If you want a terrible magazine, have a flick through Mountain Bike (the US one) some time. It's so thin it's practically a pamphlet, awful "toast your buddies" type fitness articles, mawkish human interest stories and shallow reviews. Dan Koeppel's column was good but that's about it.

Pretty much all MTB magazines are a bit repetitive – it comes with the territory. MBR know their demographic and cater to it, just like ST, Dirt and MBUK.

I think all magazines about everything may be terrible.

My wife reads a thing for people who quite like decorating their homes in a country cottage style and sometimes go outside to look at lambs and bunnies. It basically appears to come in 12 seasonal versions, but January 2009 is the same as January 2008 was.

Anyone fancy pasting a link to this thread on the mbr forum Interwebsite? Might be amusing.

i think mbr has been pants for a while .the routes are unreliable and the reviews seem to favour certain brands like specialized .when they did the trail bile of the year reviews they decided on their own definition of a trail which then excluded a lot of good bikes from consideration if they were over or under the travel .
also the " old blokes who should no better " pics have gone from amusing bruises on arses which we can all chuckle at, tp severed fingeres and general mutilation which make me want to chuck.

MBR is terrible, I haven't read MBUK for years. ST takes all of half an hour to read and is generally utter garbage these days, and I'm a subscriber!

Can't be bothered to read all those posts zzzz but agree with BWD – I quite like Bike and this month's issue is a cracker. It's the first time I've seen a mag do some focused stuff on women that isn't patronising or just plain crap, and I suspect is content that most blokes would be interested in reading too. About time. Otherwise confess to reading almost all the mags at some point through the year, but consistently come back to Dirt/ST as the only ones that really capturing what biking is about for me.

MBR is OKish but very fixed formula every month – depends on the 2 bikes they test and one main ride feature – quick read too

Dirt and MBUK better but depends on whats on like World Cup DH and other stuff – MBUK caters for broad spectrum (they have highs and lows but also surprises)

anyway these 2 get loads of premium double spread ads near front and you do get some good trips stories/interviews with bike designers etc especially in Dirt (Sam Hill riding their private test track!)

Singletrack is a bit dull, we do better reviews and photos of products for club newsletter. Also Singletrack has a load of low budget articles with no good pics and no bikes just memories of riding – do these guys actually get out that much! Singletrack gallery best thing in it and some of main articles good but they just don't get out as much

read most of them and have a couple of unread Singletracks indoors – so on the do I want to drop everything and read it front its very low

I last got MBR a few years ago for the train and was struck by how short it is. There was only about 4 articles in the whole thing, some were fine but just on quantity terms its not worth the £3 quid.

re MBUK, i kind of accept its for younger riders coming in so they have a 2-3 year turnover of articles but I did chuckle the other month leafing through it in the newsagent (cos it still has mint sauce in it for all its failings) and they had an article where they built up comedy shonky clunkers from spare parts and raced them. That must have also been in the last one i bought 5-6 years+ ago (and may or may not have been in again in between). It stuck in my mid as its such a barrel scraping article to start with. What made it funnier was that it was that doddy guy who did both – see it could be worse we only have to read it.

FWIW: Dirts quite good now and again. The decision to theme STW has been a success until recently.

I agree, MBR is poor. This months edition especially so. Also, with the number of adverts in the mag, I can't believe they need to charge money for it. Half the content seems to be advertisements!

MBR – used to subscribe until I realised the writing was dull and self-important. Don't go near with a bargepole now

MBUK – buy occasionally – a great source of news on all elements of the MTB scene and, although a bit low on substance, can be a giggle

What MTB – MBR written in the style of MBUK, but no bad thing. If I read another article on having "your best summer riding ever" I may top myself though.

