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I look forward to the article about how men only groups is helpful for mountain biking as a whole. I assume every lady reading the article knows at least someone who isn’t a lady.

See how silly it now sounds when you just switch the genders round. Perhaps I’m just lucky as about 1/3 of our group are ladies so don’t get the whole single gender thing

I agree  ChrisMac, our local group have a ‘women’s only ride’, males are not invited, women are free and encouraged to ride with the main rides. Switch it round the other way and there would be outcry.

I think you two are missing the point that far and away most mountain bikers are male. It’s very male dominated, even if this is changing noticeably in recent years.

In order to encourage more riders who are different, sometimes it’s not enough to make mixed groups as it can still be uncomfortable or intimidating, not to mention the physical differences often make a, um, difference. Single gender groups are one way to solve this.

Of course men only groups aren’t helpful for mountain biking as a whole. That’s what it usually is anyway! Doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad, either.

If it were the other way round, ie mostly female and males were just starting, I daresay there would be male only groups in the same way.

…Er, yeah, what barney said! I should really read the whole thread properly first.

My daughter doesn’t ride because it’s bloody cold, wet, muddy and not fun! 😂

nope. Not missing the point Ossify hence my similar words on page 2. But thankyou anyway.

My daughter doesn’t ride because it’s bloody cold, wet, muddy and not fun!

That makes sense… but is precisely the point.  Enjoying cold wet muddy biking is the result of a cost/benefit equation where the benefits (fun ) exceed the dis-benefits (discomfort due to cold wet mud).  The discomfort will be the same for males and females.  The fun factor may be lower for some people (eg some women) due to the issues that the initiatives being debated here are trying to address.

It’s about educating the white guy readers about the other people who mountain bike

I don’t want to read a mountain bike magazine to get educated. I read it for pleasure, for mtb trip ideas and to find out about bikes. If I want to be educated in how society groups people and how different groups are drawn to different things in different ways I would seek articles by professionals on those topics. I wouldn’t ask an mtb journalist, just like I wouldn’t ask for advice on which bike to buy form a social scientist.

Most people do not want to ride in the wet and cold, we get it, most don’t. My work colleagues all think I’m insane, and maybe I am. Lots of men like the alpha male gnarr thing, ‘ooh I’m hard and adventurous’ most females are way more sensible and don’t suffer from rampant egotism. Some women like to challenge the alpha male thing. It’s how it is stop trying to be offended by the world.

Most people do not want to ride in the wet and cold, we get it, most don’t. My work colleagues all think I’m insane, and maybe I am. Lots of men like the alpha male gnarr thing, ‘ooh I’m hard and adventurous’ most females are way more sensible and don’t suffer from rampant egotism. Some women like to challenge the alpha male thing. It’s how it is stop trying to be offended by the world.

I am not sure being hard and male and gnarr (whatever that is) is anything to do with it.  As for alpha male… what has that got to do with riding a bike?

Swimming outside seems to attract lots of different types of people  yet it’s colder and wetter than riding a bike.  The same goes for cross country running.  Girls/women feature heavily in any race.  It’s harder and muddier than mountain biking.  They do it because they enjoy it and there is a big female running scene.  In short, I am not sure I concur with your analysis.

Reading between the lines it looks as though Singletrack are struggling to retain subscribers

https://singletrackworld.com/?mailpoet_router&endpoint=view_in_browser&action=view&data=Wzc0LCJjMTg0MWEzODdkMjgiLDEyNDkzMSwiN2U4YWI5Iiw1NCwwXQ

When were women a minority? According to the 2021 census women were 51% of the uk population.

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/male-and-female-populations/latest/#:~:text=The%20data%20shows%20that%3A,up%2029.2%20million%20(49.0%25)

The gender of the riders in the articles holds no real interest to me, it’s about as valid as what job they do or whether they eat meat or what shoe size they are. I just want to read well written articles about mountain biking.

@StuE

You could be right, but if everyone cancelled their subscriptions like most of my mates have we’ll lose something that’s great. The mags been around long before and hopefully long after the current agenda has finished. It’s a tough one for me, i feel like I’m paying more for less which isn’t a nice feeling, personally I’ll keep it going at the moment and see if it improves.

