Perhaps it could be the subject for the STW poll. Maybe put some numbers on the conversation above. I doubt the powers that be would change anything from the (business based) reasons given but it would be interesting.

FWIW my view is that the Grinder articles were worth reading in the mag. You can have too many exotic travel articles and the magazine becomes a bit samey and unbalanced.

“TTG wasn’t just a review section, it was a slightly more personal and in-depth report of items used over a period of time rather than a list of new goods with marketing dept spiel”

This in spades. Keep the in depth reviews of shiny new stuff on the website and shorter more personal “This month I have mostly been riding…….” in the mag. Bit like this

[ video]http://youtu.be/ZXk2PsEaPJc[/video ]

My request for some ideas on how a review could work in print was genuine. TTG has been gone now for the best part of a year. It seems to me that the issue is not that TTG should come back – It really was a failing part of the mag. But perhaps how to bring product back to the mag in a way that works in print.

I like @clubby suggestion that it could be more a personal view of a products that shine for us. Like the annual Editor’s choice feature we run as a roundup of the year’s best but in each issue? They could reference the full in-depth review online but focus on why it’s stood out from a personal reviewers perspective.

Something like that?

Who’d be in the magazine game nowadays!

I’ve been with STW since launch, but I must confess I’ve not really read much of the last few issues, and what I have appears to be a mixed bag, the article from LA in the latest issue had all the makings to be great, but was entirely without merit.

A magazine that in my opinion gets it right is Cyclist, which despite having next to no interest in road cycling I’ll read (almost) cover to cover, lots in there that I think would translate well to ST

to keep the thread on track, I also miss TTG

Yep, Any way you could increase the proportion of ‘product’ in the mag would be an improvement imo.

I like the annual editors choice feature, so I don’t see why a similar feature in each issue wouldn’t work.

Reviews of products that are bad/don’t work are just as valuable and interesting as recommendations though.  It would be a pity to have a format that completely excluded them (manufacturers would probably be happy those reviews were not online and searchable!).  Having said that, I don’t recall anything getting completely savaged in Stw, in the way that very (very) occasionally happens in some of the others mags (not having a mark out of ten, or star system, probably contributes to that perception though).

As suggested on page 1, adding product focus to the travel articles would add interest too.

I think just keep it simple and have editorial talking about good kit that’s been useful, well designed, serves a purpose and has lasted well in the UK seasons.

Mine the forum and tap into what’s trending on here. For instance, lots of chat recently about what hardtail and puncture strips in tyres. You guys coined your “British Plus” phrase for 2.6 to 2.8 tyres, but I don’t recall seeing a review of 2.8″ aggro hardtails, which in my opinion are right on the money for UK trail riding.

I like @clubby suggestion that it could be more a personal view of a products that shine for us. Like the annual Editor’s choice feature we run as a roundup of the year’s best but in each issue? They could reference the full in-depth review online but focus on why it’s stood out from a personal reviewers perspective.

Something like that?

I’d bee keen to see that sort of thing in the mag.

I enjoy some of the travel articles but would echo the above comments that there do seem to be too many of them now.

I feel that a balance of content is needed and has shifted too far to travel articles, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time!

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>I like </span> @clubby<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> suggestion that it could be more a personal view of a products that shine for us. Like the annual Editor’s choice feature we run as a roundup of the year’s best but in each issue? They could reference the full in-depth review online but focus on why it’s stood out from a personal reviewers perspective.</span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>That would be great. I’d love to see that in print. </span>

I have bought stuff off the back of staff recommendations and would do so again.

I appreciate that I am only one of many though.

Another supporter of TTG returning to the mag. Reading other people’s views of kit helps inform me for my buying decisions. Also the bike nerd in me enjoys reading about stuff that I ain’t gonna buy.

I like  @clubby suggestion that it could be more a personal view of a products that shine for us. Like the annual Editor’s choice feature we run as a roundup of the year’s best but in each issue? They could reference the full in-depth review online but focus on why it’s stood out from a personal reviewers perspective.

Something like that?

Sounds good that.

I also like the idea, someone mentioned earlier of more detail on the bikes used on some of the “travel” articles. I always study the photos to try to see what bikes they’re on.

I miss TTG – but, I can see why they chose to get rid of it & why What MTB died. Essentially you’re just repeating the same thing year on year, ie every autumn it’s the lights test & winter tyres. Very little changes year on year essentially you’re just repeating yourself.

