Steve Jones off of Dirt – is it just me?

I subscribe to Dirt as well as STW as being a fat Audi driving Orange five riding faux accountant it makes me feel ‘bang on trend’…

However, the more issues I get, the more I’m struggling to read anything written by Mr Jones. I’ve had this discussion with my mate and we’re both of the opinion, its just bloody hard work. Combined with the white size 6 text on a black/grey background, I’m getting to the point where I don’t bother reading any of it.

Is it just me?

No its not just you, I struggle with enthusiasm to continue reading alot of it be it wording or layout. Yellow text on white background was my fav.

Yes, in a word, however when you understand what he’s saying it’s usually pretty spot on IMO, have you read the 29er article in this months edition 😀

The 29’er issue this month could have been really good, but I just gave up in the end.

I don’t know what you’re trying to say Steve!

EDIT: Ha, beaten to it. I don’t doubt he knows his stuff, but it’s like he makes it overly complicated. The bike reviews are horrendous, I just don’t bother any more..

I subscribe to Dirt and ride an Orange Alpine 160…

…and I also struggle to read articles/reviews written by Steve Jones. As one friend put it; “Reading Steve Jones is guaranteed to make you illiterate.”

No, the articles in general are utter drivel. They desperately need a sub to go through it all and fix it. One article that jumps into my mind is one about a Commencal Supreme – they swapped the stock fork for another fork, and spent roughly a third of the review debating their relative merits, without mentioning at any point what forks they were on about.

I thought they’d gotten a bit better on the text/background colours, but I haven’t bought one in a while.

Whole magazine is an unreadable mess.

Saying ‘off of’ like that queefmeister scott mills puts you even more ‘on trend’, well done!

I was given Dirt sub as a gift, i don’t think i would have bought it being your average bloke fast approaching middle age.

I must admit that I prefer the mag now to where it was about 12 months ago, in that it used to be nothing but DH bikes and flouro pyjamas or Dirt jump bikes and skinny jeans, alienating 90% of the MTB’ers that don’t dress that way (but wish I guess was there niche).

The mag now seems to have a lot more emphasis on trail bikes, Alp style riding and these “new” Enduro style events that more people can relate to.

But I do agree, a lot of what he writes is tosh and why they feel the need to have half the font so that it is only readable by 15 years old and half the font vertically up the page so it is only readable by drunks is beyond me..

I stopped reading the articles a couple of years ago and now just buy it for the photos/ kit reviews.
I just don’t think Steve Jones has the writing or language skills to write what he wants to write.

Saying ‘off of’ like that queefmeister scott mills puts you even more ‘on trend’, well done!

Wait until I start quoting TOWIE….

It’s a shame there isn’t a magazine slightly more ‘jumpy’ than STW but a bit less….shite than Dirt. I like the fact Dirt is going more ‘traily’ – its not all 180mm bikes anymore but its just unreadable. Which is a shame…

Aside from Steve Jones waffling on about a load of nonsense and not getting to the point, he’s actually technically wrong quite a lot.
I also hate the fact that every bike they test must have a 50mm stem. as anything else is wrong and rubbish. That’s fine for you Steve, but some people actually ride their bikes for more than a couple of hours…

I think the heart of Dirt is in the right place, but it has such poor execution that it’s very hard to read.
Usually gives me a headache.

I used to love Dirt when it came out about 10ish years ago. Decent writing, good products and plenty of technical info. Very readable, even though it had a DH “bent” it crossed over quite well. Got a bit too MBUK after a bit and I stopped getting it.

It’s weird, when I flick through Dirt it looks like a totally unreadable mess (all-be-it with great photos). But when I sit on the bog and actually read the articles, I really like them.

Know what you’re saying about Steve Jones, but I think I sort of “get” him..

[edit]The stem length thing is the same in MBR!

