If you've blown through GQ or an-other men's mag lately, you already know that blue is the new black. And music mags have been tripping over themselves to name the next Seattle, which was Detroit a few months ago, but now seems to be Sweden. Here's one for the bike freaks in the house--sportbikes are the new choppers. You feeling that?
For decades, chromed and chopped Harleys ruled the custom bike world. Back in the day, chops were badass bikes, menacing middle-fingers-on-wheels. But nowadays, when you can buy chopper-in-a-box kits and every investment banker has his wannabe ride built to order at some chichi biker boutique, choppers come off soft--just like their owners, with beer guts hang-ing out and jowls flapping in the wind. Choppers are dead, kids.
The custom sportbike scene, on the other hand, is kickin'. From Detroit to Daytona Beach, from Brooklyn to the Bay Area, the streets are ruled by tight super-bikes that put yesterday's Evo-powered billet barges to shame. Need more proof? Check recent big-budget feature films like Biker Boyz and Torque, or Ruff Ryders produced music videos on MTV. Drag-derived Gixxers with stretched swingarms and nitrous bottles; Ducatis decked out with a crateload of carbon fiber; punked-up Bandit streetfighters; even ratty stunt bikes--all of these show loads more class than some same-old Arlen Ness taildragger. Tricked-out sportbikes are the next movement.
All of which brings us, in a roundabout way, to the creation of Super Streetbike, the new title that you are holding in your hands. The extreme sportbike scene--bubbling up from the street freestyle contests, the drag-strip, the hip-hop underground, and urban centers like Brooklyn or Detroit--exists totally under the motorcycle-industry radar. Clearly, this new movement is going to require new media. Enter Super Streetbike, a mag that aims to go boldly where no American motorcycle magazine has ever gone before, to probe these outer limits of the sportbike scene.
Expect to see plenty of trick, custom sportbikes (and features on the people who build and ride them) on these pages, as well as dispatches from the wild and wooly drag racing and stunt scene, all presented in eye-popping, full-color photography. Don't expect lap times from Willow Springs or fuel economy ratings for new sport-touring models. We'll leave that to the old guard.
For hardcore tuners, we'll feature in-depth articles detailing effective perfor-mance mods for late-model sportbikes, as well as technology articles about recent ad-vances in sportbike performance and how those advances will change the bikes that we ride on the street every day.
Of course, we'll be your source for fresh product. Look to us to feature the trickest gear, including the latest and greatest in sportbike performance and cosmetic up-grades, fashion for flossin', video reviews, and everything else related to the style and culture of the extreme sportbike scene. Give us your tired (of same-old choppers and production bikes), your hungry (for sick custom bikes and street culture) and your ignored (by mainstream motorcycle magazines), and we'll give them a place o hang.
Sound good? If so, let us know. This issue is what we call, in publishing parlance, a "single-issue publication." That means we put one issue out on the newsstand, then step back to see how that issue is received--by advertisers, by the industry and especial-ly by the enthusiasts that read it. If feedback is strong and excitement runs high, the powers-that-be at Primedia will give the go-ahead to make Super Streetbike a regular part of its publishing program. If you like what you see, and you'd like to see more (or even if you don't), please drop a note to ssbmail@primedia.com and call us out.
So, sportbikes are the new choppers? Cool with me. But blue the new black? Check out the above photo-I've got my marbles on Icon white.