New ADVENTURE BIKE RIDER magazine No.1
 

New in the shops (UK) and its got 112 pages of cool stuff :thumbup1:

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g9...wakz1a/ABR.jpg

Just £3.50 to you sir :laugh:

and a good 1st ed too. only quarterly at the moment, but alun only wants £10 for the year, making it a bargain. makes a change not to have some idiot wheelying on the cover, and not having articles about evading coppers or comparing HDs with C90s
started their own forum too, have a look;
Welcome to Adventure Bike Rider

Nice! thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for this! It looks to be the quality of those terrific German mags, which unfortunately I cant read. And a forum too! Let's have a look!

Lubblyjubbly:thumbup1:

Awesome !! Subscribing to this as soon as im back !

By the way ! Is this in the shops ?? Like WHSMITH etc ???

Do they ship to the USA?

yeah !! £24 for the years subscription or £9.50 for a single Issue.

Terrific! I have friends in the US who will appreciate your info - so thanks Tour@ed:thumbup1: Good stuff...

You're welcome !

All the pricing is on here Adventure Bike Rider Subscriptions

Read the comments below too. It explains their postage issue.

Just subscribed, cant wait for the first copy to drop through the letter box, shame im away for a week, didnt see it in Smiths earlier.

There is also some talk there of a digital subscription.

I must say, if Alun can work out a digital subscritpion would suit me very well.

Preferable to subscribing to posted copies.

Cheers just ordered mine on line, but could not see the subs for the year only the first copy. Never mind will see how it goes but it does look very interesting reading.
Thanks again for the tip

it was available in WHsmiths, and it was actually given away free with another outdoor mag, TRAIL or something like that but i cant remember. WHsmiths will be stocking it, but as ive said its quarterly and ive no idea how long the print run is, so it might not be worth looking for it on the shelf any more.
best thing to do is sign up to the forum and ask alun, its his baby. you will be able to get a copy from him for months i should think

Would have subscribed, but had enough of Paypal to last me a life time over a phantom account. Hopefully get it locally.

Hi all,

Anybody got a spare frst copy - missed it:(

Regards

CBI

Yep, with luck.
 

Hi, very recently Touratech UK had a few copies left. Move quickly though. Lindsay.

thanks

I've subscribed to this - have got two issues so far and very pleased. :biggrin3:

It's now gone to 6 issues a year, btw. Price has gone up too of course. Details here: Subscribe

Is it me?
 

It seems its just me then that was not particularly impressed with issue #1

Camandino commented "It looks to be the quality of those terrific German mags, which unfortunately I cant read."

Its not, in my opinion. The articles were very "lightweight" and large subjects skimped down to a couple of photo pages with a precious few column inches.
Some of the gear reviews just seemed to be copies of publicity blurb whereas they should be tested.

Issue #2 looks to be a bit better... not had the time or enthusiasm to read it all yet.

http://bikerbytes.com/images/hide.gif


John

A mate just gave me a copy of issue 2. I would have to say the pics are pretty good, but IMHO the words tend to be simplistic and lightweight (Simon Roberts excepted) and in one or 2 places advice given was factually incorrect. A fair few of the people who write stuff are also trying to plug their own products, e.g Robert Wicks and his Haynes books.

Having said that, there isn't anything else out there in English and it isn't bad. I liked the stuff about touring NI, but had to laugh where it said that NI "still" uses the £. What other currency would a "UK of GB and NI" country use? :confused1:

The German mags have a head start on how to do it: I can read German and always eagerly await my delivery of Motorrad Abenteuer ( MotorradABENTEUER: Home )

cheers
Chris

Funny to read your reader's bio in issue 2. Were you hung over when they took your picture? beer
cheers
C

bertie simmonds flip front helmet article was well out of date, but i think as the mag develops it can only get better. as it gets more popular and better known then it will start to attract writers. if you made kit, and if someone came up to you and said they were from a magazine youve never heard of and could they borrow a selection of expensive kit to test, would you give it to them?

at least there hasnt been an article about how to do stoppies, overtaking cars-how close is too close? or a whining letter complaining about being caught doing 180 in a 30 and why have they lost their license!

Well done that man
 

Fair play to Alun. He has managed to bring out a new magazine that appeals to a broad spectrum of Adventurers. The magazine is both slick and proffesional in apperance and the articles are interesting.

If you subscribed early and supported him in his quest then you have now been rewarded with 2 extra copies per year for nowt extra.

There will always be improvements to make with anything and hopefully this magazine will continue to grow whilst still being able to appeal to novices and experts alike.

Distribution wise he seems to have nailed it as i have even seen it on the shelves at a local garage.

I for one am glad that as well as the Riders Digest there is now another UK motorcycle magazine that is actually worth picking up and reading.:scooter:

I also subcribed from the start, not too sure what the January edition will be like as 'Touring Ted' is doing a piece on how he fought Crocs, Elephants, Mosquitoes and DH Hell on his trip down Africa, he has even stopped updating his 'blog' because he is saving it up for ABR, so, his blog followers were sold out for a Tenner, thats £10 to non English, or about €12, $15 or 470 Thai baht

I went to look for this and had great difficulty finding it until I discovered WH Smugs put in with Travel and Holiday magazines.

