[Closed] Mountain bike mags

I don't bother with any now. Had Singletrack on subscription but It's full of waffle so i cancelled, same with MBR.
Sometimes I flick through whatever's on the shelf in WH Smiths or whatever but can't remember last time I bought one.

I have subscriptions to Singletrack and Cyclist, plus I get members mags from Cycling UK and Audax UK. Provides enough decent reading and reviews to keep me happy

MBR is tosh, I think MBUK is better though.

I only bother with mbr and MBUK when the subscription 'free' gift is something that is of significant value to me to bother getting a free magazine for a few months.

Finished on a test of 10k mountain bikes.

Urgh, budget bike tests are the worst.

I bought a ‘hard’ copy of singletrack last year, first mag I’ve bought for years, had loads of old ones that I would flick through on the bog/ in the bath, I’ve gradually been getting rid of them and I’ve realised I miss having them to flick through.
Happily read them online but not quite the same somehow.

Magazines were better when I were a lad.

No really, they were. I've been clearing out the spare bedroom for my lad to use as a gaming room and dug out loads of old MTB mags; Dirt, MBR, MBA, MBUK. They are thick and glossy, not like the borderline newsprint rubbish that most mags seem to be these days.

Singletrack and cranked....

If you want a physical magazine to actually sit down and read, then Cranked is what you want. Yes, it's pricy, but it's more than a ten minute read.

Singletrack, Cranked and Misspent Summers output.

James, if you read this, bring back Dirt 🙂

Only Singletrack, and TBH I've got to be in a certain place/mood to read that TBH (In the garden with a beer works nicely)

Lols at Tomhoward 😀

Singletrack only for me now

Gave up on Cranked after spending a tenner on it and finding it was the retro edition which held no interest whatsoever for me...😒

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Singletrack and Cyclist here. Covers what I’m interested in and enough good writing and pretty pictures that even if it’s not talking about some aspect of cycling that I adore, it’s still worth a read.

There's a magazine not just a forum?

I thought Singletrack would be something I might grow into eventually. A bit like Radio 4. I'm not there yet.

I haven't paid money for a magazine since Dirt. The last bike magazine I really enjoyed was Albion BMX mag. That was a good read full of crazy stories on thick paper which smelled amazing. Sadly it was short lived. Sometimes it was so deep I forgot I was reading a magazine about adults riding kids bikes. There's some wild characters in BMX. MTB is sterile in comparison.

I do really like the physicality of magazines. The extra thick singletrack that they did for a few years reeked of quality.

Content wise ST is definitely at the classier end of things. It must be difficult to think of content though, it’s either bike rides somewhere nice (which need to be really obscure to be interesting now), or be contemporary and informative without repeating press releases like a parrot.

I’d really like to see more industry journalism - what would the big players in the industry not want us to know about what goes on etc.

I’ll probably be committed to print copies for a while either way. Singletrack with a tea is me time, but I’ll grab a copy of cranked next time I’m at the FoD.

Lol at Singletrack bike the radio 4 of the mountain bike world!

I wonder what station they have on in Singletrack towers. I’d have guessed 6…

Really enjoyed the last two issues of cranked. No reviews. Just articles about people, places, trips. Expensive but it has more than you would get out of 6 months of many magazines.

I need to give single-track another go as haven't read that in a few years. I'll be honest and it's when I look at the contents and it says reviews it turns me off as that's wasted pages for me.

^albian was good agree on that. Type of magazine you don't want to come out on a set schedule, but come out when they have more collected enough high quality stories.

I don't really 'read' magazines - but subscribe to Singletrack mostly for the pictures!

Shreadder MTB zine

Stopped  buying them all as i got a bit disillusioned by the expense of everything bike related. I have the digital sub for Singletrack now but more from a point of view that i enjoy the forum and feel i should give something back.

The best bike magazine in my opinion was BIKE magazine the US mountainbike mag, brilliant stories and amazing photos. It always inspired me to get out and ride.

Nevermind the actual magazine content, I'm keen to know if @JoB is doing ok? Last 6 months of Mint Sauce have seen him crashing frequently...as Jo has said he tends to draw things that are affecting him, is he ok?

I thought Singletrack would be something I might grow into eventually. A bit like Radio 4. I’m not there yet.

Jokes.

I think of it as more the 6 music of bike mags.

Nevermind the actual magazine content, I’m keen to know if @JoB is doing ok? Last 6 months of Mint Sauce have seen him crashing frequently…as Jo has said he tends to draw things that are affecting him, is he ok?

crashing frequently, and Death making a lot of appearances, crashes and death

i'm doing a funny* one now

(*your definition of funny may vary)

Now almost everyone has the internet in the palm of their hand, magazines have died. Also the race for clicks has pushed out the proper journalist. So we have nothing in depth, nothing but click bate and nothing physical of quality apart from Singletrack and Cranked.

I just flick through them on Readly and I’m always pleased I didn’t waste a fiver on each of them.
I do subscribe to STW as I like a hard copy of it and I do like to contribute. Can’t say it gets a good read though

Remember buying the first-ever copy of MBUK and thought it was brilliant then after a few years got bored of it as it seemed more aimed at adolescent 13-year-olds being dick-heads. Then I don't know whether it was my interest in mountain biking at the time and the current situation of mountain biking in the UK but found MTB Pro to be spot on and read practically every issue cover to cover.

I use to subscribe to Singletrack print but only do digital edition now, more to support them than any interest in the actual magazine. There isn't anything wrong with Singletrack Magazine it's more me. I have zero interest in E-bikes, bike packing or gravel riding which is the in-thing at the moment.

