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I've no doubt the guy can ride a bike at all and i don't actually mind his articles so much, for me it is the fact that they will put yellow type on white background, or so small you have to squint or going up the page so you have to keep turning the magazine (making it difficult to read on the toilet groggy eyed in the mornings).
I like Dirt and I like Jonesy's articles - his photos aren't half bad either
With SJ's articles you have to get the gist of what he's saying. I trust his opinions even if I have to work a bit to interpret them!
I reckon acid would help the copy make sense. Only mag with what I call true 'sports' photography as opposed to landscapes with a bike though. Makes me want to ride more than any other mag.
I subscribe to ST and Dirt. I quite like Dirt and Jones' articles at the minute. The typface thing was a problem a while back but its mostly okay of recent as far as I remember.
But what do I know? I've got max 50mm stems on all my mountain bikes including the ones I ride for longer than two hours! 😉
I like them in general, his articles come over as being written by someone passionate about bikes and riding. I am not really that bothered if his sentence construction is a bit off, in fact I never really notice it. The writer I cant abide in dirt is that Cunny guy with his egotistical, pseudo intellectual claptrap. Horses for courses I guess.
Personally I would buy dirt over any of the other mags out there, makes me want to ride, whereas the others just stop me being bored for a bit.
His writing style used to get my goat too, but now I've kind of tuned into it.
Strangely he seems quite straightforward in his video pieces, even though he talks a bit like his magazine reviews.
Like ianv I prefer reading his stuff to the posturing by a few of the more up themselves regular contributors.
Only mag I've subscribed to (stopped now) and thought it took a turn for the worse when it went monthly.
I should say there is a lot about the mag to like, it has a "road-trip" feel, nice pictures and has a genuine and unique spirit - does make you want to ride.
I don't think it suffers from any "cornering was a copy adn paste affair" style writing either.
There's a surprising amount of people who subscribe to both Singletrack and Dirt. Billy Bragg used to say he subscribed to the Economist and Socialist Worker and by reading both, he got a very balanced view of the world. A bit like that then 🙂
I subscribe to both, somewhere under the old pile of vinyl I think there may be some Billy Bragg too ... 😉
I like Dirt. I think Steve Jones has realised that magazine reviews don't really make a difference, especially since Dirt don't use any sort of '4 stars' metric, so writes accordingly.
It is fun to play Jones bingo though: 'Cockpit combo straight in the bin....OEM tyres swapped for sensible rubber....high tempo riding....hungover.....needs a single ring to silence the beast....increasingly cut up trail centre...angles all wrong, shock needs tuning, ride a size larger, buy this bike.'
I subscribe to Dirt and really enjoy the read. I find Jones enthusiasm and knowledge quite refreshing.
Good comment from Chipps!
I just wish they would get someone to proof read his articles... Silly spelling mistakes and the wrong word that sounds the same (sure its called something, but bear/bare, here/hear, etc etc) might make it slightly less frustrating to read ! Surely 4130 must have someone who reads the magazines before they get put out?!
it could be worse. does anyone remember dirt when jerry dyer was in charge? he went on to start grip 😀 magazine if that helps.
Another Dirt and ST reader here. Different mags, but I like the writing style of Dirt. Yes, there are a quite a few typos and whatnot, but that lends to the sense that it's written by bikers for bikers. I read, write and publish for work so it's refreshing (poetic?) to read passionate words written by someone fully immersed in the kind of biking I [aspire to] do. Saying that, I have lefty tendencies and subscribe to The Economist.
OwenP - MemberDirt do a 'letters page' debate on this sort of thing about once a year... Their view is that for everyone who writes in saying they hate the format/ layout/ text size/ colours etc, someone else writes in saying that they love it.
Which sounds reasonable... But it's not "like" vs "don't like", it's "like" vs "struggle to read it at all".
But there's really not much point discussing that, they're not very interested. I really like the mag but every so often, along comes an article printed in dark blue on a pink background, or something similiarly idiotic, that might as well just be blank, for me. Not clever.
There's one page I never read in Dirt - the letters page!
I subscribe to Dirt and ST (and MBUK but don't tell anyone).