Surely the Motor Cycling section is a more appropriate place.

you wouldve thought so

Just bought issue 3, and it's going to be bi-monthly from now on! :clap:

Subscription - a caution
 

I subscribed to a magazine like this one - a different title, same theme - a few years ago at the annual show in Brum. Yep, you guessed it, a couple of editions were posted to me and then it all stopped when they went bust.

I paid for twelve monthly editions and received 2.
"Let the buyer beware".

Well Alun & his gang must be doing something right because my issue 3 is next to me and they are writing & collecting articles for 4,5,6.............!!:clap:

Got my issue 3 the other day. It keeps getting better i think although not all the stories are of interest to me.


How many people with issue 3 have started building a survival kit?? :taz:



Its nice to read something on paper instead of a computer screen too

Now that takes me back, when I was a kid getting an old tobacco tin off your dad/granddad and making a survival kit was de rigeur.

Wire saw, waterproof matches, needle and thread, compass etc etc. Nintendo eat your heart out?!?

Tha could be said for any mag, not just a new one, or any other product you pay for up front.

I think to single out this fledgling mag is a little unfair.

I think the guys working on ABR are doing a great job, and at this rate I won't be renewing my subscription to TBM unless they freshen up the staff writers..... Never been the same mag since Lois departed.


The new mag coming out of the states (the one Lois is writing for now), they did say they would be looking at a PDF type distribution over the net - I think this is a big step forward as it lets the guys out on the road see whats going on.

that wouldnt be 'motorcycle voyager' would it? ive got all 15 editions of it still, they stopped only 3 months into the second year, and owe me the rest of my subscription too.
they very ill advisedly changed publishers to a mickey mouse publisher who promised the earth and delivered shit, and had to pull the plug. fees weren't paid, money went walkies, etc etc
it was a good mag, i thought. ABR is starting to find its feet. i dont really get the survival tin thing, thats for kids and bear grylls wannabes, i dont expect to find myself where i need to catch fish with a paperclip and knicker elastic but they have to put something in the magazine

I am not singling out any particular product; just letting you know what happened in my case when I started subscribing.

Davsato has it right; it was MV, and it was a decent publication during the 12 months or so that I bought it from the newsagents shelves.
I didn't know the detail he gives of how it collapsed so quickly after I paid up front for 12 months instead of buying it on a monthly basis; I do know that I could get no response from them when the mail stopped arriving!!

yeah, it was a bit abrupt! the lovely jane omorogbe (rio the gladiator) was a regular writer, she was the only person i ever found i could talk to about it and gave her a bit of a hard time, turns out she hadnt been paid for her writing and they owed her a lot more than a subscription fee, bless her i felt a complete tw#t.

ABR mag? i subscribed from iss1 but paid for quarterly magazines, and its now gone bi-monthly but i get a years worth for no extra money so if i get the next issue(4) ive had what i paid for and any more will be a bonus. but i think the mag will do well, i hope it does

I've been looking for this mag in smiths every time I pass a branch, never thought to look in the travel section instead of the motorbike section, thanks for the heads up Tony I'll go back and have another look.

If your Smiths is anything like mine then they don't know what they have on the shelves from 1 month to the next!
I'll pick up a couple more issues of ABR before going for the subs i think.
Liking it so far tho

Andy

It. Is. Good.
 

Just got issue 2. Like!
Other people's country-specific write-ups and pics: great!
Not quite so keen on extremely general advice on how to buy a jacket, but I will definitely buy it again. It's the HU you can read in a pub (assuming no wifi).

These people made me do a LOL in issue two:

Gavin "Wild Hog" Griffiths
Alun "I thought you were resting" Davies

Excellent!

I'm going to have to say this mag is worth a read.

Only because they had the damned good taste to publish an article I wrote for them though.:clap:

It should be coming out at the end of March in issue 4. Based on part the Tasmanian leg of my Australian epic.

I know I'll be buying a copy....hold on, I should probably get one for free dammit!

I just received my first issue, and I have to say it's great! I wish them success, and I hope future issues are as fun to read as this one has been.

Nice job, gents!

:funmeteryes:

there is a forum as well worth a look

$65 USD/yr will keep me admiring it from afar. Sorry

Issue 4
 

WH Smuggs still putting it in the 'Travel/Holiday' section along with Ramblers, Hill Walkers and OAP (hey, thats me!) Cruises.

I pointed out it was a motor bike magazine and they might sell more if they were moved to that section.
"Really?" was the bored response.

I suppose I should be pleased thay have it at all. Totally unobtainable in Moscow.

(Motoreiter, Motobelka/Dean - want one? I am returning at the weekend)

Just subscribed. :) It may be a gamble, but at £18 for a year it isn't much of one.