The man’s manly guide to celebrating International Men’s Day like a real man

I’ve now read two thirds of the magazine and I’ve not found anything to get my Y fronts in a twist about. It would appear that some of the members don’t like anything that’s not a mirror image of themselves, talk about “an agenda” as though there’s a sinister plot against them. Perhaps you didn’t realise that there’s a whole variety of people co-inhabiting this planet, not just white men? Perhaps some of you “men” don’t like your ego being damaged by the thought of others participating in what you see as “your” macho sport but I would say, that most, secure in their lives, like to encourage others in a pastime that they enjoy. It’ll blow your mind when you realise the other projects that are around to help other human beings feel included in the whole of society. Check out The Outsiders Project, among others and expand your horizons! I read the last issue of the magazine from cover to cover, in one hit, not a good thing, indicating that nothing really caught my attention. This issue I’m choosing articles I read so that I consider the content before moving on, or, go back to read again. A good thing! I’m going to share the temperate rainforest article with my (non-riding) walking mate as I’m always telling him about them but I don’t think he believes me! STW team, keep up the good work!

Just arrived, love the look and the feel :-) it’s what I want from a print mag, decent paper and great images, I’m happy, proper OS map for Surrey hills feature is a bonus, keep up the good work!

I also like the new format, look and ‘feel’, thought the family did ask why I was sniffing the magazine.

Content is a nice mix, though I would always like more ‘through the grinder’ (a welcome return), interviews with people (the one with Greg Herbold still sticks in my mind!) and rides that go wrong. I do like the editorial stuff, and Herr Scullions series is good.

I’ll maintain my sub!

Another fan of the new format! Love the the articles about people who are not me (fat white male IT nerd), keep them coming!

I haven’t read that much yet in the magazine but I was pleased to get it yesterday. Looks like plenty to get stuck into and enjoy.

As to articles about other groups in society. I really think that have their place.

Firstly although I enjoy the reviews and travel articles I feel I could often “ai” write them myself.

The seat angle of Y kept me planted on the ups. The deore gears worked well.

It was starting to get dark and we still had another hill to climb

I have literally no idea what an article on a minority cycling group will say. A case in point the article about Muslim women. Didn’t one of them climb Snowdon before the group ride?

For me finding out about the lives of the others can be humbling and transforming. I follow Paul Pritchard on Instagram. When I was briefly a climber in North Wales he was king of the hill. Now after a huge head injury he struggles to control his body.  The videos he posts of getting his body to climb again are amazing. As I age it puts my  bodies slow decline  into perspective. I’ve learnt that what matters is going what you can with what you’ve got

We tried to hype up the launch of this new issue by not really telling you what to expect. There were a couple of reasons for doing that. Firstly, it was marketing and we wanted to build up some excitement but it was also to try and tempt those of you who are looking to make savings in your day to day lives to maybe, just maybe, hold off from pushing the cancel button in your membership account – at least until after this new issue had arrived.

I’m sorry but I have mentioned this else where. Buy the time I held my print copy your home page has shown my 4 or 5 article titles and a photo from each of them. Without clicking on anything. If a subscriber since issue one has value. Then please keep opening the envelope as special as possible and hold off with the links on the home page

I thought I recognised that smell! It’s the same as McJannet’s ‘Bikepacking’ book, appropriately enough 🧐

Imo the best article stw has ever done was the Jamie Tomkins interview a year or two ago. Informative, inspirational, and about real people. I handed re read an article multiple times for years, but that one.i must have gone through several times.

Jamie Hibbard?

Then please keep opening the envelope as special as possible and hold off with the links on the home page

We have a lot of digital only members and it would be a little unfair to delay the digital side of the membership any more than we do already (due to production workflow). Also remember only full members can read those stories – they are not public. So you can choose not to read them and wait for the paper version if you’d rather have just the print experience.

Given the physical mag a first run through now. Nice – the new form factor seems to work, it feels nice in the hand and I like the contrast between the texture of the cover to the internal pages. It feels like a quality thing to handle which subconsciously elevates the quality of the words before you even read them. A good few pages shorter than the last copy and with the reduction in paper size – say 15-20% less printed media than previously?

Content. Not bad. Highlight for me was Chipps’ custom build article. But overall it felt like it had (for me) the right sort of range of stuff. Nothing massively inspiring, but all readable. Chipps’ words earlier in the thread about humour/taking themselves seriously were in the back of my mind throughout – and yeah, that’s a thing.

This might come across as insulting or a compliment – you decide. The Minority Report article – it feels like it could have been lifted directly from the Cycling UK mag. By that I mean the worthy-o-meter was set to max. It failed my gender or other biking minority specific articles need to be more than those people just doing the usual stuff test. Inspire by finding inspiring people doing inspiring stuff rather than just pointing out ladies can do the normal stuff too.

