The response to our ‘Ten things the bike industry needs to stop doing’ feature a couple of years ago has been very good, with readers outraged and in agreement in equal measures. So, just because we like giving the hornets’ nest a prod every now and again, we thought we’d respond to one of the comments on there from cynic_al who suggested we need to do a ‘Ten things magazines need to stop doing’. Given that his article never appeared, we’ve taken it on ourselves to get the ‘Mirror of Truth’ out and see if we can admit to a few failings here and among our peers. We hope you enjoy it…
Number One: It’s 2020
Harping on about the Glory Retro Years. In order to remember the glory days of Tinker and Tomac and chainstay-mounted U-brakes, you need to be at least 45 years old, which makes you a bit of a has-been already. Those were the days of cantilever brakes that didn’t work, tyres made of hard plastic and pudding bowl helmets. Get with it, grandad! There’s much better stuff going on right now.
Number Two: Deifying Riders.
It’s not all about Peaty, Peron and MacAskill you know? Just because they’re the quickest this week, or they have the best #shredits doesn’t mean you have to feature them Every Single Feature. It’s not that there aren’t a load of other great personalities and bike riders, racers and bike people out there. Where’s the John Peel fanzine version to the Top40 of the glossy magazines?
Number Three: The Mouthpiece
Being the mouthpiece of the bike companies. Seeing everyone come out with the same press release with the same information on the same day is getting a bit dull. Don’t you do any proper journalism any more? Where are the scoops and the industry insider leaks?
Number Four: Not Everyone Has A Bike Journo Shed
Assuming everyone has a bike shed full of top shelf spares to play with. It’s all very well for you to talk about the merits of different 12 speed chains, or to play with three different widths of carbon bars. Most of us are riding around on ten speed Deore. And the next time someone says ‘Oh, I just reached into the giant box of free tyres and swapped treads on my carbon rims…’
Number Five: Where Are The Women?
Ignoring women. There are plenty of female mountain bikers out there, so why aren’t there any on your pages and staff rosters? If half of the mountain bikes are being bought by women, they don’t want to see sweaty blokes on every page. And don’t get us started by noticing how white everyone is…
Number Six: Too Much Glamour
Always focussing on the exotic locations. No, we’re not all off to Whistler this summer like you are. We’re going camping in Wales. Having magazines full of exotic sunsets over places we’re never going to visit isn’t inspiring, it’s depressing!
Number Seven: Not Enough Glamour
Always featuring some dull woods or a quarry in England. Where’s the glossy magazine inspiration? We don’t want to see the same Surrey corners or Lee Quarry drops. We want exotic sunsets in Whistler to inspire us! There’s enough dull riding to be seen out the window.
Number Eight: Going With The Standards
Ignoring the price of things. No one buys a new bike every year. How can you review six different SuperBoost wheelsets when we’re all on 142mm (that you told us then was the best wheel standard in the world…) Do more £500 bike tests and forget the £500 handlebars and GPS units…
Number Nine: What a waste
Ignoring the environmental impact of our sport. Yes, we’re riding push bikes, but what about the raw materials used, the carbon fibre we can’t recycle and the endless trips in the company VW T6 up and down the M4 to do all of those shoots at BikePark Wales? Not to mention flying off to California and the Alps a few times a year to get that one shot…
Number Ten: You Print Magazines On Paper?
Printing magazines on paper. Don’t you know that the world’s gone online? Why are you still chopping down trees to print stuff months after we could have just read it on an iPad screen while simultaneously watching Celebrity Bake-off?
Number Eleven: Catch My Drift, Moto-Bro?
Talking like you’re from California/the Pacific Northwest/14 years old. ‘We’re stoked to see the gnarly trails being shredded by the sick cool dudes, man. Steeze’. You’re from Kent, you numbskull.
Number Twelve: Stop Making Lists!
Stop making lists of ten, twelve, twenty things that annoy us. You know that we never read this kind of thing…
😉
“This month we have articles on gravel bikes, and a rambling column about lockdown and Tictok and going vegan”
All sounds more interesting to me than Ohlins new damper or a £900+ fork test, tbh. Fat tyred bikes off-road is a wonderful world full of varied and/or interesting people and all the satellite stuff is fair game. A good writer makes it interesting.
I’m guessing you know your readership but I’m another 62 year old. I started mountain biking in 1993 on a rigid steel Rockhopper. Strangely I’m not sure what I like in a mountain bike “magazine”. I guess I also like good writing. I guess I like to be inspired to try something new even if I never do it, and I think I like to read about someone else’s experience of horrible rides in a Scottish winter. I also like to hear opinions on the latest kit, and sometimes I even buy a new bike. So I’m not really sure what you’re doing right but I keep on reading!
Re your 12 things; I think the most important is sustainability. I know I’m being an environmental hypocrite each time I buy something new but it would be good to hear for example an informed opinion on whether my next tyre should be a European-made Continental rather than a Taiwanese-made Maxxis.
But keep up the good work.
