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[enligthenment] It's really quite crap isn't it?![/enlightenment]
Bought it the other week for the free rear safety flashing lamp thingy, that didn't work! 😈
But the actual articles were really sh*te - they advertised XTR Full Review, read the article brakes and gears are reviewed, wheels however are not because the testers fleet of test bike are all fitted with Maxle (?) rear ends, which is a little limiting I'd have thought.
Bikes are downgraded because they aren't fitted with ISCG's - what's up with a properly set-up mech or dropper seat-posts.
Last time I spend my hard-earned on this bum-fodder!!!!
Get yourself the £2 a month STW sub its really good and allows you to download all the previous mags. I have loved mine so far.
the 63 ways to improve your riding is laughable.
Pook - Member
the 63 ways to improve your riding is laughable.
Hmmmm, yeah. I think they were looking for a spot of padding on that one.
This months is funny - the light test. Same as every year really. It goes along the lines of: "the £850 Lupine is better than all the others" with no mention of the fact that (for example) you could buy the Lumi on test with a bigger battery and the second lamp head for LESS than the Lupine, or get a spare battery for it etc. and have change.
I like their route guides, tbf.
The rest of it seems to be aimed at riders younger than me...
It can't be worse than What Mountain Bike.
I only ever buy it for the routes... often they are reprinted from a few years back.... Was the Dartmoor route in the last mag any good? I couldn't be bothered to buy it just for that...
buy a magazine and kill a tree (YOU MURDERERS) *tee hee hee*
It is bad, worse than MBUK which I only buy for Mint Sauce. Oh how I wish I had a Mint Sauce key ring :sigh: I don't suppose anyone could lend me one......
It's quite up and down but I think most of the best magazine articles of this year were in MBR... The combined route guide/interview/history things they do are ace, the ones with Crawfy and Guy Martin especially.
And the reviews are always good fun. "Yes, this is a £2000 bike test, but we've added optional extras to the Orange to make it a £2250 bike. Then we're going to give it extra marks specifically for those upgrades, and mark down the £1800 Lapierre for not having them. Then we will mark down the Trek for being too expensive even though it's only £50 more"
MBR is the only mag I've ever read that made me angry each time.
I cancelled my sub a few years ago and it was a definite turning point in my life 😉
I find them all a bit crap. Might try that 2quid a month stw thing though.
How many mags is ST producing per year nowadays?
8 or 10 or 12?
I like their route guides, tbf.
Tried a couple, mmmm yes well.
Think I'll give the the £2 a month subscription a go.
I only read Mountain Biker International.
I like their route guides, tbf.
They're OK provided you do them the opposite way round to what they say...
Think [i]mbr[/i] has gone completely down the pan in the last 12 months or so, I don't even bother flicking through it at the newsagents.
And only [i]wmb[/i] could make mtbing seem about as interesting as washing machines
[i]dirt[/i] and [i]mbuk[/i] for me although the latter is getting a little too mature for my liking.
[i]Wideopen[/i], [i]Decline[/i] and [i]IMB[/i] loads better IMO and free.
Oh, and MTB Pro. I like MTB Pro.
MBR is soo bad sometimes I find it amusing.
They jump on the bandwagon of every trend and try to make you feel inferior if you don't follow suit by buying the latests and greatest kit, e.g:
Your bars must be 711mm or wider or you'll crash.
If you don't have 15 or 20mm axle forks your wheel will fall out and you'll die.
If you don't have a bolt through rear end on your bike it will be too flexible and unrideable.
Any pre FIT cartridge Fox forks are useless (my open bath 32s are actually plusher than my FIT 36s).
You must have a tapered headtube otherwise the front end of your bike will flex like mad.
They seem totally obsessed with upsizing every bike they test to a large frame (they don't even consider standover height or the bike looking stupid as little seatpost is showing) even though their testers would better fit a medium as they want the extra stability of the longer wheelbase...WTF!
They never test any frame only custom builds or anything from non-mainstream manufacturers these days. I can't remember the last time they tested any fairly common 'frame only' brands such as Santa Cruz, Intense, Turner or Cove.
The reviews of full suss bikes never seem to give any details of the things you actually want to know such as small bump compliance, if there is any brake jack and if there is any pedal feedback when in the granny ring. On second thoughts this is probably because the Orange 5 suffers from brake jack and pedal feedback, but they never have a bad word to say about it.
They don't seem to know what people are actually riding as all the talk is about you having to own a full suss, whereas more and more people are riding longer travel steel and alloy hardtails which they never test.
I can't remember the last time they tested any fairly common 'frame only' brands such as Santa Cruz, Intense, Turner or Cove.
There was a Santa Cruz longtermer this year. Although it was a 29er - gone from "all 29ers are bad and should be burnt at the stake" to "aren't 29ers really good" on the back of having a fancy one to ride for free...
None of the magazines are particularly great reading nowadays. They used to be much better. There are some really good articles in each magazine but then there is also some right crap too.
The magazines pander to the advertisers.You don't bite the hand that feeds you.
As for the bike tests !
I've been on a foreign test with British journos and a model that was never ridden,it was left in the van, managed to get a glowing review in a magazine a few months later.Farcical !
Did the Mint Suace keyrings ever turn up?
The only MBR I've read in years was at Ty Seren guest house in Dolgellau. They had a big stack of them from the early 90's. Great nostalgic read, including an article about how to build a bike by chopping two old ones in half and welding them together! Would sadly never see that in a mag these days.
They're all shite
Posted 15 minutes ago # Report-Postmrblobby - Member
The only MBR I've read in years was at Ty Seren guest house in Dolgellau. They had a big stack of them from the early 90's.
MBR wasn't going in the early 90s was it?
Doh, was probably early noughties, I'm hopeless with dates! Was it MBI in the early 90's? Think I have some of those in my parents loft.
I can't wait until next months edition of MBR.
There going to teach me how to ride my 29er like a proper mountain bike 🙄
Gachet - MemberYou must have a tapered headtube otherwise the front end of your bike will flex like mad.
I can't remember which test it was, but they got caught out declaring that a bike's tapered steerer was "noticably stiffer and better tracking", with a bike that actually had a reducer headset and a standard steerer. How I lolled.
Amplebrew- Now THAT really is impossible.
GlitterGary - Member
Amplebrew- Now THAT really is impossible.
I did think that they were biting off a bit more than they could chew with that one!!!
The Orange 5 does not suffer from Brake Jack.
please read up on this before making comments like this.
🙄
Posted 15 minutes ago # Report-Postmrblobby - Member
The only MBR I've read in years was at Ty Seren guest house in Dolgellau. They had a big stack of them from the early 90's.MBR wasn't going in the early 90s was it?
Think it started '96/7, Brant was the original editor and it had cutting-edge tests at the time - which is the better Pastie or better Curry with contributions from the local Indian restaurants management.
Basically didn't take itself too seriously.
Yep 96/7 - Remember the student flat I was in at the time 🙂 It was good at the start. Went gradually downhill from there unfortunately. IIRC, particularly when they put a motorcyclist in charge (and he tried to get his knee down round a corner riding a Giant TCR but failed and did himself in... 🙂