update on Motorcyclist Retro magazine

[OhioTed]

Motorcyclist Retro magazine, an offshoot of the streetbike mag, Motorcyclist, has featured the Penton 40th Anniversary celebration in its 4th issue, currently on newsstands.  



Unfortunately, just as this excellent, high-quality, U.S. based vintage bike magazine was getting started, the publisher has suspended it, due to the current, tough economic times.  

This leaves the Editor of MCR, Mitch Boehm, in a tough spot.  Some of you may know Mitch.  He's a real good guy, and a long-time rider, racer, and vintage bike enthusiast.  After having served as the Editor of Motorcyclist for some ten years, Mitch put his entire career on the line in his pursuit of making a quality, U.S. vintage bike magazine a reality.

Now he and MCR are facing an uncertain future.  Mitch's immediate plans are to go private with MCR, and continue producing and publishing the magazine - himself.  Initial access to future copies will be via online information.  Stay tuned, and I'll provide reference info as it becomes available.  Please help to keep this excellent publication afloat.  Let's assure that we can continue to receive a top-quality, vintage-bike magazine, which is written and produced right here in the US of A.

[thrownchain]

I beleive it's the third issue that's out now.  Maybe find a way that we could E mail the publisher and tell them we want the magazine to stay in print??

[rfpotter]

What is unusual about the decision to suspend publication is that the response to the magazine had been great enough to make the decision to go to bimonthly. I understood that to be the reason that you could not get a subscription up until this point, they were waiting to judge its success, and adjust its frequency accordingly. The publisher must be having deep problems to not back a new magazine that appears to have a bright future.
Personally, I miss Mitch at Motorcyclist.

Patrick Houston
Cosby, Tennessee

[Paul Danik]

Ted,

   Awesome job with the 40/10 article in Motorcyclist Retro, I just returned from the Giant Eagle out the road where I bought all the copies they had, all 2 of them.  How cool is it that the top of the page states,

Words: Ted Guthrie
Photos: Katherine Pfiefer

40 YEARS OF PENTONS: AN ANNIVERSARY PARTY

   I just called Kate to tell her that she is now famous, but Conrad said she is out of town, I will get my extra issue to her.

   Great story and pictures, I know you put a lot of time and effort into getting this to happen Ted, it is very much appreciated.

   A big thanks also to Don and Peggy Miller of Metro Racing for featuring a couple of Pentons along with numerous Penton decals and articles of Penton clothing in the Metro Racing 2 page color ad just inside the front cover. I will probably see Don and Peg at the York swapmeet in about a month, I will surely thank them for the really neat ad they produced.

   From what I can see the entire 98 page issue is full of great articles, I sure hope that somehow they can keep Motorcyclist Retro alive.

Paul

[OhioTed]

On behalf of Mitch, thanks for the support, guys.  I'll check with him on contacting the publisher.

Note, another great Metro Racing ad, featuring a Penton motorcycle and Penton-branded products, is featured on the back cover of the latest Motorcycle Classics.

[wfopete]

From the sites I've read the M. Retro mag is dead. [V] http://forums.motorcyclistonline.com/70/6726768/the-general-forum/motorcyclist-retro/page5.html

For what it's worth you can get back isses from the Prime Media guys at the following link. Magazine plus S&H will run you $10.

Back issues can be had at   //www.simbackissues.com    On the left click onto Motorcyclist from there list of different magazines.  Now scroll down to the very bottom to the 2008 issues of MOTORCYCLIST and look for the SPRING, FALL, and WINTER issues of MOTORCYCLIST RETRO.


I bought the winter (last?) edition featuring the Penton 40th Anniversary celebration over here in Iraq. EZ to ID as it shows a guy on the front cover doing a burn out on a RD 350 Yamaha. Very enjoyable issue, I ordered the first two issues as they sound like a great read and I miss my vintage steeds back home in the barn.

Pete Petrick
175 Jackpiner
Slow but Good

[wfopete]

Got this today from Mitch:

Well, it's official. In the wake of the publisher putting the original Retro on ice indefinitely, I'm taking the Retro concept private as Motorcycle Retro! Same subject matter, same quality, same deal all the way through.

Subs will be available in two to three weeks on //www.motorcycleretro.com (under construction now), with issue one being available in May.

For extremely trusting souls unable to contain themselves, I'm now accepting personal checks and money orders for one-year subscriptions ($39.99 for four issues/year) at the address below.

Additionally, I'll be in touch via email when website sub availabilty (credit cards) goes live.

Until then, thanks for the support!

Best regards,

Mitch Boehm
Editor, Motorcycle Retro
//www.motorcycleretro.com
[email protected]

Earlybird sub info: Please include name, address, email, bikes you own/want to own/etc. Be sure everything's extremely legible!

