I’d like it to feature birds of prey. I like kestrels best.

I find Dirt so badly written – really poor spelling, grammar and punctuation – I find it really hard to read!

metallic Jesus that’s just walked out of a spaceship

LMFAO 😆

…couldn’t agree more with all those points too. Much better put than my waffling attempt.

Hi Rusty Spanner

Several female friends have mentioned that it’s pretty hard to find anywhere that stocks larger size womens clothing.

Also, apparantly much of the European stuff comes up very small.

Not great when trying to get people who aren’t already athletic to take up cycling.

Up to Size 20
http://www.corinnedennis.co.uk/

Up to Size 14
http://www.groundeffect.co.nz

Si

Some great ideas here – I think variety is the spice of life personally, so the same columns every issue could get a bit boring. Why not do something like the Economist and have a quarterly supplement dedicated to a certain aspect – say technology innovations, Skills, 10 best trail centres – with maps and video links etc.
Also – money SAVING tips – when do you ever see that in a bike mag? – like how to make a headset press out of bolts and washers and all that kinda thing. The stuff we do on a day to day basis but have to trawl badly made YouTube videos for.
Stuff that’s helpful, as opposed to aspirational.

how about using QR codes to direct you to footage?

More of Benji’s deep and meaningful articles. Like the ranty one a couple of issues back. Or even better, the Jamaican one where he was amazed that ‘black people’ ride bikes.

Yup, that’d do it for me.

More totty.

How about a section on architecture, focussing on a different style/genre every issue?

Beachriding

Frankenbike of the month.

Whey protein brownie and flapjack recipes

Readers Sheds

How to run a mates race.

Dresstling.

Can I hav a wurd surch and a mayz?

Or alternatively – someone joked about investigating the gritty underside, I don’t think it’s quite that extreme but I would like to see more stuff about the trade side of things, how people like on-one & cotic go about bringing a bike to market, the design process, inside the factories etc.

It’s been a while since we had a bivvy article.

Seriously, it’s all down to the quality of the writing.

I’ll read almost anything if it’s written with style and humour, especially if it makes me want to ride my bike the moment I’ve finished , even if it’s midnight.

Everything else, layout, graphic design, product reviews etc is mleh if the writing is crap.

I really want them to do an article and test components properly to destruction. I’ve had a belly full of ‘oh, I bent a Thomson seatpost’ or ‘I snapped some cranks with my manly thighs’ or ‘that stem flexes’ – cut the crap and put those components through proper mechanical testing. Then we’ll know that cranks have / don’t have flex and just how many tonnes of load it takes to break stuff. A ‘stop the pub bullsh**ters’ article.

Great to hear Jenn Hopkins is on board, she’s a good writer and photographer and does the kind of rides I read about and find inspiring.

Generally –
Less product info – the internet does that faster – unless it’s group tests.
More inspiration – places, ride ideas. Why we escape on bikes, where we go, maybe a bit less ‘gnarr!’ and a bit more ‘ahhhh’. Not that there’s too much DH focus, but it does feel like ‘trail’ has become ‘dh lite’ for some and to me it’s still mostly old-school xc / exploration, we just ride harder now.
Maybe some interesting writing that may be related to bikes / riders but has a wider scope?
More weird bikes! There’s so many ways to roll now. Open peoples eyes, there’s more options than you may think. Quirky custom set-ups and why people use them. Custom builds. Anything beyond the norm that translates to normal bikes somehow (ie VeloVision may be a bit far, but it’s an interesting read all the same).

I love Privateer and The Ride for its inspirational stuff, I think ST could be a bit more along those lines considering its reader demographic? I’d like to read more about the wider topic of off-road riding and a bit less about mainstream MTB tests / sales stuff, but I appreciate it needs to sell copies.

All in all it’s a good mag though, still the only monthly mag that lasts me the full train journey to work. ‘Good job’ to all involved.

coastkid – Member
Beachriding

Chipps, just ask this guy to write an article.

I’d like a photo article explaining how to make small trail repairs.

