VINTAGE BIKE MAGAZINE?

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Rat Rod

Rat Rod

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The other night my wife and I were at Barnes & Nobles and as I stood there gazing at the huge racks of hundreds and hundreds of magazines, all I could think was....there needs to be a vintage bicycle magazine!!!

My wife and I discussed it a bit more and the only reason I could think of for not having one on the market was that there wasn't enough companies selling parts and accessories who would want to advertise in one. As we all know, advertising is where the profit is on magazines.

I told my wife that you could definitely come up with enough stories on different bikes, restorations, history, etc. to make the magazine interesting enough.

She jokingly said...why don't you start one? :shock:
 
man, if you need any inspiration, look at (and perhaps talk to?) "Scoot!" magazine... small, home grown, great advertisers, and widely distributed. They've pulled it off for more than 10 years!
 
Interesting...

Steve,

I have an idea for this. In order to get a foot in the door, you might want to write an article and accompanying pictures for an extisting "kulture" mag i.e Old Scool ROdz or Rod & Kulture or CC Deluxe. If you could geta small run of articles and they get some feedback it could be win, win. My opinion is that you will not have enough subject matter to keep this going in the long run. Most of us use what we find/buy cheap. Advertisers could be the Electra/Felt/??? bike co's - but I am not sure that we are there target audience. At least not all of us. Just some quick ramblings. Nothing is impossible - just may not be finacially feasible. I would be willing to help write/take pics/brainstorm ideas when you think the time is right@!

Joe
 
Yeah....you bring up a lot of good points.

The more I thought about it that night the more I thought that you would need to encompass all of the areas of vintage bike collecting and restoration.

I mean, how cool would it be to have a magazine with a few pre-war restoration articles....a few muscle bike articles...some rat articles, vintage BMX, vintage road bikes, etc.

Sprinkle in some tech tips and maybe a few articles on new cruisers out there.

Oh...and don't forget a snazzy poster in the middle! :wink:
 
Poster??/

You mean The Rat Rod "Rat" of the Month!? ooohh! I see some fine old scool pin up types sitting on some vintage straight bar bikes! You got this vision too>? LOL
 
Well uhhh....I was thinking mainly bikes...ha ha!

I think it would have to be a 6 issue a year deal...or maybe even only 4 issues a year.

I don't know about you, but I'd be eager to get my copy in the mail.
 
sounds good!

You know i can see the cover right now! Kenny P's bike splashed scross the front cover in front of a rusted box car in a trainyard.

I like the idea of a muscle bike section, a custom bike section (not a rat, but a custom), Vintage original stuff and a restored spot. Vintage BMX and a track bike section. Maybe even a board tracker of the month!

All articles and pictures! Maybe a letter from the editor page, band reviews for local/undeground stuff. a page of tatoo's (bike/rat related), and a page of drawings/art.

Notice i left out choppers. I think you need to draw the line in the sand at full blown frame fabrications,however, there may be a place for a chop and add section.

Lets give it some thoguht.... Ok I am done. Lets do it!
 
I belive this could fly if the homework is done! with the whole world going green and bikes making a come back I know I should would like to get my copy every month!

When you do a search on the web there are many companys that would jump on board. All it takes is a email with a question.
 
That was another thought that I shared with my wife....making it an e-zine that would be a PDF file that people could subscribe to and download.

As far as whether I would actually attempt something like this....not really sure. I do know that however much time, effort and money you might think it will take, you can end up doubling that.

As a graphic designer by profession and a vintage bike enthusiast, it does sound like an appealing venture. Whether I would have the time, energy and know how to pull something off is another question. I'm certainly no seasoned veteran when it comes to vintage bicycle restoration and collecting.

If it's going to be done, it needs to be done right...nothing worse than some hokey looking deal pulled together in MS Publisher and Paint....ha ha.

BTW...I'm running a MacPro with 4gb of RAM, a 23" Apple Cinema Display and CS3. Will be running Leopard in approx. 9 days. :wink:
 
Steve, I think Yeshoney is on the right track with the "Kulture" mags. They definitely have a following of guys and gals that would easily take the classics and rats into their homes and hearts. Many of the guys on RRB already use hot rod and old parts in their builds, so a few of the hotrod advertisers could easily jump mags and advertise in a bike rag. Bike museums, private collectors, bike friendly restaurants/bars, swap meets, flea markets and of course, bike shops are all potential advertisers. And lets not forget tatto shops and rock bands that might advertise!

