Get Your December Issue of Singletrack Magazine Here!

If you like riding your bike off road, and you like reading about bikes, and you like not doom scrolling, then we have the perfect thing for you: a ma …

By stwhannah

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Get Your December Issue of Singletrack Magazine Here!

Looks like it might be like the last issue lots of nice pictures but very little actual content, I found the last issue to be very poor and have cancelled my subscription.

I’m looking forward to it, snuggle in front of the log burner and read about lots of adventures that I’m too busy/idle to do!

I have really burnt myself out with 152 because the content is so overwhelmingly great that I have been obsessing over every page. James’ ridgeline is, in theory, accessible, yet reading the article and taking in the photos makes it seem like one of the most extreme and high consequence rides we’ve ever featured. Pete’s Purposeful Adventure is beautiful, and everything he writes makes me happy to be a mountain biker, even when things go wrong. The Classic Ride is another that just makes me happy to be part of this world – full of smiles and young riders that have more style than I can even dream of. And then the international adventures are a great mix of aspirational vs making me grateful of UK winters not actually being that bad. There aren’t many print mags left, I think it’s a bloody good job that ours is full of actual words, that matter, and not just a shopping list of overpriced components…

I enjoyed the last issue – the feature about the Collective, Mark and his deserved Fish&chips, the neuro-divergent kids in the last article. all good to me – better than MBUK. 

Well said @amandawishart. I find most issues are like that, but each to their own. You can’t please all the people all the time, unless you get them all drunk.

But… Is there a calendar?

👆I think someone up there might have gotten out of bed on the dick side this morning? 🙄

I think we must have been reading different magazines….. The last issue of Singletrack was a good read as well as good to look at as far as I’m concerned.

Nah, getting people drunk doesn’t work, go to any town centre or busy pub on a weekend!

OMG I forgot about the calendar… heads back to edit story!

Call me shallow for judging a mag by its cover, but I ordered this issue for the cover photo alone – it’s ace! And it’s only £6, FFS 🙄

Excellent, the calendar, I was worried that it’d been dropped.  For the young ‘uns- a calendar has nice pictures and places to write when you’re at the doctors, dentist, hospital, funeral etc. You hang it up in a prominent place and occasionally turn it over at the end of a month but usually have to check your phone to see what month it actually is!

but very little actual content,

I think someone up there might have gotten out of bed on the dick side this morning?

The last issue of Singletrack was a good read as well as good to look at as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve been wondering whether to cancel my sub for quite a while as I haven’t been enjoying the mag for a long time. I haven’t because of FOMO (it might get better), loyalty (I  bought the first issue in Afan and haven’t missed one since) and laziness. And it’s probably me – I’ve been riding MTBs for 30 years, reading about them, working with them, watching them on TV, etc. What else can be written about them to interest me, I’ve read it all 100s of times before. So, I took the last issue to Greece on holiday, where I had plenty of time to fully enjoy. I read less than half of it properly, before I skimmed the rest and dropped it into the hotel ‘library’. Pretty pictures, but, as usual, a lot of content that didn’t interest me – I’ll come back to this in a sec. The subscription renewed while I was away, I think, so I’ll leave it run for another year.

It’s difficult to make specific criticism, constructive or not, because we can directly interact with the writers, and they are good people who have pride in their work, often justifiably, are all generally good writers, and I don’t want to offend anyone. But…

I’ve said before that the mag is too northern based for me these days. Every issue has at least one article about Scotland in it, which is a long way from here, and these are written by the same writers, so bound to get a little samey. There’s also often a Lakes or Peaks article, which from this distance, is the same sameyness. Just a northern hill, and what looks like an ‘Epic’ ride published in any MTB mag in the 90s. It doesn’t represent the type of MTBing we do down here. I also have no interest at all in reading about what’s in your backpack, what you wear for night rides, what you wear for racing, what you wear to do the dishes, wash the car or walk the dog. (Two of them in the last issue, iirc?). I also lost patience with the article about ‘clubs’ in the last issue. First, not really all that current, they’ve been a thing since MTB started because MTBers aren’t roadies. Second, among the sermonising. one of the clubs had banned bike-snobbery but the attached picture showed a rider from that group wearing POC and Rapha. Did I miss the irony?