They are not so far apart as all that, especially since Dirt made more effort to embrace trail riding and enduros.
Dirt is in a very good position in that it is the acknowledged authority on the gravity side of mountain biking - which seems to be where all the attention and money is going.
It has a clear editorial focus and produces some brilliant features (eg. the recent Chris Akrigg piece and Mick Kirkman's interview with Brendan Fairclough) - and the World Cup coverage is superb.
It's definitely the bike mag I look forward to reading the most and Steve Jones' idiosyncratic prose style is a price worth paying I reckon.
I'll pass your feedback onto him, if you would like me to?
I don't know if anyone here used to read Car magazine (at any time from the '60s to the turn of the millennium) but I sorely miss the brilliance (journalistic or any other) of [url= http://m.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/sep/19/guardianobituaries.pressandpublishing?cat=media&type=article ]the late, great LJK Setright[/url]. To quote from a couple of obituaries:
"He peppered his writing with classical allusions, or quotations in Latin or Greek. He once wrote in blank verse about a Citroen. And when, quite recently, the editor of one of Britain's best-known magazines suggested he "tone down" these flights of fancy to suit a more modern audience, his response was to submit a column entirely in Latin (before offering a translation a day later)."
Yet as highbrow his literary flight may be, he got right down to the engineering essence:
"Setright's fame stemmed primarily from his deep love for automobiles and engineering, about which he wrote most consistently and for longest in the monthly magazine Car. He was mostly self-taught on engineering subjects, but his erudition allowed him to meet the motor industry's best engineers on equal terms. It also enabled him to explain complicated concepts to his readers with a rare clarity."
He was also a terrifyingly quick driver - I read an anecdote recently from someone who took their new sports car out for a burn along some great driving roads (back in the days when you could drive fast 😉 ) and was shocked to find some great big saloon car coming up in his mirrors, piloted by the man himself.
His output represented the zenith of magazine writing in my not very humble opinion! But where to find a journalist that actually understands engineering?
I read STW and Dirt like many of the above. Really enjoy Steve Jones. Can't read some of the type but I put that down to being old and so not target audience.
(Also used to read Car and LJK above in the 80s)
chiefgrooveguru, same goes for John Robinson in Performance bikes, proper old school engineer
I'll pass your feedback onto him, if you would like me to?
I'm sure he will lose loads of sleep over the fact that 30 blokes on stw don't like his mag. 🙂
Happy Valentine's Day! I'll reply when i've wiped the tears from my eyes x
steveoffofdirt
Happy Valentine's Day! I'll reply when i've wiped the tears from my eyes x
steveoffofdirt
Another Leonard Setright fan.
Along with Mark Williams, Mac McDiarmid & Brecon Quaddy of 'Bike' magazine, he warped my taste in transport completely. 😀
Setright was always readable though (well, I might have failed with the Latin). You can read a Steve Jones article and come out the other end not knowing if something is good or not.
This review of the BOS Vip'r is one example - I was really keen to find out waht it was like, was considering buying one myself, came away none the wiser.
Running double air amounts to what we would in a similar Fox shock ITS otherwise business as usual externally with compression and rebound adjusters consistent with other air shocks right now. We were interested in the usable range rather than the amount, something we have found on other Bos products and whether the characteristic control gene that runs through the range continues here. Nothing seems to panic the French shockers, monitoring the terrain and consistency through the range.Heading out onto the trails it was interesting to compare this out of the box Bos to a custom tuned Monarch built for the Zesty and hard dry conditions similar to what we were riding. Having the benefit of a Deville fork up front is a clear advantage when attempting bike set up and instantly there is familiarity front and rear.
It’s easy to get carried away. Taking a 140mm bike onto a track which is in patches beaten up downhill root territory obviously rides the edge of what the bike is made for – we rode it but used as a comparison the newer red route that’s about to open up in the Forest of Dean.
Working alongside Roger Estrada of R53 engineering highlighted the time needed to get near to comfort. On that blown out root tracks we quickly found a good setting in terms of grip yet experienced that more extreme high speed hit support needed work. An instant call to Toulouse confirmed that the Zesty was similar to a couple of other bikes and an evolution of this shock will follow in the next week or so. In terms of traction on shallower root however the Bos is better than what we have ridden on this particular bike.
