rather than travelling around the worl to a series of bike shows, would the staff not be better concentrating on getting the mag back on track
aftre all we can get interbike stuff fom numerous places, seems like they are regurgitating the same stuff from different shows?

Yeah, the coverage is a bit thin compared to (for example) NSMB.

If you'd stayed at home you might have remembered to put the fork weights on the bolt-through grouptest in the current edition.

I shouldn't really comment as I no longer regularly buy the magazine, but I am quite interested in the shows personally. 🙂

I haven;t bothered reading anything from interbike or any of the trade shows on any sites, TBH

i may be wrong, but the staff seem to take a great slice of their time travelling to trade shows, it may be they make more of their money from the web site, which is fair comment, maybe they need more staff, just thought the last mag was very poor, and i thought lookd like it had been rushed with little interesting content.
it may just be me

Personally I'm not the slightest bit interested in seeing the latest weird niche stuff hidden away in the corner of a show.

If there was something genuinely new and innovative, I might be more likely to pay attention to a proper review of it, but let's face it, we've all seen pictures of fixies, belt drives, 29ers, handbuilt frames, etc. It's dull, repetetive, and basically just a good excuse for lazy journos and industry types to have a holiday on company expenses. Spend some time on decent content rather than just schmoozing with your mates!

On the other hand I didn't mind the current issue of the mag (though definitley not the best one) and quite enjoy the show coverage (though I hate the video coverage – crap to watch, you can't really see what they're showing properly and they're not exactly naturals in front of the camera I'm afraid. Plus you can't really get much from it if you don't have sound on – eg NSFW).

no i thought the previous edition was poor and had been feeling i was reading very similalr stuff for a few editions so i cnaclled my subscription, pleased i did as all the interviews i hear about in the last edition are just not what intersts me. I used to love the mag when it started but it seemed to be samey lately. I agree with op that actually interbike and all th eother shoes are not of that much interest ot me. I'd rather be reading about good riding around the country with the odd trip abroad. guess thats why i cancelled. i can but the issues which look good

are we really interested in interbike

in a word [or 4] – not in the slightest

Don't confuse your own preferences with the majority opinion. Show stories are without exception the most read stories we publish on the site. Go look at how many times they have been read. No other site shows the read count of a story.

If it doesn't interest you then that's totally fine – we aren't going to please everyone but by covering shows like Eurobike and Interbike we are pleasing a sizeable majority of readers. Just don't read those stories if you are not interested.

Interbike this year seems to be suffering from a) the recession and b) a cracking good Eurobike that 'stole' all the new and interesting launches. There's not a great deal here at Interbike that's new.. at least not compared with previous years. But there's two days left and we'll make the most of them and see what we can find 🙂

I'm off to bed now having just come back from the NWD 10 Premiere. Production values are as high on this film as i've seen on any previous MTB film. In fact I think they've gone one step further on that front. The action is stunning and the soundtrack includes the title track – Uprising – from the new Muse album. But there's one segment that features no music at all. Instead they've mic'd up the riders and his bike. The effect is amazing! You hear every pebble that's dislodged and the effect is really quite breathtaking.

Er – they're the only stories I read to be honest. Eurobike stuff is awesome and I like the frame builders one that has all the steel bikes with mental lugs.

If you don't like looking at new shiny bike bits then you're not wired up right

trade shows aren't just about the trinkets on show, they are about networking and seeing all the right people.

i would imagine for a bike magazine, getting round and see all the marketing managers is pretty important for securing advertising…

There is a magazine!?!?

I actually quite like the trade show stuff. But…

I wish the gang would learn how to use video properly!

Like garlic bread video is the future, but the ST posse need to learn the basics.

A better camera for starters. Plan the review / interview. Possibly better sound, especially when its noisy. Learn how to interview someone. Try to have 2 people doing it, one to hold the camera and the other to talk etc. Some of the stuff from Eurobike was really poor.

The other thing I would like to see more of from the shows is some interviews with people. There's always loads of "faces" at these things and I'm always interested to see them for real as it were. However, as with the above, do it properly not like a sixth form media class.

I like the trade show stuff. I like to see the new, shiny and boutique stuff, even if I'm not going to be buying it.