MAIL TO:

Motorcycle Retro Subscriptions
2617 Via Pacheco
Palos Verdes Estates, CA
90274

[thrownchain]

If anyone is interested, there is an update on the Strictly Hodaka site about Motorcycle Retro magazine.

[OhioTed]

Hey, folks.  Here is e-mail exchange between editor Mitch Boehm and myself, as of yesterday:

On Jan 26, 2009, at 1:48 PM, ted guthrie wrote:

Hi, Mitch.  How 'bout an update for your friends at the Penton Owners Group?  Everyone is waiting for more info on MCR.  Hope you are well. Take care.                                                                                           Ted

 Hi Ted
Not sure what you guys have heard (or what I've communicated), but in the wake of the publisher killing MCRetro in December, I've decided to take it private under a (slightly) new name - Motorcycle Retro. Same magazine exactly, only with a new name. Plenty of dirt, street and mini, with all the color and in-depth reportage you guys remember.

We should have a basic web page up this week, with info on subs (which we're accepting now!), and a full site up in a about a month. Our first issue will be out in May, with another every quarter (3 months for those in Rio Linda).
If you can help spread the word, great. Every subscription will go a long way toward keeping Retro afloat this time around.
Hope you're well, and let's brainstorm some more Penton stories this coming spring.
Thanks, and best regards,
Mitch
PS: Below is the note I've been sending out this past week or so.
Thanks very much for the note and support! It helps much more than you know. If Motorcycle Retro is to be successful, it'll need help from a few thousand folks like yourself, so any help spreading the word among friends, on forums, etc., will be hugely helpful. We're off to a great start and there's plenty of buzz out there, so I'm very hopeful about what we're doing.

Here's an update: We've just contracted with a high-end printer. We're working on a website, which will go live in mid February. In the meantime we're planning to put a temporary page on //www.motorcycleretro.com the week of January 26, which will begin taking subscriptions (checks and money orders for now) until the main site goes live and we can add secure credit-card purchases to the system. Issue one is scheduled for delivery in mid-May.

For trusting souls who simply can't wait, we're actually taking subscription orders now via checks and money orders at the address below: Please be sure to include your name, address, email address, bikes owned, stories you'd like to see in the magazine and anything else you want to include. And please make it very legible!

Make checks and money orders payable to: Motorcycle Retro

Mail to: Motorcycle Retro Subscriptions, PO Box 202, Palos Verdes Estates, CA  90274

Frequency will be quarterly (4x/year), and yearly subs will cost $39.99. Single copies (also available on the site or via mail) are $9.99. Each edition will be delivered via first-class mail in a plastic polybag so your issue arrives clean and rip-free.

Again, Motorcycle Retro will take off right where Motorcyclist Retro stopped. We'll cover the same bikes (dirt, street and mini), the same eras and culture (mid-'60s to mid-'80s), and we'll do so in the same high-quality way, with great photography and superb, in-depth writing and perspective.

Thanks for the support you've shown, and please tell friends and other enthusiasts about us. I'm betting a good portion of my retirement on this venture, and I have to say it's quite scary. But I know the market for this magazine is strong, and from the thousands of notes I've gotten over the last year or so I know the enthusiast base is solid, excited and loyal.

Again, please get back to me on [email protected] if you have questions. And please pass the email address on to others who want to be notified when the website goes live and issue one is out.

Best regards,

Mitch Boehm

Editor and Publisher, Motorcycle Retro

//www.motorcycleretro.com

[email protected]

[OhioTed]

Hey, POG'ers.  Once again I'm putting in a pitch for our buddy Mitch Boehm, and his vintage bike magazine.  Check out the following, and make your own decision.  Sure hope you choose to help Mitch out.  He's putting out a pretty nice, AMERICAN magazine, and has put his whole life on the line for it.

  February 1, 2009

The Retro Report
Edition 1

Dear Retro fans

I told you I'd be in touch when we had news about the re-launch of Motorcycle Retro, and here we go!

First off, the Retro re-launch is moving ahead nicely, and is on track for a May release of issue one. We've got a printer and an art director lined up, a business plan that makes a bit of sense and, best of all, plenty of friends – that's you! – who seem as jacked up as I am about this project. I can't thank you all enough for the support and kind words you've sent my way over the last few months. I've taken to calling you the Retro Army!

The big news is twofold: Our website is finally live (in limited scope at this point), and we've begun taking subscription orders! Yep, all true. You can now subscribe to Motorcycle Retro! The easy way is click on the website – //www.motorcycleretro.com - and download the PDF order form, which you then fill out and mail along with a check or money order to the address on the form. (The address is also below.) Once our full site goes live sometime at the end of February we'll add secure credit-card transaction capability. I'll be sure to contact you when that happens.

