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Wall Calender 2021

Safe the Magazines

Update 25.11.2020: The Magazines are alive!

Good News!

The update of this article pleases us in many ways:

We have often said how important we think the scene magazines are – without Dream Machines and Custombike something is missing!

The Dream Machines website is back online and the first new issue is already available (as a subscription you get it a few days before retail).

We are not only happy about the cover and a 10-page report about our anniversary bike…

… we are happy about the whole issue, about the constant high quality and the variation of the features!

As in the many years before, it is simply fun to lean back with the magazine in your hand and then discuss with colleagues and buddies.

The Custombike website will follow very soon, and the presence of both magazines on Facebook and Co. will continue.

The next issue of Custombike is also already in the making and will be delivered on December 18th!

Chappeau!
We congratulate the makers and wish them continued success and many, many readers!

 

Safe the Magazines!

Crowdfunding for the print magazines Custombike and Dream Machines

Imagine if there were no more magazines. No more printed scraps to hide away for a few hours and enjoy the end of the day.

Since a few weeks we have to get along without the two scene magazines “Custombike” and “Dream Machines” because the Huber Verlag, to which the magazines belong, is in liquidation. We have already reported about the insolvency (see below).

But there is a ray of light on the horizon: The long-time employees have secured the license rights and started a crowdfunding campaign to revive the magazines.

Everyone can participate and buy an individual issue, take out a subscription or simply donate a few euros.

We are also doing our part to make sure that the two magazines make a fresh start!

We think that the magazines are good for the whole custom scene: As readers, we see the latest rebuilds, can participate in competitions, get tech tricks and product tests, can find out about events and have something to talk about for evenings in the garage and around the campfire. As customizers, parts and motorcycle dealers, we like to show what we have in the print magazines and keep up to date with the news in the scene. Here we get everything more detailed than on Facebook, Instagram and Co.

Without scene magazines something is missing.

 

You guys think the same? Then give yourself a break and check out the crowdfunding platform “Save the CUSTOMBIKE” to see how you can support the project. The platform used for crowdfunding is Startnext – the market leader in financing start-ups.

So far, around 450 people have brought over 42,000 euros to the start. As a donation, as a subscription booking or for a single issue. The first issues are now secured. But there is more to come.

We are there and support the new start – you too?

 

UNITED WE STAND! Go on, go on! Update 08.07.20

Now it is official. The CUSTOMBIKE lives. Here the press release from the responsible persons. We will keep you up to date here…

“A little more than a week ago we were stunned to learn that the publishing house where our CUSTOMBIKE is printed no longer exists and that our magazine will be discontinued with immediate effect. No time to say goodbye properly. Nearly 30 years of work, many thousand pages of printed motorcycle passion – and in the end, nothing of Europe’s oldest magazine for converted motorcycles should remain on the shelves but two dozen archive slipcases? Our first impulse was to throw it all away and check it off. But we hadn’t expected the overwhelming reaction of the screwdriver and custom scene. Your comments, mails, messages and numerous phone calls awakened our fighting spirit and the realization that this is not the end of the story. To protect our magazine from windy locusts, we had to act quickly. And we did.

 

So we were able to secure the licensing rights to our magazine CUSTOMBIKE and the sister magazine DREAM-MACHINES as longstanding employees. Our thanks go to the license holders who could have decided otherwise, but who gave us the confidence to continue the titles.

We don’t have great dough, nor are we accountants or business economists. But as experienced sheet-makers and publishing businessmen, we are happy to put our heart and soul, our creativity and our passion for converted motorcycles to work in order to continue to offer the custom and screwdriver scene a printed home. We are starting from scratch, there is a lot of work ahead of us and we will need all the help and support we can get. If last week’s many good words are not just lip service, we will make a new start for our two magazines before the end of the year – independent of big publishers and opaque business people.

For us, it is now important to set the right course, we will gladly take you on our journey. We will launch a crowdfunding campaign to support you, so you can become a part of our project. Let’s go for it – united we stand!

We send our best wishes,
Carsten Heil and Katharina Weber”

The Show must go on!

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We have been trembling since the announcement in February, but now it is official: The Huber publishing house failed to successfully restructure in the course of its insolvency proceedings and will therefore come to a sad end in July 2020 after 40 years of history.

Until the last minute, the publishing house & employees were hoping in vain for a solvent buyer who could secure the future of Custombike Show & Magazine, as well as Dream Machines, Bikers News, Tätowier Magazin or Tattoo Erotica.

Especially at the beginning of the new millennium Custombike has brought fresh wind into the scene. The Thunderbike Team around Andreas was able to contribute numerous covers and articles for the Huber magazines and we proudly look back on a long lasting close partnership.

Numerous joint bike shows were organized and many parties were celebrated. The chemistry has always been right between the publishing house employees and us – Bikers for Life.

Let’s hope for good news soon for the continuation of the custom bike show in Bad Salzuflen and that the Huber editors can continue to put their concentrated expertise at the service of the scene.

We thank you very much for the wonderful time together and your courage and exemplary commitment.

Organizer of the Custombike Show in financial troubles

On Saturday we received the shocking news that the Huber Verlag Publishing house had filed for insolvency on 4 February 2020.

The publishing house celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and has since then fundamentally influenced the motorcycle custom scene. This affects 50 permanent employees and around 100 freelancers.

The publishing house’s range of products includes the magazines Bikers News (1980), Custombike (1991, formerly Bikers Life), Dream Machines (1998), Tätowier Magazin (1994) and Tattoo Erotica (2005), as well as the in-house scene shop.

They are also the organizers of the world-famous Custombike Show in Bad Salzuflen, which is considered the most important European trade show for custom motorcycles.

According to Huber Verlag, the business is to continue as before and the wages of the employees are secured by the insolvency money until the end of April.

Currently, the Mannheim lawyer Tobias Wahl from the law firm anchor has taken over the provisional insolvency administration. The continuation and restructuring of the company is being sought, so that talks are already underway with banks, creditors and the urgently needed investors. The aim is to sell the company to a new investor within the framework of a transferable restructuring and thus “to preserve the publishing house as a place for creativity and scene thinking as well as as as many jobs as possible” […] “There is a large and loyal fan community and therefore a corresponding demand for the products and services of the Huber Verlag”, says Wahl.

We at Thunderbike are deeply touched with this news, as we have a personal friendship with many of the Huber Verlag employees and tremble with them. We have had countless publications of our bikes in the “Huber Magazines” over the past years, we are regular advertising partners and of course one of the big exhibitors at the Custombike Show.

previous custombike shows

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