Magazines

With the passage of time what were once up-to-the-minute tests of the newest and shiniest toys become more like anthropological documents. Bikes have changed since then, but more noticeably so have behaviour, attitudes, fashion and even spelling. Back in the day nobody was afraid of the printed word; a picture only told a few stories and was best augmented by serious studied prose. Many took the verb ‘test’ at its’ face value and took them to Mira or the like for a serious going over, with actual measurements taken rather than todays pretty damn slapdash ‘riding impressions’ format, where the text is subservient to, and often hidden by, the glossy pictures of some hero with his knee on the tarmac, just like we do every day on the way to work.

We are lucky in that even the Lonesome was considered worthy of ‘proper’ treatment, there were also many magazines with space to fill. Therefore there were many tests, with a few of them not too disparaging. This is a selection.

* The links mostly open in an on-board PDF viewer, for mobile compatibility reasons.