Dirt – can't tell the difference between the ads and the articles

ST – As a Dad who doesn't get to ride as much as he wants I love reading about other old codgers and their global bike adventures. At least there are more words than pictures…usually 😀

Bigdummy; excellent review! 😆

MBR seems to be written by wannabe race aces. This latest issue even has a feature on how to race your mates. All the photos are taken with the riders in an agressive "eyeballs out" pose, as if they are aiming for a personal best time on their chosen test route. They seem to have forgotten that the bulk of us just go out to enjoy ourselves, not to prove how good we are.

Then their bike tests are a joke. They rave about Specialized (they pay well don't they?), but every other bike seems to fail to meet their unpublished standards, and get marked down until such time as MBR's identified faults are corrected. Do they not think that manufacturers have their own testing programmes, and maybe the bikes sold are aimed at a market that MBR won't acknowledge.

The biggest joke this month is the essential tools. A Phillips screwdriver is apparently something we must all buy before we are allowed to sit on a saddle. Mind numbingly banal. Took me as long to read as it did to drink a cup of coffee.

Don't worry guys it will all be over soon.

The internet is the death knell for most (if not all) print publications who cannot offer something valuable to their readers. As bike mags go that might be content such as great photography or good writing. But how valuable is the question. Personally I don't value it enough to buy any bike mag.

The dross will struggle to maintain subscriptions so will either have to improve, disappear or go online only. Or possibly become free but the overheads would have to be stripped out to the point where free would probably not be viable because ad revenue would not be enough.

I'm no expert – as you may have guessed! – but I would suggest that bike publishing must be at a bit of watershed. We're in a recession. More mags and sites than ever. Future publishing are a real giant online and print. The web is developing at a pace and users have higher expectations for quality, variety, interaction etc.

Lets face it bike mags – even the good ones – can only write about so much before it gets dull and repetitive. The web offers lots more in terms of social networking, video, audio, instant access to loads of different content and opinions. And its all free!

I no longer subscribe to any bike mags, just found them all too samey. If I want to know about product I will use Google, friends, forums like STW and bike shops.

I bought the May issue (i think)of ST whilst at a lose end waiting for a train. First time I had bought it in about a year. It kept my attention for an hour or so and my kids liked the pictures.

I think you can see how things are developing as people like Future and also ST get into events, holidays, shop etc. Incrementally different ways to support and develop different subscription models not based simply on buying a mag.

I understand that ST has a growing readership. But in the context of a declining market. So in the short – med term probably ok but longer term who knows.

Going for a lie down now.

I used to subscribe to mbr but cancelled it as the magazine went downwards from about 2004, so I cancelled it last year.
You can put this down to loads of things, but in my opinion things started to go wrong was when firstly, the industry stopped making such huge gains in suspension/bike performance which made the bike reviews interesting, and secondly the magazines as a whole tried telling you you needed six inches of travel to ride around Cannock. I cant believe anyone who actually rides at these places would come up with such a suggestion.

I think all magazines are the same to some extent – in that they regurgitate the same type of think with a certain frequency. It's the same with photography magazines/car magazines/golf/running etc….

And I guess they rely on new subscriptions => cancelled subscriptions

I really don't get online 'magazines'. I buy a magazine so I can read a bit when I have some spare time, pick it up & take it with me when dropping the kids off, if there's 15 mins before I a tv program starts or something like that.
I don't want to have to boot up my PC when I want to read a few snippets or a quick article.

Oh, and when was the last time that MBR had a Specialized bike as the winner? There was a close one recently for their Dirty Dozen test, but the Rockhopper was beaten by a Voodoo.
Prior to that, the last one I can remember was a Stumpjumper won a test that compared 4, 5 & 6" travel bikes. That was at least a yr ago though, if not longer……

Mr agreeable "shallow reviews"

I think that sums up Mbr nicely.

MBUK- it does try to pack alot of info (ok and a heck of alot of clothing ads) into each issue. So at least its good for a week of toilet visits..

during this years SSUK event someone had thoughtfully supplied the thunderboxes with "emergency toilet paper"…

basically the front covers of past MBR's and WhatMTB….