The Bos has superb consistency and an ability to manage terrain. We ran rebound quite open – about seventeen clicks – this appears similar with other Bos units we have tried in the past. The most noticeable and positive experience came on the recently made trail in the Dean about to open. Although still pretty fresh, the coarse rock material yet to be weathered still produces a grip challenge in isolated places and it was here that we found small changes in the dials transferred to subtle yet definite grip improvements on the bike very, very quickly. And it’s on that type of terrain that many people will be using the VIP’R.
First impressions? In terms of numbers sold like I said it’s probably here on man made forest trails that riders will most use the new Bos damper although I’m sure there will be keen followers in the 160mm range of enduro bikes in the competitive environment. We found it a very easy item to work with in terms of dials. Trying to quantify its value? Very difficult in the short space of time we had. It’s definitely a different feel, the range is more in the middle rather than at the extremes on many air shocks, particularly rebound, and it’s always miserly in the use of inches. In this respect it offers a balance advantage but you really need to spend time on it to extract the real benefit.
Never mind Steve JOnes,what about Alex Jones on the one show ????,HMMMMM lurvally,oh btw i'm fat tooo,& got n Orange 5....lol..
It is fun to play [s]Jones[/s] [b]Hora[/b] bingo though: 'Cockpit combo straight in the bin....OEM tyres swapped for sensible rubber....high tempo riding....hungover.....needs a single ring to silence the beast....increasingly cut up trail centre...angles all wrong, shock needs tuning, ride a size larger, buy this bike
FTFY
I'm sure he will lose loads of sleep over the fact that [s]30[/s] [b]29[/b] blokes on stw don't like his mag.
I can't stand singletrack mag tho 😉
But I am an off-trend Radio 4 type.
Pretty much only listen to Radio 4, and I read Dirt. I must be a right wrong-'un!
Agree about dirt and st being a little closer than in years back: it was a good few years ago that 'fish out of water' in ST did a downhill race, and a good few years since Dirt reviewed a 'proto' on-one 69er (and raved about it).
I quite like Jones' writing. You can tell Rod Fountain uses his language to win folk over and get them fired up about stuff in his day job too, he is well funny, and I am increasingly liking James McKnight's pieces and fwiw I always thought Richie Cunynghame's column was well writen: he has certainly read a lot of flowery old novels in his time! On the other hand Bryceland's column is rarely anything but complete drivel. (apart from the photo on the one where he tries spd's 😆 )
with all the strong opinion on how rubbish the writing is in the various mags that are discussed on this forum it always baffles me why the god's of quality and class never get their shit together to do a better job of it. 😕
i mean how hard can it be?
Dirt is visually interesting, stimulating even. The design, whilst not always the most clean cut or legible is always visually distinct and exciting. The photographs are generally stunning. In contrast STW, for example is crushingly dull in my opinion, coupled with grimly uninspiring photos and it makes for an uninspiring package.
The enthusiasm, passion and general love for riding that the contributors of dirt have is evident in their articles, even if their writing might not always be shakesperean in quality (although to their credit some of their contributors are fantastic scribes).
Jones' stuff might be irritating, head frying to read some times but if you just read it in a welsh accent it all makes sense and.....
duffmiver .
he can ride a bike better than any of you
As much as some of you might try down play the importance of that, deride the poster, or generally take the piss it is very relevant. Basically speaking if you're a 2 out of 10 rider, how the hell can you tell whether a bike is a 2/10 or a 10/10? even if you are "an engineer".
In the past when I've seen videos featuring some magazine contributors and I've found it laughable that they review bikes. I can ride it along a fireroad myself thankyouverymuch. At least with Jones you can be sure that he's pushed the bike to limits most average riders won't.
I agree with all that - I wouldn't take him away, I enjoy the enthusiasm and passion. They just need s sub editor to parse some of the random thoughts into sentences that people can read.
So, Chipps- is STW The Economist or Socialist Worker?
I'm curious. 😀
I have not read dirt or any other mag for a while, I used to use the forum before I found this place! I even won some DVDs once! Now the reason why Jones articles are not word perfect are because he is first a cyclist and second a journo. In fact this topic has inspired me to go buy a copy! Does Rose and Billy trailstar still work there? 🙂
Yep - they're still there.
