About Motorradmagazin

Motorradmagazin

Motorradmagazin is an Austrian motorcycle magazine published in Vienna in the German language. It is the Austrian title devoted to motorcycling as its whole subject: motorcycle tests and first rides, new-model news, technology, touring and travel, and the people and scenes around biking in Austria. Its publisher and editorial office is KS Medien KG, based at Neulinggasse 21/28 in the third district of Vienna, and the same company operates its online portal, motorrad-magazin.at. A recent independent review described it, under editor-in-chief Peter Schönlaub, as the only Austrian motorcycle magazine still remaining, a position it has held in particular since its long-time companion title Der Reitwagen ceased publication in 2023.

The magazine needs to be distinguished carefully from similarly named publications in Germany. It is not MOTORRAD, the large fortnightly German title published in Stuttgart, and it is not the German Motorrad Magazin MO. Motorradmagazin is the Austrian publication of KS Medien KG in Vienna. Confusion is easy because German-language motorcycle publishing is dominated by German titles that are also sold in Austria, but the Austrian magazine's Vienna imprint, its Austrian editorial address and its focus on Austrian readers mark it out as a separate, domestic title.

History and What Can Be Verified About Its Origins

The documented history of Motorradmagazin is thinner than that of many Austrian magazines of comparable age, and this profile states that limit openly rather than filling the gap with invention. An independent review of the magazine published by the German touring portal Motorradreisefuehrer states that it has been on the market since 1995 and that it is now the only remaining Austrian motorcycle magazine. No founder's name, founding editorial team, original publisher or first-issue details were found in the reference works and sources consulted for this profile, and the magazine has no entry of its own in the German-language encyclopaedia sources that document many other Austrian titles. Its early years therefore cannot responsibly be narrated in the detail that its later, better documented period allows.

What can be placed on a firm footing is the structure of the Austrian market it survived in. For most of its life Motorradmagazin shared the Austrian specialist market principally with Der Reitwagen, a magazine published from 1986 to 2023 that appeared ten times a year and was aimed especially at fast road riders. Reference coverage of Der Reitwagen describes the two titles together as the most important magazines for bikers in Austria. When Der Reitwagen ended in 2023, Motorradmagazin was left as the surviving general Austrian motorcycle magazine, competing for Austrian readers mainly against much larger imported German titles rather than against a domestic rival.

The Move to KS Medien KG in Vienna

The clearest documented turning point in the magazine's history is its transfer to a new, dedicated publishing company. In a letter published by the Austrian motorcycle news site Motorradreporter, Peter Schönlaub and Clemens Kopecky announced that from 1 August they would continue Motorradmagazin in a new publishing house of their own, trading as KS Medien KG and based from mid-August at the magazine's existing address. Beate Kloda rejoined the team at the same time as advertising manager, responsible for the commercial side of the magazine. Schönlaub and Kopecky stressed that the editorial direction and the team of contributors would remain essentially unchanged by the transfer.

That continuity matters. The change was a change of ownership and company structure, not a relaunch under a new editorial idea, and Schönlaub remains the name associated with the magazine's editorial leadership in later independent coverage. The magazine's own current legal notices confirm the resulting structure: KS Medien KG is named as media owner, publisher and editorial office for both the portal motorrad-magazin.at and the periodical magazine Motorradmagazin, at Neulinggasse 21/28, A-1030 Vienna. A small, owner-run specialist publisher of this kind is typical of the surviving end of the European motorcycle press, where titles are sustained by a compact editorial team and a loyal specialist readership rather than by a large magazine group.

Frequency: Correcting the Weekly Listing

The seed listing for this profile, drawn from the Austrian magazine list, places Motorradmagazin in the weekly nationwide section. Research does not support a weekly frequency, and that listing should be treated as an error. In their letter announcing the KS Medien KG takeover, Schönlaub and Kopecky stated explicitly that the magazine would from then on be published eight times a year, with the rhythm adapted more closely to the economic cycle of the motorcycle year. They redefined that autumn's dates accordingly, with a double issue 9/10 appearing on 17 September and a double issue 11/12 on 1 December, a pattern of numbered double issues that is characteristic of a title appearing fewer times than the twelve months it covers.

Eight issues a year also fits the seasonal reality the publishers described. Motorcycling in Austria is strongly seasonal, concentrated in the warmer months and in the model-launch and touring periods, and a specialist title can serve its advertisers and readers better by weighting issues towards the riding season than by appearing on an unchanging monthly or weekly cycle. It should also be noted for accuracy that eight times a year is the frequency documented at the point of the KS Medien takeover; the magazine's online portal, by contrast, publishes continuously throughout the year, and issue numbering in recent years, such as a travel story tied to issue 6/26 in the summer of 2026, shows the print title still appearing through the riding season. No reliable evidence of a weekly or a strictly monthly print frequency was found.

Content: Tests, Model News and Long-Term Riding

Testing is the core of the magazine. Its online archive is organised around categories that mirror the print title, above all Test and Modellnews, model news. Recent coverage illustrates the range: first tests of new Triumph roadsters and sport models, a first test of a KTM adventure prototype and of the renewed KTM 790 Duke, tests of Suzuki and Honda newcomers, and reports on new models from manufacturers such as Royal Enfield, Kawasaki and Norton. The magazine tests on-road and off-road machines alike, which supports its positioning in what the independent review called the crossover segment, between pure road, adventure and off-road publishing.

Longer forms of testing are also part of its repertoire. It publishes Dauertest coverage, long-term tests in which a motorcycle is run over a season and assessed in a concluding report; one recent example closed a year with an Italian roadster by setting the modern machine alongside its famous 1973 ancestor of the same name. Comparison tests, such as a travel-enduro comparison, sit alongside single first rides. That mixture distinguishes a magazine test programme from simple launch reporting: the reader is offered both an immediate impression of a new model and a slower judgement formed over months of use.