& that gets boring, for them to write & for us to read.

I think with the slow death of the LBS and people purchasing loads more stuff online they’ll see something they like the price of & then google for reviews, it’s all about the instant gratification culture.

I do agree however, there is kit that would be interesting to see more long term tests as opposed to just launch reviews. Maybe not so much in a group test but maybe some other form, just a few random things, ie pedals/droppers or even just items of kit that the reviewers wouldn’t be without on the trails.

I still enjoy each issue, but do wonder whether its maybe gone a bit too travel oriented for me recently. I’d like to see some more product stuff – not necessarily lengthy reviews of stuff, but just long term thoughts on stuff that the team use and abuse. That said the tyke packing article by Barney in this months issue is my favourite article for months so maybe just get him to write more stuff? The articles about big classic rides in the UK are great as well – I’m never going to get to ride in California, but the lake district seems a bit more doable!

I still enjoy each issue, but do wonder whether its maybe gone a bit too travel oriented for me recently.

Me too – and I like travelling. If each article was backed up with more information I’d maybe get more into it – like downloads of all the gpx files of the rides, details of the web addresses of where they stayed, transport links etc. Maybe it’s there and I’ve never found it.

Mixed on the reviews – I’m way past caring about all the latest must have kit so not that fussed about that too much. What I’d like (nd I think we have had in some form in the past) would be a regular ‘case study’ article of a good everyday rider of what they are riding and what they are carrying. Honest positive and negatives about how they chose what they chose and if it is living up to expectation. Over the months you choose different riders with different budgets and different riding types. the GTI version might be the same but with 2 or 3 mates interviewed together gently taking the piss out of each other’s choices.

 Since multiple people across a couple of threads have shared this view (essentially that they would rather see reviews in the mag than travel features) with little strong opinion supporting the alternative

How many people have actually said this? A couple of dozen? Didn’t Mark say they’ve got 6,000 subscribers? Is it just possible that Mark has a better handle on what his overall market wants?

You’re not going to get the people who like the current direction popping up to complain that they don’t want it changed to something else, are you?

 Since What MTB ceased to be I think there has been a gap in the market..

If that was a valuable gap, What MTB would surely still be occupying it.

Meaningful long-term feedback from people that have properly used kit might be a valuable addition. Too many magazine kit reviews are barely disguised regurgitations of manufacturer press releases, and no one needs that (or if you do, buy MBR, they’ve got it covered for you).

How many people have actually said this? A couple of dozen? Didn’t Mark say they’ve got 6,000 subscribers? Is it just possible that Mark has a better handle on what his overall market wants?

You’re not going to get the people who like the current direction popping up to complain that they don’t want it changed to something else, are you?

Yeah, so that was covered in the second half of what I’d posted, if you had managed to read that far :-).  Nice edit though.

….it suggests that either i) it isn’t as small a minority as Mark thinks it is, or ii) the tiny minority that do like print reviews are also the ones that frequent, and post on the forum.  I’d suggest this demographic would be the ones more likely to embrace online content, but it appears not?  Perhaps the majority that prefer this, just don’t feel the need to comment?  Costs, and pressure from suppliers to put reviews online seem like much more likely reasons for the change to me.

and

Meaningful long-term feedback from people that have properly used kit might be a valuable addition. Too many magazine kit reviews are barely disguised regurgitations of manufacturer press releases, and no one needs that (or if you do, buy MBR, they’ve got it covered for you).

Which is exactly what I’d like to see more of/return.  Doubt anyone sees any value in regurgitated press releases.

Why not combine the product and a article? For example, “We decide to kit out a bike with the latest Di shifters and go riding in the Forest of Dean…” chuck in some clothes you wore that worked (or didn’t), a bit of kit like a GPS, some new shoes and write it in an entertaining manner and I reckon that’s all boxes ticked.

Why not combine the product and a article? For example, “We decide to kit out a bike with the latest Di shifters and go riding in the Forest of Dean…” chuck in some clothes you wore that worked (or didn’t), a bit of kit like a GPS, some new shoes and write it in an entertaining manner and I reckon that’s all boxes ticked.

That would work for me. A kind of ‘Top Gear’ style mission. Kind of. But less cockwombleish. The travel articles are nice and all but are a bit vanilla. I’d struggle to tease one from another in my memory. ‘3 mates go for a Scottish bothy weekend in grim weather and test out some great waterproofs/ 29ers/lights/butt plugs’ has potential.

