A Different Bike Magazine

Motorcycle Retro is a pet project of former Motorcyclist editor Mitch Boehm, launching as Motorcyclist Retro in early 2008 under the Source Interlink media umbrella. It featured a contemporary look at motorcycles of the 1960s through the 1980s.

However, the circulation numbers of MR didn’t meet the expectations of the media conglomerate, and they cancelled production of the magazine after just two issues.

But Boehm won’t let it die and has taken production of the magazine directly under his wing. He says the re-launch of MR as Motorcycle Retro 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.”

The business plan for Retro will mostly ignore newsstand sales and will instead concentrate on subscriptions for the magazine to be published quarterly. “Subscriptions are absolutely vital to our success,” says Boehm of the $39.99 fee. “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.

“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,” Boehm elaborates.

If you’re interested, you can find more info at www.motorcycleretro.com. Boehm promises the full site will go live in the next few weeks and will have credit-card transaction capability for processing subscriptions.

Here’s a rundown of upcoming feature articles in Motorcycle Retro:

- Malcolm Smith profile
- Hodaka
- Honda’s Interceptors
- Roger DeCoster and Suzuki’s MX history
- Suzuki’s T-series/GT two-strokes
- 50 years of Honda ads
- The (Kenny) Roberts Chronicles and Yamaha’s 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

Boehm adds that he’d be interested to hear ideas for stories you’d like to read. You can reach him at mitch@motorcycleretro.com.

By Kevin Duke