And a positive thing: RoadRunner
Mar. 21st, 2003 03:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikNo, I don't mean the one that goes "Beep Beep!" :)
When![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reality_fox and I were out doing the camera-return thing we took a moment to look at wine coolers (he wants a builtin) and magazines. Most of the camera rags I'm interested in were still behind the times on the 10D release so I decided to give them another month to get all their PMA stories online (the last photo-equipment convention, recently ended). Both of us like motorcycle mags, though, so we browsed through the usual suspects. None were really compelling to pick up. The spring bike mags are a lot less exciting when you're not revving up to buy a new bike. They're all geared towards buying-gides this time of year.
Instead we each picked out a magazine we'd not seen before. Reality_Fox got "Sport Racer X" or something like that: a magazine dedicated to motorcycle track racing. He'll have to report on it. I picked up one called "RoadRunner: Motorcycle Cruising & Touring". It caught my eye because it had a BMW R1150GS on the cover. Not many magazines give much chat about big dualsports. A quick glance showed it was about exactly the type of riding I like to do: adventure touring.
We rung up the magazines and it came to a hefty $12. A price check showed that RoadRunner was $7 after tax. For a magazine? Heck, I can get a paperback book for that price! Well, what the heck. It's worth at least one try.
Now that I've had it home and got to read it I've decided to subscribe. This magazine is beautiful. Instead of little squinty pictures all laid out 'look at us we're artsy' style it has huge two-page spreads of amazing roads, bike travel shots and detailed parts/accessories showcasing. While being picture heavy it has a lot of quality content. Instead of just reading little bullet-point and stat boxes like I do in other motorcycle mags, this one has good stories mixed in with solid advice, written by the folks actually out on tour. It's about the trip as much as the bike/equipment, and it shows. Each trip talked about (four this issue) have details down to the dollar and contact phone # of each place visited or stayed. Road condition reports, recommendations and musings all from an adventure biker's point of view. As an added bonus in the back of the magazine is a resource page for each trip including tankbag maps with route sheets done on heavy, water-resistant paper. Pre preforated, even. When you're done reading up on a trip, you can stuff the summary pages in your bag and you're good to go.
The more I read this one, the more I'm impressed. I think evendustykat and Reality_fox will like it, as RoadRunner is bike-agnostic. If you can tour on it, they'll write about it... even supersport stuff like the ZX-6R/RR and Ducati 999 are in this issue, right alongside GS-ADV's. It's the ride that they find important! I'm going to order a few back issues (there's some California rides they covered late last year) when I place my subscription. I'm also going to send for their submissions guideline kit as they encourage riders to send in pics-and-musings reports, as well as editorial responses to their shown rides. I'm all over that! The $7 for the on-shelf price is kind of steep but it drops down to about $3.90 an issue if I get two years.
Finally, a magazine I'll look forward to finding in the mail box every other month. I'm pretty sure I'll be wishing it was monthly, if this one issue is anything to go by. :)
When
reality_fox and I were out doing the camera-return thing we took a moment to look at wine coolers (he wants a builtin) and magazines. Most of the camera rags I'm interested in were still behind the times on the 10D release so I decided to give them another month to get all their PMA stories online (the last photo-equipment convention, recently ended). Both of us like motorcycle mags, though, so we browsed through the usual suspects. None were really compelling to pick up. The spring bike mags are a lot less exciting when you're not revving up to buy a new bike. They're all geared towards buying-gides this time of year.Instead we each picked out a magazine we'd not seen before. Reality_Fox got "Sport Racer X" or something like that: a magazine dedicated to motorcycle track racing. He'll have to report on it. I picked up one called "RoadRunner: Motorcycle Cruising & Touring". It caught my eye because it had a BMW R1150GS on the cover. Not many magazines give much chat about big dualsports. A quick glance showed it was about exactly the type of riding I like to do: adventure touring.
We rung up the magazines and it came to a hefty $12. A price check showed that RoadRunner was $7 after tax. For a magazine? Heck, I can get a paperback book for that price! Well, what the heck. It's worth at least one try.
Now that I've had it home and got to read it I've decided to subscribe. This magazine is beautiful. Instead of little squinty pictures all laid out 'look at us we're artsy' style it has huge two-page spreads of amazing roads, bike travel shots and detailed parts/accessories showcasing. While being picture heavy it has a lot of quality content. Instead of just reading little bullet-point and stat boxes like I do in other motorcycle mags, this one has good stories mixed in with solid advice, written by the folks actually out on tour. It's about the trip as much as the bike/equipment, and it shows. Each trip talked about (four this issue) have details down to the dollar and contact phone # of each place visited or stayed. Road condition reports, recommendations and musings all from an adventure biker's point of view. As an added bonus in the back of the magazine is a resource page for each trip including tankbag maps with route sheets done on heavy, water-resistant paper. Pre preforated, even. When you're done reading up on a trip, you can stuff the summary pages in your bag and you're good to go.
The more I read this one, the more I'm impressed. I think even
dustykat and Reality_fox will like it, as RoadRunner is bike-agnostic. If you can tour on it, they'll write about it... even supersport stuff like the ZX-6R/RR and Ducati 999 are in this issue, right alongside GS-ADV's. It's the ride that they find important! I'm going to order a few back issues (there's some California rides they covered late last year) when I place my subscription. I'm also going to send for their submissions guideline kit as they encourage riders to send in pics-and-musings reports, as well as editorial responses to their shown rides. I'm all over that! The $7 for the on-shelf price is kind of steep but it drops down to about $3.90 an issue if I get two years.Finally, a magazine I'll look forward to finding in the mail box every other month. I'm pretty sure I'll be wishing it was monthly, if this one issue is anything to go by. :)
