Just received my subscription June edition of WMB only to be greeted with a letter saying it is the last ever one :'(

Personally, I have always thought it was the best one (sorry STW) for bikes & bits reviews.

They say I will now receive MBUK as a replacement. Never really liked this mag’s style, always thought it more aimed at the yoof hardcore element. I’ll give it a try but…

That’s a shame, used to like WMB

But to allay your fears a bit, I’ve just taken out an MBUK sub for some free shorts and the first mag is much better than it used to be, very similar to WMB actually, and more like it was BITD.

Possibly because the yoof don’t buy mags anymore (or mountain bikes!)

I ride a little with the (ex)editor of WMB and hes known for a while. Down to lack of advertising revenue since all print mags survive on this rather than actual sales.

Its a shame as I too preferred it to MBUK and MBR

Always a shame to lose a print mag but tbh I cancelled my sub a while back, it’s been pretty moribund for a while- the line between MBUK and WMB got blurrier and the buyer’s guides got less useful, it seemed to lose its idea of what it was for. Intersting to see what happens next though with MBUK, will they lose out from losing the sister mag, will they nick the rest of the good bits of WMB…

I used to subscribe and spent a lot of money based on the reviews and recommendations of one Mr Steve Worland. Was a good mag for reviews and gear but it must be difficult to keep it fresh ‘ what full suspension 100mm travel below £1500 in red’. I think Ive got a couple of very early ones somewhere.

Shame, give MBUK a chance though. Pretty good mag these days.

I think the demarkation between ‘all day xc’ and ‘fun at the trails’ that WhatMTB and MBUK used to reflect has gone.

Everyone is a trail rider now and they don’t need to two magazines to cater for that audience.

People still read magazines? How quaint.

I do more miles than most mountain bikers but haven’t read a magazine in over a decade. I can’t be the only person like that. The current scene as it’s presented by the media has no interest for me – in fact, I’m actively alienated by it. Seems there’s at least one segment of the potential market being neglected, eh?

I do more miles than most mountain bikers but haven’t read a magazine in over a decade. I can’t be the only person like that

No there are a lot of people who are condescending……

wwaswas – Member

I think the demarkation between ‘all day xc’ and ‘fun at the trails’ that WhatMTB and MBUK used to reflect has gone.

Everyone is a trail rider now and they don’t need to two magazines to cater for that audience.

TBH I always saw the distinction more as “MBUK is about riding and bikes, WMB is about bikes”. It’s the one I picked up when I wanted to really push out the boat and spend maybe as much as £300 on a bike. And for all I’m not the target market now, and neither is most of STW I suspect, I’d have thought that’s still a selling point…

But then MBR straddles both fairly well, and MBUK’s in a position to do the same.

What do you want to read about in a magazine Montgomery?

haven’t read a magazine in over a decade….The current scene as it’s presented by the media has no interest for me

Errm, how do you know how the media present it if you never read the media?

Northwind: MBUK always had ‘road trip’ type articles in it too, just from a different type of rider?

I don’t. I pay for a STW digital subscription but that’s about supporting the forum. I think I’ve read maybe 4-5 articles in the electronic version of the mag in the past year when they’ve been referenced.

But there’s so much other material out there that I find more interesting – particularly blogs from folk doing the sort of riding I like to do (or dream of doing). That’s surely got to be one of the major problems for traditional media outlets.

All about Youtube now e.g. GCN, GMBN, RedBull and then sites like Pinkbike. Lets face it all the bikes are now virtually the same, so its all about marketing and PR, to get you to buy, no one gives a **** about some fat middle aged jurnos opinion, its all about wanting to ride what Semenuk, Hart, Nino, etc. do.

People still read magazines? How quaint.

I do more miles than most mountain bikers

I do more miles than most mountain bikers

*Swoons*

(Great minds….)

I’m surprised to find it was still going.

chakaping – Member
Shame, give MBUK a chance though. Pretty good mag these days.

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

Are you 12?

What was the last issue you read Rob Hilton?

Go on then folks, persuade me to take out a premier subscription to STW instead rather than rely on the free stuff of their excellent website.

Although i get where Rob is coming from it’s been years since I’ve read a copy.

Next time in a newsagents I’ll have a gander. But if I’m honest i find STW too Enduro Gnarr so my perception may differ.