I dunno about all of this Jones bashing, I'd be the first to say he does write some cobblers but I think it's fair to say his enthusiasm shines through, there are Dirt contributors I'd like to see replaced long before you took SJ out of Dirt's pages, for instance I can't believe they actually pay Josh Bryceland for his monthly pieces (in fact even if they don't I can't see what they bring to the party really)...
To complain that Dirt in particular are short on Technical/Engineering details in their articles is laughable though, it's not like MTB related print media in general is much more technically informative than visiting the manufacturers website or leafing through their brochure yourself...
I think What Dirt in general is maybe missing now is the Qualitative element of kit reviews I can't believe the 0.5 deg +/- head angle debates and gram counting spreadsheet shite is really what people want to read, and the fact that historically Dirt shied away from that to describe the user experience (What the damn bike is like to ride!) was their appeal, the trouble is that recent reviews don't really give any insight...
And the other articles are mostly about cutting edge, achingly cool kids you've never heard of living the dream and traveling with their bikes (They'll be done with bikes in a couple of years and on to the next thing probably)...
TBH these days I only buy Dirt maybe 3 times a year to see what (if anything) has changed for better or worse..
otherwise I uite like Wideopen-Mag as they seem able to "Out-Dirt" Dirt...
I flick straight to brycelands column 😀
makes me smile everytime!!
I can't believe they actually pay Josh Bryceland for his monthly pieces (in fact even if they don't I can't see what they bring to the party really)...
So right. Bryceland, whilst occasionally witty and funny can barely speak coherently let alone write. Of all the dh racers out there he really is the last one I want to read. I'm sure he's a top bloke but I'd rather have a column by Barel, or Hill, or Fairclough.....or Minaar or Gracia or Peaty or....
I wouldnt bring either of you two craicuums to a party.. jaysus!!
[i]he is first a cyclist and second a journo[/i]
See also: Every cycling journalist I can think of.
From the early days of Dirt I really enjoyed the mix of mtb with a bit of bmx thrown in together. There was always going to be something related to bmx in each issue.. and i like that. It can still be found in it and it will probably never leave.
For someone that hasn't been into mountain biking for 5 or so years,they might find it of no interest to them. Some might skip to the next article and think nothing of it,others might frown and start taking out their anger because of their lack of knowledge on the history of mountain biking and pick on the grammar ;O) This really doesn't faze me if its something i enjoy reading about.
People,bikes,parts,races.. anything to do with the "good old days" in mtb or bmx could be thrown in there and for someone that hasn't lived in that era.. some of it is going to confuse them. For the people that have lived through it,it might bring a smile to their face. Spotting these little pieces thrown in i just don't think anything of it. I might know who,where or what they might be on about when it comes to the older stuff but looking at it from another side, there's often new school stuff I don't have a clue about. I wont make a song and dance about it,though.. I just accept that I haven't been there all the way through.Possibly because I chose not to hit the DH races as much as other folk around me have done over the years amongst other things.
I don't buy magazines,they appear. I cant remember the last Dirt magazine I bought but the last issue I read had Chaussons interview in it. I enjoyed that. To read about her possibly making a comeback made me chuckle. The thought of the look on some of todays female dh stars faces when they first read about this would have been priceless. Without knowing who the hell she is.. or what all she had accomplished,it would probably be quite boring to many newbies i'd guess. Was that the issue with a tyre test? Out of the tyres I have ridden in that test i never expected to agree with the things said. The reason being, i consider myself a crap rider and coming from folk that could probably descend way more than twice the speed of me in mud.. it was nice to be able to read about them and know what they were on about having ridden them.
As for the way paragraphs are laid out,the colours used etc. Does it really get yer goat that much? Yes,yellow and white is a bit mind numbing but I wouldn't give up on something if i was enjoying it.
If you were brought up reading R.A.D magazine (bmx action bike)in the 80's/90's then Dirt would be a piece of p1ss to read. You don't know how easy you've got it!
Radio 4 here, too. But then again I do read STW with almost a passion... 🙂