I’ve been receiving three motorcycle magazines for a lot of years now and they’ve all been pretty interchangeable. That is, they’ve all had the same “favorite rides” features, they’ve all focused on the new bikes each year, and they’ve all had columnists writing about various motorcycling issues. No more. One of them has changed.

American Motorcyclist is the membership publication of the American Motorcyclist Association, to which I belong. I recently received the June 2008 issue and oh my gosh has it changed!

Just for starters, to show how much it is now NOT like the others, there is not one bike to be seen on the cover. I’m not sure any motorcycle magazine has ever published an issue that did not have at least one bike on the cover. What is on the cover is a picture of Jay Leno. We all know Leno is big into bikes, so he’s an appropriate subject for a motomag feature, but it’s not him and one of his bikes, it’s just a tight head shot of Jay.

Inside the issue other changes leap out at you. The opening four pages, once you get past the ads, are photos of AMA members and their bikes — apparently a new feature. When you get to the letters from readers, those pages also feature pictures of members and their bikes. Real people, real bikes. Not these unobtanium show bikes that you so often used to see.

In fact, there are a phenomenal number of photos all through this magazine. Apparently the editors decided that they had way too many words and not enough pictures of bikes, so they rectified that problem. Rather than articles that go on for pages with lots of words and just a few photos, the ratio has been reversed.

Then you come to the feature article, “Hangin’ with Jay.” Again, lots of pictures and rather than a wordy interview, they just quote Jay on various topics: On his first ride; On buying his first motorcycle; On old bikes vs. new; etc. And it makes for good reading. They also took a couple AMA members along on the interview and the whole crew took a ride on several of Jay’s bikes. The two members have a chance to say a few words about the experience. One of them, Nicole McMurray, ends her piece saying:

My favorite story of the day, though, came when we had stopped at the top of the mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After Jay put on his helmet to go, a guy on a white Ducati pulled up and parked. Its rider walked over to comment on Jay’s bike. The guy said, “Yeah, I was watching TV and saw Jay Leno riding one of those.” Jay’s response, “Nice to meet you. I’m Jay Leno.”

So there’s still a lot of information in the magazine. But the packaging of that information is radically different. I like it. I’m really impressed with what they’ve done. And hey, no extra charge for the subscription when you’re a member.

Biker Quote for Today

To me it’s more fun to ride a slow bike quickly. Going slowly on an old Indian or Henderson is a lot of fun. I used to say that I don’t like any motorcycle you can’t see through, and there’s something to that. I like to see the motor.
–Jay Leno