This is where I like Readly, you get most of the UK and US cycling magazines and it also has tons of other magazines in other interest that I like. Flick through most of them and read the articles I want, then delete. A bit like browsing in WH Smiths but in the comfort of your own home.

I do wonder how much proper journalism happens in the mountain bike world. Mtb is a pretty happy place, but if there was a serious issue like (and these are imaginary) high level athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, or a major manufacturer using child labour in the supply chain, which writer would want to risk their place in the magazine/website world for that sting?

I find a lot of content very safe and tame - press releases/reviews/tests/rides. I definitely skip pages in ST that just seem to be filler too. And MBUK is just waffle (I used to subscribe many years ago and quit). I do like ST though, it stands up for the right stuff.

Off road (reviews/guides) and pink bike (insight and comment) are probably what I read the most at the moment.

Now almost everyone has the internet in the palm of their hand, magazines have died. Also the race for clicks has pushed out the proper journalist.

That's the irony though. I think Mike Kazimer and Sarah Moore do decent, proper content. Mike Levy is more of an influencer type, but I think the content is good, I like Rachel Wright's reviews too e.g.

Off road cc Marin Rift Zone

So, it seems like the decent talent has gone online.

Maybe it's management. The Bikeradar site is in a terrible state.

Now almost everyone has the internet in the palm of their hand, magazines have died.

Cranked has had year on year growth since its inception. No web content.

MBR is awful these days, not alot of content. Seems to be morphing into the wst MBI went.
Singletrack still a good read
MBUK seems to have gone through its bad period. Its actually really good these days. Historicly the UK scene owes alot to the mag in my opinion

found MTB Pro to be spot on

Same.  But I could easily never have picked up a copy due to the title, I mean, I’m not a Pro.

I use to subscribe to Singletrack print but only do digital edition now, more to support them than any interest in the actual magazine. There isn’t anything wrong with Singletrack Magazine it’s more me. I have zero interest in E-bikes, bike packing or gravel riding which is the in-thing at the moment.

Also same except I have a lifetime sub.  And really it’s the forum I want to see continue

Cranked and STW subscriber here, though rarely get chance to read them having three kids and a pile of books to work on.

I'll pick up an MBR or MBUK if there's an interesting article but that's rare.

I like the short form, can read on the loo articles that you get snack in 5 minutes.

Like others a Singletrack hard copy subscriber. MBUK / MBR for socks, hats or Mint Sauce stuff. MBR is total tosh these days.
Singletrack is more about the sort of riding I’m likely to be doing these days. Still enjoy a ‘blast round the woods’ with me mates and even a pump track session with my stepson. But more often these days it’s bigger rides,often with the o/h. Singlespeed or cx bikes get used much more nowadays too.

I do wonder how it must feel for the folks who make this their vocation, i wonder how many left university with a degree and thought "Some day i hope to be writing articles for people to read while they're taking a dump."

I don't think I'd get singletrack any more if it wasn't for the connection to the forum, but I do still enjoy it. And I get MBUK, I like the kit/new stuff aspect more than I think a lot of ST readers might? (there's 3 sorts of bike feature, "features about bikes", "features about riding" and "features about people" with blurring between and those 2 mags just have very different focus).

Picked up a couple of issues of Cranked, it didn't quite take. I reckon if I'd been subscribing for years I still would get it but it didn't quite make that jump.

I reckon I could get everything I get from MBUK just by reading the various websites, but that's not the point, I like magazines. And there's no such thing as an e-magazine, just badly formatted websites, you can't consume them the same way.

Anyway... At the moment, I'm going through a pile of old motorbike magazines, Bike and Ride and TWO, and the difference in quality between those and mtb mags is just crazy. More content, more in-depth writing, more real journalism... More staff.

It's a really unfair comparison, because they're all at least 10 years old, when there was way more money in print (and there's probably always been more money in motorbikes). But unfair as it is, it still tells a story.

I will keep getting paper mags as long as they exist and I hope that's forever though

Back in the 90s I use to buy every magazine going although I remember giving up with mbuk for a bit , back then they really were the only link to a wider mtb world . Just singletrack now and I read MBUK and Australian mountain bike through press reader .

I quite like reading gear reviews and find that stuff interesting as I’m a bit of a bike geek but I find I get all that online so I want my magazines to be about riding and not about bikes as such .

A few years ago whilst reading MBR I think I realised I must of read a variation of an article about Gypsy glen at least 10 times over the years .

I quite like reading gear reviews and find that stuff interesting as I’m a bit of a bike geek but I find I get all that online so I want my magazines to be about riding and not about bikes as such .

That's exactly how I feel. If I want reviews I will go on the web and read several and try and pick out the information from a few sources. I want magazines to be about people places riding, scenes.

Ok, just had my copy of mbr through the post.... Completely agree with the op 100%, took about 2min of flicking through to realise there's absolutely not one review or article I want to read.....

Most of the mags are about bikes, hence why they are so dull. If they were about riding bikes and the people they’d be much more interesting. Keeping advertisers happy I guess.

And there’s no such thing as an e-magazine, just badly formatted websites, you can’t consume them the same way.

I do prefer reading a paper magazine to online content, but enduro-mtb's app is pretty close.

Android

ios

Most of the mags are about bikes,

This month's mbr specificly- if you discount the journalists reg rides every bike review is an ebike with the average price @ 9.5k....

The only review I read was the new gx level axs only to compare to my x0. One page out of 106.
I only subscribe for the 'free' gift though 🤷‍♂️