Over at RealClassic magazine, we reckon that the people who know the most about old bikes are the owners and riders who live with them all year round. So we prefer to publish features written by riders, both online at the RealClassic website and in the monthly print magazine. You don’t need to be a genius writer to see your story published in RealClassic, but you do need to have something relevant to say which other classic bike fans will find helpful when they’re considering their next purchase, or getting to grips with an unfamiliar machine.
We enjoy reading profiles about a single model or maybe two very similar machines; a pair of Triumph twins, or the differences between a Beesa and an Ariel single, maybe. Most features we run in the magazine are between 1000 and 2500 words. If your story is longer than that then it’s heading towards being a series (or a book…). If your thoughts run to under 1000 words then they’re most likely to appear in on the website where we keep things somewhat shorter and snappier.
There’s no need to fret about your writing, grammar or punctuation; we’ll make sure that your article reads the right way. Just concentrate on telling a good story and we’ll do the rest.
Just remember to include as much information as possible. Tell the RealClassic readers exactly which model you’re talking about, when it was built, and as much of its history as you know. There’s no such thing as too much information! We want to know about what condition your bike was in when you bought it, any modifications you’ve made, and how well it has performed. Did you rebuild it from a box of bits? Has it won an award? Have you ridden it across the country? What’s it like to ride? How does it compare to other, similar classics you’ve ridden? Whatever your classic motorcycle means to you, it’ll be of interest to other old bike enthusiasts.
What we need is your story as a Word document or in plain text form, plus a bunch of photos so that everyone can see what you’re talking about. We need a dozen or more photos, taken against a clear background, and showing the bike from several different aspects. Try to make sure the bike is in the light, and not in the shadows! We can use old-fashioned photos, or digital jpgs. For the magazine we need pics as big as you can manage – anything from 500kb to 5MB. Generally, the bigger they are then the better your bike looks in print. If you only have a few photos or if they’re low-res images then your story will probably appear online.
So what are you waiting for? Start scribbling and snapping and send us your story. If you’re one of the lucky people whose pride and joy appears in the magazine then you’ll be sent complimentary copies of that issue, plus a magazine subscription and a little something extra to reward your efforts. If your story is published on the RealClassic website then it’ll be available online for all your friends and family to see, and you’ll be able to bask in worldwide admiration…
Please send the text of your story to [email protected] and we’ll get back to you within a few days (normally less than a week unless we’re absolutely flat-out on a deadline) to chat about photos and so on.
