MCN

[blackops]

don't usually read this rag, anyone see the BMW VERSYS TIGER GLEE write up ,the liitle GLEE held its own.

[Jacko]

In this weeks edition? Might buy it..

[Andy M]

In this weeks edition? Might buy it..

MCN is written by a computer programme using the thousand monkeys with typewriters principle. Allow me to save you 3-quid:

Kneedown wheelie stoppie BMW quality. Tiger British fantastic. Kneedown kneedown kneedown. Nice little bike for the wife. Kneedown stoppie kneedown. Almost as good as the GSXR kneedown stoppie.

Andy

[jimbo8098]

Yes the little Strom held its own against the two bigger bikes. MCN do some crap reviews though. for example , they took 3 brand new bikes that had just come from the dealer , A KTM , XT Super Ten and something else that escapes me , think it was the Triumph , and both the XT and the other bike died while on the way to the test area so they did the rest of the review with only one bike. Seems fair to me...

I should mention it was an off road test.

[Jacko]

In this weeks edition? Might buy it..

MCN is written by a computer programme using the thousand monkeys with typewriters principle. Allow me to save you 3-quid:

Kneedown wheelie stoppie BMW quality. Tiger British fantastic. Kneedown kneedown kneedown. Nice little bike for the wife. Kneedown stoppie kneedown. Almost as good as the GSXR kneedown stoppie.

Andy

Is that version available on the iPad?

Yes, it came top as far as I'm concerned, they often mark bikes down with phrases like: 'it's a really comfortable all day bike, even 2up, and it'll do it using the least amount of fuel possible while still being fun to ride and cheap to buy and insure' yeah? Where's the downside there then? Oh, it's not got a whole spectrum of power over and above what you can ever hope to need or use on the road and it doesn't cost £14,000, so how are you going to show you've got loads of disposable income down at the local bike meet?

£14,000 for a bike you can only use £7,000 of, or £7,000 for a bike you can use all of? Your choice, I've made mine..

To be fair to MCN they did mention, more than once, that big adventure bikes seem a bit pointless when considered in the company of the 4 bikes on test..

And Child is a nice bloke, sat with him on the ferry to the IOM in March, when you get him out of 'kneedown wheelie stoppie' mode he's an interesting bloke.. It was hard to get him talking about other stuff though considering we were both on the ferry to ride the course, him on the first press Panigale in the country.. Fun weekend in all..

EDIT: Subtle namedrop type pic..


My Green zx6r in foreground, 2 mates on the silver one and the yellow Fireplace..

[hookie]

Popped back to the UK for a few days last week (couldn't wait to leave again!) and spent a few minutes going through the bike mags. in Asda whilst her indoors filled the trolley with life's essentials- Marmite, Yorshire tea, cheddar cheese etc. The mags. were full of the same old crap. All designed to make you feel that everything about your motorcycling is out of date if you haven't all the latest stuff and that you have to buy it all otherwise something dreadful will happen or people will laugh at you. They always come to the same conclusion that if it's new it's got to be better. Dead boring and needless to say I didn't buy anything...

[Jacko]

That's why I only buy RiDE.. Sure, they have the new stuff, but they are aware that we all ride older bikes too, along with useful 'how to' features on common maintenance tasks and kit comparison tests.. They have a 'how to buy' feature every month that highlights a common, popular used buy that's usually cracking value.. In my experience the other mags are more like you describe.

[Juvecu]

www.motorcyclemonthly.co.uk

Best one out there and free to read online You can even save the PDF and read it wherever else you like. Perfect to have if you're camping/flying somewhere/etc. and you have your tablet with you.

[loggamatt]

Just read the test... They called the new Strom 650 ugly!! :(

I have heard this said about the bike before, but I still think it's a classy looking bike... I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The general tone was grudging admiration for the bike I would say... You could sense their annoyance that the Triumph didn't actually blow it away.

But yeah, I get fed up with all the knee down stuff in biking mags too... Feels like the magazine itself is actually judging me for not wearing garishly coloured 1 piece leathers with knee sliders etc!

[Jacko]

I don't do that either, I have 2 piece, full zip black leathers with knee sliders.. More subtle..

[Andy M]

Just read the test... They called the new Strom 650 ugly!! :(

!

Which is why print journalism is so last century. It's one blokes, three month old opinion, based on 1 days experience and they charge you to read it!

You lot have a thousand times the experience, in all conditions and uses and you won't be banned from next weeks discussion if you do think it's ugly, so you have no hidden agenda. (Triumph get the best write ups in the UK press because they ban the naughty boys from press launches. I'm just glad their marketing team don't work for any political party that has brown shirts in their dress code).

Has anyone noticed that the likes of the Wee, Tenere and F650 have grown since print journalism started to die off? In 1998, prat that I was I used to believe all their "nice little bike for the learners" rubbish and tried an 1100cc monstrosity on sand.    . MCN at the time thought the only bike for a real man was over a litre unless you only planned to ride in small circles. F650's and XT600's were weird learner bikes come vibraty odd things that frightened them on wet carparks and couldn't possibly win a MX event because they didn't have carbon fibre number holders.  You were a strange green freak who should travel by bus if you had any problem with a ZZZZZZZZZZR9999999RRRRRR doing 30 mpg and having a 2 gallon tank (that was great because it weighed less than the 1997 2.2 gallon one).

Once we all started talking amongst ourselves and pointing out that we actually want a headlight to illuminate the road rather than look like the result of Optimus Prime mateing with a stick insect, things got rather better IMHO.

Andy

[Gassoon]

Its a good job you aren't bitter, though, andy...

I won't/can't add to the above excellent ranting about the press and MCN in particular.


Now now Hookie - the UK isn't all that bad...I mean from my experiences, France is fairly crap apart from the weather sometimes...even the food is variable...

Have you seen this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19814806  

[Sea-Strom]

Wednesday is a nice day. Off to WHSmith. Pick up a MCN and off to the back of the shop where there is a nice comfy chair. Out come my reading specs. Half an hour later I neatly fold the paper and return it to the rack. Thank you MCN. Thank you WHSmith. I like Wednesdays.

PS I don't read the 'crap' - just the bits I want - suits me fine! Helps me keep up to date with what others do and then I carry on with what I do.