I've just received an email about our Mountain Bike Rider subscription (well, my sons, I'm just the cash cow!) - it seems that from the 11th Oct MBR will go online only and cease the print edition. It's a bit of a shame - I only peruse it occasionally, but my son is an avid reader. 🙁
I've just had that as well.....quite like MBR to be honest so I'll miss it even if others don't.
I was a Cranked subscriber as well, so that's 2 gone for me in the last couple of weeks!
Had it improved? I used to be a subscriber and you could almost predict next months mag by what was in 12/24months before.
Shame. It had become a bit of a pamphlet recently. Also a bit torn between standard and e-bikes which meant quite a bit was of little interest if your not into e-bikes
Good luck with online the website is filled with click bait rubbish
Yep, big headline on the front cover about it being the last ever issue too. Disappointing really, I’ve thought about cancelling for the last year because it is a bit light and always a bit samey every year, but I still like to read it on the bog, and the gps routes are always good for a bit of ride trip planning. <br /><br />
the real kick is the email from them saying they’ll automatically transfer my subscription over to four four two magazine! That’s below the belt!
Footy, rugger or golf, or ring up for a refund. I think I'll just leave it as is and my mate's sons can have the FourFourTwo until the sub runs out.
Sort of a shame, used to subscribe to it and be active in their forum back in the Simon Collis days (still friends with all the regulars after they closed the forum when GDPR came along). Was even in the odd feature, the memorable one being when we had a forum ride for a member who had beaten cancer multiple times. Got the full treatment and was the last copy I bought too.
It was always a beginner's magazine hence the repetitiveness but was ok for bog time. The routes were always a bit weird and I got into a bit of trouble for calling them out for printing out of date routes and the same route multiple times a year too, both with the route provider (called out a route that hadn't existed for a few years and they said they'd ridden it a few weeks prior) and one of the journos on the mag for calling them a liar! All harmless fun but was a bit strange for a few weeks 🤣
Surprised it's still going really as new riders can just watch YouTube for the basics, Strava etc for routes plus everyone seems to just gravitate towards bike parks and trail centers rather than go exploring. The likes of GMBN have filled that void, including the sponsored stuff, so don't know how it'll survive as online-only. Might pick up a copy of the last one thoug.
Stil have a library of their route cards that I occasionally use for inspiration. I gave up reading it regularly around 2008. It always felt like it was telling new riders off for daring to want to upgrade entry level bikes.
Stil have a library of their route cards that I occasionally use for inspiration.
Do they still do them the wrong way round sending you up the best descents!!? 🤣
Oh yes if in doubt, do an MBR route backwards!!
It always felt like it was telling new riders off for daring to want to upgrade entry level bikes.
I'm sure they also had a phase of telling everyone that if it wasn't long, low and slack, plus shod with Maxxis DHR and DHF, then it was basically unrideable and you not bother going riding....
I re subscribed after getting fed up with the MBUK comic, I wish ‘what mountain bike’ still existed as really I’m 99% only interested in kit and gear and would have gone for that. Oh well, refund incoming if I can get through.
Always a shame to lose a mag (there's no such thing as an "online magazine", what they're describing is a website, but badly formatted). But MBR were the first one I cancelled when I decided to cut down and the only one I never came close to picking up again.
They reached their apex with that grouptest when they let Orange add extras that took it £500 over the budget for the test and then gave them bonus marks specifically for the upgrades, and marked down another bike that was hundreds underbudget because it had crap brake pads.
launching mbr was amongst the most fun I have ever had as a job and it was a delight to edit it for its first few years.
leaving it to go to cabal and do front and other odd magazines was strange. that led to bikemagic which in turn led to mbr giving away a cover mounted sticker which said “mustgetoutmore.com”
they hadn’t registered the address so I did. And redirected it to my stupid start up brand on-one.
odd how that all turned out.
they hadn’t registered the address so I did. And redirected it to my stupid start up brand on-one.
😂😎
Yes the route guide was a good idea. I always find with the mountain biking, to get to good areas it can take a long time of riding over roads or certainly a lot of terrain that doesn't warrant a mountain bike. I think though just getting out and exploring is a lot fun, regardless of the bike infact. With trail centres they can be good for the odd go but I think of them as theme parks where you almost ride the attraction. It's getting harder to find good natural mtb terrain nowadays though certainly near me in the east midlands from home. I think many getting onboard with the gravel bikes are previous 90s gen mtb riders before mtbs went all high tech with the suspension just to get some freedom riding bike which is why I still like riding 90s mtbs for their versatility. Mbuk was a nice magazine back in the day, it was a pretty new thing though, now we it is constantly being repackaged with new wheel sizes and standards and categories.
I’m sure they also had a phase of telling everyone that if it wasn’t long, low and slack, plus shod with Maxxis DHR and DHF, then it was basically unrideable and you not bother going riding….
