MBUK going downhill?

marko75

What the hell is wrong with MBUK? Sooooo many freaking ads its getting silly. Now 'editorials' (read advertisements) for tools that were supplied to kit out the MBUK offices?

Sorry guys but I think its time to cancel my subscription - if I want to see ads I will wait for the free paper!

supersonic

There are more ads - but are more pages too, so content hasn't decreased. In fact are more features and articles than ever.

marko75

Sorry supersonic but it just doesnt feel that way.... even the 50 trail centre book is a re-hash of last year and now with the muc-off recommended trail seems a little like selling out.... maybe I am just getting old and cynical!

supersonic

Aren't we all ;-)

The style of the mag has changed quite a few times in the last decade or so, and there are certainly more people writing for them. I guess the ads pay for this!

I quite liked this months issue. not just saying that because I write for What Mountain Bike, but I did like what was in it. And the free SIS drink was great for my hangover ;-)

bluechair84

I'm not a big fan of MBUK either, but it's the style rather than number of adverts. I assume it's a target audience thing. Anyway, it could be worse. It could be Bike Action!
Have you tried Dirt? The sub-editor needs sacking (if they have one) but it's geared more towards interesting wordy articles. Always makes a great read.

marko75

Yes tried Dirt - may give it a go again. Singletrack has changed also - may have to give that a tinkle too....

ilovedirt

bluechair84 wrote:

Have you tried Dirt? The sub-editor needs sacking (if they have one) but it's geared more towards interesting wordy articles. Always makes a great read.

This, the articles in dirt are really good (if poorly proof-read), but I do like the gear reviews in mbuk. The actual articles are gash though.

DodgeT

I like the reviews in MBUK - even though sometimes they are very contradictory.

But mainly, I used to read it when I first got into mountain biking when I was about 13, so it's like continuing my youth a little. Oh and I like the pictures, it helps to make me want to get out and ride

miss notax

How funny, I have been thinking about how much MBUK has improved over the past few months!!

5 years ago it was very young and trendy which didn't really fit with me (ie old and not trendy ) - I wouldn't mind betting they are simply following the demographic that spending the money these days, which is more likely to be slightly older peeps with comparatively more disposable income.

I do wish they would incorporate more piccies of ladies MTBing though - its a shame that ladies looking to get into the sport can't see many female role models. Usually the only piccie of a girl riding along a flat bit of featureless trail, it would be nice to show that us girls can actually ride other stuff too.

I haven't noticed the ads to be honest, but as the ad manager of another niche sport title I commend any publication that is increasing it's advertising at the moment!!

DodgeT

miss notax wrote:

I do wish they would incorporate more piccies of ladies MTBing though !

Won't find many arguments to that statement here

miss notax

echowitch

Hmm I thought that there was a distinct increase in female riders pics. Especially the last 6 months which has featured two female champs, and one semi-retired champ discussing fitness. (I don't have the mags to hand to fish out specifics.)

There's still a predominance towards the higher spec and higher priced end of the scale, but there have been some lower end priced bikes which have been tried out. The gear reviews are something I enjoy specifically. Especially that there is a Best, and Best Budget option.

Advertising.....I've not noticed an increase but I know what you mean from other magazines. Some of them are almost all adverts, but they often pay the bills and keep the magazine afloat. I've felt at times that the magazine I write for has too many adverts but its still a small number in comparison to the number of articles we slave away at producing for the magazine every month. Some of our competitors though are mostly adverts and one or two articles thrown in as an after thought.

The freebies on the front cover are always welcome though

miss notax

echowitch wrote:

Hmm I thought that there was a distinct increase in female riders pics. Especially the last 6 months which has featured two female champs, and one semi-retired champ discussing fitness. (I don't have the mags to hand to fish out specifics.)

Singletrack I think

Don't get me wrong, there is the ocassional photo, just not enough in my humble opinion!

echowitch

miss notax wrote:

echowitch wrote:

Hmm I thought that there was a distinct increase in female riders pics. Especially the last 6 months which has featured two female champs, and one semi-retired champ discussing fitness. (I don't have the mags to hand to fish out specifics.)

