I know it’s not “niche” but I have enjoyed my subscription over the last couple of years. However there a few things that have jarred. when Steve Peat finally won the World Champs who was on the cover of the next mag? Yup, Doddy. Danny Hart has set the MTB world alight. MBUKs coverage? Minimal. Cover? MBUK Journalist.

Recently they have had a revamp. Result? MBR lite but with more adverts and product placement.

Maybe a ST sub may be in order. I currently sub to Dirt. Would ST be a useful supplement?

Dunno, depends if you like pretty pictures or words. I find ST is just a 20 minute read, with nice photos that I can look at again. I prefer Dirt.

I think all mags, bar maybe The Economist, are no more than a 20min read – STW being no exception.

MBUK for next to bog..
Singletrack for the coffee table..

Aye, well as long as unlike MBR they are not going to run ‘test’ bars, stem, grips, saddle, tyres and single chainring and device on all test bikes next year, it might be worth a read.
I got an MBR sub for Christmas, a mistake as it should have been and STW one, and it is 50% repeated and most articles, especially kit reviews, have me wondering who these people are that can spout such cr*p….

MTB magazines are fairly dull really, hence I dont buy them. Theres better stories posted on this forum. I used to enjoy Dirt magazine when it was first released, but the that Steve Jones took over as editor and it turned to shite.

footflaps, +1.

David, small point but Mike Rose is Editor of Dirt, Steve is Deputy Ed.

Print editorial is hard to compete with the pace of the web but mags are great when full of killer photos.

Fair do’s. I think it was good when Tim March(?) was involved?

Dirt is the only mag i read but thats mainly because they aim at the riding that actually interests me, Gravity based. I stopped reading mbuk a few years ago as they try and be too much to too many and so don’t really do anything very well imo

I subscribe to Dirt and Singletrack and enjoy and look forward to them both. Sometimes buy another bike mag if I need something for a flight. Always stunned at how awful they are and then feel a bit guilty and just think that an old duffer like me is probably not their target audience.

I used to subscribe to allsorts. I now subscribe to nothing, as all mags are now 40pc content, 60pc adverts. I’m not spending my money on advertisements for online shops.

My method of magazine buying is..

have a flick through at tescos when i’m doing the shopping. If there’s something that interests me, i’ll buy the mag, if not, i’ll put it back on the shelf and wait till next months.

The ride journal is excellent reading but you have to just buy it when it’s out. Mrs NBT was very impressed with privateer when she finally got round to reading them and was most displeased to find that I’d just cancelled the subscription.

“Why did you cancel it?” she asked, “it’s the best thing I’ve read in ages”

“Because Issue 3 had arrived before you even opened Issue 1”

Got a sub for whatmtb but think it’s gone downhill too.. I dont want to read tests and articles about cx bikes.. Used to think it was a good reference point for new kit and stuff but lately feels it’s become gash!
Considering a ST sub for a wee change..

MTB magazines are fairly dull really, hence I dont buy them. Theres better stories posted on this forum

It’s true, Marge, because it’s true. 😀

No, it actually is. Mags are pretty boring tbh, apart from the occasional good article about travelling somewhere or something.

I gave up with MBUK when reached my twenties, just found it far too immature and puerile. And they were sponsored by Specialized at the time, and ‘everything Spesh was loads better than everything else’, that type of knobbery. The mag seemed to be run by a bunch of teenagers. T’was all about dirt jumping and DH; XC was ‘gay’ or some such nonsense, just inane rubbish.

So you’re saying there is no product placement in other mags? Just depends on the genre of magazine surely, just as it depends on the genre of website you choose to browse.

Not that I’m defending MBUK. I have a subscription, but actually prefer Dirt as thats the riding, content and design I prefer.

Best reason to subscribe to mags is for the free gift on offer. I have a pair of Altura baggies which are brilliant.

Dirt for it’s enthusiasm toward ragging bikes off road rather than going for a pootle. Sometimes you just need to get that adrenalin buzz and dirt reflects this well. It’s race photography is simply the best too. Reviews are less hype than mainstream mags.

Singletrack for the mellower pleasure in riding, exploring etc, again nice pics and a lot less of the marketing bs than the mainstream mags. it doesn’t take me long to read though and a lot of the articles are stuff I have no interest in (bivvying, ,marathon type events, multi day point to point stuff)

Best reason to subscribe to mags is for the free gift on offer. I have a pair of Altura baggies which are brilliant.

They cant even get that right though. I sub’d to mbuk to get the spds earlier this year. 4 months later after I chased it up, I finally got a reply saying they’d run out and I could have a crappy jersey instead. awful customer service 🙁

I quiet like Downhill and tech trail riding and don’t mind reading MBUK sometimes
But yeah little bit up its own assss to put it and more to the younger generation (not me).
Dirts a OKish mag too.

