MCN, Bike, Back Street Heroes, Performance Bikes, Classic Bike. Motorcycle Mechanics, Fast Bikes, RiDE…we’ve all bought, subscribed, or just flicked through a bike magazine in the newsagent at some point. But when did they start?
In 1903, The Motor Cycle hit the stands for the first time, costing 2d, and was published every Tuesday thereafter.
It wasn’t quite the first UK magazine; Motor Cycling had launched on 1902 but was withdrawn after a few months until being relaunched in 1909.
With it’s predominantly blue covers, The Motor Cycle became known as “the blue 'un” to distinguish it from rival Motor Cycling often called “the green 'un” because…well you can probably work it out.
Noted for detailed road tests of contemporary motorcycles and articles on readers’ bikes, the magazine had regular features, including “Current Chat” and “Letters to the Editor” where many of the key issues relating to British motorcycling of the day were debated.
In 1962 The Motor Cycle became just Motor Cycle and the moved away from being “the blue 'un”.
Regular features developed such as ‘On the Four Winds’ and ‘Racing Line’ in addition to many different trends, with a readers’ write-in ‘Help Club’, technical articles, stripdowns and repair sequences, new model analysis, practical road riding, accessories, clubs and rallying.
The old rival, Motor Cycling, was struggling by 1967 and was subsumed by Motor Cycle.
At the same time the old magazine format was retired and Motor Cycle became a broadsheet to provide more space, the name changing later to Motor Cycle Weekly.
Motor Cycle Weekly continued as newspaper until 1983 when it reverted to the magazine format but less than a year, after 80 years in print, Motor Cycle was history.