Editors View
A very good friend in the publishing business offered his advice when hearing of this new magazine for bikers in the south east. Once he’d stopped laughing at our hopeless optimism he looked at our plans and declared “If you want to make a small fortune in publishing, start with a large one!” So, following his advice in a way that probably wasn’t intended, we’re giving the magazine away free and bringing this to you with the generous support of advertisers and sponsors.
Our market research, conducted in a pub on the back of a fag packet proved two of our original concepts to be sound. We’re never going to get rich doing this, and a lot of people really do want us to make this happen. I can’t tell you how many people because the bloke wanted his fag packet back and we lost all our data!
So, what can we promise in this and all future issues? The aim of South East Biker is to give our readers a unique magazine dedicated to all things two wheeled in our part of this great country. From news of local events through to features on global adventures, if it’s relevant to us in the south east we’ll cover it. Each issue will contain useful, and hopefully entertaining pieces on the best biking roads, where to go for a decent cuppa, local businesses and bike clubs.
There won’t be many articles on the latest, fastest, shiniest missile that’s half a nanosecond faster than last year’s model – the national mags do that already. Instead, we’ll look at real world riding – what’s it like living with a ZZR1400 as your daily transport, or what do you get for less than five hundred quid if you’ve got a shiny new licence and no cash?
We have an amazing bike culture on our doorstep, some of the biggest biking events in the country are held in Brighton each year like the Ace Cafe runs. Hastings has a huge number of riders flooding into the town every May Day bank holiday and the scooter boys are still re-living the sixties all along the south coast. Hordes of Harley riders roam the countryside and the early morning howl of a litre sportsbike has become as familiar as church bells on a Sunday. Just riding up to Ditchling Beacon and taking in the vast beauty of the south downs is enough to remind me why I ride. It’s all the proof I need of how fortunate I am to live and ride in this part of our crowded island.
Our hope is that the magazine will reflect what our readers want to see. If it’s not in here, tell us! If it’s not obscene, boring or likely to get us sued we’ll consider it for future publication. With this first issue safely in your hands, we hope that you have as much pleasure reading it as we had in bringing it to you. On behalf of the South East Biker team, our advertisers and sponsors, welcome to issue 1 and enjoy the magazine!
Peter Karmios,
Editor