What is American-V?
Why?
Who is behind American-V?
How independent?
What about Harley's own website, or HOG Tales?
What of American magazines?
What's it going to cost me to read American-V?
My computer doesn't show the adverts at the bottom of the page?
Are there any other issues regarding technologies?
The text on my computer is too small. Why?
Can I use stuff from American-V on my own site?

What is American-V?
The last in a long succession of specialist titles specialising in American-made motorcycles. Launched on-line is 2001, on paper in early 2003 and into the newstrade in 2005 it is going from strength to strength while staying true to its original ideals. It's easy to call it a Harley magazine, but with the diversification of the American motorcycle industry there are many other players in the market before you even consider Buell and Victory.

Why?
Well, because someone's got to do it, and it's better that it is done properly. Harley titles have been seen as a potential cash cow by bigger publishers looking to farm an affluent sector for its advertising revenues but have pulled out when they've realised it is a different story. Without a specialist title, the alternative is to seek out articles from the mainstream press and then pick out the truth as it relates to Harley owners from the rhetoric of a Japanese Sportbike culture, where our preferred form of transport is often derided, and seldom understood within its context.

Who is behind American-V?
The driving forces behind the magazine are Andy Hornsby (Technician, formerly of Silver Machine, Back Street Heroes, All American Heroes) and Rich King (Illustrator, formerly of Back Street Heroes, AWoL, Heavy Duty, SuperTwins). Both are time-served bikers, and Harley owners of some years albeit with widely differing views, and it is this foundation that will provide the strength of the editorial that you will find on this site.

How independent?
As independent as it is possible to be. The editorial partnership exists to produce American-V and we do so without having to look over our shoulder at the requirements of a broader business, giving us control of the direction of American-V. We are entirely editorially lead, with advertising being the revenue earner but not the primary influence. We believe that good editorial will attract repeat readers, and that a stable readership attracts advertisers – and with such a specific subject, we can ensure that relevent advertising is of interest to the readers.

We carried features from other magazines in our hobbyist on-line days, and we are indebted to their editors, but we are in no way affiliated with them except through long-term friendships with editorial staff and freelance contributors. All editorial within the pages of the paper magazine is exlusive to American-V.

We also only carry those features that we feel would be of interest to an American-V inspired readership and we do so without apology. We anticipate commissioning more material than we reuse as we grow - possibly even feeding American-V material into other titles as a reciprocal arrangement

What about Harley's own website, or HOG Tales?
Because while not questioning the quality of the information that is available from either source, neither are independent of the Motor Company and neither will cover the alternative bikes coming out of America.

What of American magazines?
With an editorial staff from the UK custom bike press of the last fifteen years, we are well aware of the differences between the demands made of American motorcycles in the UK and Europe, and America. There is a different attitude too, which could almost be defined as "spin" in the age of the sound-bite, and the British attitude seems to be one that is welcomed in the US, and it is ironic that the Americans clamour for the UK magazines when they can find them. Ironic, too, in that American-V draws on the writing talents of anyone, from anywhere with a good story to tell, and the nature of its content attracts like-minded enthusiasts from around the globe. It is only a result of simple economics that the UK magazines cannot be sensibly distributed in the US, but we don't have that problem: we are international whether we want to be or not and we welcome all with open arms.

What's it going to cost me to read American-V?
On-line, absolutely nothing. The bi-monthly magazine will set you back £4.95, with subscriptions available on a 6 for the price of 5 basis: £24.75. Back issues are available at cover prices, with discounts for quantities.

My computer doesn't show the adverts at the bottom of the page?
The way in which we can generate rolling banners that show most consistently across a broad range of computers, and versions of their web browsers is to use a thing called Java. Java is safe technology, if not a blisteringly quick one, and allows a simple program to be run on your computer regardless of what it is. It is not a cookie, or a means of tracking you or your movements and as such we are not concerned about its use within the American-V site. Other technologies exist, but they require downloading applications from the Internet and they piss us off every time we find them, so we've taken the easier route rather than pass on the frustration.

If you have problems, there is a strong possibility that you are using Internet Explorer on an Apple Macintosh computer and you need the upgraded version of Java that didn't quite make the shipping date of a number of versions of MacOS. The version that was current at the time had security problems and was omitted, but the next version of Java runtime applet (MRJ 2.2.4) is available from the dowload section of Apple's website. regrettably it is not a small download, but it does complete your MacOS installation. You will probably only have this problem if your are using Internet Explorer on the Mac, as Netscape contains a Java plug-in to work round the problem

If you're not running a Mac, the problem would still involve Java: make sure it is working and switched on in the preferences / tools section.

Are there any other issues regarding technologies?
Hopefully not. We test everything on PC, Mac and Linux platforms using the primary browsers – Internet Explorer and Netscape. Other browsers exist, but to test on literally everything would take longer than producing the magazine, so there may be some issues on older, or more quirky browsers. The only thing we have thrown up is a strange behavious from Internet Explorer on the Mac which plays havoc with the column widths on feature pages, and would recommend using the Netscape browser on the Mac platform for the best visuals.

The text on my computer is too small. Why?
Because the site has been designed to be viewed on a monitor of 800x600 - the most commonly used resolution in a domestic environment. If you're running XGA (1024x768) or SXGA (1280x1024) the same size text will appear smaller - possibly too small. This is not an uncommon problem where there is a lot of text to read, so the browsers have the ability to change the point size of text to make it more visible at different resolutions. Each browser behaves differently, and differently again between the same browser on different operating systems, but typically you will find it in the "View" menu under "Increase Font Size", "Text Size" or "Text Zoom".

We could have set up for as higher resolution and let you reduce the text size, but prefer the site to be wholly visible intially.

An apology to those using VGA (640x480) resolution, you will have an awful lot of scrolling to do – to have got this far will have been an epic struggle. Be sure that you are not running VGA because no-one told you that your computer could be set for a higher resolution – an unbelievably common occurance – but if it's purely because the computer can only support VGA, it's possibly time to contemplate an upgrade to your computer, monitor, video card or – and it would be cheaper than upgrading all three – start again from scratch. The difference will be amazing, not just here, but everywhere.

Can I use stuff from American-V on my own site?
All original material used within this site is copyright to American-V 2001-2006 because we have to protect our own, and our contributors' interests. If you wish to reuse any material, please contact us first for consent – we will generally look favourably upon non-commercial use elsewhere if properly accredited – or else we will put you in touch with the author for their permission.