MBR seems to be written by wannabe race aces

Having practiced at the Megavalanche last year with a group that included a couple of MBR journos, I can confirm that while they might not be snapping at Remy Absalon's heels, they don't hang about.

The writing often embodies the cliched style of reviewing that people on here like to make fun of ("cut and paste handling" etc), but there are other people (not me, mind) who find "Personality: pickled onion Monster Munch" or Steve Jones wittering on about Ricky Carmichael's bar width to be just as irritating.

I really like AtoB.

It probably doesn't really class as a MTB mag though (as it covers folders, electric bikes and, occasionally, kettles)

yet another tiring essay about how the author always freaks out on a particular damp corner because of his demons.

Haha, funny because it's true.

See also: "I forgot how good my local trails are", "riding with friends is what it's all about", "look at my beard, isn't it great", etc etc.

The internet is the death knell for most (if not all) print publications

But as other people have alluded, you can't get the internet on the train, and you get funny looks if you take a laptop in when you go for a number two.

You've also got lots of websites out there that really do just cut and paste press releases, or are clueless, or ones who are out to bag themselves free stuff.

On the other hand, the intertwat has let people with minimal resources put together magazines that are as slick and well put together as real ones, and you can read them for free. Winner!

http://wideopenmag.co.uk/the-magazine

MR Agreeable – you have mis-quoted me. I actually said "the death knell for most (if not all) publications who do not offer something of value."

My point being good printed publications can thrive if they are doing something which their readers want / like, ie, great content.

You can increasingly get the internet on the train, and that will only improve as coverage does. You don't have to take your laptop into the toilet. You could take your phone or other mobile device. Or a mag.

Of course the web is chock full of dross but its easy to find that out and you don't have to blow £3 or £4 to do so. Personally I can't understand people saying they think MBR (or any other mag) is cack but keep on buying it. Vote with your wallet and the publishers will either listen or die.

Your example of WideOpen is exactly what I was referring to.

End of the day its horses for courses, personally I rarely buy any mags or newspapers anymore. However I now read more (printed) books than ever before.

Books and magazines will always be around I hope. They're nice and tactile (Kurt Vonnegut put it quite well when he talked about "their sweetly token resistance to handling"), don't need electricity and you don't feel like a nerd showing them to someone else. The people behind Rouleur and The Ride Journal realise this and make the most of it. I'd agree that your average glossy magazine with outdated news and ugly pictures is in trouble though.

Wow – This is by far the most responses ever received to something I've posted on STW!

I don't think MTB mags will become extinct. You need something to read on the bog 😳

I subscribe to MBR (only one I could get on Tesco vouchers). I'm fairly ambivalent about it – it's effectively 'free' and mostly inoffensive.

However, this month's edition amused me. It should have been 'MBR – bought to you by K9 Industries adjustable headset cups'. They had a sidebar about them in the front, and then proceeded to fit them to everything in the mag, instantly improving whatever they were fitted to. I half expected a review of the bog roll in their staff loo: 'The Andrex 2000 was more than capable, but once we tapped in the adjustable cups and tweaked the angle of delivery on the holder, it became an arse-wiping monster. We rock.'

What an amusing thread. Thanks to iamtherealspartacus and big dummy for really good contributions. 😆
I read comics once in a while to keep up with whats down with the kids, but thats about it. If you don't like em, buy summit else instead.

Good 😀

I just cancelled my MBR subscription last month!

Absolute waste of money.

The December 2008 MBR was an obvious exception to the rule……..but I find MBUK all a bit shiny and gnarly for me. I imagine the MBUK guys to constantly have their elbows stuck out, even when walking round the office and down the road ;-D

I know I shouldn't, but I do still get annoyed with product reviews when they don't include ANY womens items (gloves, shorts waterproofs). Is it really THAT hard to get hold of womens kit and to get someone to test it properly? Get it, I'll test it for you!!!

I still have Australian mags and they were a fresh read from the norm.

I still buy Cycling Weekly occassionally.