Customer Reviews

Ultimate Motorcycling

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Maybe you've never placed luxury and motorcycles in the same sentence before. Then you've never stumbled upon ROBB REPORT: MOTORCYCLING, a bi-monthly glossy that actually brings the two together with a fair amount of panache.

This is the magazine that MOTORCYCLIST readers move to when they graduate from business school and feel rich just before their first educational loan payment comes due. And, as magazines go, it's not a bad place to end up.

This reviewer ordered it via frequent flyer miles on whim, thinking the title would make for an interesting read. And it does.

The coverage leans more towards the cruisers that my girth and age make my natural cycle domain. You won't find much on the street-fighter two-wheelers that tend to dominate other cycle publications.

And your eye will be the target of some luxury good advertisements on the way to reviews of some chrome-and-black newbies from the recognized companies and some exotic also-rans that you only shop for if that MBA landed you a starting salary a lot higher than your mortgage.

The photography of the bikes it covers is perhaps its strongest feature.

I rarely say this about a watch-your-wallet magazine, but this one is .... um ... kind of fun.

Robb Report MotorCycling Now: Ultimate MotorCycling Magazine, focuses on providing providing the higher-end motorcycle and related products and travel with higher quality photos and writing. It does not give you the depth and breathe of CycleWorld and is for maybe a more affluent reader. You can also see their new website at (which by the way is free) www.ultimatemotorcycling.com

(Giving away my age...) If you remember the "Car & Driver" mag's from the 70's, you'll immediately recognize the format used extensively in "Robb". Lots of glossy pixs of high-end and custom cycles, advertising that belongs in "Forbes", limited gear and apparel reviews. If you're looking for substance, pass on this one. Otherwise, a nice "diversion" for the winter months while the bikes are parked.

I can see buying The Robb Report in a moment of weakness but I would probably stuff it inside something less lame and embarrassing, like Cosmopolitan. The writing is consistently weird and tortured and also light on technical details. There was at least one sentence I couldn't make any sense of whatever. And I suspect, neither could the writer.