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Issue 444 dropped through the letter box yesterday. Clearly some new design format has been applied to the mag and it's all quite clean looking but, on having a closer look this morning, there are no route guides. Whilst I'll freely admit that I rarely actually ride them and last month's gpx files wouldn't play ball, it feels like a core piece of a bike mag is now AWOL.
I suppose there are only so many new stories to tell or routes to map, but I'd rather a bit of inspiration to ride somewhere new than yet another two pages on how to set sag.
Still, keep the sub to keep Mint alive.
Hang on, they're still publishing MBUK?
I suppose the route guides were probably quite expensive to produce* (2 people, 2 days per route inc. the traveling, hotel).
And at the end of the day you could pick up one of the VP publishing books for ~£5 in a 2nd hand bookshop. Same price as the mag with more routes in an area you were actually interested in.
ST at least turns it into a much better article.
Plus the longer the internet exists, the more of a back catalogue of cycling clubs and individuals publishing rides there is. I've got a whole stack of MBUK / MBR route guides cut out in a folder somewhere and organized geographically. But I never look at them because google makes it easy to find some locals blog with a link to a gpx.
*obvious caveat that we all know they frequently never actually rode them.
IMHO opinion the MBUK target market is probably not so interested in a route across the moors.
However i really miss them in Singletrack. I road one last year and really enjoyed it. I will ride many more. I also really miss comparative bike reviews. I think single bike reviews are really hard to make sense of. When you see how bikes compare then it all starts to make sense.
IMHO opinion the MBUK target market is probably not so interested in a route across the moors
I think that it's trying to appeal to a different market these days, more like the old MBR than the old 'rad' MBUK. I get it free online through my local library (as well as Cycling Weekly & Cycling Plus etc). I quite enjoyed the routes feature, just imagining riding them was worth it.
You look through the mag and whatever their target market is send to be a pretty broad church. I suppose you don't last for as long as they have without speaking to a mass audience.
You look through the mag and whatever their target market is send to be a pretty broad church. I suppose you don't last for as long as they have without speaking to a mass audience.
Bit like MBR though, they recycle the same articles every couple of years.
Iirc the MBUK routes were produced by the chap behind https://www.roughrideguide.co.uk/
IMHO opinion the MBUK target market is probably not so interested in a route across the moors
I think that it's trying to appeal to a different market these days, more like the old MBR than the old 'rad' MBUK. I get it free online through my local library (as well as Cycling Weekly & Cycling Plus etc). I quite enjoyed the routes feature, just imagining riding them was worth it.
Holy frijoles, who knew that free magazines from the library was a thing! I've now signed up via my local library and cancelled my Readly subscription, thanks for the tip off!
who knew that free magazines from the library was a thing
Who knew that libraries were still a thing?!
Iirc the MBUK routes were produced by the chap behind
Yep. Max Darkin.
I get it free online through my local library (as well as Cycling Weekly &Cycling Plus etc).
Thanks for the reminder for me to set this up with my local library. 👍 Took 5 mins.