I still strongly believe that mountain biking needs its independent and maverick voices

Have we ever had one?
Really?
Not one dissenting voice made itself heard in print over 650b.

I know people do this out of love, not for the money, but I’m not sure true objectivity is possible, unless you’re writing a resignation letter.
🙂

I’ll try a copy of the new magazine – if it genuinely has the balls to be independent, I’ll keep reading, but if the past is anything to go by, it just won’t happen.

I’ve put my name down for the years subscription and really looking forward to the first issue.

This is the 2nd thing I’ve signed up to on Kickstarter in the last couple of weeks, after I backed the Inspired To Ride project just over a week ago.

Print isn’t dead. Its the content that kills a mag.

The ones that die? Seen how many wedding and women’s mags there are?!

By contrast there’s **** all MTB mags. WhatMTB and MBUK – are slimming down. One of those will go IMO.

There’s definitely a market there for Cranked.

Whatmtb this month- a budget £150 spend on cycling gear which I thought was insulting- football shorts, rugby socks, runners jacket and a full priced lid. Insulting in that you can easily find discounted cycling kit and lid online….but they wouldn’t want to upset advertisers so couldn’t recommend?

When you see mags like MBR/whatmtb/mbuk focusing more on advertisers, not on fully impartial kit advice etc you do tend to stop buying.

Dirt mag – I won’t even bother going there.

the electronic mags are good for reference after I’ve chucked the paper copy, but I only really read the paper magazine. I probably don’t have enough down time to read two magazines in a month. But good luck Seb.

When you see mags like MBR/whatmtb/mbuk focusing more on advertisers, not on fully impartial kit advice etc you do tend to stop buying.

MBUK has been like that from issue one. I can’t bring myself to pay £9+ for a magazine like cyclist/roleur etc. How much is Cranked going to be?

I wish them good luck. I don’t have the time to read stw at the ‘mo!! I have months worth to catch up on.

I still strongly believe that mountain biking needs its independent and maverick voices

Have we ever had one?
Really?
Not one dissenting voice made itself heard in print over….[/quote]

…..anything really 😕

mainly seems to be thinly veiled advertorials, hero worship and aspirational travel tales.

I backed it last night and this morning had an email saying they’d reached their target already! I thought it’d eventually reach the target but didn’t think it’d happen within a few hours. I suppose people saw the opportunity to get some (potentially) cool stuff and help somebody out with what could end up being a really good idea.

I’m just tired of the relentless 1500-3000 new bikes.

All are UK big distributors (who might advertise..)

Would love to see direct market bikes

Lots on riders. Lots on pro riders lives (UK pros).

I saw a ginger bloke in Hebden with loads of GB kit. I didn’t have a clue who he was.

Only recently I realised the bloke who once shouted at me to keep **** pedalling at the velodrome is Brailsfords replacement.

I can tell you about the new Carrera full sus though.

Again. I’m sick of best budget £150 jackets.

They’ve deliberately set the target pretty low (only 100 subs).
Either that’s because they can’t sustain those prices, or well… I can’t really think of another good reason for limiting the amount of subs.

The Kickstarter is probably to get enough working capital to ensure it gets made. Seb has posted an update saying you’ll be able to subscribe direct once the Kickstarter is done – which makes sense as they take 5% before any processing fees.

Would love to see direct market bikes

Do you read the magazines? They have direct market bikes in mbuk/whatmtb virtually every month and they often win the tests.

Rose bikes? I’d like to see more and more boutique brands- new brands, obscure etc. Do some leg work. More news from the industry- insider news.

Do some leg work. More news from the industry- insider news

With social media the way it is anyone can do that. The “niche” builders want there stuff seen, post on Twitter or instagram & boom of goes the viral bomb. I don’t need to pay someone for something I can do in 5 minutes myself

But the vast majority of bike enthusiasts cant sit trawling in the hope they might see something they never knew existed. How do you know its there/exists if you weren’t looking for it?

A mag should educate/give you surprises etc. Not ‘three 29’ers shoot out’ and worse, far worse for me:

Ladybouwer/Hope loop for the thousand time

Or by far the worse article

Surrey Hills/North Downs photoshoot (****). A lot of it is on private/permission land yet the lazy London mag(s) seem to do 3-4 page spreads on that area every few issues it seems.

Two (very rare) moments of sunshine at Dirt in 2014 were the Father who fulltime manages two kids, live in the Alps and struggle on a shoestring with the industry helping out where possible. Loved that. And the bloke who basically bums it in his car with help from others just so he can ride all the sweet places.

If Seb can hit those- I’m in. If he rides around the Surrey Hills (doubt it as he/others were obviously frustrated with their previous mag/work/what they were asked to do?) every other issue- I’m out 😀

Seb lives in a far better county than Surrey.

I’ll give this a go. Not bought a mag for a few years now , will subscribe in April. Looks promising and good luck