I like MBR so i thought i would subscribe. I went on their website and saw a banner saying “free 661 gloves + 10% off” in fact there is four banners stating said offer. If you look they are on there now.
So i duely thought ‘bonus’ i get gloves as well.
i set up a subscription and emailed them to say what size gloves i wanted.

OK
I get an email saying that i dont get gloves.
i say what? its advertised!
then they asked me for proof of the advertisement!!
i said “look on your own website”
i then got an email from IPC saying that my subs has been cancelled with the last issue being august 2009!

am i missing something here?

the fail is in your first sentence.

wondered how long a comment like that would take LOL

The free gloves offer was about a month ago because a mate got a pair recently. Perhaps they had run out of gloves but forgot to remove offer. A bit shoddy of IPC you think they would have fessed up to their mistake and offered you the camelback they have as a subs offer at the moment.

editJust had a look and its not there now

i asked about the camelback-but they ignored the question

Take your money elsewhere.

MRB and UKMTB and WHATMTB are all feckers for failing to provide items with subs..

used to be classic listening to ppl moan about missing pedals, jumpers, jerseys, coats, etc after taking out subs..

FYI it’s not the mag that supplies them it’s dennis publishing and once they are out it’s tough titty!!

im not that bothered about the gloves-i just see that as a bonus. it was the mails saying ‘you dont get a free gift’ without any explanation and then one telling me to prove that i get free gloves that worried me!

Guido, drop me an email at andy_waterman [at] ipcmedia.com and I’ll have a look into it. All sounds a bit rubbish/weird.

I’m not about in the office on Weds, but I’ll try and get back to you on Thursday

Going to be honest. I never sub any mag. The quality rises and dips alarmingly. So I pop down to WHsmiths, rip open the packaging (sorry- why do you need to hide the contents again?), then if its worth buying I’ll take the mag and its open wrapper to the counter.
Luckily mags like Autocar dont resort to hiding their contents. This months mbr and last months mbuk were appalling for depth of content.

Edit- the last few months of MBUK had been packed with info- why has it gone all thin/light on content and heavier on ads again?!

cant you screw them? they offered a sweetner to get you to sunscribe then pull it away.

its like a girl showing you her norks then covering up again when you get tentage. so close and tempting but ultimately rather sad and empty feeling.

Current subs offer for MBR is a Camelbak Classic – it’s in this mont’s mag.

I work at IPC. Your story is par for the IPC course 😀

Going to be honest. I never sub any mag.

Have considered the same. I have a sub to ST, but it’s laziness that prevcents me from sacking it. I also subscribe to Rouleur, which is excellent.

Sick of hearing about Doddy this, doddy that. Hes probably a top bloke, seems to be a decent rider as well. Heaven knows we are shown every angle of him jumping, relaxing, riding, thinking..you name it…what next readers husbands section with him laying ontop of a Lapierre? Seriously, balance MBUK. Its abit creepy.

Sick of hearing about Doddy this, doddy that. Hes probably a top bloke, seems to be a decent rider as well. Heaven knows we are shown every angle of him jumping, relaxing, riding, thinking..you name it…what next readers husbands section with him laying ontop of a Lapierre? Seriously, balance MBUK. Its abit creepy.

Totally agree with you there. It's just a little bit weird isn't it? MBUK always was a little bit chummy with it's staff, sort of like a cliquey fansine for and produced by the people producing it – witness pages devoted to Rob Warner and a certain Brant etc. in the 90's.

The whole Doddy thing is really pretty bizzare from an adult viewpoint – maybe it's gauged to provide some sort of idol-worshipping appeal to impressionable 15 year old boys reading the mag? He evidently thinks he's simply the tits, when he's actually one of the most ugliest people I've ever seen in a bike mag, ever.

They should concentrate on content and the kit they are reviewing. They even had little free standing thumb-articles on Doddy ffs.

ourmaninthenorth – Member
Have considered the same. I have a sub to ST, but it's laziness that prevcents me from sacking it.

Hearing you there, buddy. Haven;t read the mag since about issue 44 or so?

I subscribed to MBR a few months ago and got a free Altura Nevis jacket. Saw this and thought "result" Took the feckers 7 weeks to get it to me. Total joke.

Ok I did eventually get it, but that timescale is a joke.

Why are mags sealed occassionally? Its not always a free buff etc, sometimes its a calender or Evans catalogue if that. Its annoying as you need to see the content etc dont you before spanking over £4

Stop the spunk sticking init.

