Mags

j_l

Who reads what?

Some of the UK mags are like comics others are just buyer’s guides are there any really good mags out there.

for me

MBUK, 3/10 only buy once in a while
WMB, 4/10 only buy once in a while
MBR, 5/10 only buy once in a while
Singletrack 6/10 only buy once in a while

Got MBA the other day 8/10, will buy it more

I subscribe to The Surfers Path and it has really good reader written articles with some of the best photos I have ever seen, is there a Mountain Bike equivalent?

I like the on line IMBIKEMAG that is quite good

any suggestions

Discuss

weeksy59

i subscribed to MBUK for teh free lights that were on it... i've not used the lights and the mag is rubbish LOL.

Dick Scruttock

Yep i agree, MBUK is shit.

.blitz

MBUK is the only one I'll buy without scanning through it first.

The others take themselves far too seriously and I think MBA is the ultimate cure for insomnia. Only the 'mericans could make MTBing seem dull & boring.

GhallTN6

For the newbie market they are great, find out about what kit to have, where to ride and of course what bike and bits to get.

After you've ridden half the stuff they write about, got all the kit you need, and spend 2k+ on a bike, you don't really want or need to know about the 2011 fox forks when you've splashed out on the 2010 ones!! And a lot of the riding is repeated anyway.

Did anyone read MBR's ride on Exmoor last month (bought it as I was travelling), they went to an exposed area, sometimes miles away from anywhere, without food, tubes etc.. couldn't believe it, and we are supposed to look up to these MTB guru's!

Herbie The Dog

Subscribe to MBR. Like the routes and advice sections.

Occasionally buy WMB. Bit samey.

Never buy MBUK. I'm not 'gnarly', 'sick' or 'rad' enough for something that 'cool'.

Too old for Dirt. Nice photography though.

Too young for Singletrack. Probably need to grow a beard and find a passion for combining camping with MTB.

None of them have decent reviews though and all of them seem biased towards certain brands.

I picked up some of the US mags when over in Colorado recently. God they were crap.

.blitz

GhallTN6 wrote:

Did anyone read MBR's ride on Exmoor last month (bought it as I was travelling), they went to an exposed area, sometimes miles away from anywhere, without food, tubes etc.. couldn't believe it, and we are supposed to look up to these MTB guru's!

+1

Reading between the lines it was basically a sh*te day out in a fabulous part of the country, not disimilar to their visit to the Peak District a while back. Sometimes it's good to fly by the seat of your pants but a bit of planning often helps.

Just goes to show that just because it's in a magazine doesn't make it right.

meesterbond

I tend to buy all of them from time to time when travelling and oddly enough MBUK seems to have the best mix of disciplines and content at the moment. I dismissed it years ago as being all about downhill and jumping, but it seems a lot more balanced now..

Singletrack I still enjoy as it's more of a read than just look at the pics, although the photos are great. It has more an 'enthusiasts' feel about it. If MBUK was your footie teams match day programme, then Singletrack would be the fanzine (albeit a very professional one!)

I did pick up one of the American mags and it was pretty dreadful - I'd go along with whoever said it manages to completely suck the fun out of the sport.

Thewaylander

I read MBUK work mates just bought me a subscription.

I find MBUK the more balanced mag as features all types of riding that interest me like street, and so on where all other mags generally focus overly heavily on one discapline. but i hate there reveiws as they are so biased lol.

And They had a similar one with the Dragonsback review about how far it was take supplies cos they didn't take enough. And I laughed cos Dragonsback is only 33k!

Still all good fun.

j_l

.blitz wrote:

MBUK is the only one I'll buy without scanning through it first.

That because you cant get the wrapper off with the free sh*t in to have a scan though.

:?

I liked MBA........I must be dull then :oops:

I I did like MBUK back in the day then it got all childish with Rob Warner dressing up.........what a to**er lol

Its better now but only slightly

I forgot Dirt, nicely done but to specific for me

are there any more on line mags apart from im bike mag

.blitz

J L wrote:

.blitz wrote:

MBUK is the only one I'll buy without scanning through it first.

