I wouldn’t change my winter British Army DP goretex for the world.

So why would you be interested in a budget jacket review? 😆

My Arc’teryx LEAF Alpha waterproof jacket cost me £430. I wouldn’t sully my shoulders with such a thing as a cheapy £200 jacket. 😉
Love the mag and this issue looks good based on my quick flick through, but I’m on holiday in a few weeks so I must resist having a proper read.

Leftfield budget.

There’s precious few cowboy boot reviews in issue 73, I notice.

There’s precious few cowboy boot reviews in issue 73, I notice.

Why are British men soo repressed when it comes to their fashion?

Why are British men soo repressed when it comes to their fashion?

I blame lack of role models and suitable product reviews in niche cycling magazines.

Well Chipps glasses try to do their ‘bit.

and his sock collection, I guess.

Codpieces are underrepresented in clothing reviews, I find. If you’re going to ride in a codpiece, then its critical its the right one

Word up!

I am particularly drawn to the “old rider” article which I will read tonight – hopefully, there’s some inspiration in there.

All I had time for last night was the Majorca article, which I thought was superb. I nearly booked a plane ticket for November.

I was horrified though that Chipps thinks 6am unnaturally early – I leave for work every day at that time! I want a job as a journalist!

Well Chipps glasses try to do their ‘bit.

“Statement Specs”

They identify you as a worker in the nu meedya line of work.

I was horrified though that Chipps thinks 6am unnaturally early

we were riding on’t moors by 5am.

we were riding on’t moors by 5am.

Isn’t that the natural time for men to get their ‘morning glory’?

Chipps +socks/glasses. Will he look like an older Hans Rey one day?

Isn’t that the natural time for men to get their ‘morning glory’?

I was enjoying myself, but I don’t remember having a hard-on.

I haven’t opened the last one yet. No idea why, but atm magazines do little for me. I will maintain my sub tho’,so I can have hours of fun when I get the bug once more.

It is fun reading about properly high end bikes but surely they are things 99% of us can only dream about.

I’ve had a look at the pictures Terrahawk, and to be honest they’re inconclusive. I thought maybe you’d be able to tell on the silhouette shots.

It is fun reading about properly high end bikes but surely they are things 99% of us can only dream about.

But if we do then meet some bastard who can afford them, we can go into informed detail as to why they should have bought something else 😀

It is fun reading about properly high end bikes but surely they are things 99% of us can only dream about.

It leaves me absolutely stone cold. I just see it as polishing the marketing dream.

Cars beyond a certain price range are the same. Seeing Clarkson bumming a Lambo around an airfield leaves me visually-flaccid too.

Good looking mag again. The change in format is a real step forward in my humble opinion. I’ve only read the bit with my mates in it so far. I’ll make a start on the rest at lunch time.

Re the debate about testing kit – I generally only read reviews on things that I can afford. A £3k bike may be in some people’s price range but I’d be more interested in one that cost a third of that. Maybe I’m just a bit of a tight-wad.

You’re just in the same boat as most of us, I’d imagine Harry

I’m more likely to walk on the surface of the moon than have 3 grand to spank on a bike anytime soon. Someone must be buying ’em though. Same with the £800 – £1000 forks on test

Let’s put it to the test them…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-question-of-demographics

In terms of cost of bikes and bits then the mag seems to put itself fairly well in the middle of the spectrum. It’s worth remembering that they don’t actually review an awful lot of bikes (compared to some mags), but there’s no getting away from the fact that bikes are more expensive than they used to be.

A quick look at the MTBs on CRC shows that about a third of their bikes are under a grand, there’s a lot in the £1-2.5k range, and then they get more spread out up to the real exotica at £4k plus. In forks there are 3 pages of sus forks on CRC and ordered by price you’re over 500 quid before the end of the first page. So, to a degree, that’s just what these things cost, I don’t think ST sets out to be the definitive buying guide (other mags do that), and I don’t think the reviews are the most important bit of the mag.

But I’ve inadvertently revealed the other issue at work – I’ve decided that more than £4k is exotica. For other people obviously more than £2k is exotica, but it’s not necessarily to do with income, more to do with priorities.

I don’t earn a lot of money, I certainly couldn’t think of buying a car new, even a little one. But if I was buying a new MTB it’d probably be in the £2-3k range if I was feeling lucky, maybe £1.5-2.5k if I as feeling more realistic. But then those prorities haven’t changed much in the last 20+ years – I happily spent £1500 on a bike back in 1990. So they exist fairly independently of actual ability to spend.

What I’m trying to say is that what you consider a reasonable amount to spend on bikes and bits can have very little correlation to income, demographic, etc. I ride with a a few varied bunches of people and there’s the full range of expediture on display, but you’d be hard pressed to assess people’s incomes based on the value of their bikes – it’s odd but the correlation just isn’t there.