FWIW the ad is still there on the website…

The ads still up there because it attracts new subs. New punter waits weeks for freebie, hes bought into the mag so its worked/no item.

Someone needs to contact the ASA?

…he's actually one of the most ugliest people I've ever seen in a bike mag, ever.

And that's really saying something when you look at the rest of the 'talent'.

I remember reading the issue where Doddy had just been signed on as 'the new boy'. The next month was when it became Doddy's MBUK.

but Hora you share every tedious minutiae of your existence on this very forum, your digestive problems, car buying, the colour of your dogs poo and your numerous bikes so why the problem with doddy?

Doesnt sound any different to ST!

In fairness MBR is rubbish, so what were you doing subscribing? I'd rather buy a guidebook and map every two months!

MBUK I quite like, mainly because its pitched at about the right skill level for most of us. I.e. its aspirational, but atainable riding.

ST I hate, sorry lads, but the church newsletter layout, and the fact that the best photographs are the ones sent in for the gallery? I think gave up arround the time you did a feature on routes you could get to by train, one looked like a cyclepath arround Edinburgh! Come on, it must be the most out of the way place to get to for most of us unless your already local, and thats the best? The learnign to wheelie feature was a bit pants too, a)why wheelie when manualings more suefull? b)it never actualy told you how to wheelie, just about your day out trying! There was a mega peaks route years ago, with a teo page spread of a picture of a rider on a track taken form the other side of the valey, at least i think it was a rider, the image was so out of focus and grainy my mum takes better pic on her cameraphone! And breathe………..

The only article ive ever re-read was "its all about plan C", that was actualy quite good.

Dirt I like, good photography, interesting layouts (ok, so its easy to complain about them, but at least you dont expect them to end with the minutes of the parish council meeting), interesting articles (I quite like reading other peoples waffel, even if it has no real point), aspirational (I'll never set a sub minute 1:04), atainable (theres always someone on a bet up hardtail), and ammeturish enough to be good fun (they do have atendancy not to follow stuff up though, like bike build reviews etc). If ST was more like Dirt for XC riders, id buy it again, but its not, so I wont.

Does dirt still have the tiny hard to read font thus stopping oldies like me from reading it? 😆

probably, but looks about the same size as all the other mags?

More room for pics anyway, which is the other good bit, once youve read it, spending time with scisors cuttin it up and plastering the garrage wall!

"spending time with scisors cuttin it up and plastering the garrage wall!"

Ah.. of course! That explains it… You're 10

🙂

Eeee I still remember plastering Sandra Bullock allover my bedroom walls. Now I could type something else that adds into the above but this is a family website after all 8)

The whole Doddy thing is really pretty bizzare from an adult viewpoint – maybe it's gauged to provide some sort of idol-worshipping appeal to impressionable 15 year old boys reading the mag? He evidently thinks he's simply the tits, when he's actually one of the most ugliest people I've ever seen in a bike mag, ever.

Obviously you're not old enough to remember the days when Jamie Hibbard worked there then. Christ, I don't think he was even able to pedal a bike. Still, he seems to have done pretty well for himself, regardless of how he looks.

its like a girl showing you her norks then covering up again when you get tentage

they're allowed to change their minds…

SFB, do you have search terms set up to 'norks' 'bums' and 'ladies bits'?

not 10, i wish………………

I just read ST and think, I could do better than this. Maybe I couldn't, but I dont get the same feeling with Dirt.

Which is why I read, and re-read Dirt despite the fact I will probably never actualy race DH and get all i want from ST in a 30second flick in WHS. I work in an office, I ride a 5" hardtail in the mud at weekends, and have no illusions of making it to the pro ranks, surely if there was a ST demographic, I'd be slap bang in the middle of it?

Is there a suggestion/ideas section in the mag? I bet ALOT of STW readers dont come on the STW forum, so there will be alot of intelligent and helpful feedback out there waiting to be harvested 🙄

Still reckon that ST is the best MTB mag out there. MBUK drivel, MBR written for their friends and blagging, WMTB sometimes good but no better than MBR. ST goes up and down with content but at times makes LOL and I love that. Certain of the ST writers/picture are up there own posteriors, perhaps that wht makes some of there stuff good. All in all I look forward to it's arrival, though not as much as a copy of Ocean Paddler. Miss the whisky reviews.

Suggestions and ideas have always come through the forum. Surely that's the best place for ideas?

Spoon, you ARE in our demographic.. that doesn't mean you should like our mag though.