Having said all of that, there look to be two articles in 152 that might interest me, and despite saying that it’s northern-centric, there actually an article about riding in Wales. Hooray!  But, it’s about a trail centre. Boo!  (There’s so much non-TC riding in Wales. If you don’t have any ideas, talk to us! Just don’t turn up and do the same ‘classic’ ride published in 1993.)

Over the years I have read some great stuff in the mag and always looked forward to the next issue, which is why I feel sad at being so indifferent to it these days. But, as I said, it’s probably me not you. But, please, less Scotland, less used kit, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for more representation of the type of MTBing so many of us do, which is more locally sourced trail-building and less 90s xc loop?

@IdleJon Thanks for all that feedback, I appreciate the time taken. Yes, there’s a northern slant – partly because we’re based in the north of England, and getting further afield takes more staff time than is feasible – especially when you add into it trying to remotely research a route that is legal and can be featured. Scotland is often in there because its access laws means it’s easy to feature rides that are legal. Finding legal riding elsewhere in the country is difficult – even if there are bridleways, they invariably don’t link up in legitimate continuous rides of fun stuff. And that’s why you won’t find much of the locally sourced trail-building stuff  – if it’s not legit we can’t be telling everyone about it and suggesting they ride there. I have shifted things a bit – some of the pics you see in our pages aren’t on bridleways, whereas once upon a time everything was squeaky clean legit. But it’s a fine line to tread – there’s a big difference between lots of people riding it, and us putting pictures of it in print. When you get it wrong, there’s a lot of flack. I do have three southern-shot features in the works though!

As for kit – would you rather see new kit? Or no kit? The idea behind putting used kit in is that if it’s new specs you want, that’s all there on a manufacturer’s website, so what would print add?

And sorry you feel sermonised 🙂 I’ll try harder to mix up my serious stuff with the silly (although I think the silly often ends up in the newsletter!)

The Glen Shiel Ridge was absolutely mind blowing. Probably the best day out in proximity to a bike all year. Bloody hell it was hard, though. And yeah, flipping high consequence in places – some of the photos made my mum squeal.

I’ll be buying this one because I’m in it but I’ve not finished the last one I bought three months ago. However, I’m not really who it’s aimed at. And the word dinky was used about a billion times in quick succession in the e bike reviews, which made me want to burn it in a fire.

@stwhannah , it’s replies like that that stop me from cancelling my sub. Stop it, will you! 😡 😂

The sermonising wasn’t from you, it was from the ‘club’ in question, so no worries there.  Kit reviews are always an odd one for me. I love reviews, but tend to ride in whatever works for me, not what people wear in mags. And what works for me is whatever is near the top of my kit box, and has invariably been bought in a sale. So, ‘what’s in my pack’ articles just don’t work for me,  but obviously I’m not everybody and they might have a value. But maybe not so many of them? I still stand by my Scottish stance, though. It’s easier for me to get to France or Ireland than Scotland, and there’s a hell of a lot of good riding in between.  MBR was recently roundly criticised for having too much southern content, presumably for the same reason as you. I bit my tongue in that discussion. I want to be inspired to travel places to ride, not roll my eyes and wonder if I read this article last month. I’m looking forward to the Morroccan article for that reason. Anyway, thank you for the reply. 

@IdleJon you ride between Britain and France? That will make a unique article!

@idlejon “Every issue has at least one article about Scotland in it”

This is good, a plus point, a big tick, a massive thumbs up, a high five! Even more Scottish content would be even betterer 🙂

But seriously, looking at Singletrack content over the longer term, I reckon there is actually a pretty good spread of articles from across the UK, and a reasonable balance of overseas vs domestic. A lot of which inspires me to jump on my bike, even those places I’m not going to get to visit……am looking forward to reading the Sheil ridge article in the next issue (but pretty certain that I am never going to carry my bike up there….).