Is Motorcycle Consumer News (USA) going out of business?

[TrplGrl]

Wow, uh, yeah... I just looked at my MCN and there is no Indian Scout article.... MCN has been a fixture in my life for many years. They were a big part of my life when I was learning to ride. I hope they survive.

Yeah...hope it doesn't go under. I've been a regular subscriber since the '80's when it wasn't even called MCN.

 

[DataDan]

The MCN forum has now been taken offline. There was some grumbling about the Feb issue from the 10 or so of us who post there. It doesn't seem to be a technical problem because the publisher's cat forum is in good working order.

 

[VicTim]

The MCN forum has now been taken offline. There was some grumbling about the Feb issue from the 10 or so of us who post there. It doesn't seem to be a technical problem because the publisher's cat forum is in good working order.

Hopefully the squeaky wheel gets some grease.

 

[flying_hun]

Yeah...hope it doesn't go under. I've been a regular subscriber since the '80's when it wasn't even called MCN.

Road Rider!

 

[berth]

As a disinterested observer, sounds like an ownership transition of some kind, and it appears to be going poorly.

 

[flying_hun]

I see my current subscription expires in May. What does the BARF hive mind see as the best way forward; let it lapse, or buy a discounted subscription online?

 

[scootergmc]

I wouldn't do anything. I think they're going to go digital only or kill it altogether. I can't see how they're making money on it.

 

[gixxerjeff]

What does the BARF hive mind see as the best way forward?

I would let it lapse, let the dust settle and see what things look like in a few months.
In the meantime, continue to read Road Rider.

 

[DataDan]

I see my current subscription expires in May. What does the BARF hive mind see as the best way forward; let it lapse, or buy a discounted subscription online?

If I had 3 months to go on my subscription (instead of 21) I'd give them 2 more months to see what happens. The discontinuation of acceleration, speed, and braking tests is a big negative. Their consistently measured performance data over nearly 20 years is a unique resource (got it all in Excel).

David Hough's descent into dotage is, to me, an equally big loss. I really enjoyed Ken Condon's riding skills column for 13 years. When Hough returned a year ago to succeed Ken (after Ken succeeded him) I hoped that he would be producing more of what I'm accustomed to from his books. But that's not what we're getting. He's now big on training conspiracy, nonsensical statistics, and ineffectiveness of helmets. MCN used to be a good riding skills resource, but no longer.

I hope the new owners will rebuild MCN, but I'm not optimistic. They bought a dozen dog, cat, horse, and bird magazines, along with MCN and a couple of other gearhead titles. My guess is that reviving the failing motorcycle magazine would not be high priority. Maybe they'll find a buyer who can better integrate it into their business.

 

[GAJ]

David Hough's descent into dotage is, to me, an equally big loss. I really enjoyed Ken Condon's riding skills column for 13 years. When Hough returned a year ago to succeed Ken (after Ken succeeded him) I hoped that he would be producing more of what I'm accustomed to from his books. But that's not what we're getting. He's now big on training conspiracy, nonsensical statistics, and ineffectiveness of helmets. MCN used to be a good riding skills resource, but no longer.

The TWO letters to Hough by Nick Ienatsch in the latest issue, basically calling him out on his weird "why bother with training anymore" mindset, were weird to say the least.

Ienatsch came off as reasonable and Hough as "head in the sand."

 

[TrplGrl]

Road Rider!

Correct!

 

[Surj]

I see my current subscription expires in May. What does the BARF hive mind see as the best way forward; let it lapse, or buy a discounted subscription online?

Subscribe to CityBike instead!

 

[WWWobble]

Subscribe to CityBike instead!

Just my opinion here, but in terms of road tests, you guys have a long way to go to match MCN when they were good. I think City Bike targets good subjective reporting, but less so on the objective side.

Meaning, each road test should have specific test measures for whatever you decide is important to test for, and then those should be repeated for each bike you test, so a consistent data set can be accumulated over time.

Are you up to that? Or maybe you think specific data is unimportant in the overall scheme of why we purchase bikes?? Maybe....

imo, MCN did a pretty good job of consistent, data specific, reporting.

The other aspects of the magazine, eh.......

WWWobble

 

[Surj]

Just my opinion here, but in terms of road tests, you guys have a long way to go to match MCN when they were good. I think City Bike targets good subjective reporting, but less so on the objective side.

Meaning, each road test should have specific test measures for whatever you decide is important to test for, and then those should be repeated for each bike you test, so a consistent data set can be accumulated over time.

Are you up to that? Or maybe you think specific data is unimportant in the overall scheme of why we purchase bikes?? Maybe....

imo, MCN did a pretty good job of consistent, data specific, reporting.

The other aspects of the magazine, eh.......

