What do consumers think about Motorcycle Consumer News?

[OneShot]

What do consumers think about Motorcycle Consumer News? I never heard of them before until last night on one of the threads.

:yeah: Good? :mad: Bad? :cool: Okay?

Is it worth the $22 buck/yr?

Is their billing department okay? There are some magazines I will never subscribe to again because their billing departments are nightmares.

http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/home.aspx

If you are affiliated with MCN, please say so if you respond.

Many thanks.

[DavidTaylor]

I was a subscriber for over 10 years. It is a good magazine and has quite a bit of useful information on many aspects of motorcycling, not just bikes but mental, physical, etc. I don't have a subscription any more becuase my interests and type of riding weren't really addressed there, and personally I thought it was a better magazine when Lee Parks and David Hough were still associated with it. If it's $22 a year they've finally decided to start discounting it (was $56/year when I was a subscriber), so I would say it would be worth your while to give it a try.

[habadgley]

No advertising helps make for good unbiased reports. If I only subsribed to one motorcycle magazine this would be it! I have been getting it since mid 1970's when it was called "Road Rider".

[donkes]

Not a bad magazine but I think their depth has been slipping lately. I still subscribe.

[grifscoots]

I've got to have it. And Rider. And Motorcyclist. And....

[Fedexrider]

I have subscribed to all the rags at one time or another and the only 2 I am still with are MCN and the MOA monthly. I have been getting MCN for 10yrs and still think it is the best unbiased source on the market.

[rando]

I did MCN for a year. While it's a good mag, the reviews weren't all that much better or different, from the other rags. And it's expensive. Or was. I got first year as a discount for being an MSF coach, but they didn't offer that on renewal, so I dropped it. I keep Rider. Motorcyclist and Cycle world currently, only because I got an offer for $10 per year.

MCN has some good articles, but just not worth the extra bucks to me.

Randy

[jhsonderb]

What do consumers think about Motorcycle Consumer News? I never heard of them before until last night on one of the threads.

:yeah: Good? :mad: Bad? :cool: Okay?

Is it worth the $22 buck/yr?

Is their billing department okay? There are some magazines I will never subscribe to again because their billing departments are nightmares.

http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/home.aspx

If you are affiliated with MCN, please say so if you respond.

Many thanks.
I think it is a very good magazine with no advertising. It has apparently unbiased product reviews. I haven't seen it locally in any magazine stores so if you want to try it, it appears that you must subscribe. It's worth a trial at the $22 price. I found the billing department to be pretty straight forward. They don't send you ton's of reminder notices to renew.

[mostlyirish]

MCN is a very good mag. For a good deal on price always renew at one of the motorcycle shows where they usually have a booth.

[motogpmgr]

This is my favorite mag. I like the articles and the editorials. There is nothing like it which is why you need to try it out. I have the last 6-7 years of issues
filling up my bookshelves and I can't seem to throw them out. PM me if you
want to fill your bookshelves.

P.S. Much of my gear is purchased after they feature it as product of the month.

[CajunBass]

Never heard of it.

[juggler]

I agree with David Taylor. I had it for about ten years, and for a long time, it was true to its Road Rider roots, covering mostly very practical street and touring bikes and accessories. Then, there was a change of editors, and a change of coverage and suddenly there were a lot more crotch-rockets and stuff that I wasn't interested in. I'm sure someone was interested in that stuff, and I'm sure to someone trying to decide between a GSXR and a Ninja, it was valuable information. It just wasn't very valuable to me.

David Hough and Fred Rau were the best. (I'm only slightly biased... I used to park my bike next to Dave's at work.)

The magazines would show up, sit on the coffee table untouched for a couple months, maybe I'd glance through one if I was sitting doing nothing (rare), and eventually, they'd go, a year's worth at a time into the pile in the study. The last time I renewed my subscription, I had renewed for five years. When that expired, I just looked at the renewal notice and admitted that I really wasn't getting my money's worth.

The last two articles I remember reading were a comparison of the GL1800 and the K1200LT, and a couple years later, the readers' review of the GL1800 (I bought mine right after the deadline for readers to submit their comments).

It's a good magazine. The writing and editing have always been very good. The objectivity is above reproach. It could potentially save you many times the subscription price and increase your riding satisfaction immensely. Their Used Bike Value Guide is great, although it is national averages. I'd say $22 is a bargain.

I just found myself reading it less and less, so I never renewed.


Oh, and I let my subscription to Cycle World lapse, as well. I was very turned off by their consistently snotty attitude, especially in response to Letters to the Editor.

[OscarF]

I have been a subscriber for over seven years and continue to enjoy every issue. Really look forward to all their sections. The lack of advertising is a big plus. I highly recommend it to all riders.

OscarF

[Lzyellodog]

Love IT. Real good info and no ads.

[OneShot]

My thanks to everyone that posted their experiences with MCN and to those that sent PMs.