I can see why people would like it. I can't afford new shiny stuff so don't read it as I know I cna't afford it

Would be silly for them not to report from it given they're fairly major events on biking related items. Hey! Maybe they could even use some of the news found to improve the mag just for easygirl, although wait you don't want to know about it.

God, it must be a nightmare having to put up with stories you dont want to read on a FREE website!

I like it. Always interested where people can take the concept of a self-propelled wheeled personal transport system. Some clever, some daft.

I have to say – the biggest bike show in Europe and the biggest bike show in the world seem to be worth covering – for a bike mag for people who are interested in bikes enough to buy bikes and ride bikes and read about bikes.

More interesting than the mag if you ask me.

I think the point was, ritchiethesilverfish, that the OP felt that all these junkets were resulting in a poorer quality magazine that we DO pay for.

I do kind of agree that the mag has slipped a bit since the early days – I used to read it cover to cover and don't do so now. Whether that is because I am not as involved in mountain biking as I was or not though I really don't know. I do quite like the coverage of the shows though (though not the video – I just can't be arsed with video content on the web). If it were a straight choice between a better mag and coverage of shows though I think the mag would win out every time (though I suspect it isn't as simple as that!)

"maybe they need more staff"

make a donation then?

make a donation then?

No, sorry. We need to be fairly clear about this. Singletrack is a business. Various people run a website, publish a magazine etc, because it makes (at least) enough money to enable them to continue doing it, and because they want to. Otherwise they're daft.

If they need more money for the operating costs of their business than is available out of revenue then the usual ideas for businesses in this position would be to ask someone to lend them money and to pay interest, or to ask someone to subscribe for capital and take a share of the uplift in value.

Wandering around shaking the charity tin would be absent from the list of possible funding options for any sane business, and to be fair I don't think the chaps think it should be on there, except as a contribution to the upkeep of the classifieds on the site. 🙂

fair point, STW actually specified that to the right of the donation link.

mark,
ok i wont read it, mag subscription will be cancelled first thing tomorrow

cheers for the considered reply

not listening to your Readers of the magazine, and there is a sizeable number of people on here stating the mag has gone downhill lateley will result in said mag folding, i do hope not

chuck,
i do make a donation by subscribing to the mag every month!

well i used to

im not complaining about the coverage of shows on the web site, what i am sying is it seems that the magazine is suffering i quality of content because staff are away at trade shows.
i know a sizeable chunk of income probably comes from the web site, but i thought the mag was the main focus, that may have changed now, and the mag maybe secondary, that would explain the reduction in the quantity and quality of articles over the last 6 months

People clicking on stuff doesn't necessarily make that a good thing to devote your energies to, or you'd have binned the MTB stuff in favour of pics of Kylie's bum.

i know a sizeable chunk of income probably comes from the web site

Far from it.

im still fizzing over marks coments!
its only one sub i know, but what a waanker

Far from it.

maybe not directly, but I'd expect it drives mag sales to a degree

easygirl – Member
im still fizzing over marks coments!
its only one sub i know, but what a waanker

Oh get over yourself you self-important tart. His response was pretty much factual and objective.

ok, im over it

mark,
ok i wont read it, mag subscription will be cancelled first thing tomorrow

cheers for the considered reply

Would you like your dummy back?

I hate all the niche-chasing ("ooh, we were excited by a bloke with a beard and a welding torch, who was showing a 650B tricycle with a 29er front, made of solid birch and a chain on the left not the right") but then every so often I'll see a Nicolai or the like and suddenly I get interested.

So I guess I'm not totally anti, but perhaps the number of pages devoted to the really geeky bike-show specials is a bit much.

easygirl – Member
ok, im over it

I'm glad you managed that in just under 5 hrs. 🙄

i was only fizzing 29 minutes ago, and im over it now, so dont push it 😉

As big Chuck says

"you're either a waanker or a liaar"

hoo-ah

who you calling a liar

maybe not directly, but I'd expect it drives mag sales to a degree

Far from a 'sizebale' chunk though.

Calling someone a **** because they gave you a clear and honest answer it just pathetic.

TooTall – Member

easygirl – Member
im still fizzing over marks coments!
its only one sub i know, but what a waanker

Oh get over yourself you self-important tart. His response was pretty much factual and objective.

+1