The Horse: Back Street Choppers Review

If you're reading this site and never heard of the "The Horse", you're probably pretty new to the chopper scene. Well, if you want to build your own chopper or bobber, do yourself a HUGE favor and pick up a copy. You won't regret it.

The Horse: Back Street Choppers is an old-school chopper builders magazine. If you like baggers, $80,000 "theme" bikes, Stock Harleys, or tons of bolt billet garbage, this mag is not for you. The Horse caters to the home garage builders, not the glitzy crowd. It is to choppers what "rat rods" are to the hot rod world.

One thing that separates The Horse from other chopper magazines is that they don't discriminate against Honda, Triumphs, or any other brand. If it's cool and chopped, they'll publish it. They also put an emphasis on older Harleys as opposed to newer "Twinkies" or "V-rods". Rigid rule the roost in the Horse, and the more stripped down the bike, the better.

For the home builder, The Horse has the most practical tech articles and bike builds of any magazine. They have some pretty slick photography, and also dig up some great history in the motorcycle world. There is advertising, of course, but not an overwhelming amount like in other magazines.

The Horse also has a pretty good bead on the pulse of the biker subculture. They do a great job of keeping up to date on current events and rallies. They host their own event every year, the "smoke out", which has even been mentioned on some of the "Biker Build-offs" on TV. The only thing surprise is the lack of nudity; they seem to keep it somewhat clean to get better placement on the newsstand. Vulgarity, on the other hand, can be found on every page. Be forewarned if you're a weekend warrior - you may be offended by this magazine. They slam yuppies, stock Harley "enthusiasts", and just about everything else not hard-core in the biker world.

There really are only only a couple of drawbacks. First, the price is a little steep at $5.99 US, or $6.99 in Canada. The price you pay for not as many ads I guess. Second, sometimes they go a bit overboard on the bickering and slamming of others. Not that I claim to be a nice guy, but I don't want to pay good money to read about their latest pissing match. If I want drama, that's what I have a girlfriend for. But thankfully that isn't a prevalent in it's pages as it once was.

But all in all, the Horse is the best chopper mag on the market. It's definitely worth a look if you want to build your own scoot.

PUBLISHER:	The Horse: Backstreet Choppers The Horse BC PO Box 101357, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33310 (877) 286-0127 http://www.thehorsemag.com/
GENRE:	Home chopper building, old-school biker culture
Publishing Frequency:	9 months a year; January, March, April, May, July, August, September, November, December
PROS:	Good coverage of biker lifestyle Superb Technical Articles Multiple brands covered
CONS:	Price is a little high Pissing and moaning
AVAILABLE FROM:	Amazon http://www.thehorsemag.com/ Local Retailers