Singletrack I think

Don't get me wrong, there is the ocassional photo, just not enough in my humble opinion!

LOL no no definitely MBU. Rachel, Manon (think I spelt that right) and one other. But yes there should be more in there. But its a male dominated sport, so the emphasis will be on the guys. We have the same problem in Paintball (tournament) but there are a couple of high profile all-girl teams that stand out. Not just because they are girls but because they are awesome players

homers_double

Witch, I think the above posters are refering to boobs and a distinct lack of.

For what it's worth I thought MBUK started going downhill when I was about 15, some 19 or so years ago. Props for keeping going so long though.

.blitz

mbuk is a lot less rad than it used to be.

Page after page of pretty pictures with a paragraph or two describing the picture and so much in common with wmb sometimes it's hard to know which is which but for me at least they both stay on the shelf.

Much prefer IMB, Wideopen, Decline and Dirt although the latter is getting more like a rag mag every month.

Thewaylander

miss notax wrote:

echowitch wrote:

Hmm I thought that there was a distinct increase in female riders pics. Especially the last 6 months which has featured two female champs, and one semi-retired champ discussing fitness. (I don't have the mags to hand to fish out specifics.)

Singletrack I think

Don't get me wrong, there is the ocassional photo, just not enough in my humble opinion!

Thing is it's probably in proportion with the number of women riding compare to the number of men.

bluechair84

.blitz wrote:

IMB, Wideopen, Decline

Not heard of those before, might have to look them up.
I don't buy the mags very often so don't know about Dirt declining, but the pictures are spectacular in there. I prefer the pics to MBUK... I hope they're not loosing their style as I was thinking of picking up a subscription.

bluechair84

Oh, and for the breast-ly minded of you, Dirt had a very nice picture of Gee Atherton up on the moors baring his chest to a woman, who was retuning the favor! I'll show you mine if you show me yours... I'm not sure that's what Miss Notax had in mind but... I appreciated it

miss notax

Thewaylander wrote:

miss notax wrote:

echowitch wrote:

Hmm I thought that there was a distinct increase in female riders pics. Especially the last 6 months which has featured two female champs, and one semi-retired champ discussing fitness. (I don't have the mags to hand to fish out specifics.)

Singletrack I think

Don't get me wrong, there is the ocassional photo, just not enough in my humble opinion!

Thing is it's probably in proportion with the number of women riding compare to the number of men.

I wrote a long post about this and then deleted it as a) I sound a bit mad, and b) no-one probably cares anyway

So instead i'll just say, agreed. But the problem is that it then becomes self-perpetuating; not many photos of girls biking, so girls think they can't do it as no obvious role-models, so not many girls on the trails, so not many photos in the media etc etc.

More pics of girls biking = more girls thinking 'ooh that look fun, I fancy a go' = more girlies on the trails

milko9000

What would it take for the girls to pick up the mag in the first place and see these pics?

I guess it needs some cover shots that aren't "dude going around corner fast".

miss notax

I think the cover 'dude going around corner fast' pics are fine - if someone has a passing interest in MTBing then they are going to have a quick flick through the mag. Just a bit more balance in the mags would be good

lawman

Dirt is an excellent mag, shame its so DH orientated, it is pretty much my go to magazine these days, only keep my mbuk subscription cos I got a free madison saddle out of it, and it costs me nothing as it was a present Singletrack isn't too bad, but I agree that MBUK and WMB are far too similar these days, needs to a bit of a divide between them imo. agree with too many ads though, sure it pays for the mag and all, but the reviews aren't great, the bike tests are shocking, and the occasional grouptest is normally ok, fork, brakes etc, but the rest is pretty poor these days.

bluechair84

I'm so bored by tests... I can get them here and tbh, there's nothing I want to buy! My rides are complete apart from the odd bling and no review is bad enough to put me off bling. Just give me solid interesting stories. The Ride Journal is ok for that actually.

cycle monster

marko75 wrote:

Sorry supersonic but it just doesnt feel that way.... even the 50 trail centre book is a re-hash of last year and now with the muc-off recommended trail seems a little like selling out.... maybe I am just getting old and cynical!

