly· as the product is made by a present, potential. ex-. or non-advertiser. A reader planning to spend anywhere from a couple to a couple of thousand dollars naturally wants as much useful and reliable data as he can find on the product he's interested in. The way to do this is to collect as many different magazines as you can.that have evaluated the product. or at least reported on it. The more independent evaluations you can find. the better you will be able to evaluate the product before sinking your money into it. MonthJ~ magazines are the mainstream of motorcycle publishing, though there are a bewildermg. number of quarterlies. weekly tabloids one-shots books annuals and biw.eeklies. We're going to look onJy at the monthly magazin~s. con~entrating on therr performance during Anno Domini 1972. Omitted magazines are missing for one reason only: I was unable to obtain copies of them to examine. THE TEST UNITS Weekly regional newspapers are deliberately omitted because a Read Test of these Big Bike (Hi-Torque Publishing Co .• 16200 Ventura Blvd .• Encino, CA. 91316) BB appearing in a weekly regional newspaper would strain my credulity, and 1 assume it combines coverage of traditional cosmetic choppers and performance bikes,. leaning would also stram yours. towards the latter, in a book of about 75 pages. "Choppers" and "Dirt Bike" play How accurate, impartial, informative and objective will this Read Test be? The musical mastheads with BB's editorial staff. Photography is average and tends to same. or better than the average magazine road test of motorcycles. which should concentrate on design details of the featured machines. Writing is lively. How-to certainJy remove all grounds for rational objection by offended publisbers...though it articl~s. are legitimate and irIformative. Product evaluations are laced with healthy may leave them jangling with cognitive dissonance. skeptICISm and .are often based on actual tests, as distinguished from rewrites of With more than two dozen monthlies cluttering newsstands and gobbling precious m~ufacturer'.s claims. tax dollars in second-class mailing subsidies. a reader's natural inclination is to start at Bike (National Magazine Co. Ltd .• Chestergate House. Vauxhall Bridge Road, the top and work his way down as time and money permit. Which magazine is the London SWI. Great Britain) For some reason this new English publication is found best? The mon thlies are not bashful in telling us using the device of the Letters to on many Southern CalifQrnia magazine stands. Evidently it is trying to develop some the Editor Column. For example: • sort of USA/GB cross-pollination. Starting as a quarterly (I think) it has moved to a "Your magazine. 'Cycle Guide,' provides my favorite recreational reading" (CG. bi.monthly (1 think) and is heading towards monthly publication (1 think). One issue May) says Autumn 1972 on the cover and Summer on the irIside pages; another issue says HI have found that 'Cycle' has much more to offer" (C, May). uBravo to 'Cycle' " Early Summer on the cover and Spring on the inside pages; all very confusing. (C. May) ... 'Cycle'... on a par with the very best M/C journalism 1 have ever seen" (C. "Bike is very big on presenting Americana (music. styles. Coca-Cola. Harleys, etc.) Oct.) in a British setting. If you see an issue. buy it for its novelty value - like a very .. 'CWo is number one" (CW. Feb.) ......'Cycle World'. which is the leading British review of Fats Domino. Little Richard and Elvis Presley rock-and-roll magazine" (CW. Apr.). "Here are my ratings: 1) 'Cycle World'. 2) ..... (CW. May). recordings. Either "Bike" is designed for English motorcyclists who dream that the "What I've always told all my friends, 'Cycle World' is Number I" (CW May) Garden of Eden is located in the LA Main Basin. or else it's pandering to Americans • .. 'Road Rider' is the best cycle mag I've seen so far" (RR. May) who are certain that this is so. Aside from novelty value. "Bike" has little to offer. .. 'Hot Bike'...1 think it's the greatest magazine on motorcycles!!!" (HB. Feb.) Chopper - The Custom Motorcycle Guide (TRM Publications. Inc.• 731 Melrose "1 am a regular reader of 'Cycle Illustrated' and consider it...the top" (CI. Aug.) Avenue. Placentia. CA. 92670) A 180-page quarterly publication selling for $1.95. "I read 'Street Chopper' as often as I can and 1 think it's a great mag" (SC jan.). "Chopper" is included in this survey because it is the paradigm of all TRM "I think your mag is the greatest" (SC,jan.) , publications, ~hich include "Hot Bike" and "Street Chopper," .. 'Bike' is the best mag." (B. Summer or Autumn) There is nothing on the cover which iden tifies "Chopper" as anything other than Obviously - it says here - we must assume th,at letters the editors choose to print. another of the thick quarterlies regularly produced by a number of publishers. Nor is as dIStmguIshed from those they choose to suppress, are perfectly representative there on the contents page. the editorial page. or any place else a potential buyer is samples of reader opinion. Obviously the peculiar similarities in style found in some likely to scan before purchasing the book. Actually. it soon becomes clear that of these letters printed over different names are merely statistical artifacts. e.g., "Chopper" is a captive publication of AEE Choppers Inc.• for the AEE logo is "number one", "1)" and "Number 1,r in 'Cycle World ...ar HI think" "mag" and omnipresent throughout. Partway into the umagazine" the reader encounters ads "great/greatest" in Street Chopper'sjanuary issue. •• that look l"ike catalog listings. or catalog listings that look like ads. Actually. there is no such thing as the one best magazine because of the growing Eventually. on the very last page. all is revealed in the single statement, "All ~rend to~ards specialization among the motorcycle monthlies. Areas of specialization previous catalog prices are superseded by this catalog". CATALOG! 