Subscriptions are absolutely vital to our success. If we can generate enough of them in the next few months – a few thousand – the magazine will break even financially, which means it'll very likely be around for a good long time going forward. And that's a Good Thing given the amount of kick-ass retro grist out there waiting to be written about and photographed.

Another key for us, and one connected directly to the point above, is you – the Retro Army – spreading the word about this magazine to every retro-oriented enthusiast you know. Whether by word-of-mouth, email, internet forums or via your local bike or riding club, every recommendation helps us immensely. Over the last year and a half, I've found that selling our unique retro concept is easy; as soon as folks see the magazine and the cool, '60s/'70s/'80s stuff we're covering, they immediately understand – and want the magazine. There's no hard sell here, so the key is to let as many folks as possible know about us. Once they see what we're doing, they're in. And that sort of exposure is what's going to keep us in the black – and publishing – as we go forward. So please help us if you can.

We're not planning to sell Retro via traditional newsstands, but we will eventually have the magazine available in select motorcycle shops. So, bike shops and dealers wanting to sell Motorcycle Retro in their stores should shoot me an email, as we'll have info on wholesale packages available for them in a few weeks time.

We've got a heck of a story list lined up for this year's issues, including features on Malcolm Smith, Hodaka, Honda's Interceptors, Roger DeCoster, Suzuki's MX history and T-series/GT two strokes, 50 years of Honda ads, The Roberts Chronicles, Yamaha TZ750, Jeff Ward's early years, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer, Team Honda's domination of the 1970s and '80s, Suzuki's Water Buffalo, the Japanese Turbos, Honda's CBX, Mini Trail and Trail 70, Tecumseh/Briggs and Stratton minibikes, and a whole lot more. I'd also like to hear what stories you'd like to read, so ping me with your ideas.

Again, thanks for the support, and please help us spread the word. I'll be back in touch when there's more Retro news to report.

Best regards,
Mitch

Mitch Boehm
Editor/Publisher
Motorcycle Retro
PO Box 202
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274
//www.motorcycleretro.com
[email protected]
To subscribe:
Simply go to our website, download the PDF order form, and mail the form and your check or money order to the address above. Please make checks and money orders payable to Motorcycle Retro.

For advertising information, please contact Mitch Boehm at [email protected]

PS: Here's an advanced copy of the press release we're sending out early next week!

Motorcyclist Retro to be re-launched as Motorcycle Retro!
Motorcyclist Retro, the popular vintage/classic magazine that debuted with a bang in early 2008 but was shelved by publisher Source Interlink in December '08 due to the economy, has been resurrected privately – as Motorcycle Retro.

"Despite selling 20,000-plus copies of its first and second issues, and generating a serious buzz in the classic/vintage market," says long-time Motorcyclist and Motorcyclist Retro editor Mitch Boehm, "the publisher wanted to focus on its core titles in these tough economic times. Which is understandable.

Motorcycle Retro will be basically the same magazine with a different name, Boehm says. "We'll offer high quality paper and printing, superb photography, in-depth reporting and quality writing, with dirt, street and mini coverage of the two-decade era between '65 and '85."

The difference is that subscriptions are available right now on the magazine's new website – //www.motorcycleretro.com. While the main site won't debut until late February, a home page with basic subscription info has been posted so folks can see what we're about and, hopefully, subscribe.

"Our business model is wholly different than the big-magazine industry standard," says Boehm. "Instead of going newsstand-only at the beginning we're offering subscriptions right away, which is what our readers want. Driving or riding around looking for an issue isn't something they enjoyed, so we're offering subscriptions immediately and mailing issues in a protective polybag so they arrive on doorsteps and in mailboxes in pristine shape – just the way folks want it."

Frequency will be quarterly (4x/year), and yearly subs will cost $39.99.

"I'm betting a decent portion of my retirement on this venture," Boehm says, "and it's definitely scary. But after seeing how well the original Retro sold, and after speaking with advertisers who told me their phones rang off the hook (Race Tech's Paul Thede, for one), I know the market for this magazine is strong. And from the thousands of notes I've gotten over the last year or so, I know the enthusiast base is solid, excited and loyal."

"The time couldn't be more right for a new retro-themed bike magazine," Boehm adds. "There are some pretty good vintage magazines, but they've traditionally focused on European and American motorcycles. There hasn't been much attention paid to the Japanese bikes and the two-decade period from the mid-'60s through the early '80s, when motorcycling exploded across the country with the help of baby-boomers.

"We aim to change that a little, as Motorcycle Retro is largely Japanese-based, at least on the street side. European brands figured more prominently on the motocross side, so we'll feature plenty of them in our dirt coverage. As before, we'll dig for the background stories surrounding the bikes, people and culture of motorcycling's Glory Days, and we'll continue to make these dirt and streetbikes relevant in today's environment."

For more information on Motorcycle Retro, click //www.motorcycleretro.com or shoot Boehm an email at [email protected].