Ooh is the trail centre book still several years out of date? I love nostalgia. There was a feature in last years issue about a section of the red route at Thetford that was dismantled two or three years ago.

hucking_fell

lawman wrote:

Dirt is an excellent mag, shame its so DH orientated...only keep my mbuk subscription cos I got a free madison saddle out of it

I agree that Dirt is more DH orientated than MBUK, WMB and MBR but there are far more trail bikes featured in Dirt now than just a few years ago. With enduro type racing, which appeals to many DHers, taking off there's bound to be more single crown AM / trail bikes featured too. Even 29ers have snuck in there. Something the editor admitted to saying he'd never let happen.

You could always phone Future Publishling and change your subscription to MBUK over to WMB. You just need your number from the sheet of paper that comes with every issue. The one immediately above your address.

That's what I did recently because I thought MBUK was getting a bit silly and repetitive. More to do with me getting older than the magazine maybe. I still subscribe to Dirt as well.

lawman

Hucking Fell wrote:

lawman wrote:

Dirt is an excellent mag, shame its so DH orientated...only keep my mbuk subscription cos I got a free madison saddle out of it

I agree that Dirt is more DH orientated than MBUK, WMB and MBR but there are far more trail bikes featured in Dirt now than just a few years ago. With enduro type racing, which appeals to many DHers, taking off there's bound to be more single crown AM / trail bikes featured too. Even 29ers have snuck in there. Something the editor admitted to saying he'd never let happen.

You could always phone Future Publishling and change your subscription to MBUK over to WMB. You just need your number from the sheet of paper that comes with every issue. The one immediately above your address.

That's what I did recently because I thought MBUK was getting a bit silly and repetitive. More to do with me getting older than the magazine maybe. I still subscribe to Dirt as well.

MBUK have the odd decent feature, I very, very rarely buy wmb, thats too far to the xc side of things, which I find pretty boring tbh. Must admit I had a clear out of mags recently, as room is pretty tight atm in my tiny room at uni, and I actually threw away a few recent WMB and MBUK issues, just nothing of interest in them what so ever, and MBUk definitely seems a bit childish as well, it just has a really cheap feel to it. Singletrack is pretty arty, actually applied for a job there, and sometimes it makes a pretty good read. Dirt imo is the best mag these days by far, the 29er article was genuinely an awesome read, and they feature decent tests and great photos, and like you say the more trail/AM bikes they begin to include, the better. the Dirt 100 they do every year is something I religiously buy, and have done since 2009, its just full of awesome kit, there's no ad bullshit, its just proper kit and decent articles. If they really begin to increase their amount of trail/am stuff, my subscription is going to them!

supersonic

actually applied for a job there

Since you are reviewing us, I might review you ;-)

bluechair84

They do seem to be suggesting that trail bike and even 29ers are becoming viable DH alternatives on some occasions. It wouldn't surprise me if they expanded to cover aggresive trail riding and gravity enduros in greater proportion...

lawman

you never know if they have hired someone more into trail and AM stuff and have therefore expanded there market abit, they have reviewed and done articles on a fair few trail bikes recently, was particularly impressed by the bike tests, think the two most recent were canyon strive and devinchi dixon, both made for good reading. have to admit though, Bikeradar.com is probably the best website pretty close with pinkbike, dirt's and singletracks aren't great, spend most of my time on here and pinkbike.

felix.london

bluechair84 wrote:

I'm so bored by tests... I can get them here and tbh, there's nothing I want to buy! My rides are complete apart from the odd bling and no review is bad enough to put me off bling. Just give me solid interesting stories. The Ride Journal is ok for that actually.

This. Bike test, gear tests, kit tests. Bored, bored, bored. My (overpriced, overseas) sub went to Dirt. Just a more enjoyable read than the others (imho of course )