This is a great idea, just start out small and build on it!
Chainy
 
Steve,

Great idea!! I grew up reading magazines on old school hot rods, VW's, pick ups...everything custom, I was all over it. I think there are plenty of readers that would be just as interested in something like this as a magazine on cars. PLUS, another benefit about it being about bikes, people submitting their bikes and working on their bikes I know are WAY more accesible to a wider range of ages. Although I love old classic rat rods and hot rods...I just dont have the money to build one and take it to shows, get it covered in a magazine and the such.....where a bike can be had for CHEAP. Granted, alot of people put some serious money into them, but just imagine how much exposure it would get some young people and it would definitely show just how cool bikes REALLY are. I think there is a niche for it and do agree that in order to appeal to alot more of an audience, there should be things on all topics related to old bikes, including different types of vintage bikes. Being a track bike enthusiast myself as well, I know there are lots of people with a keen interest in building up classic Kierin frames or beautifully lugged italian frame bikes with Campagnolo and the like, and would drool at looking at atleast a few pages of that. But all in all, this sounds like something I would definitely subscribe to. I know these ideas take alot to get off the ground and when you work a laborious job like graphic design, doing side projects is hard, let alone getting your work done to meet dealines. But I'm sure talk would definitely inspire SOMEONE to try it whether it be you or someone else like minded.

Brandon
 
Re: Interesting...

yeshoney said:
Steve,

I have an idea for this. In order to get a foot in the door, you might want to write an article and accompanying pictures for an extisting "kulture" mag i.e Old Scool ROdz or Rod & Kulture or CC Deluxe.
Joe
Click to expand...

Joe, definetely a great starting place... I think write-ups on rides would have an appropriate place, with a few pictures of some bikes and would be a very good way to get a foot in the door. The lowrider car community has totally embraced lowrider bikes. In addition, I think that crossing over into some of the other bike mags (is lowrider bicycle still made? Look at the ratty bike right on the front page @ http://www.lowriderbike.com/) would be a good start.
 
My opinion would be that you'd have a hard time selling enough of a print mag even if you covered all matter of vintage bikes. I've come to the point that I rarely pick up print magazines anymore, it seems everything shows up on the web first anyway. But I think the idea is ripe for an e-zine format. A good quality .pdf format could be enjoyed digitally or for those who prefer paper could print it themselves. Why not contact the Bike Rod-N-Kustom site and see if they need help? With more contributors maybe they'd publish more often the every six months or whatever it is that they do. Some of our bikes have shown up on that site anyway.
 
I love the idea of a magazine, I know my dad and at least two collectors that would probably like the idea. I think it would be great idea even if the production was limited.

If you want a decent start, you could call Memorylane-classics and see if you could put them it. That way it looks more proffesional.
 
Well Steve, as you already know, I'm a graphic designer myself, and one of the latest project my studio (means my associates and I) handled was the creation of a paper magazine. It's something about local culture scene (dance, movies, theatre, graphic arts and such) and is distributed free. It's only 28 pages (for the first issue at least) but it allowed us to follow the birth process of a "real life" magazine.
So here's my point of view : it's hard, it's expensive, it takes time, but it's not impossible. The hardest part is no doubt the commercial one : selling ad spaces is a full time job, and not an easy one !
Though, thoughout all the posts here, many good ideas are to be kept :
I definitely think the e-zine format would be a good way to get started. Would let you time to judge the number of potential readers, would give the opportunity to have advertisement (=$) space to sell, and most of all, would dramatically reduce the cost of the whole process. Printing, you know it as much as I do, is really expensive, and so is distribution (and you can't have such a specialized magazine running locally).
As for the time it takes, I'm sure, now I know a bit of this forum, that just in here you'd find enough good will and involvement to get it done, and well.
I mean, a few of us can write articles, a few other can layout pages pretty well and give the magazine a nice identity, and many of us can now and then contribute a picture, a story or a show coverage...
I got lots of work, a business to run and a family to take care of, but I find time to do a few things for the community, and give a hand where I can. I know for sure I could take like a coupla days every two months or so (maybe in short time spans) to layout a few pages, design a cover or take care of some website related stuff.
And I know I'm not the only one.
The only thing that's missing here to get the project started, in my opinion, would be a head. Someone that would gather the content, organize it a bit, submit it to a few-people commity and all. And I'm pretty sure that with all the means of communication we now have at hand, we might just work it out as well, with all of us dispatched all over the world (could even be a strength).
And now the commercial aspect : the e-zine format helps a wider distribution, a wider commercial approach, and I'm sure lots of specialized vendors would prefer advertizing on their mail order services throughout an worldwide accessible e-zine than a printed magazine that goes out in like 5000 copies or so.
And since the costs for an e-zine are so low, the eventual $ would almost be a bonus. Might even help paying the head of publication and some contributions, but who would do that for money ??
Well, I could keep writing on that subject for a few more hours... so I guess I'd better stop now...

And by the way, I only have 2.5 Go Ram in my (old) G5 and a dual 19" display, but I can pull out pretty good jobs, when I really want it ;-)
oh yeah, and I also have that nice blackBook, cs3 and I should get my leopard roaring next week too

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
gosh... did I by any chance just post the longest reply in the forum's history ?
sorry guys, I couldn't help myself...
 

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