They had a phase of insisting that if you weren't riding a 6" adjustable travel full sus (often written as double boinger, full squish, dual bouncer... 🙄 ) then it couldn't possibly be mountain biking...
And it was notable that every time Orange moved the pivot point half an inch, the reviews would proclaim all previous iterations of Orange instantly obsolete and everyone should be riding this new one.
Next year Orange would move the pivot point back again and the process would repeat.
100% i'd like what mountain bike back. Dont really read articles on routes or rating trail centres, but a list of bike and kit reviews, plus the long term bike test features in more depth, that would be great.
The best bit about STW is the bike check articles. The reason I bought a stif squatch was largely on Benji's review here for example:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bike-check-benjis-stif-squatch/
Mbr was still decent for having more kit tests butnit reduced down in page count drastcially so its not surprising. Website is terrible
As per others. I dropped it years ago as it was all very samey, seemed to be Surrey-centric, and the routes either out of date or back to front.
and the routes either out of date or back to front.
Many years ago (pre-GPS or possibly very early days of basic consumer units), MBR used to do a free mapboard on the January issue and then a route each month along with a ticklist.
There were prizes available for anyone who could ride all 12 routes and it wasn't uncommon when I lived in the Lake District, the week after the magazine was released to see loads of riders (on Orange 5s or Marin Rift Zones usually) with a mapboard on the bars, following this route. You could tell they were MBR readers, they'd be going the wrong way around the loop... 😂
It'd invariably be one of about 4 routes in the Lakes that they had on repeat. Borrowdale Bash, loop around Skiddaw and a couple of other obvious ones. Repeat every few months.
Many years ago (pre-GPS or possibly very early days of basic consumer units), MBR used to do a free mapboard on the January issue and then a route each month along with a ticklist.
They started hiding water bottles with codewords and contact details in them on their featured routes for a while. I actually found one months before they published that route on one of my regular rides in the Brecon Beacons, hid it a few hundred yards further along the track and waited for it to be announced. Cue a lot of very confused people on their facebook page (early days of that stuff, 2013-14 maybe?) all proclaiming it lost. The publisher said they would place another one with a new codeword and announce it again, of course I went up there and switched it back to the original one! I only found it as it was put in the wall of a mate's field and we spotted it while wandering around checking his fencing. They quickly dropped the idea as it seems others were also messing with them and a few were claimed before being published too. There was also one guy who went hunting them all and got a few back-to-back, that must have killed it. I think the finders won a prize and an invite to some trailquest thing at Cannock Chase, winner getting a holiday with Saddle Skedaddle if my memory is working correctly. All felt very weird anyway.
This has inspired me to sub MBUK. The idea of a UK magazine landscape with no home for Mint is unthinkable.
Used to enjoy it on the bog but ditched it when ebike content became prominent.
Sad to see an MTB mag close, but I can hardly complain because I haven't bought it for many years.
I will say i think they do some of the best product reviews, especially bikes, tyres and clothing. Which I read on their website obvs
Just got the last one. Best for a long time
Remember it coming out...
I've still got the free promo video that was with the 1st edition in the loft.
Tbh a lot of print mags have gone.
Feel bad as a lot of them I enjoyed but moved on from
Mini Magazine
MBR
Practical Performance Car
All of them seemed to just loose content. Last time i bought mnbr im sure its was less than 30 actual pages rest was just adverts.
Cranked is a shame. As that has always been consistent with content as has STW.
Its a changing landscape out there. YouTube FB etc are/have put the pressure on traditional media. Issue is theres a lot of shite out there. Some gold but a lot of shite
I used to buy all the mags years ago but they became more and more disposable and uninteresting, most stuff in it old news by the time it got to print having read about the interesting stuff online weeks before, MBUK just became deja vu with practically the same group tests every year and 100 pages of adverts, the last one I bought I left on the train for someone else to read as nothing in it was worth a re-read or worth holding on to, I picked one up in Tesco's recently just out of curiosity to see the price and was shocked by how thin it was let alone the price, I think they're all doomed to digital.
I've been reading it online via my local library for ages , might have to buy the last one for posterity, still got issue one somewhere
Saw an MBR mounted on the wall of Bike and Bean in Oak Creek today. No one does that with a website article. Sad to see another publication go this way.
which in turn led to mbr giving away a cover mounted sticker which said “mustgetoutmore.com”
A sticker that adorned the top of my home pc monitor for many years 🙂
Back then I would rush out for a copy on publication. I remember (or have imagined?) some bizarre tests like underarm deodorant in one of the earlier mags.
I've realised it's probably time to move my STW sub to digital. I don't consume a magazine the same way I used to and some of the online only content has been more my thing than the print lately. It's a shame as the print industry has had a lot of challenges and shrinking demand over the last 10-15 years.
