Online mags and blogs (like this one) that fuel our passion for all things two wheels are clearly a good thing, but you still can’t beat the experience of thumbing through good old fashioned printed matter. Of course our friends at Sideburn know this well, and recently the Iron & Air crew have gone over to (or rather back to) the world of ink and paper. Now there’s a new gang on the coffee table/workbench scene. Esses magazine. It shares the same gorgeous aesthetics and top notch production values of the others, but it covers a much wider world of motorcycling so sits very nicely alongside them.
And when we say ‘wider world’ we mean it. From putting you inside the head of a professional speedway rider, to checking out the Tanzanian custom bike scene (yes there really is one).
To quote the guys & gals themselves: ‘Esses has been born out of that love of everything on two wheels. It will celebrate the excitement and thrill of riding motorcycles and will bring this amazing world – its people, rides, races, bikes and characters – to life. Yes, it’ll be all about the bikes, of course it’ll be about the bikes, but more importantly it’ll be about the people. Those who design, build, tweak, ride, photograph, collect, jump, race, polish and just plain own them.’
Having devoured issue Zero, we can safely say they’ve nailed it. We particularly enjoyed the feature on junior motocross as it’s how some of us started our two wheeled journeys umpteen years ago. The mud – the two stroke haze – the not enough body weight to kickstart the bike, oh happy days.
Seeing as it’s issue Zero, the guys asked us for feedback. The only feature we weren’t sure about was the one on Felix Baumgartner’s sky dive suit. Some readers might prefer every article to be within the world of motorcycling, but that’s just being picky and others might disagree strongly – as we’re not all so one-dimensional. Overall, it’s a beautiful magazine that’s been put together by people with seriously good craft skills, and a genuine love for all things motorcycling. In short, our kind of people. We can’t wait for issue 1.
To get hold of Issue Zero, go to essesmagazine.tumblr.com or essesmagazine.bigcartel.com
via THE BIKE SHED