I know from speaking to people in the industry that making a magazine pay is demn hard work and making a success out of a new one is near impossible.

If people are less than totally convinced by the content - give it a chance - the more people that subscribe or buy it in the shops, the more money they'll have, the more word will get around and the more they can attract the really good writers and photographers.

Just hope they can keep it relatively high-brow and don't let advertising dilute the content!

So - if you want there to be a good adv-biking mag available in the UK - you know what to do!

Matt :)

That's a typo - I'm not really so posh I pronounce damn as 'demn'!

:)

I genuinely wish them all the luck in the world and hope that it succeeds but I have one nagging doubt

It seems to me that most of the contributors are keen amateurs, not professional journalists. Now to a large extent, that is a good thing, unbiased, often real world opinion and there are 6 billion potential writers to choose from, rather than 2 staff writers, so there is a varied opinion.

But the same is true for the photographs ; there seem to be very few professional, incredible high, quality, soul stirring images in the mag. They are mostly snaps of still bikes, used small and dotted around the pages

Now I know this is a catch 22 situation - a decent snapper won't give away his stuff for free, you can't start paying the snappers until you make some money, the argument is circular.

If the magazine is just about imparting knowledge from keen amateurs, then the web can do that far better. But what the web can't do is produce a tactile object of value that you cherish as people do with Nat Geo mag and their team of brilliantly talented photographers.

And how you can do that on a startup budget, I've no idea.

But I genuinely hope they can pull it off

Professional disclaimer : I did 10 years as a freelance photographer who got pissed off with seeing keen amateurs work getting used for free as rates spiralled ever downwards doh

I think that's the beauty of it.... They are real stories written by real riders with real photos taken without real thought !

It's very much a REAL magazine.. (how many times can I say "Real" ?)

I got pretty tired with the same magazines printing the same stories on rotation year after year with all the photos clearly posed or pre-planned !

I like reading the stories of people who are mostly digging up fond memories and experiences than from "Joe bloggs travel author" who rode somewhere just to meet someone who might be cool and take an arty photograph just to sell it on......

The more I think about it, the more I think this mag is for me. How many professional journalists will have the time for a 6 month tour through the Americas for example? The ones I've met tend to be working almost hand to mouth and need to keep working. I want to read stories from people who have gone and done it off their own back - whether its that 6 month tour or a week off-roading in Romania. Not an advert piece from some guy who's got a freebie from an adv-tour comapny.

If you get a few hundred quid for an article about your multi-thousand pound trip, you are never going to anything but 'amatuer'.

You need a couple of staff writers for equipment reviews, funny columns, that sort of thing but staff writers are what make so many magazines so bloody awful IMHO. A mag tries to get their staffers to do as much as possible - because its cheap presumably, but those staffers soon run out of ideas and start writing the nonsense you see in most bike mags.

If they can pick genuinely good amatuer writers (and there are plenty of them) on a combination of interesting trips, good writing and interesting photos, then the quality of the mag could be excellent. And, quite frankly, the quality of journalism from professional writers in the press is often so unbelievably poor, I'm not convinced buying stories from amatuers will dilute the quality by any significant amount. Amatuers will make mistakes that professionals wouldn't, sure, but that's what editors are for.

I think they will need to pay however. An amatuer will sweat just as much (possibly more) over their story and its important they are paid for that effort. I've seen magazines that take a very shabby attitude to paying contributors and it shows. Very quickly people stop writing/shooting for them and the only people they can get are just people who really want to see their story in print - and that doesn't always translate to quality.

I'm really interested to see my first issue now - see if the gamble has paid off!

Matt :)

I really rate this magazine.

A truly SUPERB buy in my book. :thumbup1:

I haven't missed a copy yet and every one has been a delight to read. As far as I'm concerned the magazine is well worth the price being asked.

I hope YOU all support the publishers by buying a copy or subscribing for ALL future editions.

A refreshing change from the normal sports oriented magazines out there of which there are many (mostly filled with boring adverts).

I urge you ALL to support this refreshingly different publication. If it all goes tits up we will only have ourselves to blame for not supporting it.

NOTHING adverse to say for once....:helpsmilie:

I am on my third issue now, it's OK but suffers IMO from lots of glossy ads for expensive kit, and kit reviews for the same - unfortunately these are a neccesary evil!

With it being mainly articles from ordinary people who have been there, rather than journalists I'm even tempted to chip in a few articles of my own.....

Good mag, but my only gripe is stating that a 20 year old lad has over 15 years experience in adventure travelling and using various pieces of equipment that he tests! Surely it would make more sense in asking his father lol.

As of today, I'm a subscriber :innocent:

I borrowed issue 3 off a mate and it's improved to be quite a fun read (Except for the Iceland article that was probably borrowed from Wikipedia... Alun: any of these any good? Iceland TBSdotCom )

cheers
C

PS. http://www.thebrightstuff.com/icelan...nd_2007_40.JPG