That because you cant get the wrapper off with the free sh*t in to have a scan though.

WHS Stafford kindly provide a copy with the wrapper removed, because if they don't do it someone else will

J L wrote:

I liked MBA........I must be dull then :oops:

I used to buy it religiously but it's just so...meh. All those monochrome pics sooo 1990s dahling

S'funny reading about the folk who don't like MBUK; I used to loathe it - I even wrote them a letter telling them how sh*te it was - but I have gone full circle and find it most entertaining. Must be something to do with getting old, second childhood an' all that.

Thewaylander

i'm with you on this blitz,

I find when people tell me a bike mag is balanced it basicly is a strong XC mag... and I don't just ride that. Alot of us mix it up and want to see a mag that premotes all riding which in a bit of messy way MBUK does.

Northwind

I get them all. I love Dirt, it's the least relevant to me but it's well put together and there's so much content, so I reckon it's the best but I've got to mark it down for being basically for other people.

Singletrack's a wee bit erratic but when it's good it's the best, again IMO. More editorial freedom is a good and bad thing. It's not about bikes, it's about riding bikes.

WMB and MBR I think are much of a muchness, MBR consistently annoy me with their absurd bias (describing the 15mm QR as "light" and then in the same article quietly printing numbers that showed 20mm maxle light is lighter, frinstance, or saying of the Orange 5 "The wheels are too skinny and weak and the brakes don't work, 10/10!") but the rest of the mag is very good. WMB has a nice balance of being about bikes and also about riding bikes.

MBUK, again when it's good it's good but about 1/4 of every issue is usually of limited interest to me and it can be repetitive (the same things mentioned month on month, or more than once in the same mag).

Looking forward to issue 1 of Privateer, even if it does sound like gay pr0n.

So yeah, I get them all and they're all good. I suppose if I was going to put them in order it'd be something like...

Singletrack
WMB/MBR
Dirt
MBUK

.blitz

Think Dirt is my second favourite. Like Northwind, for me it's totally irrelevant but once I've got past the scatter-gun layout and microscopically small font it is very entertaining. The letters page is a riot, some of them have to be made up

hoochylala

Northwind wrote:

Looking forward to issue 1 of Privateer, even if it does sound like gay pr0n.

This. I had to assure the misses that when I received an email about the first issue I hadn't signed up to some obscure adult magazine

+1 for singletrack magazine, although The Ride Journal is my favorite, albeit being a couple of months between issue releases.

neninja

Get MBR and Singletrack most months.

MBUK is written by journo's who love seeing their own pictures splashed everywhere (and clearly fancy themselves) and it's all about them and their ego's instead of the bikes and riding.

The only magazine that's ever disappeared so far itself as MBUK was Performance Bikes magazine (motorcycle mag) about 5 years ago when every page seemed to be about how great they PB team were, accompanied by a picture of themselves. The new products pages used to be excruciatingly bad with them posing in new leathers etc clearly thinking they were supermodels but instead looking camper than Alan Carr.

Northwind

Then PB unexpectedly turned almost overnight into the best motorbike mag. Then it went rotten again. And now it seems to be alright. Funny old game. Who thought The Baron was a good idea? Answer, Top Gear, about a decade ago

RevellRider

I read Dirt, WMB, Singletrack and MBUK, as work stocks them all. I usually go for MBUK last and only when I'm taking a shoot at work

neninja

Northwind wrote:

Then PB unexpectedly turned almost overnight into the best motorbike mag. Then it went rotten again. And now it seems to be alright. Funny old game. Who thought The Baron was a good idea? Answer, Top Gear, about a decade ago

True - it improved hugely when the replaced the entire journalistic team overnight and stopped some of the freelancers - still not as good as it was in the early to mid 90's when they had the likes of John Robinson writing for them

colint

I've been buying them all for the last couple of months as I'm new to MTBing, but that'll stop now that I've bought a bike.