$22 bucks for knowledge seems like a reasonable trade. :)

[gulfxray]

It is one of the best in my opinion, although like Donkes, they seem to be off a little bit lately.

[ben1364]

I have subscribed to all the rags at one time or another and the only 2 I am still with are MCN and the MOA monthly. I have been getting MCN for 10yrs and still think it is the best unbiased source on the market.

Take a look at OTL (the BMW RA magazine).

[eljeffe]

+1 on OTL. Very unbiased BMW-specific reporting. They haven't pulled any punches on the follies of BMW for years. If they report a problem, you know it's real. They take the hard long looks into BMW bikes and report the good, the bad, and the ugly.

BTW, Motorcycle Consumer News hasn't been relevant in years.

[ben1364]

+1 on OTL. Very unbiased BMW-specific reporting. They haven't pulled any punches on the follies of BMW for years. If they report a problem, you know it's real. They take the hard long looks into BMW bikes and report the good, the bad, and the ugly.

BTW, Motorcycle Consumer News hasn't been relevant in years.

I would not go as far as to call MCN irrelevant. It certainly doesn't help BMW's reputation and/or efforts to earn conquest business for MCN to report on the company's handling of final drive failures that are at least perceived to be more frequent than those of other manufacturers. I think BMW needs to take the article seriously.

[kellenbenz]

In a word ....fickle....I use to subscribe but I found that my knowledge of things that they reviewed was in disagreement most of the time. I lost faith in their opinions after that.


jmo,

Ron

[motorman587]

+1 about MCN. I also give +1 to Rider and MOA. I quit subscription to some others rag as I felt some of the articles were more into promoting unsafe motorcycling than about riding/motorcycles.

[MidnightBarbecue]

Why is it MCN always wants me to renew my sub at TWICE the price a new subscriber can get it at? All I do is call & they honor the lower price (based on my word as far as price) but it always feels like they're trying to cheat me.

[XMagnaRider]

Last fall, I subscribed to several motorcycle magazines, including MCN.

I am trying to differentiate between Rider, Motorcyclist, and Cycle World. Honestly, they seem very similar, and often cover the same "latest new thing"(tm) in the same month. I will let two of them lapse, but can't decide which one of the three to keep. Can any of you tell the difference, really?

MCN is different. They try to be objective by not accepting ads. I'm not sure that they succeed entirely. I am debating about renewing, but will probably do it just because they are different.

The recent article/editorial about motorcycle websites (such as bmwlt.com) was a travesty. They were wrong, and they didn't handle it very well. They blustered and rationalized... and never issued a real apology, which was well deserved.

Since I subscribed last December, MCN has sold my name and address to AMA, Road Runner Touring and Travel, and to Consumer Reports. That is far fewer sources of junk mail than from the worst offender: Cycle World magazine.

One thing that I wish all motorcycle magazines would include in their reviews is a measurement of the maximum width of the bike, and where the widest point is. They print all kinds of dimensions except width. I wrote a letter to MCN, asking them to do it, but they didn't grace me with a response, and they haven't added motorcycle width to their reviews either.

[Randy]

Years ago I liked MCN quite a bit. Over the last few years their opinions seemed less and less grounded in facts to me.

Earlier this year MCN published an editorial about the ownership of this community. They were incorrect in almost every detail of the editorial. They even acknowledged in private emails that they may have had it wrong, but never printed any retraction or acknowledgment of their mistakes. For that reason, I can never read their rag again without wondering how much of what is written is truth.

Here (http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=275823&postcount=2) is the post with my position on the editorial.

[Bob1200rtc1]

I love MCN. Of the 5 mags I get I look foreward to it the most.

[KayGee]

There is an article this month about the BMW Rear Drive failures. Mine just arrived last night so I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

[bflemingor]

I'm a fairly recent subscriber. I was looking for something that covered bikes that we not V-twins, crotch rockets, or racing. So many of the rags seem to focus on racing these days.

I was a long-time subscriber & contributing writer for Motorcycle Cruiser, but, the too moved to new management, and if it's not a Hardley, or made in Asia, it's not mentioned. Thus, another dropped magazine.

MC recently had a write-up about "baggers" in the Cruiser world, and compared then with the 'Wing, but never mentioned the LT - or even the new Vision.

I keep watching the threads for comments about a magazine with a general focus that's worth the time to read - MCN comes closest.

Anytime you read something that causes you to think about it - pro or con - it's worth the cost. So far, MCN provides something in that vein every issue.

Just my $0.02

[lurch102]

I don't subscribe but my father does and I get to peruse the back issues whenever I visit. It, like most other cycle mags, only interests me with about 40% of the content, but it seems pretty unbiased and I like the new color format.

It and Road Runner touring (or something like that) are the only ones I would consider subscribing to now (If I didn't get the hand-me-downs for free).