I do mountain biking on a nice modern bike, also have a lightweight road bike too. But I don’t like reading about either of those to be honest.

All the paper mags tend to be either MTB or road with precious little inbetween. Even the likes of Cycling Active or Cycling Plus which I used to like tend to be of the carbon road bike or nothing content.

Are there any paper mags, or more likely websites, that cater for the modern touring rider? Not forums, magazines. Are there any blogs that have decent content like that? Not really one persons ramblings but more like StanceNation – niche car stuff with features etc is a half decent car example.

I would have thought this explosion in interest in gravel bikes would generate something – any pointers??

grit CX.

XXC mag- sadly out of production (and print) but the old ones are available online.

Chinny reckon

http://bunyanvelo.com

http://www.cyclingworldmag.com/

I miss XXC 🙁

http://bunyanvelo.com

Thanks for that Houns – that’s a really nice magazine

Adventure Cyclist – bit like American CTC

http://www.adventurecycling.org/adventure-cyclist

The Radavist?

Bunyan Velo is a great read.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com is a great resource for touring.

Some of the journals are outstanding, some are dreadful.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=Sh&doc_id=7645&v=Ra

Bike touring isn’t all about the bike. Last September Boblo and I met a Swiss couple who rode down the Pacific coast on two $180 Wallmart bikes. Their wheels fell apart and their tyres wore out but they rode full of humour and mischief. Meeting them galvanized why I so enjoy touring.

That experience is a million miles from the world of the Sportive and the trail centre.

Grit.cx is about to move into it’s post CX race season gravel/adventure mode for the spring and summer
@gritcx
facebook.com/grit.cx
http://grit.cx

Of course there’s always Bicycle Quarterly.

Check out The Ride Journal too. Why not join the Rough Stuff Fellowship, their magazine is proper old-school touring and off-road exploring!

‘Gravel’ and ‘Adventure CX/Road’ are the new ‘Enduro’ as far as pointless nomenclature for riding off-road goes…

…explosion in interest in gravel bikes…

I have to admit I had no idea what a gravel bike was. I had to check all the links to get a general idea.

At least this bloke looks happy

robdob » this explosion in interest in gravel bikes

Chinny reckon

Yeah I know – I don’t think the gravel bike thing is relevant in the UK as we don’t have the huge network of gravel roads as they do in the USA. But I wanted to put a cool new term in to make me sound up to date. 😉

Sidetracked is great. It has a bit about bikes, more about places, people and attitudes, for that it’s much more about touring to my mind – ie it’s not about the bike, it’s about fueling the urge to go somewhere and explore. As soon as it’s about a bike genre or scene something gets lost for me. Bunyan’s good, but e-readers are rubbish. Bicycle Quarterly, ACA, Adventure Journal are worth a look.

‘Gravel’ and ‘Adventure CX/Road’ are the new ‘Enduro’ as far as pointless nomenclature for riding off-road goes…

It’s always been ‘ATBs’ to me : )

scotroutes – Member

Chinny reckon

You Sir have just dated yourself (and me) quite magnificently.

we don’t have the huge network of gravel roads as they do in the USA

dunno where you live but you can do somerset to sussex off road.

dunno where you live but you can do somerset to sussex off road

Wiltshire is incredible for rights of way. I assume that’s the route you refer to

Now i don’t know what tracks you meano but alot of The Rights of Way in the UK are rough enough for me to want suspension

The US has a network of maintained roads that aren’t surfaced and I suspect the total length is quite alot what with the US being big

scotroutes – Member

Chinny reckon

You Sir have just dated yourself (and me) quite magnificently.
Tutankhamun!