Mention Cycle magazine to the older enthusiast hanging outside Alice's and you're bound to get an earful. The magazine was killed off in '91. jim scanny

Today it's become commonplace for two giant companies to merge and for one of the former powerhouse, industry-leading widget-makers to fold up and disappear. It's, at times, sad to see brands and companies you've become accustomed to vanquished, but in the end it's perfectly legal and quite simply market forces at work. One gigantic company can work better and be more profitable than two large companies is the theory, although in practice it remains debatable. The stock market loves it, little doubt in that.

Cycle magazine folded fifteen years ago this month in one of the indystry's most notorious "mergers".

While those that survived the "Day of Days" might bristle at the term "folded" (Cycle was in fact merged with Cycle World) one thing is certain, the impact of Cycle's passing still remains traumatic in the hearts of many of readers and staffers. Unsurprisingly so, since it was the journal of record in motorcycling, and quite possibly the most popular motorcycle magazine, ever.

We reproduce this because some might doubt the numbers if we didn't. Cycle's 'Total paid circulation' in 1982: 460,386. soup scan

Why such a stratospheric boo-hoo level over some damn magazine, you ask? Well, like various men and machines that are recognized as "The Best", full justification of the title is slightly difficult to put into words. Cycle wasn't just the biggest motorcycle magazine in the world, it didn't just have some of the best writers on staff, probably the best road test team of the era, it had a wonderfully unique voice. Authoritative without being standoffish, serious when it mattered, funny when they could, Cycle was like having an older brother who raced. He'd impart wisdom when you needed it, and open your mind when you least expected it. To this very day, every time I pull out of my driveway in a pair of jeans as lower-torso riding gear I recall the data that Cycle revealed in one test, that denim basically explodes and starts burning after it impacts asphalt at 40 miles per hour.

Cycle magazine left you thinking, there's no doubt about that.

Many in the sidelines of the magazine and throughout the industry today have a difficult time with the how and why of "the death of Cycle" because even now it seems inconceivable. How can the biggest and best of its kind be silenced? Well, as we can see today, Cycle was simply ahead of its time: today mergers and acquisitions erase commercial and cultural mainstays every month it seems.

The question of "why" remains of course. Stories abound about the events that brought about the demise of Cycle, the most popular one has a high-profile VP of Cycle and Cycle World's management (David Pecker for those of you keeping track) looking at their respective subscriber/ad/cost numbers one day in New York, realizing they had two where one might be able to suffice and deciding then to kill Cycle.

Others point to the 1984 business deal which brought Cycle and Cycle World under the same ownership umbrella as a clear indicator that a day would come when one of the popular mags would be gone.

Fifteen years later the demise of Cycle remains both a mystery and a small-to-medium-sized tragedy. In a way like a high school acquaintance killed in a hit-and-run car crash hours after prom, most are left to stomach the how and why of questions that seem unanswerable.