WWWobble

It was just a joke man, mostly because you can get CityBike for free at hundreds of places around here.

But since you mentioned it—we are not, are not trying to be, and will never be, MCN-esque. It's not a question of "up to it." Not interested. That's not a diss on MCN, but it's not what we do. There's not a lot of objectivity in CityBike, on purpose.

(although see above posts for some more background on that "consistent data")

You're half right on the specific data thing. Data isn't unimportant, but a lot of bike buying is emotional, or otherwise unquantifiable. Riding bikes isn't conversion rate optimization, or big data, or SAAS.

 

[WWWobble]

It was just a joke man, mostly because you can get CityBike for free at hundreds of places around here.

But since you mentioned it—we are not, are not trying to be, and will never be, MCN-esque. It's not a question of "up to it." Not interested. That's not a diss on MCN, but it's not what we do. There's not a lot of objectivity in CityBike, on purpose.

(although see above posts for some more background on that "consistent data")

You're half right on the specific data thing. Data isn't unimportant, but a lot of bike buying is emotional, or otherwise unquantifiable. Riding bikes isn't conversion rate optimization, or big data, or SAAS.

OK. And thanks for the response. I've always thought MCN was overpriced for what one receives, and the lack of "advertising" was somewhat bogus. City Bike is great on the subjective. Probably, that's more important.

But I say that now because Cycle World and Motorcyclist do attempt hard data. When they quit doing that... well... we'll have a lot of "touchy feely" and all of us old timers can talk about how nobody ever published anything, ever, as good as Cycle. But we already do that now, so what the hell

Keep it up with CB, we all read it faithfully !!

WWWobble

 

[Surj]

OK. And thanks for the response. I've always thought MCN was overpriced for what one receives, and the lack of "advertising" was somewhat bogus. City Bike is great on the subjective. Probably, that's more important.

But I say that now because Cycle World and Motorcyclist do attempt hard data. When they quit doing that... well... we'll have a lot of "touchy feely" and all of us old timers can talk about how nobody ever published anything, ever, as good as Cycle. But we already do that now, so what the hell

Keep it up with CB, we all read it faithfully !!

WWWobble

Thanks! I actually don't regularly read the mainstream mags, but one of them, I forget which, did this big "we're revamping our review process and metrics" thing a few months back. I'd actually been thinking long and hard about this topic before that, and it triggered some more introspection. I ended up where I'd been all along, basically, I don't want people to come to CityBike for "real road test" type stuff.

Bike testing is a lot fun (usually) but as you've seen, our bike reviews end up somewhere between storytelling and outright malarkey. I dragged a Triumph Tiger out of the muddy lakebed of Lake Isabella, Sam rode a V-Strom nearly into the fires last fall, Max (frozenuts 'round here) and Sam rode Motuses with the co-founders of Motus for the current issue. Hell, I did a Saddle Sore 1000 on a press bike (Concours), and rode another 700 or 800 miles on an Indian the next day, both days in the rain. None of those stories had much to do with data, you know?

In spite of our uh... approach, I hear all the time that people buy bikes on our say-so. Scary!

Also—"real" road testing takes a serious amount of time. I run CityBike in addition to a 150% full time job and miscellaneous other stuff, and most of the team is equally booked. Would I like to go out and do a bunch of proper timed runs, put bikes on dynos, head to head testing, etc? Sure. But I don't think it'd change our reviews much, just give us more to BS about.

Thanks for reading. The mag, not this crap here.

 

[geoff2k]

This just in from MCN customer support:

Regrettably, the Indian Scout evaluation did not come together as planned for the February issue, despite the bike being featured on the cover, which was created in advance. The Indian evaluation will appear in a future issue, likely the April 2016 issue.

We apologize for the confusion and thank you in advance for your patience as MCN progresses through a transitional phase in the wake of Editor Dave Searle’s recent retirement. Some of the usual content, such as regular bike evaluations, may not always appear. That said, the goal is to get things back to usual as soon as possible. Thank you.

I'm curious to see who ends up in the editor's desk, and I suppose we should all be realistic and not expect the March issue to be on time.

 

[GAJ]

This just in from MCN customer support:



I'm curious to see who ends up in the editor's desk, and I suppose we should all be realistic and not expect the March issue to be on time.

Starting to sound a bit like Searle put in his notice and they told him to leave immediately.

I have a hard time believing he would crap in the nest after so many years and put out such a screwed up issue of the magazine.

 

[vizcarmb]

The March issue is out and it is a WTF issue. The editorials are at the back of the magazine. No bike reviews, but has a gigantic sunglasses buyers guide. For those that subscribe online. You will know what I'm talking about once you go through it. Happy reading

 

[89fj]

I used to read MCN years ago, I like CB better these days