10 1972 mcl.ude: general coverage. dirt bikes, choppers. performance bikes. touring. "Chopper" is nothing but an AEE catalog which has.been gussied up with chopper and lightweIghts. Furthermore. there is a growing trend towards approaching each photos. a smattering of articles. and other material. Like most chopper accessory tOpICal area in one of two rather distinctive styles which. for lack of more incisive manufacturers, AEE charges its customers for the privilege of discovering what it has terms, may be called information and entertainment. You read an informative available for .ale. Evidently the catalogs sold so briskly. that AEE was earning a tidy magazine .primarily to learn something useful about motorcycles. motorcycling. profit on them, some of whicb it decided to plow back into fancying them up with motorcychsts. etc. You read an entertaining magazine primarily for the enjoyment of pseudo-editorial material. the reading itself. It's easy to say that a magazine should be both informative and Some of the best catalogs contain non-catalog information. Usually this consists entertaining but. first, there are natural trade-offs which must be made between these two objectives - sometimes they conflict - and. second. several of the magazines _ of background information. applications. guidelines, definitions of nomenclature. size conversion charts. and so on ...material that is useful in understanding the seem to have made rather rum editorial commitments to one or the other style a products in the catalog and making the proper selection. Nothing like this is found in trend which I suspect will grow in the future. • the AEE catalog. The~e. is a third editorial style which. unfortunately. is all too prevalent: disguised AEE Choppers is located at 730 Monroe Way. Placentia. TRM pul?lications is adverttSzng. While manu.facturers. publish~rs and readers all benefit from good located at 731 Melrose ·I'\ve.• Placentia. These are opposite ends of the same building advertiSIng. I cannot Imagme any way 10 whIch readers benefit from advertising that which is set in a small industrial tract having Monroe on the west and Melrose on the IS disguISed to look hke independent reporting or fearless editorial comment. though east. 1 can eaSIly Imagine ways in which disguised advertising can be constructively Nothing 1 found in any TRM publication plainly stated the relation between TRM harmful to readers who are unwary enough to swallow it whole. Since one of the and AEE. On the contrary, extraordinay efforts are made to conceal the relationship ~ost import~t informatio,?al functions a magzine can perform for a reader is to tell and to give the impression that TRM is an independen t journalistic organization. hIm. those thmgs about a product that the manufacturer is not shouting about, this is AEE refuses to accept personal checks and insists upon cashier's checks or certified a cntIcai subject. checks or money orders up front. If the customer fails to include all ordering During 1972 the best road tests and product reviews rase to a level of "good". information AEE deems necessary he is charged an extra $2.50. which he pays since while the. worst sank all the way to "reprehensiIJle". Until I began comparing scores AEE already has his first payment. Returns - e.g.• because the part did not fit of magazme.s one:to-,;>oe for th,S Read Test. I had not fully appreciated how great the properly - cost the buyer a twenty percent "handling charge". with a minimum of differences m edltonal approach to th,S problem really are. Some of the devices to $5. If the customer expects a refund. he'll have to wait. since "refunds are issued watch for: quarterly", the only such case I've ever heard of. Electrical items bear no guarantee; 1 Completely omitting any mention of any product shortcoming. they may not be returned or exchanged. Hln some cases" imported items have no 2 Omitting mention of certain critical product shortcomings. guarantee; the catalog makes no attempt to identify which items are imported and 3 Minimizing key problems. e.g.• the well-known "sligh t" vibration. which have no guarantee. Regardless of how well it packed the merchandise. AEE 4 Presentmg manufacturer's claims as verified facts. disclaims all responsibility for damage in transit; in any case, it does not pay shipping 5 Concentrating criticism upon those product drawbacks which, at the time of the. charges. Payments in foreign currencies are not accepted. The world's largest test. the manufacturer has already rectified on the models which will be available maiJ~order house, as you know, is Sears, and their guarantee is as simple as can be, for sale; sometimes. knowing that the preliminary design has already been changed "Satisfaction, or your money back". AEE's guarantee is "in accordance with the by the manufacturer. the magazine will try to take credit for prompting the manufacturer's own terms of warranty"; the catalog does not identify manufacturers product Improvement. and does not state their terms of warranty. 6) Lavishing praise upon a product in return for the right to "first" or "exclusive" The editorial policy of all TRM publications is in full harmony with the business coverage. attitude of its parent company. 7) Barraging the product with unwarranted criticism in revenge for not getting first

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