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The rumors of the Bonnier Motorcycle Group (BMG) being for sale have been ongoing for a while now, but now they have finally come good, as Octane has been named as the buyer of BMG.

For those not familiar with Octane, it is a part of Fintech, and it operates as a portal for financing loans to powersports buyers. Why does a lending house want to buy C​ycle World, Motorcyclist, Dirt Rider, Motorcycle Cruiser, UTV Driver, ATV Rider,​ and ​Cycle Volta?

Octane CEO Jason Guss perhaps says it best in the company’s joint press release with Bonnier Corp.:

“We are acquiring these titles because we want to support brands that get people excited about powersports. Our goal for this acquisition is to ensure that unbiased product reviews, rigorous and objective testing, and informed storytelling​ will continue to be available to powersports enthusiasts.”

“When combined with Octane’s financing platform and dealership partners, consumers will soon be able to go directly from researching their dream vehicle to owning it, in a fast, seamless process.”

Motorcycle magazine titles continue to close, as the market consolidates and print titles struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing media landscape.

The latter was the bigger issue for Motorcycle Consumer News, which closed its doors officially at the start of this month.

Motorcycle Consumer News was in business for 50 years in the motorcycle industry, and distinguished itself as being 100% subscriber supported and advertisement-free.

It is the end of an era, as we get word from Dealer News that Motorcyclist Magazine will cease its print production after its July/August edition.

Going forward, the fabled print publication will shift to a purely digital medium, focusing on its website, social media channels, and video productions.

This move comes just two and a half years after Motorcyclist switched to a six-issue per year format, as the brand tried to re-gear itself as more of a lifestyle offering for two-wheeled enthusiasts.

Depending on who you talk to, the café racer movement is either slowly dying or already dead (just in time for the major OEMs to hop on board, we might add). So, what’s the next hot thing?

Vintage bikes from the 1980s and 1990s seem to be stepping up to the plate, because after all what was old is new again. We see this coming from vintage racing series, custom builds, and even some movements from forward-thinking manufacturers.

As such, it only makes sense that there would be a magazine dedicated to this unique niche of the motorcycle industry. Behold, the new Retro-RR magazine, which aims to bring you quarterly print content about the golden age of superbikes.

The Bonnier Corporation continues to be the place where motorcycle publications go to die, as we get confirmation now that the Hot Bike magazine has already delivered its last magazine issue to newsstands.

Shut down effective immediately, Hot Bike joins a list of growing titles at Bonnier that have been closed (Dirt Rider & Sport Rider), or have been substantially revamped in format (Cycle World & Motorcyclist), as the media landscape changes in both format and funding.

It seems every couple months we have to report on the changing landscape in the moto-journalism realm, as the motorcycle industry continues a heavy churn with its constant state of flux and never-ending evolution (or lack thereof).

So far, we have seen a massive shakeup of Bonnier’s motorcycle titles, including Cycle World going to a quarterly format and Motorcyclist publishing every-other month format, while closing titles like Sport Rider and consolidating titles like Bagger and Hot Bikes.

We have seen The MAG Group (which is going through its own bankruptcy proceedings right now) close the doors at Motorcycle-USA, and also sell Cycle News to the motorcycle industry’s top advertising network.

We have also seen RideApart sold to media conglomerate Motor1 (and recently lost its Editor-in-Chief), Vertical Scope’s Motorcycle.com just lost its #1 and #2 leaders, Canada Moto Guide (the largest online publication in that region) has switched ownership, and internet upstart Rider’s Domain (owned by Jake Wilson) just let go of a significant part of its content and editorial staff.

And now today, we report that UK publication MotoFire has announced that it is for sale, with founders Steve Hunt and Ian Jubb (two ex-MCN employees) looking to take a step back from the website.

The print media landscape continues to change for the motorcycle industry, as Bonnier has just announced that Cycle World will be moving to a quarterly format, starting in 2018.

The move is similar to the changes made at sister publication Motorcyclist, where fewer print editions and a larger focus online are the name of the game.

Bonnier hopes that more “artistic” coffee table issues, will help buoy its print brands’ downward spiral, while the publishing house looks to aggregate news feeds and social media to boost its online sites.

As we reported, Sport Rider will no longer continue as a print publication, and DIRT RIDER will cease its publishing as well. Both titles will continue online it seems, however, though it is not clear how much original content they will run, and how frequently they will post stories.

Bonnier also announced that Hot Bike magazine will be combining with Baggers, to make one giant American v-twin publication, with a six-issue per year format.

Episode 68 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is one of our last shows recorded in 2017, and it’s a good one.

In this show, we start out with a discussion about the TVS Apache RR 310S – a bike that is very likely to become the basis for BMW’s next sport bike. This then leads to a discussion about the supersport class, and how to make more compelling models for enthusiasts.

Our attention then turns to the coming rule changes for the World Superbike Championship, and the rumors of similar movements in the MotoAmerica Championship. These changes will also have effects on future production machines, which we speculate upon.

The show wraps up with an interesting discussion about the motorcycle media landscape and what it means to be a “journalist” in this industry, and during this point in time in media consumption.

All in all, it’s a very interesting show, and we think you will enjoy it.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.

It has been speculated in the motorcycle community for quite some time now, and the day has finally come, as the Bonnier Motorcycle Group (BMG) announced today that it is ceasing production of Sport Rider Magazine.

The news about Sport Rider comes wedged into a larger announcement, which involves BMG restructuring its motorcycle publishing and sales departments “in order to deliver more specialized content and provide better solutions for the motorcycle industry to engage with enthusiasts.”

Changes are afoot at Motorcyclist magazine, as the monthly publication is set to move to a six-issue per year format starting in Spring 2017. That transition will come from the direction of a new leader too, as Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook will be leaving Motorcyclist as well.

Cook outlined his departure, and announced the new format for Motorcyclist, in a short post to his “Cook’s Corner” column online, citing the many contributions his team of writers have made over the course of his tenure at the magazine.

As the opening paragraph to Cook’s goodbye letter coyly suggests, the media landscape in the motorcycle industry is shifting, pushing Motorcyclist magazine in a new direction, which also seems to be pushing hardcore journalists out of the medium.

One thing we won’t be taking with us into the New Year will be Dealernews, as the business-focused publication closed its doors on December 23rd.

Owner UBM Advanstar announced the closure of the publication earlier this month, saying that print, web, and social media parts of the publication would cease, and while the website remains online, no new content has been posted.