I have the same opinion of Jones, his writing is utterly atrocious to the point where it is largely unreadable. 90% of the time I’m not even sure what point he’s trying to make, and there’s times when I’ve started reading an article without knowing the author, but I soon realise its another Steve Jones special.

Its getting to the point where I may cancel my sub, which is a shame as I think the content is spot on.

abarthchris, you might want to read the thread title….

I agree with a lot of the comments on here – Dirt has the potential to be a great mag. I actually quite like the variety these days and I love the racer’s perspective given to a lot of the pieces. The reviews are very hit and miss though and my biggest problem has always been with the editorial “style”. I’m no English language expert but the typo’s and grammatical errors do make it hard to read. I think Steve Jones (amongst others) has some good stuff to say..he just doesn’t make it easy on the reader.

And as for the fonts/colour schemes….. I’ve got a head ache just thinking about them!

Shame really as it could be great.

abarthchris, you might want to read the thread title….

Dammit! threadtitlereadfail! I shall hang my head in shame, and edit my post before no-one else notices…

Flange – You need to be beaten with a spoon for talking like that douchebag Mills!

It came out over 15 years ago bigyin. Each editor has had their own unique style of typing fashionable bollox with their own misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.
some of it is worth reading but you need a decent knowledge of the subject in the first place to know what. 😉

I can cope with content that I deem to be bollocks, but its the fact that I cant even decipher Jones’ writing enough to form an opinion either way!

There’s no flow or sentence structure, and they’re often too short and the paragraphs are disjointed. If you handed his article to an high shool English teacher, he’d probably get a C-.

I also hate the fact that every bike they test must have a 50mm stem. as anything else is wrong and rubbish. That’s fine for you Steve, but some people actually ride their bikes for more than a couple of hours…

i don’t read dirt, but that advice is so absolutely spot on that i may well start doing!

why does a 50mm stem prevent you from riding more than 2 hours?

It came out over 15 years ago bigyin. Each editor has had their own unique style of typing fashionable bollox with their own misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.
some of it is worth reading but you need a decent knowledge of the subject in the first place to know what.

I wish I knew everything…

Dirt do a ‘letters page’ debate on this sort of thing about once a year… Their view is that for everyone who writes in saying they hate the format/ layout/ text size/ colours etc, someone else writes in saying that they love it.

I know what people mean about Mr Jones’ writing, it can be rambling. I remember one recent review where he spent the article giving the bike a real slating – then summed up saying how great and perfect for the UK it was. BUT he does bring a fresh perspective and speaks his mind, take his swing towards 29ers based on his own timed run testing.

Horses for courses. In any debate, you will find people who like one style, dislike another. Me, I like Steve Jones articles and dislike ones by Jen in ST; it probably isnt just me, but i wouldnt expect everybody (or anybody!) to see it the same. The beauty of choice.

GW – Member

It came out over 15 years ago bigyin. Each editor has had their own unique style of typing fashionable bollox with their own misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.
some of it is worth reading but you need a decent knowledge of the subject in the first place to know what.
Are you saying I dont know what Im talking about? Im glad you cleared that up for me you **** clown.

I also hate the fact that every bike they test must have a 50mm stem. as anything else is wrong and rubbish. That’s fine for you Steve, but some people actually ride their bikes for more than a couple of hours…

Maybe, or maybe not, they do tend to ride medium or large frames for tests whereas a lot of mags ride smalls and mediums, which gives them a longer top tube and so shorter stems are a better fit.

some of it is worth reading but you need a decent knowledge of the subject in the first place to know what.

No, you just need to have the same ideas as the editor. Just because you disagree with him doesn’t make him wrong and you right, it just means you prefer different things, if you wrote a magazine he’s probably diagree with you as well.

It’s not that I find it rambling and I don’t doubt he knows his subject. My mate used to race with him and said he’s pretty handy on a bike. Its just the structure of his sentences that I struggle with.

As mentioned further up, you never need to see who the author of the article is if its Jones. About two paragraphs in, I’m normally completely confused and at that point I know its been penned by Jones.

