Motorcycle Magazines

[Woodstock]

So ya got the info, find it, I dare you

I know I'll never find anything over about a year ago, mostly because I'll never remember that it even existed.

I think that's what makes this somewhat of a "disorder", it's not rational, I know it's not rational, but I just can't bring myself to do anything about it. That's the funny part. I know it's dumb, and I'm not rationalizing it because "I might go back and look", I keep them because "I have the every issue from the last 12 years, how cool is that!". Which, of course, is just dumb.

 

[ohiofjr]

I operate on the two year rule. If it ain't been moved in two years boom! its gone.

 

[radman]

Horror story to follow.

In 1970, I went off to play Army. I had a large collection of Car mags, Hot Rod, Road and Track, and Rod and Custom (from when it was a pamphlet). These included very,very early issues going back into the forties. My fav was a Hot Rod from the early 60's (1961?), where in the letters column, was a letter from a crew cut teenager in Gainsville Florida, talking as to how he loved the mag, and hoped they would print the pick of his car, a dragster called Swamp Rat. Yup, Don Garlits wrote the letter. And they printed the pic, with him standing next to it. While I was in the Army, Ma went on a cleaning spree. I was overseas, and did not find out until it was way too late that my "useless old magazines" were now added to a landfill. Probably several hundred of them. I have not tossed one since. And when I think about it, I still wanna give the woman a rap upside the head. :angry:

 

[twowheelnut]

That is a horror story!

Mine? Off to college - mid 70's. Pack all my **** away and toss it up in the attic of my folk's house. Graduate, get a job, found an apartment, went to collect my stuff. Gone. WTF?!

Mom: "Oh, we had a tag sale a couple of years ago. Didn't we tell you? Sold all your stuff for $100! You remember, we sent you the money while you were at school, remember? What's wrong, dear? You look upset! We didn't think you'd want all that junk after college..."

In my 'stuff' was a Lionel train set that my uncle had as a child. Complete with several hundred feet of track, transformers, a dozen different engines and scads of cars, cabooses, etc. It was all cherry. Man, I loved that set! Sum' ***** be worth thousands today, I'd bet! Also sold was my Aroura HO set. Damn! That thing got me through my teen years with nary a scrape with Barney Fife over there... Not to mention all of my ball gloves, bats, etc, etc...

 

[Butch]

Consider a high-tech approach. Use a scanner to scan in anything of interest. Save off as a file, then toss the mag. If you take a few seconds to properly catalog the stuff, it won't be hard to find, and you can store a ton of saved information on a CD or DVD.

 

[radman]

Wimmins have no concept of what is valuable and what isn't. Why, I'll bet she hung on to all your Barbie stuff didn't she? And your prom dress? Packed away for posterity no doubt.

 

[fjrchooser]

I've recently went through the same soul searching and nagging as you are Woodstock. My house smelled like a library from all the old magazines. It startd for me as a child with comic books and continued to grow. Every thing was saved, each of my interests throughout my life resulted in their own collections, - comic books from the late 40's ( neighbors donation started that one, I wasn't born until 1952), Hot Rods from the 60's,70's, Gun mags 70's to today,Flying 70's through the 90's, Motorcycles 70's to current.

I thought they all had informational value but in reality only took up space and time. Looking for some info resulted in lost days as I ended up reading articles having nothing to do with the current need. Same when it came to "sorting" them.

Six months ago I got rid of the last of them in a 2 yd dumpster used for collecting the debris from a home remoldeling effort. Many found their way to work for the employee lounge, others Dr's offices, added to co-workers piles at their request.

I haven't found myself missing any of them once they went into the dumpster, even as I write this. I was amazed at the amount of disposable( and sometimes not disposable) cash they represented. The initial parting was the tough part!

Just go for it, in any manner of your chosing and never look back. You'll find the effort will pay off in other aspects of rat-packing in your life also.

I am the better off for it and continue to improve. Some of the unused mechanical bits and pieces in the garage that I've been saving for 30 some years cause 'you never know' have now been going to resellers or recyclers for a while. I'm getting my garages back a piece at a time!

I do still have the Lionel though, it reminds me of hearing my Dad playing with it Chrsitmas morning before I got to 48 years ago ! Some things are keepers and others..well...

 

[ionbeam]

Good Wife bought me top shelf OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) so I could scan articles of interest and not have to keep magazines. What a great idea, however, life rears its' ugly head. OCR accuracy is somewhat low, multiple columns of text and text wrapped around pictures gives OCR heart burn. A lot of publications have text where some or all letters touch their neighbor, OCR accuracy now drops below 50%. I use professional OCR and it does work pretty well but even for ProSummer level OCR software it is still a pain in the @$$. Scanning an article as a picture (JPG, BMP) works a little better but readability and usability goes way down. As a picture you can't manipulate the text in any way.

I've become a ripper these days, tearing out pages of interest and tossing the remainder of the corpse in the can. Now when I need an article I know it is in my file cabinet. Where in the cabinet I haven't a clue but it is in there... :dribble:

Alan

 

[yanktar]

I used to keep mags for years--Cycle, Cycle World, Sky and Telescope, etc.

Now it's a 1 year rule, then it goes.

Now as for Chopper-Hog World, oops, I mean Cycle World, I'm now at a two issue rule--one for each bathroom--the latest replaces the older one. Serves double duty--something to occupy my time and--in an emergency..... :lol:

 

[radman]

in an emergency

Tried that. Left an oil stain in me undies. I know, "thanks for sharing"....

 

[twowheelnut]

Why, I'll bet she hung on to all your Barbie stuff didn't she? And your prom dress? Packed away for posterity no doubt.

Um... Barbie was with GI Joe and Stretch Armstrong. They bred the funniest looking army men you'd ever wanna see. Never did get to wear that prom dress, dangit!

:thumbup:

 

[yanktar]

Wow, I really messed up THIS post--and thread.

 

[yanktar]

in an emergency

Tried that. Left an oil stain in me undies. I know, "thanks for sharing"....

Whoops! I meant THIS was more information than I really needed! :blink:

(hit the wrong quote button...ANOTHER reason to go back to SleazyBoard :lol: )

 

[Woodstock]

ok, you've all convinced me. The old bike magazines are going.

Thanks!

 

[FLRoadking]

Save them all, including the first one I ever bought, Cycle for 50 cents so that should tell you how long ago that was. Still have it and I wore out the pages till I could afford my first mini-bike. Brings back great memories to look at the old bike ads, review old road tests, and the prices back then were something too. Remember when you could get an Elsinore 250 for about $600! Or how bout a Honda 750 with a state of the art disc front brake for about $1750!

Digital is great, but nothing like flipping the pages on a rainy day with a cold one!

 

[bvail]

My moto-rags are starting to pile up again. I threw two boxes out (3 different mags from 1996 on) about a year ago. Let's see, 3 monthlies x 12 = 36/year. After a few years, that's a lot of trees.

I think that donating them is a great idea, whether it is philanthropic or a tax dodge. My tax lady told us to never throw anything away (that's worth anything). She puts a smile on my face every year.

I do have every issue of National Geo from 1972 on. Just can't bare to drop the subscription after all these years.

Anymore, just about anything one can read in mags is available on-line. I get much more useful info from the different websites.

 

[twowheelnut]

She puts a smile on my face every year.

Does the missus know?

I do have every issue of National Geo from 1972 on.

Um, never got over those nekkid natives, didja?

(Sorry, Bob! I just can't pass those kinds of lines up!)

 

[Woodstock]

Damn you, FLRoadking. h34r: