For ageing corner blasters like myself(53) who have slowed a bit and often ride two up on longish trips, "Rider" is an excellent magazine.It's new bike tests are reliable and low on hype. It's columnists often muse about the riding experience and its relation to our broader lives. It has plenty of "how to" features and my two decade collection of tours and destinations featured in "Rider" is keeping me pleasantly busy in retirement. A good down to earth,mature,magazine.
Best All Around Motorcycle Magazine
I subscribe to most of the motorcycle magazines, although I've let my Harley subscriptions lapse since I traded my Wide Glide for a BMW. I think Rider is the best all around motorcycle magazine on the market. It's oriented to a general riding audience (i.e., it's not Harley, sport bike oriented, etc.). There are well written articles on new bikes, touring, safety and other topics. It also contains more thought provoking articles about motorcycling than most of the other magazines. It's well worth the price. Ride Safe.
Great for Touring / Sport-Touring Readers
This magazine is for people that like to combine motorcycles with travel. It's for guys/gals that ride bikes to enjoy new places, find new twisties, and just plain put mileage on their machines. Flip through the pages and you don't see Super Sport/Nitro or V-Twin Ultra-Customs with zero miles on the odometer. Writers don't really care whether a bike does a 11 second quarter mile (don't get me wrong, more HP is better than less!). What you do get are stories about weekend and week-long rides in places like the Grand Canyon, the Pyrenee Mountains, or the Dakotas. Bike reviews are mostly on machines like the BMW K1200 GT (a sport tourer) or Yamaha Silverado (cruiser with bags/windshield). Columnists concentrate on riding skills, what to pack for the road, and gadgets that can make riding more fun. It's practical and entertaining info. It's my personal favorite magazine.
One of my favorites
Largely geared towards the rider attracted to the larger bikes capable of logging lots of miles. Seems to feature a smattering of sport bikes, sport-tourers as well as touring rigs, the larger touring cruisers and liter sized open-bikes. The commentary is often based on longer rides, as well as long-term tests, and they occasionally dig up stuff on the classic bikes of the 50-70s, for those senior riders who want a trip down memory lane. They do not always have the most technical of write-ups, but feature good useful information for the enthusiast who wants to keep abreast of what's happening... Not a squid or scene mag.
One of the better Motorcycling magazines.
The thing I like about "Rider" is that it's more real world related that other magazines like "Motorcyclist" and "Cycle World." It focuses more on the ride rather than plugging the latest and greatest cutting edge motorcycles. It's very well rounded. If I could only subscribe to one Motorcycle magazine this would probably be the one I'd choose.
Best motorcycle magazine around
For the type of riding the majority of people do, Rider magazine can't be beat. From Sport touring to scooters, the coverage is excellent. In-depth equipment reviews, ride reports, maintenance how-to's, and motorcycle reviews round out it's offerings.
Highly recommended for the beginner and the experienced.
Great overall magazine
I ride a cruiser and used to subscribe to Motrocycle Cruiser nad Cruising Rider. After they stopped publication of cruising rider, they sent me issues of rider and I enjoyed it. Covers all types of bikes including cruisers and have some very good travel reports.
Not bad
I got this magazine for free when the previous tenant of my house forgot to forward his mail. For what I paid it was a fine magazine. Seriously though, it seems to be weighted towards cruisers and the Gold Wing crowd, but not too heavily. It's one of the more commuter-friendly bike mags out there, and is worth reading for that reason alone.