MCN: Paper riding gear!

MCN is what Consumer Reports wants to be. MCN tells it the way it is with very little bias from advertising since there is no advertising. You can read an article and be sure that what you are getting is truely the authors opinion, pure and simple. The bad part is that you need to get to know the authors to find which ones you tend to agree with and which ones you can dismiss. That does take a while. The authors they use are not all professionals and sometimes can lack objectivity. Overall, it is still the best resource we riders have in print form.

You can't really compare MCN with the other magazines. It serves a different purpose. Consider MCN a collection of opinions from the guys and gals in your riding club, where the other magazines are more commercial oriented. That is fine for both MCN and the others, you just have to know what it is that you are looking at.

MCN did a review of a motorcycle book that I wrote. Their reviewer was very honest and stated his opinion very clearly. I had to agree with some of his points, but unfortunately it was obvious that he didn't read what the purpose of the book was. As a result, he reviewed a book for starting riders with a viewpoint of an experienced rider. This is a good example of having to know about the reviewer and taking their words with the appropriate level of confidence.