I’m also a bit fed up with the proportion of high-end product reviews – who the hell can afford a £600 wheelset or fork right now? I want to see the normal/budget stuff tested – but I guess the team just want to ride the bling they get sent every Friday.

The magazine seems to upset and frustrate a lot of people on here, for those reasons I think you should leave it as is.

an in depth detailed with sketches/diagrams, research, findings, fact & figures, pro riders thoughts, design & development product reviews – say a £600 fork vs £200 fork. or buying second hand – whats the worst that could go wrong with say a reba fork.

how to service a fork if it did go wrong.

I feel it lacks real substance & depth – its a bit light.

I’ll admit I do like product reviews – but they could be soooo much better.

Wunundred!

Pages of fascinating articles and lots of nice pictures, that is. 😀

In all seriousness I was thinking about writing an article about the biking scene in Brazil. It wouldn’t be your typical article about once specific ride in one location, more about the scene, inner city biking in Sao Paulo (you need a mountain bike more than a road bike I reckon), safety in the countryside (getting mugged for your bike if you are on your own in the countryside is a real issue), plus sustainability and transport issues could be covered too.

Would that be of interest?

For trail guides- less vagueness, better maps. I’ve ridden most of the innerleithen route in a recent issue but I’m not sure I could find my way round it with the guide and map!

MBR have been kicking ass with their combined ride guide/interview features lately, the ones with Crawfy and Guy Martin in particular were superb. It’s just a great way of doing things, avoids becoming just Google Maps for Trails, but also makes the interview more alive.

I’d really like to see this done with the people with the best connections to trails- go riding at Drumlanrig with Ric Allsop, or similiar, Andy Wardman and Pete Laing at Glentress…

Something for the website, but what I want to see is a series of vids where very good riders come and nail local trails around the uk, so you can see how it’s meant to be ridden!

Wouldnt change much but would agree that some more insights in to getting in to grass routes events. Perhaps shadowing somebody who is at the top of their game v a relative newbie.

+1 with MTG as an example of the above, an insight in to a competition day of one of the better TQ riders – 50+ miles and max points against the rest if us muppets!

Sorry…wrong ST.

An issue that didn’t feature Torq branding smeared over an article would be great. I do not doubt Matt’s knowledge and their banoffee gel is amazing but I kind of feel like Torq is to STW as Specialized is to MBR.

1. Helmet test, One rider with one without, both going through equal crashes.

2. A guide on how to pick the colour of your next bike.

3. A What tyres for… Chart.

4. Article on why 29er are amazing

5. Article on way 29ers are 5hit.

6. A good pub ride. every month have a ride thats 18-28 miles over nice terrain with nice views with a nice bike friendly pub stop.

7. An average jo a month. Every month pick a reader at random, as them about their bike and where they ride.

A few things from me..
The white text on black background is soooooo hard to read, I rarely bother, please consider changing this

More ride guides, maps more detailed
I like the inspirational articles, some are better than others, but as a theme I do like them
Some of the overseas riding articles are a little dull, think they could be a lot better, looks like they are bought in?
I enjoyed MBR more this month….that’s scary

I liked the article with ‘the Stig’ copy… riding 3 bikes on the same lap & giving comments – VG, more please.

Also, more ED OX – nuff said! 😉 Man & boy is either relevant or/& inspirational to many I’d hope.

What I really like about ST compared to others is the lack of product review – if I want to buy a bike there are 100’s of reviews online or I can come on a forum for some opinion. I much prefer reading about what to do with my bike (as I own one and do not intend on buying a full sus 29er for instance).

I like UK routes (a lot), nice pictures, product reviews for kit and other parts, and maintenance guides.
Kit reviews I particularly like though.

I think one section for bike reviews is the max, maybe 3 bikes a magazine. Because seriously who buys the magazine if they are thinking about buying a bike? They’re more likely to buy MBR or What MTB? surely than a magazine which is clearly geared towards riding.. ooh and heres a bit about new bikes because we have to kinda thing.