I couldn’t be bothered reading about someone in lycra riding across a farmers potato field in 20 seconds.
But each to ones own.

Has you said look for a mag that suits your interests

The STW mag to me is something you find next to Homes and Gardens on a coffee table.
unsure if its direction

Tbh I find the whole concept of a printed magazine a bit dated. Who actually buys newspapers any more? It’s a format that’s running out of time.

The STW mag to me is something you find next to Homes and Gardens on a coffee table.
unsure if its direction

😀

ST has some very good articles, by some talented and varied contributors. As much as I’m not a fan of Mark, I’m happy to concede to this point. But the magazine is nowhere near as strong as it used to be; the last ST I felt was good value for money was issue 35! I continue with my subscription to support the website, not for the magazine.

The Ride Journal is the benchmark, and well worth the extra money. It’s just excellent through and through.

Agree that most mags are a waste of money… and time (take no time to read and most of that is flicking through all the ads!)

Dirt has the best photography. ST not far behind for photos and travel stuff is inspirational. I find privateer a bit cliquey… It’s all about how cool MTB was back in the day and if you’re a johnny come lately you can just do one.

The Ride Journal though is my favourite by far. The scope of its writing is excellent, from vastly different contributors and sub-genres of cycling. You can get issues 1 and 2 off their website as free PDF downloads if you want a taster.

We knew MBUK was cack when we were about 15 and that was over a decade ago. MTB Pro was were it was at!

To echo a few on here, The Ride Journal, quality publication. Just good writting about good riding and like me covers many disciplines.

I’ve all but given up on mtb magazines as well, if i am going to buy a cycling mag these days then it’s usualy either cycling weekly, pro cycling or cycle sport depending on content.

The only exception to this rule is if Cycling plus or MBUK have a free gift that i’m after (can never have enough buffs for commuting in!).

MBUk is alright, I dont think it takes itself too seriously really, and it seems to cover more types of riding than the other mags. Oh, and they do tests on cheap bikes too, not just 900 quid pairs of wheels.

st is the only one i buy/subscribe to for reading properley ,only time i get the others is if somthing decent is free or they have a specific article im intrested in
saying that i picked up a commuter/road based mag a few weeks ago that was a good read(again mainley was for the free buff)

as for the rest
mbuk – trying to hard to cover to many niches and has a tendancy to “brand love” in reviews
dirt – i dont have the balls for the riding so no point lol
mbr – always left disapointed when odley purchased

I like the printed format, a decently bound, properly printed book / journal is part of the experiences of reading. Reading stuff on the screen is fine as far as it goes I guess, but if I’m sitting down to read something properly, I like to have there in my hand, along with a cup of tea, and some cake.

I find these days, I’ve come to like the long slow style of Rouleur (increasing advert density aside …).

I keep remembering, then forgetting to order a copy of Boneshaker as that looks quite interesting from reading it online.

Magazine wise it’s only STW and Pro-Cycling these days (oh, and National Geographic and the occasional Linux magazine, and that’s usually only down the cover-mount distro).

thats odd, different people want different things from mtb mags! 😉

they all have their own styles & interests etc so surely its a case of buying which mirrors your interests as close as poss.

I bought a copy of Dirt once out of curiosity. Perhaps I got a bad issue, but the writing was barely literate. The articles were like reading a tabloid but with DH and jump bikes. Lots of funky graphic design, terrible English. Maybe it’s supposed to be democratic or punk or something, but it just made me think the writers were thick.

ST by contrast is rather well written for the most part, although they tend to cover the more sensible end of mountain-biking (which suits me fine). Privateer is pretty good but has some rather middle-aged tendencies towards historical ‘golden-age’ rigid-and-cantis retrospectives, so I can see how someone who would like Dirt wouldn’t like it.

I buy MBUK if I’m in Sainsburys or somewhere like that cos it’s got Mint Sauce in it and I love Mint Sauce, and I’m a kit geek so I’ll happily read the reviews too. I seem to recall that bought a copy of MBR a year or two ago, that was very dull indeed.

I subscribe to ST and enjoy most of it. It’s nice to have lying around just because there’ll usually be some small article I haven’t read yet, and I like a free calender. Recently though I’ve been really enjoying Dirt, just because of their enthusiasm and I haven’t even been on a DH bike since about ’98. The Future mags are something I only ever pick up if I’m stuck at a train station/airport with nothing better to do.

Downloading the free Ride Journal right now to have a look.

Warpcow, I notice you aren’t a Premier user of our site yet. As a subscriber it’s free for you. Go to singletrackworld/subscribe and we will get you conected 🙂

I like the ‘lying around’ bit – as above, always a bit to re-read or i missed. I like the inspiring bits – new trails, new locations, great pictures, adventures, random reasoned adventures and of course the new shiny bits reviews 🙂

I do get bored with the MBR approach – STW will be requested for this Christmas…!

doddy! LOL