Anyone thinking that getting cold, wet and muddy is the reason more women don’t cycle has likely never even seen a horse. 😂

In fact, there’s an idea for an article. Get some of the STW crew onto horseback and some equestrians onto bikes for a joint outing and see how they each adapt to/enjoy it.

Get some of the STW crew onto horseback and some equestrians onto bikes for a joint outing and see how they each adapt to/enjoy it.

You need to approach the eventing types though – they’ve had a brain-cell or two knocked out of them over the years. And aren’t afraid of a bit of a fall!! :-)

The Minority Report article –

Yeah, I found a marked difference between the article on Muslim women enjoying their first MTB ride written by Hannah in a previous issue, which I found tremendously uplifting, and this one, which felt like reading a lecture.

My tupence having now received and read….

Stuff I liked – Editorial, Balkans, Grinder, Amanda/Rhys, Lost Rainforests
The rest I could take or leave.

I found the (traditional?) black on white fonts are much easier to read than white on dark.
I love pics – and the photo print quality is the best I have seen in the mag for a while. But I guess it will never be “National Geographic” quality when limited to planet-friendly inks, papers and processes?

I liked the latest issue on the whole. I appreciate the travel articles and nice photos the most. The short and sharp gear reviews were good. Agree with previous comment that spec lists really aren’t needed – they’re easy to get online if really interested. I liked the format, paper is great, nice pics.

Things for the future (if up to me!):

– A focus on a popular trail and picking lines into key sections. Maybe in conjunction with a skills/coaching/guiding person/company. Obviously not everyone is going to ride that one trail, but people like having Ben Cathro explain WC DH courses and lines, and 99% of us aren’t riding them. An example, local to me, might be breaking down a couple of sections of NYNY or Mast of Zorro to get the smoothest/fastest line. Bonus short video for digi subscribers.

– A regular fitness feature. Anything from endurance, speed, strength and conditioning, etc. There is no rider out there that couldn’t benefit from more actual training. Could also lead into bike setup stuff.

– Reader bike check. Double page with pics, basic spec, reasons why. Bikepacking.com do this weekly and it’s always quite interesting, along with bike checks before big races.

– Maybe a racing round up. Not necessarily results, but stories of the race/event. Joe Nation’s write up on BP.com about his recent win in New Zealand was a good read. Understand pics from the big races might be hard to come by and/or expensive.

– Challenges. They work well for YouTube, but some could work in print too. Mark Scott recently rode all the Golfie trails in 24 hrs (which would make a nice article and pics). But you don’t need superhuman efforts (all the time). Everesting is hard, maybe a Mont Blanc attempt in a day? Or an Everesting descent attempt at BPW?

All IMO, of course, and I know nothing about producing a magazine.

As an aside, can I ask about the paper of the new mag? The Trash Free Trails article in this issue laments the decline of native woodland (which is right) but we need productive forestry for many things including paper for lovely-if-totally-non-essential magazines. Is the new paper type from the UK? Not trying to call anyone out on this, but that article glossed over the need for productive forests (ultimately we need more of both types of forests, but that’s a whole other story) in a magazine which almost certainly is made from trees in plantations. Mountain biking’s relationship with forestry is tricky at best!

“– Reader bike check. Double page with pics, basic spec, reasons why. Bikepacking.com do this weekly and it’s always quite interesting, along with bike checks before big races.”

^^^ +1

New mag is a great size – much easier to cart around and feels much more coffee table chic!

Things I like:

Chuffed to see Chipps say that humour is back on the menu – it’s a well-written magazine, but boy can it be dry – and even a bit depressing – sometimes.

I loved the Joey Gough interview in the new mag, more of those would be great!

I really enjoyed the Trail Collective North Wales piece that was a few mags back – I’d love to see more of this, almost like investigative journalism into all the work that’s going into making wild trails legal etc.

Be great to have more insight into trends and real world impact (even Benji’s explainer in Grinder as why slow shifting means you don’t have to back off the pedals is a cool insight).

I really enjoyed the article about adaptive riders a few months back and I’m all for pushing more stories about women – those are great!

Things I don’t like

I hate – yes, hate – the wishy washy purposeful ride articles that are like “let’s go discover a fish” or “can we find a ghost”.  It tells me nothing about the rides, the bikes, the riders etc which is a shame as the actual idea behind it is sound, however I now skip those every single time.

Please stop with the gravel nonsense. Literally the worst parts of road riding and mountain biking in one