I’ve been a subscriber since the beginning and still enjoy reading the mag in print, but I have been thinking of stopping as there now seems to be too much travel content, particularly abroad. I don’t have the income to fund expensive foreign trips so they are of little interest to me. UK trips are of more interest but I would appreciate more information on the actual trails and kit.

While the kit reviews are interesting, mostly I can’t afford the sort of prices for things these days. My last bike was bought 2 years ago – a second-hand fat bike and the one before was 10 years ago bought at end of year discount. Bike reviews are mainly of interest to see what features may eventually trickle down to cheaper levels, I certainly can’t afford £3000+.

I do enjoy the comment columns as I don’t think this sort of content is covered by other magazines and it’s good to read about other riders take on mountain biking, eg why they do it and what they get from it. In this regard, I don’t seem to be able to find these on the website any more.

Perhaps a reader poll might be useful to see what people are looking for in the magazine?

While we’re on it … What happened to Room 101?

Has Charlie definitively consigned Room 101 into the proverbial Room …?

Why not combine the product and a article? For example, “We decide to kit out a bike with the latest Di shifters and go riding in the Forest of Dean…” chuck in some clothes you wore that worked (or didn’t), a bit of kit like a GPS, some new shoes and write it in an entertaining manner and I reckon that’s all boxes ticked.

That’s rather like what we did with the biketests in the early editions of mbr magazine in 1996 there. That was a hoot. We took five bikes, total cost £1000 along the interesting bit of the WHW – “A grand day out”. And more.

I’m close to this. I miss the grinder section and lots of articles on foreign travel just frustrate me as I can’t go.

On the other hand, a lot of the grinder products are things I’m not interested in / not able to buy / don’t want to buy and by the time the review is out after several momths of [product] being put through it’s paces, the new improved shinier model is due out.

Many years ago I used to test some of those products too!

Particularly for technical kit, a short video showing how it works is far better than some still photos in a mag and a load of “well you twiddle this and adjust that and tweak the other and it then does X!”

On the other hand, a lot of the grinder products are things I’m not interested in / not able to buy / don’t want to buy and by the time the review is out after several months of [product] being put through it’s paces, the new improved shinier model is due out.

Yea, but sometimes you end up reading the group tests in magazines and thinking “no, those are poo” despite the magazine liking them for the two months of intermittent use they had them for along with 8 other similar items.  Like CB pedals (I really hated them). Or a pair of exotic forks that were great when tested back to back with 4 other sets of forks for a couple of weeks in the Alps.  But once you were back in the UK and the reviews published then turned into a nightmare to live with frequent service intervals and lack of service centers.

It’s one of those cases where someone who’s already bought the product and had to live with it for a year might have a very different view to the one they had when it was box fresh and shiny.

I appreciate that manufacturers want their products reviewed favourably, and individual reviews on the web probably do that better.  So if I search for “XT M8000 cassette reviews” I’ll find loads of “it’s a cassette, chains go round it and gears shift really well”.  Which makes shimano happy and me likely to buy one. In a magazine group test against a lighter and wider ranged SRAM and e13 cassette maybe less so.

But some slightly more in depth reviews of stuff that actually survived the group test stage and ended up fitted to someones everyday bike for a year and still survived, would be good (and actually quite readable compared to a clot of group tests which just get tedious).

Just flicked through issue 121.  3 bike reviews (which I will be interested in reading), but no other product content?  Very limited interest in the rest of the mag for me.  I’m trying to embrace the product reviews being on the site instead, but it’s not really working for me.  A shame.

Aside from product, I suspect I will be more entertained by the ‘making up the numbers’ DH race articles on site, than the majority of the rest of the content in the mag at the moment.

I do approve of the trail dog on the cover 😀

TJ’s boot just out of shot? Is that why he won’t subscribe? 🐕🐕🐕

I really liked TTG, but I also really liked blame the dog! I like the UK based ride articles, I do like picking through reviews in a magazine too.

It would be good if STW could get someone like Amanda Batty or Steve Jones to write a regular  column. Someone a bit outside the norm. I do like the one off one or two page spreads written by contributors too.

Its finding its feet again the magic one, it’s changed a lot since it started, I think with the number of issues dropping (for understandable reasons as explained by Mark) you just notice the issues that don’t do it for you more!!