I’ve test ridden and subsequently bought 2 bikes on the back of his reviews.

2005 Specialized Enduro
Cannondale Prophet

Both fantastic bikes.

Although sometimes difficult to read, the enthusiasm for riding is apparent in his writing rather than describing in painfull detail the shape of the hydroformed down-tube or some nuance of the suspension that only a Formula 1 mechanic could begin to understand.

his bike reviews are laughable.

of course the bike with custom tuned shock and forks is great. what about hte crap it comes with for the person who will actually buy the sodding thing?

also the zesty/spicy thing. why are they ‘great bikes’ when you need a shock/fork tune and offset bushes and headset? surely they are shit bikes that need alot of work to get them good?

i used to like his rambling articles but now even they are getting a bit thin. he needs to put some effort in to an article rather than just riding loads then blagging it.

his articles can be a bit rambling but i appreciate the fact that hes saying exactly what he thinks

reviews are only an opinion after all, at least with jonesys stuff its very clear that its his opinion, even if i do disagree with it.

That’s fine for you Steve, but some people actually ride their bikes for more than a couple of hours…

he seemed very capable of riding for more than a couple of hours at the brechfa enduro, he came in a respectable place (10th?) and he seemed fresh as a daisy after it, whereas i was destroyed!

and the stem on his 29er was tiny, doubt it was even 50, looked like 30mm to me!!

anyone who writes “of off” can hardly comment on anyone else’s writing ability!

though Dirt is a bit shit.

using the same size stem to test all the bikes makes a lot of sense. it’s called minimising variables.

steve jones articles may be hard to read, but he can ride a bike better than any of you, and at least the reviews are based on his opinion and not the bribery that is rife in most other magazines.

The layout issues are from back when Dirt was first launched by 4130. The looks and feel is / was similar to that of its sister title, Dig. There are reasons for this – mostly to do with the target readership.

It’s got a new owner now (Magicalia, which also owns BikeMagice etc).

The spelling and grammar is a ‘feature’ as much as the layout, which is a bit of a follow-on from the mid-90s layout styles adopted by Raygun.

In part, it’s an editorial policy of ‘never mind the spelling, here’s the enthusiasm’. It continues to work well, even if it makes ex-journalists like me squint and mutter.

Oh, and having spent a fair amount of time with the Jones on Welsh hillsides and muddy car parks in the Valleys and at Metabief a few years back, I’d say he’s a very nice guy who knows a lot about riding a bike. I’d trust his reviews over plenty of others.

his guitar playing on this is legendry……. 8)

using the same size stem to test all the bikes makes a lot of sense. it’s called minimising variables.

debatable, riding a bike isn’t a GCSE science experiment. Locking everything down and changing just one thing isn’t necessarily the way to go.

For the record, I’m not questioning whether he’s a nice guy or not. He likes bikes, therefore he’s clearly a good bloke.

I just struggle with his writing style and the grey on black text.

Isn’t it Ride BMX thats on 4130?

I seem to have a sub.
Reckon GW is about spot on, I think of opinion and test stuff in Dirt as being about as authoritative as conversations you have with mates at the urinal at closing time in the pub.
Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong or right, they’re just someone’s thoughts.

Good on him for making a career out of writing despite any handicaps he might have. Most of us are restricted to airing our opinions in places like this, without getting paid for it.

“steve jones articles may be hard to read, but he can ride a bike better than any of you“

you forgot … “SO THERE!” 😛

Flange, you’re right – it’s Dirt. Apologies.

If Singletrack’s writing ability and editorial could be combined with Dirt’s subject matter and attitude (less whimsical contemplation, more gnarr and shredding 😉 ) I’d be a happy camper.

So is this what happened to that Drit magazine that used to be talked about on stw all the time?

Also, is it just me waiting for a user called ‘SteveOffOfDirt’ to come onto this thread and chip in?