I do struggle with mtb magazines. MBUK was clearly aimed at teenagers, mtr was really repetitive, oct issue will always been a lights test and as others have said is getting thinner and thinner and more and more about Surrey.
My favourite was What Mountain Bike but clearly I was in a minority given it folded years ago.
I keep thinking about this magazine as it does stray along way from mountain biking into either other styles of riding that aren’t my thing or politics. I remain as I do like a magazine and it’s the best of what, for me, is a poor choice.
leaving it to go to cabal and do front and other odd magazines was strange. that led to bikemagic which in turn led to mbr giving away a cover mounted sticker which said “mustgetoutmore.com”
they hadn’t registered the address so I did. And redirected it to my stupid start up brand on-one.
Good to see cat badges have been added to the On-One line up.
Still got my MBR map holder! But I don't recall the routes being much cop.
mtr was really repetitive, oct issue will always been a lights test and as others have said is getting thinner and thinner and more and more about Surrey.
Some of that is surely down to cost issues of travelling to ride routes further afield?
Most mags like that are repetitive - a load of "how to..." guides around mechanic stuff and/or riding, most of which are easily found online.
Routes, many of which were rehashed due to the cost of going out and riding/photographing them.
Bike tests and then a bunch of kit - tyres, lights etc.
Magazines like Singletrack and Cyclist that actually manage to keep going have moved beyond that same old into stories about the why of riding, adventure, new trends like gravel, top quality photography, behind-the-scenes stuff and race reports etc. Can still do kit reviews or bike tests but it's not the full focus of the magazine.
I really liked MBi back in the day, it was one of the few magazines to really look at the (massive at the time) grass roots XC race scene, then it turned into Chris Porter's personal vanity project where he'd take yet another £8000 DH bike to the Alps and dedicate 3 paragraphs to describing the difference in a couple of clicks of rebound damping. Readership fell off a cliff and it never recovered, even after they got rid of him as editor and tried to reinvent it.
It always felt like it was telling new riders off for daring to want to upgrade entry level bikes.
Back in the 2000s before we all became Gnarly Dudes the mag was referred to as Much Better with Risers as it was the conclusion to every review.
Much Better with Risers as it was the conclusion to every review.
😀 They also went through a period of fine tuning each test bike with the same 50mm stem and no suspension fork could be mentioned without the words ‘mid stroke support’ in the sentence
Every bike review test with a specialized in it would have a mediocre review of the specialized but still manage to give it the top rating in that test.
My lad got bought a subscription for a present, so I get to read it every month. I find it very ebike centred, which is not something either of us are interested in at all. I'm not surprised that they're struggling with a print magazine because it if wasn't a present, I wouldn't be spending my money on something call "Mountain bike rider" which has so little actual mountain bike content in it.
I hope there is an oportunity for a refund, as a print magazine subscription is what was bought and my lad won't be able to read an online magazine.
Print issues of every mag are in decline - best sellers in my shop are the kids mags, parents like them because kids may read some of it, kids love them purely for the 'free' crap on the cover. Adult magazines, Inc MTB, have been a year on year decline.
Having a physical copy of anything print seems to be a luxury rather than a commodity now.
I stopped reading it years ago, other than a quick flick through in the news agent. I got a bit bored of being told that I needed at least a 150m full sus for riding around my local trails, the odd trail center and 24 hour races. Bring back MTB Pro!
I wouldn’t be spending my money on something call “Mountain bike rider” which has so little actual mountain bike content in it.
I've just flicked through the August 2023 issue and at a casual glance I cant see anything in there that isn't mountain bike related. Unless eMTBs dont count as MTBs in which case they are on a hiding to nothing if the biggest growth area in MTBs aren't considered MTBs...
Haven't bought MBR (or any mag) in a long time but remember years ago buying maybe 5 or 6 titles a month.
MBR - good for routes and kit tests but, as mentioned above, got samey after a while.
MBI - quite serious IIRC, like a MTB version of cycling weekly.
MTB PRO - excellent mag but didn't last long, seem to remember it tried to pitch itself to the more experienced rider 'For those in the know' I think was it's strap line.
Total MTB?
What Mountain Bike - anything with Steve Worland, remember his Reprobate column? (or was that another mag?).
And of course Singletrack - quite liked the fact when it first came out that it was quite hard to find, like you were buying into a niche little club.
Stopped buying MBUK after it got too juvenile.
Also, can anyone remember a then unknown Kelly Brook modelling cycling shorts in a group test or did I just dream it?
Used to love 'Dirt' magazine, it disappeared very quickly once it was just a website.
Dirt was a victim of having a useless publisher, the site was poorly monetised and they didn't appear to have enough of an editorial team in place.
A second (minor) tragedy after they needlessly pulled the plug on the print mag.
Also, can anyone remember a then unknown Kelly Brook modelling cycling shorts in a group test or did I just dream it?
No you didn't dream that - early days of MBR I'm sure.