Glad most of you are enjoying the magazine ;]

Just a quickie regarding bike costs and jackets and real world priced products, In Issue 70 (just three issues ago) we had three full suspension bikes for about a grand each and one of Singletrack Mag’s all time favourite jackets (repeatedly favourite as well!) Is the Pace 3×3 Jacket for under £100.00 as well – I remember the Specialized Pitch being reviewed very favourably against an Intense Trace and Ellsworth in the past, and we’ve also done bike to work reviews where a Boardman full bouncer was the hands down winner (no ad revenue from them to bias us either ;p)

Later on this year we also have “budget” (I understand it’s relative thing ) hard tail 29er’s as well.

I think purely by chance some issues become a bit more bling than others, and we are aware of not just having the most expensive kit for testing – if the balance in some issues is off it’s not intentional.

Matt

Where are the cobbles on page 91 i think its page 91 ?
Not really interested in tests be it jacket/bike or coffee presses tests until i want one then im interested 😀

kingofsweden – Thats Rooley Moor Rd that climbs from Nordon side of Rochdale, up to Cragg Quarry and Scout Moor. Or Gruilly Moor road as its known. Its a hell of a slog, and fairly brutal on ones nether-regions if you’re on a hardtail

Well said Matt.

As I have said before the new periodical is ace IMHO.

I’ve decided to cal Singletrack along with The Ride Journal/Rouleur/Privateer et al periodicals due to their cost, style and quality. They just don’t seem to be magazines to me anymore.

Which is a good thing. I’m hoping it’ll catch on so there’s less of the “I’m not paying that for a magazine” mindset.

I like reading about the bling stuff so that when I buy it 2nd hand I am (relatively) informed.

I like reading about kit, all kinds.

People just need to chill out and enjoy the read I think, there’s to much thinking too hard. It’s just bike riding, I don’t believe there’s any hidden agenda and I really doubt anyone’s making gazillions here.

s2a how do you differentiate a ‘periodical’ from a ‘magazine’?

You wouldn’t read a periodical in the shitter… unless you had a glass of merlot to hand and soft music playing in the background.

You get ‘jazz’ mags. whereas the higher caliber equivalent would be a ‘rhythm’ periodical

My copy still isn’t here and the posties been twice today 🙁

Off at a slight tangent… Twinklydave (one of the other riders in Team JMC/On-One with Jason and Phil – Pages 88-96 in issue 73) has just done a 126 mile training ride in this weather. Nutter. 😀

Right then. Back to the OP. I do have to say that the new format works for me.

Matt, thanks for the response.

I’d genuinely forgotten about the 1K full suss test and the MTB Batteries light
which received a positive review in the same issue, so apologies for that.

It’s good to hear that you’re aware of the need not to exclude those of us who like to read about stuff we can actually afford.

The bike to work test was a great idea – perhaps it could be a more regular feature?

As to jackets, I think we’re all aware that a £200 top from a respected manufacturer is going to perform well. But we all like to save a bit of cash and it would be great to see a big, long term test of cheaper materials, which seem to be more widely available now.

A test of some Aldi, Lusso or Decathlon type kit would be more than welcome too. No one can afford to pay over the odds these days and I’m sure a proper evaluation of budget alternatives would go down well.

Thanks for listening.

Fair Point Mr Spanner ;] I can’t promise Aldi or Lidl but we have got a fine selection of Wiggles DHB Stuff coming for test which I think includes a £50.00 waterproof – I hope that will suffice !

hora – Member
There’s precious few cowboy boot reviews in issue 73, I notice.
Why are British men soo repressed when it comes to their fashion?

hora – Member
Well Chipps glasses try to do their ‘bit.

wwaswas – Member
and his sock collection, I guess.

Interestingly Chipps is the only Man I’ve ever know who wear cowboy boots -So you have something to share there Hora ;]

Testing kit from Aldi/Decathlon wouldn’t fit with the ‘classy’ style of mag they’ve now chosen. It’s gone up a level from MBUK/MBR/Dirt…

Can you see ‘Evo’ reviewing a Nissan Micra?

by the way, Matt, was that article near the start the one connected to the urban mountain biking post on here?

if so, it wasn’t quite as “urban” as i was expecting – you need to hit a proper city next time i’d say. both article and photos were decent but could have been more city-central IMO.

Aldi jackets are some of the best I’ve used, seriously!

Decathlon base layers/tops are quality too. Very flattering for the fuller figure. 🙂

Don’t read Evo, but I stopped buying Car when they stopped featuring reasonably priced stuff.
Same with watching TG too, but we won’t go into that……

Aldi jackets are some of the best I’ve used, seriously!

+1. I bounced along the tarmac last saturday, resulting in two written off wheels and plenty of cuts and bruises. My Aldi jacket and tights have a couple of small scuffs…

Anyway, I really liked the new mag. Whilst I’ve no intention of dropping £3k on a new bike, I still like to read about them sometimes – if nothing else, it tells us what we’re going to see at a lower price level in a couple of years time.

My Aldi jacket and tights have a couple of small scuffs

they’re clearly overbuilt then 😉

I have really enjoyed the singletrack issues latley

welcome back to the reprobate column..as it was in the early/mid 90s..Steve Worland

great article by Cass Gilbert

and proper revews and pics