It seems incredible that the whole idea of the motorcycle extreme video is less than a decade old and, at RPM, we were of course right at the forefront. Videos and DVDs like 'Pulp Friction' and 'How to Pull Wheelies' and of course 'Mach 2' became legends that have been many times copied but never equalled. In conjunction with our then sister publication, Fast Bikes, RPM with riders of the calibre of Shakey Byrne, Sean Emmett, Jeremy McWilliams and Gary Mason before they became the famous road racers they now are, changed the whole idiom of street riding and the limits to which modern bikes could be ridden on the road. The videos and DVDs produced by RPM in turn helped fund the race careers of those riders culminating in Shakey Byrne's British Superbike Championship win in 2003.

When Fast Bikes was sold on to SPL publishing and subsequently Future publishing in 2006, RPM continued the spirit of those original videos with programmes such as UNSEEN and CARRY on WHEELYING, and produced a quarterly publication entitled RPM which maintained the philosophy of the original 'Tell-it-like-it-is' Fast Bikes magazine, albeit with a more contemporary feel, under the motto, 'Real and Proper Motorcycling'. In other words, the new publication comprised editorial and photography that was as original as it was genuine, nothing embellished, altered or manipulated as many many magazines have been guilty of, and road tests that were conducted over thousands of miles and dozens of countries rather than a solitary trip to the local roundabout half an hour before the press deadline...Although the published magazine is no longer on sale, the website version is sure to continue this ideology with tests and editorials, reviews and articles that as are as genuine as they are detailed and exhausting. Just like the word count of the original Fast Bikes, which boasted road tests and features on average 2 to 3 times as detailed and substantial as its competitors, so tests and reviews on the RPM website will be similarly detailed and exhaustive and will never pander to advertisers or manufacturers, whatever the blandishments. Fast Bikes and RPM were both fiercely and almost uniquely independent for their day and RPM will follow the same tradition.

So from this day forward, the RPM web site is set to grow with text, features and photos about the world of modern motorcycling and rather than dilute the editorial with a sea of adverts, will be supported with a pay-per-view system, so that you pay only for the feature that interests you and that you want to see. We will also be offering an annual subscription which will give across-the-board access to every word we write and every photo we take.

So if you, like many others, have been yearning for the opportunity of something real and proper, substantial, imaginative and fascinating to read again, the wait could soon be over.....