Agree with the white text on black background but suspect it’s an age thing – the blokes are just too vain to ‘fess up. 😉

I really like the mag – photography is terrific. Current issue’s article on Georgia – who would have thought of riding there? Interesting to read about these different destinations.

How about featuring a county ride guide in each issue? Good point made re recommending bike/kit to accompany the route guides.

Looking forward to reading more of Jenn’s articles especially her overseas adventures.

Another who cannot read the white text on a black background please no more

CG I confess it’s an age thing

“Agree with the white text on black background”

Yep. Squinting, getting tired and giving up. Even DIRT, not known for legible text, was easier to read this month!. Chipps, please urgently fix this.

I’ve moaned a bit, so I’ll make a short-list of my favourite articles in the hope that this inspires the writers. The ones about…

* the last ride of summer (my #1, read many times)
* where the guy returns home to find that all the local riding has evolved
* man and boy
* about bikes keeping you young
* the team learning to wheelie
* Dyfi enduro by tandem

It was the quality of the writing and their insightful-ness that made me want read these several times.

In terms of the price of products going “through the Grinder”, I was pleasantly surprised to see the same Shimano pedals I own featured in the current issue. Also, at 40 quid and highly recommended, I don’t see where people could complain. The glasses on the previous page were recommended and affordable too.

Also, +1 for the reader’s bikes section. ST could easily send a letter along with the magazine asking for subscribers to describe their bikes and send photos or something. Personally I’d love to see what other subscribers are riding and also all their little bodges and ghetto fixes.

Isn’t that what all the pic threads on this forum do?

How about

‘blind’ product testing. Giving products/bikes to testers with brands blanked out, without marketting blurb as to who its aimed at, without a price to see what riders actually think, independent of hype.

‘themed’ rides/routes. EG its approaching halloween so here are a few rider submitted routes to scary haunted places, or its VE day so here are a group of rides to places have historical significance for WW2. Routes that include some tourist/historical/geographical/archaeological/geological/ecological info rather than just a nice bit of singletack, lunch stop, back to the car.

The psychology of fitness rather than 15 minutes of hill reps. I have found an awful lot of fitness is in your head so a feature with sports psychologist explaining how to beast yourself into being fitter?

For me, all the ‘I ride my bike cos its the answer to life’articles are utter pants.

can you have a ‘horas corner’ section please where he replies to people wanting to upgrade there bikes etc

I like the Stig idea (seriously)
As a racer I would love to see direct comparisons against the clock of various XC bikes, same course and rider. Maybe have a stock of parts to build with and so just do frame comparisons.

<i>More of Benji’s deep and meaningful articles. Like the ranty one a couple of issues back. Or even better, the Jamaican one where he was amazed that ‘black people’ ride bikes.

Yup, that’d do it for me.</i>

That last sentence is to taken out of context Bullheart and you know it.

i’d like to see them be more pro-active. the mag should start trying to make a difference, and fighting for it.

be it:

land access; get an interview with an MP, and give them hell about it.

shimano/SRAM: instead of the annual sycophancy as either of/both the S’s release an ever more expensive groupset with 1 more gear, how about a campaign to release a reliable groupset with 5 gears that can last more than 1 ride before needing a new cable.

(i’m not an xc racer, i don’t need lightweight/flimsy/expensive xc race components, deore is close, but i’d like to see the Mag get involved with driving the improvements)

more swoopy blues: the glentress blue is ace, the Ae blue is completely pants, most aren’t much better, i’m running out of places where my girlfriend is happy to ride. more swoopy blues means more beginners, means a bigger market for affordable bikes and bits.
More swoopy blues means everyone wins, the mag should help make this happen.
The mag could strike up a relationship/conversation with forestry recreation officers.

basically, pick a cause (or 2), and try to make it happen, the process might make interesting reading (and maybe some good will come of it).

I’d like to see articles about readers bikes as well, why they chose certain bits of kits what sort of riding they do, it really helps when choosing kit for yourself.

I know it’s all about mountain biking, but the occasional article about road bikes or urban stuff would be a pleasant change sometimes.