Hot Bike in the 2000s | Gallery
As we all know the early part of the 2000s was the biggest boom of popularity in custom motorcycles, and Hot Bike was ground zero for it all. Due to the motorcycle television show boom, magazine package sizes upping to and more than 300 pages was the norm. It seemed as if every Tom, Dick, and Harry had a chopper or custom motorcycle company selling to the masses of people who wanted to be like Jesse James. In the mid-2000s Hot Bike’s staff consisted of a fluctuation of up to seven editors with Steve Bohn, Mark Masker, Greg Friend, Eric Ellis, and Jordan Mastagni being part of it all. In 2007 the economic bubble burst, which sent both bike riders and company owners into bankruptcy. Hot Bike turned lean and mean and survived the slender years surprisingly well.
Jeff G. Holt, who was the editor for Baggers magazine at the time, sat down in 2011 with the corporate suits and drafted a plan for Hot Bike’s visual and content redesign with the help of Art Director Robert Martin. They were awarded the go-ahead of their directive, and Jeff won the editorship of the magazine in 2012. It was at this time John Zamora was brought into the fold as associate editor as well. First up was a logo change that had both a current feel to it but harked back to the magazine’s first logo from 1971. The content of the magazine went from stale billet choppers and wide-tire customs to a wide variance of V-twin-powered bikes. Style, performance, and craftsmanship are what is shown in the magazine and online.