Retro-RR: the motorcycle magazine we’ve all been waiting for
Some of the best bike journalists have come together to launch a magazine aimed at 80s and 90s motorcycle enthusiasts
RETRO-RR brings the best of the racing, bikes and riders of the 80s and 90s into a premium package that’s simply brimming with quality. Launched this month, the title is the new must-have luxury bike mag, unashamedly focused on the golden age of superbikes.
Here at Visordown Towers we love nothing more than sitting down and thumbing through a bike magazine on our coffee break. The thing is, unless you’re into 200bhp, knee-down superbikes, or touring two-up on your Bavarian beast you’re pretty limited. It’s fair to say the diminishing magazine market is lacking a bit of range and, dare I say it, style. Thankfully that’s all changed for 2019 with the addition of the debut issue of Retro-RR to the Visordown coffee table (it’s actually two Shoei boxes with a tea tray on top…)
The idea for the mag came from PR and events supremo, Nik Ellwood. Saddened by the disappearance of magazines such as T.W.O and Superbike, and disappointed by the quality of what was left, Ellwood teamed up with former Fast Bikes road test editor and T.W.O deputy editor, Rob Hoyles to create this new coffee table magazine.
Retro-RR’s aim is to keep ads to an absolute minimum to give uninterrupted editorial, and to keep their overheads low to focus purely on the content within. The reader is the most important customer, after all.
The duo has also signed up some of the world’s most respected motorcycle photographers: the likes of James Wright, David Goldman and Don Morley have all contributed to Retro-RR. They’ve somehow captured a lost era of motorcycling, with warm and rich images from the bygone days of film while the digital imagery used for the bike tests still has a distinctly analogue feel to it, helped in no small part by the super-high quality paper and printing they’ve used.
Bringing the stories to life are some of the best motorcycle journalists on the planet, including Michael Scott, Alan Cathcart, Alan Dowds, Roland Brown, Gordon Ritchie and Stuart Barker. Regular columnists include Niall Mackenzie and Jamie Whitham, with Davide Tardozzi taking a guest slot in the first issue, with more big names promised over the next few issues.
Retro-RR is out now, quarterly, priced at £8.50 plus postage — or grab an annual subscription, from #1 onwards, for just £35 with free postage within the UK.
For more information, and to buy or subscribe, head to: www.retro-rr.com/shop
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
