Is The Ride Journal still going?If you have even a passing interest in Bmx then The Albion is brilliant (and FREE!!!).

Issue 5 of The Ride Journal is out soon. The Albion is fantastic.

Isn’t there a term for these high cost/”high production” value publications. I have to say to me they are more than a magazine (Rouleur/Privateer/The Ride Journal/etc) than STW/MBR/MBUK etc.

Are they worth it?

I had most of the first 12 issues of Rouleur, got £90 for issue one and some good money for others. So I actually made money.

Think I just about broke even on my two Issues of Ride Journal and issue 1 of Privateer.

While I can appreciate a high quality product I do feel that these are somewhat up themselves. And sorry to say I think Ride Journal was the worst by far. Look (and smell) lovely but a very low priority for me these days. I may try another Privateer just to see. Issue one was frankly blander than a pair of beige cords.

Peloton and Switchback from the states are walking the line between ordinary newsagent mags and these “high brow” publications. Not bad but not overly interesting in their entirety and can be somewhat poseur with wine reviews etc. A long way better than Mountain Bike Action though.

One has to say though £5 P&P is a total joke. But Rapha have the customer base for whom another fiver can be spent without even thinking they’ve spent any money. (And I own Rapha kit!)

I paid full price for the first one. I have picked up a couple of other additions for £4.50 off ebay, brand new from bike shops but a few months out of date.

I find them a good read

I got one on the free one issue with BC membership. Didn’t notice a smell. Looked through it once. Still haven’t read anything in it. Cancelled the sub.

Much more interesting stuff to read here…

For me its not really delivered what I was hoping for, the last two issues have been pretty much left unread. The articles are quite long* and aren’t really all that engaging, could be my short attention span though.Its not bad that bad mind and there has been some good stuff peppered through the issues and as mentioned the photography is inspiring. I’m going to give it a few more issues I think.

* they also mailed me the worlds longest most annoying questionnaire.

I have all the editions of Privateer and really enjoy the read – i.e. last edn had good artice re frame geometry and an earlier article on Titianium as a frame material etc. All good stuff. tbh I havn’t bought STW for quite a while now as all it contains is filler, endless dull group tests on stuff I’m never going to buy and no interesting essay type articles anymore. But that my opinion.

When the latest privateer arrived my GF was reading it and halfway through an article she pipes up:

“Its difficult to write a mountain bike article without sounding like a….. without sounding urrm…… Whats another word for ‘****’?”

no interesting essay type articles anymore. But that my opinion.

Mine too. That type of article was what attracted me to start reading st.

I read Gabes Nigguh with attitude interview in the latest issue of the Albion and expected it to fade into bike chat after a few paragraphs but it stayed on the gangster theme till the end. It would have been nice to see a Transworldy 3 or 4 pages more to the interview. Oh well.

Gogo and Co`s memories of backyard jams more than made up for it,though.

Hell of a load of typos and boring articles in both the issues I tried, really put me off. Have been enjoying the albion loads more….

TBH i buy all of the mags – subscribe for the free gifts and then they become toilet reading for a week or so.
Priveteer and STW are the only two i read and then reread and are my ‘bedroom reading’……

First of all: you lot here in the UK are just spoiled with choice! You have such a great variety of high quality and enthusiastic magazines for about any activity one could think of and then some! Plus the stuff from the US.

So please stop whinging. Just for a moment.
No? OK, fine, then at least accept that it’s whinging on a high level, will you? 😕

I leaf through most of the MTB mags every month and funny enough without any pre-conception I always end up buying WhatMTB and most of the time Singletrack Magazine. Can’t really explain why either. MBUK topics just don’t appeal to me, neither MBR. WhatMTB has always enough relevant things in there to make me want to read it in detail and I actually like their tonality/style. STM is more journalistic and inspiring and more pleasant to the eye. In simple terms: more sophisticated than WhatMTB while more hands-on than Privateer. Shame Mint Sauce is not featured in STM. Would be a perfect fit. If I could only have one mag (beware!) it would be STM anytime!

I have Privateer #1 and just bought the last 2 issues and really liked them again. Bought them mainly for the geometry articles but read through everything else with pleasure, too. Paper, layout, photography, essayistic writing and yes, also some lengthy self-pitying navel-gazing. I reckon one has to appreciate all of that to see the value.

My personal mag-o-meter: I guess I throw away WhatMTB and such-like after 1 year or so, STM after maybe 5 years (and then only after leafing through them again and still keeping some) and Privateer never. They are – as mentioned – more like a book.

Most disappointing bike mag recently? Mountain Bike Action! I had a subscription as a teen. Every issue was a celebration of new and exciting stuff, state-of-the-art action photography of my bike heroes and saucy editorials by Zapata Espinoza. It was there that I also fell in love with Missy Giove by the way! 😳
I bought a copy recently out of curiosity. 😐 It’s lame! Almost amateurish. And dated looks to go with it. They havn’t moved on since those days. Not a bit. Or maybe it’s just me.

Anyway: indulge in whatever you like to read! Even if it’s House and Hound.
And next month at the newsagent I will give this Alibinion-or-wozit mag a try… 🙂

Issue 5 of The Ride Journal is out soon.

Issue 6 shaggy. Do keep up 😉

no interesting essay type articles anymore. But that my opinion.

is there still drivel about beads of sweat running down a leg?

Rorschach,
As Shaggy says The Ride Journal is still going. Day jobs and other projects have meant that we are a little later thank usual.
But Issue 6 is coming out late Feb.

The bad news, and Im lining this one up for all the price-haters is that we are going to be charging more than ever. Its going from £7 to £8.

The reason being that we are now up to nearly 200 pages and only 22 of those are ads. Its looking great, but then I would say that.

facebook, twitter ( theridejournal for both) etc will be able to keep you up to date with news.

Oh and The Albion is great.

Philip, editor

The Ride Journal is the most complete mag out there at the moment. Stunning diverse articles, and excellent quality.

It’ll be interesting to see if the new ST will be of a similar format, given the support for the new generation of cycle mags.

Ok, in conclusion; I have been handed issue three of Privateer by a colleague. My conclusion is thus:

Really well thought out articles, lack of adverts, gorgeous photography… A quality product.

When i get a copy of MBR or similar, i usually flick through in about 15 minutes, and never read it again. With Privateer, i spent days absorbing it. The framebuilding article was a great read, and the column about riding with your kids, only to see them grow into a better rider than you are, was truly inspired. I think i’ll be subscribing shortly.

Ride Journal and Privateer cant really be compared to MBR or Singletrack as they are massively different in both content and quality.

Per article 8 or 9 pounds probably represents better value.Not that im about to go and count how many articles are in each publication !

If you need to be told what to ride then the latter is probably best.

If your not that bothered about the latest fandango kit but your interested in how it got there or by who then ‘magazines’ like Ride and PVT are more interesting.

Thats only my opinion tho and counts for very little !

I got issue 1 of privater magazine but didn’t think much of it really so didn’t buy another. I really enjoy Rouleur and the ride journal but didn’t think privateer compared.

Just sold issue 1 on ebay for a decent profit. Past copies of the ride journal are selling well for me too. I used to keep things like that now I don’t see the point. Binned my collection of stw mags and I’m selling rouleur/ride journal past copies on ebay – always helps when you make a profit 😉

Come on, all this talk of quality mags and no mention of OUTCAST!

Biff will be miffed!

😉

i miss the outcast, i’ve tried to re-subscribe*, but i think biff must have fallen down a well, ’cause i haven’t heard a peep.

it’s by far, the best bike mag ever.

i’m not even kidding.

(*it’s a complicated process, involving beer)