Touring, Travel and Technology

Touring is the second pillar named in the magazine's original seed description, and the evidence supports it. Travel stories are a regular feature, including major touring features in the print issue supported online by downloadable GPS tracks, so that readers can ride the reported route themselves; a recent example paired a print travel story about Corsica, and another about Umbria, with GPX track downloads on the website. For an Austrian readership, touring coverage has a natural geography: Alpine passes at home, Italy and the Mediterranean, and the wider European road network are the practical riding territory of its readers, and the magazine's travel journalism is built around routes that can actually be followed.

Technology coverage runs through the tests and model news rather than standing apart from them. Recent model reporting deals in detail with rider-assistance systems, engine revisions, ergonomics, chassis changes and range, and the review of the magazine noted an open attitude to electric motorcycles: interesting electric newcomers are tested when they appear, without the editorial line inflating them into a hype theme, and the review observed that this matched weak real-world sales of electric motorcycles. The same openness was noted towards Chinese manufacturers, which the magazine tests as a matter of course alongside established middle-class models, rather than treating them as a curiosity.

Editorial Character and How It Judges Motorcycles

The independent review of Motorradmagazin identified several traits that together define its character. The first is a deliberate distance from bloggers and influencers: instead of reach-driven self-presentation, the magazine relies on journalistic substance, a stance the reviewer found increasingly rare in the motorcycle media market. The second is its voice, described as unmistakably Austrian in its directness, pointed, with edges, but without slipping into showmanship. The third is its method of judgement. Rather than forcing motorcycles into a rigid grid of points and categories, it judges more from feel; the reviewer argued that this can be less mechanically comparable than a points table, but often comes closer to the actual experience of riding, in which the overall impression on the road matters more than the sum of individual measurements.

That approach should be understood as an editorial choice with strengths and weaknesses that readers can weigh for themselves. A feel-based verdict from experienced testers can communicate character, comfort and confidence in a way a spreadsheet cannot, and it suits a readership of experienced riders. At the same time it offers less of the standardised, repeatable comparison that measurement-led German competitors provide. Motorradmagazin's distinctiveness in the German-language market rests substantially on accepting that trade-off and on sounding Austrian while doing so.

Audience and the Austrian Biker Scene

The magazine's audience is the Austrian motorcycling public: riders choosing a next machine, tourers planning routes, and enthusiasts following new models across all the major manufacturers. Its crossover breadth, covering road bikes, adventure machines and off-road models, and its willingness to test Chinese brands and electric bikes alongside premium European and Japanese manufacturers, addresses riders who buy across the whole market rather than devotees of a single marque. No audited circulation figure or formal readership survey for the magazine was found in the sources consulted, and this profile therefore makes no claim about how many copies it sells or how many readers each issue reaches.

Its place in the Austrian biker scene is also a matter of survival and presence. Alongside Der Reitwagen until 2023, it was one of the two magazines that structured Austrian print coverage of motorcycling, and since then it has carried that role alone. In their takeover letter its publishers said they wanted, through a series of cooperations and events, to move still closer to their readers, in addition to building the online presence and social media activity. In Germany, by contrast, its print presence is limited: the independent review noted that at German kiosks the magazine is found only at a few central sales points, although print and digital editions can be ordered directly through its website, including subscriptions from abroad, which a small but loyal German readership uses.

Digital Presence and the Premium Model

The portal motorrad-magazin.at publishes the magazine's tests, model news, travel stories and downloads continuously, with an archive of articles from recent years that can be browsed and filtered. Its legal notices confirm that the portal and the periodical magazine are the two media of KS Medien KG. A distinctive feature of the site is Motorradmagazin Premium. Articles marked as Premium are charged by reading time, at a rate of a few cents or euros, with no subscription and no commitment, full transparency and a slim monthly price cap for cost security. The site explains the model in terms that match the magazine's editorial positioning: editorially self-determined and independent journalism costs money, and the reader pays for the time spent reading it rather than for a bundle.

Print and digital editions are also sold directly through the magazine's own shop, with a single issue priced at 6.40 euros in the independent review's account, and subscriptions, including foreign subscriptions, available there. Taken together, the direct shop, the reading-time Premium model and advertising on the free parts of the portal describe the economics of a small specialist publisher adapting to a market in which kiosk sales alone no longer sustain a niche title. The publishers had already identified the need to build an online presence and intensify social media activity at the time of the KS Medien takeover, and the present portal is the result of that intention.

Significance and Limits of the Record

Motorradmagazin's significance is primarily national. In a German-language motorcycle market dominated by large German publishers, it is the surviving Austrian magazine written and produced in Vienna for Austrian riders, under an Austrian owner-publisher, with an Austrian voice that outside reviewers single out. Its longevity, on the market since 1995 according to independent review coverage, its continuation under KS Medien KG without a change of editorial direction, and its survival beyond the closure of Der Reitwagen in 2023 together make it a fixed point in Austrian specialist publishing.

The limits of the record must be stated as clearly as the facts. The 1995 start date rests on a single independent review source rather than on a reference-work entry or the publisher's own published history; the names of its founders and its publisher before the KS Medien KG period were not established from the sources consulted; its eight-times-a-year frequency is documented from its publishers' takeover letter rather than from a current media kit; and no audited circulation is publicly available. What is firmly verified is the present position: a German-language Austrian motorcycle magazine, edited in Vienna by KS Medien KG at Neulinggasse 21/28 under editor-in-chief Peter Schönlaub, covering tests, model news, technology, touring and the biker scene in print and online, and not, as one magazine list suggests, a weekly publication.