Highlights of 2004

It’s time to look back on a sensational year on motorcyclenews.com. We’re focusing on the highlights of a stunning 12 months – from new bikes to new world champions.

We relaunched this year – added new sections and new functions – offered the ability to place ads online for the first time – updated our forums and stripped down and rebuilt the whole site.

Along the way we attracted 10 per cent more page impressions and half a million more unique visits. And that’s thanks to you!

We think we had plenty of reasons to visit every day – here’s just a quick selection from throughout the year.

It’s just a tiny example of what we’ve had on offer. We’ve added over 3000 articles to the site this year, now have more than 700 product reviews online and close to 300 bike-specific Bike Review sections – and then there’s all the videos, competitions, free wallpaper downloads, surveys, votes and more that we hope will keep you coming back for more.

January

Our “Sell Your Bike” classified ads section goes live. A unique “QuickShifter” function allows browsers to check out MCN reviews, user reviews, specs and more alongside examples of bikes for sale

February

The starts turned out for the MCN London Motorcycle Show – at the Ally Pally. Remember this? We also bumped into a bit of a bike nut preparing for a round the world jaunt. Think his name was Ewan McGregor…

March

5000 of you join us for a bit of a do up at Butlins. Yep – our MCN Spring Spectacular hauled in a record crowd. Here’s the highlights:

April

We kick off our long term test fleet with a new section of the site dedicated to them. Regular updated stories are also linked to dedicated bike-specific forums for fellow owners to discuss their bikes with us. Click here

May

The BMF Show at Peterborough turns out to be another “biggest ever”.

June

We relaunch the UK’s most visited bike site with a host of new features. If you’re new to the site, here’s a one hit guide to what’s on offer:

July

82,000 head for Donington to see Valentino Rossi win the British GP. We offer updates throughout the weekend – and thousands complain about traffic chaos. Click here

August

New bikes blaze a trail across the site – starting with the 05 ZX-6R and GSX-R1000. We compile everything we hear and see into our “New Bike Rumour Mill”

September

The Munich Bike Show reveals even more new metal. We’re first in the world to publish pictures of the BMW K1200R as it’s unveiled on stage in Germany.
Munich Show round-up: Click here

October

Toseland and Rossi celebrate. Britain’s James Toseland bags the WSB title – then comes and plays with his band at our Autumn Butlins bash. Top geezer.

Rossi’s success starts people thinking he could be the best ever…

November

The cream of the world of motorcycling gathers in Birmingham for the MCN Awards.
We offer a live and mobile webcam to help everyone share the sights of the NEC show – and upgrade our Have Your Say forums..

December

We launch a vote to name the best bikes ever – and Britain’s biggest ever biking lifestyle survey and a new Diesel Watch forum.