I do love the way the magazine feels in your hands and the quality of the paper. It just feels nice
Well I think its a Cracking Magazine Oh and I’m on the wrong side of 70
Built in the 40s ‘most’ parts still in working order
Singletrack has done a brilliant job in not becoming an ebike mage, like all the others! For that reason its still the only mag I buy.
only thing that bugs me is the price of some of the kit…like all the sunglasses well over £100… Mtb glasses get scratched,broken,crashed and sat on, I certainly can’t afford £190 pocs …as for lens distortion, what a crock, you’re riding a bike, not performing microsurgery! Love you anyway.
“The sport is becoming more and more exclusive, both on the bikes and the equipment departments.”
And yet entry level bikes are getting SOOO good! The same goes for gear. In the same way that digital cameras (including those on phones) now have enough pixels and features to become ‘good’, even the cheapest of mountain bikes would outperform the top machines we struggled on in the early nineties. It’s not all bad, by any means!
“Shame I never saw that invite to write this article…”
You’re welcome to write me the ‘proper’ version of this, any time. It’ll save me trying to imagine what our critics think. I’m sure you know my email address, Al 🙂
The only thing that niggles me is when the word from the editor is just a “Coming up in this issue”, but you don’t do that, so it’s all good.
There are a lot of things I like about the mag and the website, and some of them have already been said above, so I shan’t ramble on. One thing that gets me every time, though, is when I read an article about something I didn’t think I would find interesting, and I do.
I agree with this:
““This month we have articles on gravel bikes, and a rambling column about lockdown and Tictok and going vegan”
All sounds more interesting to me than Ohlins new damper or a £900+ fork test, tbh. Fat tyred bikes off-road is a wonderful world full of varied and/or interesting people and all the satellite stuff is fair game. A good writer makes it interesting.”
Well written articles about riding bikes off road is what I’m interested in. If I want to find out about a new damper I’ll look it up on the internet.
Singletrack is the only MTB I look forward to reading these days. I love the quirky article and the fact that it hasn’t gone down the macho gnar route of most of the other mags.
I realise all mags rely on advertising, so can’t upset the manufacturers too much but I would love more reporting of long term pit falls of equipment. One example that springs to mind was Avid Juicy brakes – at the time all the mags gave them rave reviews. Not long after we discovered that in general they didn’t stand up to real world use, and even received criticism from the mags when the next generation appeared. Some of us can’t afford to replace kit every year, and so some honest reviews are important.
I fear that you’ve just added that bit about printing to prepare us for you stopping to print 🙁
Magazines come on paper. There’s no such thing as a digital magazine, that’s just a website. And I like websites fine, but I don’t pay for ’em.
I’m a total convert to e-readers for books but it’s something that just can’t (currently) replicate the job print does.
Do more £500 bike tests and forget the £500 handlebars and GPS units…
You’ve been telling us (and dismissing those who disagreed) for years that no one wants to read about cheaper stuff.
Not because entry level stuff was getting better, but because the ultra expensive stuff was ‘inspirational and aspirational’.
Talking like you’re from California/the Pacific Northwest/14 years old….
There’s a u in favourite.
And you still use the term ‘swap out’…..
I was about to comment on the lack of low end bike reviews and the general industry trend for making expensive bikes, but I thought I’d check my sources before starting. Like @neilblessitt I began mountain biking in 1993, but on my dad’s 1986 Saracen Kili Flyer, my first mtb purchase was a bottom of the range Orange P7 in about 1997 at £650 (I think!) – that’s about £1,200 in today’s money according to the BoE inflation calculator. Orange currently offer the Zest 26 for £1000 so on that basis (and pitiful sample size!) the industry is still offering lower priced good bikes. Couldn’t find a review of the Zest on Singletrack, but judging by the comments on here the readership may not include many youngsters..?
I used to subscribe to Singletrack but now I subscribe to Cranked. There’s a few reasons for this:
– I find Singletrack a bit repetitive in terms of format and after reading the mag for a few years it got a pretty boring.
– I find some of the writing a bit self-indulgent.
– I got the impression from the mag and the forum that Singletrack isn’t aimed at younger riders. I’m not a 60-year-old dentist with an Audi so it’s not for me.
On a positive note the design and photography is always brilliant – every time I received an issue I was excited by the cover and photography.
Apologies for being negative this is just the honest feedback of a former subscriber. I genuinely wish you every success and hope to be tempted back in the future.
I’m 38 and remember Tinker though. And Tim Gould with his rumoured scalextric that ran around the upper floor of his house.
I’m the ‘right’ side of 45 and remember Tomac, Tinker and U-brakes. My younger brother would remember them too.
Love it!! From the comments here you hit the nail on the head! And please *always* keep doing inky print (as well as the digital things), it’s a fearless physical manifestation of thought, art, informed insight & opinion, it’s a beautiful, perfectly-proportioned object created with expertise & care, and will never run out of juice or lose signal. Much like our beloved bikes!
Yes! As a 61-year old female whose main interest in the wide-footed, bouncy-front-ended type of bicycle is for bikepacking and longer days out in wild places rather than bike-gymnastics of the death-defying sort in foreign climes to which my pension will never stretch, I applaud you sir! (or madam!).
I’m especially looking forward to your article “61 year old female tries cycle camping for the first time on long-distance UK off-road track”.