05: Review of the Year

July

MCN BikeWatch goes live: Our purpose-built website invites users to register details about their bikes to help stamp out bike theft. If you haven’t already, try it now: HERE

British GP attracts massive crowds, a fair few moans and rain-filled clouds – remind yourself what it was like here:

We decide to ride to Italy and back. Nothing daft about that. Ah, but we decide to do it on £1K clonkers – then try to sell them after. Regular updates from the chaos that ensued are here:

August:

One of our MCN Sofas becomes extremely collectable when every MotoGP star you can think of (yes, including that Rossi chap) sign it at the Day of Champions. This is where it ended up CLICK HERE

Cannonball run: Take Adam ‘Chad’Child, a race bike, too many late nights, and a load of like-minded riders ready for an ego-off, and this is what you get…

September

If a new bike is going to emerge, we’re going to be there. The motorcyclenews.com team set up shop in Paris to be able to bring you the new metal for 2006 the moment it emerged. We saw some nice ladies, too. Remember this?

October

MCN celebrated its 50th birthday. Online Editor David Cushman got soaked to the skin in a co-ordinated water-pistol attack. You all got very drunk. Click here to relive it now.

We moved the office, lock, stock and barrel (well, laptops and webcam, then) to the MCN stand at the NEC Show to bring you all the action as it happened from Britain’s biggest bike show. Daily webcasts included live interviews with the winners at the MCN Awards night bash. Catch up with it all here

November

motorcyclenews.com was on the road again in November – this time with Milan and its huge bike show – the world’s biggest ever – our destination. We were able to bring you pictures of bikes within seconds of them being unveiled for the first time anywhere. CLICK HERE

MCN’s 50th: The paper turned 50 this month. And to celebrate we had last year’s WSB champion James Toseland turn up to cut the cake, then play with his band Crash in our boardroom. We recorded so you could share (the music that is, not the cake, sorry): Click here

The MCN T-shirt he wore went for £91 when we auctioned it on MCN Auctions

December

Discovery Channel offer us exclusive American Chopper footage from the new series. You can see it here:

MCN’s world-beating MotoGP reporter Matt Birt gives the exclusive background to the Biaggi story in a unique audio file.

And regulars on our Have Your Say forums get together for Christmas gatherings in the west and in London. Click here for the West ride-out and here for the London drinks sesh…

We hope you enjoyed 2005 as much as we did and look forward to seeing you regularly on motorcyclenews.com throughout 2006.

Have you discovered MCN Auctions yet? Click here

At year’s end we’re taking a look back at what’s been a spectacular year on motorcyclenews.com.

It’s a year that’s seen us pick up a major national award, have lunch with the PM at Number 10, become the first consumer title in the UK to launch an online auction… and get soaked to the skin in a massed water-pistol attack at MCN’s 50th birthday Butlins bash.

We’ve broken new bike news from around the world, run the site live from the NEC, made live webcasts from the MCN Awards and other events and taken the number of registered users to over 175,000 and the monthly page impressions to beyond 5.5million.

Here’s some of the highlights:

January:

The MCN London Motorcycle Show attracts 58,000 to the Ally Pally. Babe squad entries (and our video clips of them) go down a storm. Lucy Pinder and Michelle Marsh open the show. See them here

February:

Gone-but-not-forgotten MCN staffer Tony Hoare takes up the challenge of performing a back-flip. The resulting ‘Fat lad freestyle’ video clip is still being downloaded to this day. Click here

March

We get an invite to No10 for lunch and Q&A session with the PM. A word in Tony’s ear and BikeWatch and motorcycling comes out the winner. Click here

motorcyclenews.com is shortlisted in the PPA awards for Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year. See May for more on this…

April

MCN Butlins Spring Spectacular is exactly that at sunny Skegness. Click here for pics and video

MCN’s print editor Marc Potter becomes a candidate for the MCN Party at the General Election. Remind yourself here:

May

Big news for us! This website bags the PPA Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year award. It’s as good as the Oscars for us. Click here

The BMF Show kicks of the riding year for many. We lead two huge ride-ins, remind yourself with video clips here

June

MCN becomes the first consumer brand in the UK to launch an online auction: MCN Auctions. We launch with a host of great items raising cash for charity – and Carl Fogarty’s own SP goes from £0 to £21,000 in just 24 hours

July to December on page two…