MBUK, irrelevant to me and crap
Dirt, irrelevant to me but a great magazine. Probably one I'd buy when bored in an airport etc
MBR, slightly annoying for reasons I can't quite define, but will buy it now and then for routes etc
WMB, now that I've spent my cash 75% of it is of no use. Really needs a revamp imho. Will only buy if theres an article of particular interest
Singletrack, it's hit and miss for me. When it's good it's the best one, when it's bad it's awful. Toying with a subscription as there's more to actually read rather than the others.

.blitz

Quite like Fast Bikes meself. It's so bad it's good and especially entertaining when you read a review of a bike you actually own :shock:

The editor always has the best sportsbike as a long termer, spunks £10k on various exhausts, carbon fibre wheels and alloy doodahs then swaps it for the latest and greatest, slagging off the old bike in the process. Priceless.

phoenixliston

J L wrote:

Who reads what?

Some of the UK mags are like comics others are just buyer’s guides are there any really good mags out there.

for me

MBUK, 3/10 only buy once in a while
WMB, 4/10 only buy once in a while
MBR, 5/10 only buy once in a while
Singletrack 6/10 only buy once in a while

Got MBA the other day 8/10, will buy it more

I subscribe to The Surfers Path and it has really good reader written articles with some of the best photos I have ever seen, is there a Mountain Bike equivalent?

I like the on line IMBIKEMAG that is quite good

any suggestions

Discuss

as far as print goes I like Dirt the most.. and definately always read IMB mag.Its easy to share stuff with mates as you just send them a link plus their latest issue is hands above the best yet, as its only their 7th.

Check it out: http://www.imbikemag.com/issue7

miss notax

Herbie The Dog wrote:

Subscribe to MBR. Like the routes and advice sections.

Occasionally buy WMB. Bit samey.

Never buy MBUK. I'm not 'gnarly', 'sick' or 'rad' enough for something that 'cool'.

Too old for Dirt. Nice photography though.

Too young for Singletrack. Probably need to grow a beard and find a passion for combining camping with MTB.

This (apart from the growing a beard bit )!!

I like MBR but, as i've said before, the ocassional nod to the fact the women do ACTUALLY ride would be nice. And yes, I know they had a ladies competition in it a few months ago but that's not what I mean!

Herbie The Dog

MBR used to have a small section for girls.

No idea why they dropped it.

miss notax

Yeah, the whole seperate section thing is a bit iffy.... I would just like to see more ladies in the magazine, rather than being seperated out. It's the same with most sport magazines mind, so I don't why I keep expecting that MTB mags get the hint when none of the other have :?

Anyway - i'll shut up now :oops:

.blitz

miss notax wrote:

I would just like to see more ladies in the magazine

So would I *rubs thighs in the style of Vic Reeves*

miss notax

Thewaylander

You don't see many because your percentage representage in the sport is about accurate to a magzine. If you see one lass in the photo's thats about right for the balance of girls biking to men.

Not being sarcastic either sadly, i think moer articles towards woman may encourage them indeed. but there really aren't that many of you in the sport to aim at to make money out of for a magazine.

Torres

I like Dirt; probably more than any of the others.
The columns talk about issues which can be applied to more aspects of life than just biking.
The reviews tend to give a balanced view, i've never seen a grouptest, or any kind of scoring system, they just give the facts and opinions about products.
And man can they take a photo.

I'd reccomend it, even if gravity riding isn't for you, it's a very enjoyable read.

phillyd

I see one persons mentioned The Ride Journal.

Probably a lot of other folk havent see it.
We're a bit different to most of the other magazines out there.

If you go to www.theridejournal.com
you can download issues 1 and 2 for free and if you like what you see we're got issue 4 for sale still (its a whole lot nicer in printed form but as we're sold out of earlier issues you can at least read the first two).


cheers
Philip
(editor of The Ride Journal)

hoochylala

phillyd wrote:

I see one persons mentioned The Ride Journal.

And I will mention it again I strongly recommend people read it!