MBUK is not the mag Robhilton rather condescindingly claims it is any more…

Staff have changed and MBUK is a lot better. Still a bit too orientated at new riders which is why I tend to read STW if I read anything. Mainly for the pics anyway.

I have ST and WMB subs, WMB satisfied my fascination for stuff while ST was better for “soul”. I’ll give MBUK a shot and see what it’s like these days.

I hope that all the WMB staff are OK despite this. (Particularly Thor/Tom, he’s ace.) I presume that there was a lot of crossover with the MBUK staff, but presumably you can’t go from 2 magazines to 1 and keep everyone.

athy62 – Member

Go on then folks, persuade me to take out a premier subscription to STW instead rather than rely on the free stuff of their excellent website.

Turns off the ads and supports the forum, and you get a magazine which is sometimes good. That’s not much of a hard sell but it’s good enough for me.

People still read magazines? How quaint.

There’s one tangentially related to this site which is really rather good. Perhaps you should try it?

MBUK is not the mag Robhilton rather condescindingly claims it is any more…

Although a quick glance at their Facebook page suggests it’s still not for me.

Hey ho! Off for a flounce.

Shame, always good to skim read in my lunch break in WHSmtihs…people like me to blame! I’ve always liked Guy Kesteven. I can understand why it has gone, just a bit too old school, the what to buy section not very relevant anymore, recycled route guides, and being basically the same as MBR every issue.

There’s a very smart looking digital lezyne pump with the subscription deal to MBUK this month, and the mag has definitely got better.

bugger, I liked it for to see the new kit coming along.

It’s understandable, though. At least one of their test riders is utter rubbish on a bike.

Shame as it was my favourite mag for years.

Saying that, got a subscription last year as a gift just after my mate had cancelled his, stating it had gone down hill. Had to agree, it just seemed to have the same reviews each month and tried to cover too many bases. Boys like lists and they had significantly cut back on theirs which also affected my enjoyment. At the end of the year I switched back to a car mag, six of which sit unopened!

What was the last issue you read Rob Hilton?

Aint I rude??

TBF it has been some time – I realised years ago what a waste of time MTB mags were when I could get through one in a single toilet visit due the minimal amount of actual content. Thankfully I was getting them 2nd hand anyway so hadn’t wasted any money on them in years.

I am quite open-minded about things, though; in spite of my demeanor, and will seek out a copy of MBUK to see what I now think.

Was definitely the best of those mags. When I got the green light for a dream MTB build back c2004 I got their “best of the year” issue, and specced all the winning components on a Soul frame. Was a bloody brilliant bike build!

Such a shame – I buy maybe 6 or 7 copies a year, when there’s something I’m interested in reviewed or I’m particularly in need of toilet reading….
I have even subscribed in the past.
But….. IMO it was inevitable with that mag. Any magazine that centres on reviews of products is relatively doomed. When there is Sooooo much info on the Internet and the expansion of wifi 3g/4g it’s days have been numbered for a while.
Also much of the content was mirrored in mbuk and on bikeradar?

Shame for subscribers that they’re getting mbuk as a replacement, personally I’d get a refund.

As someone who has slavishly bought most of the mags for the last 25 years (at a cost of who knows what) I can’t say I am particularly surprised or disappointed.
Whilst I still maintained my sub they had a facelift maybe a year or two ago which seemed to take it further away from what you would expect a magazine called What MTB to include (losing comparative listings and weights of the bikes in the main review section).
They also lost route guides and maps and switched to a feature which focussed on one geographical area (but minus maps).
One quarter of the mag was devoted to recommended kit that did not change from month to month (year to year if that).
Not to mention the waffle at the start about subjecting the bikes to the most intense real world riding…
Regardless I still looked forward to getting it as after it showed pics of shiny new kit….but of the mags it was always the one with the least shelf life.

Still a bit too orientated at new riders

Sadly I’m sure that accounts for a large amount of people willing to stump up cash for a paper magazine…

The if you combine with advertising revenue… I’d expect the big bike manufacturers hoping to sell to a noob …

I know myself I bought (car wise) Parkers twice in a decade (and mags about the same) … both times when looking to buy a new car…

Shame for subscribers that they’re getting mbuk

Despite being 48 and mentioning cufflinks at any opportunity I still pick up a copy of MBUK when I see it for a bit of Mint Sauce nostalgia. It’s not a bad mag, I rate it way higher than MBR (kind of damning with faint praise that 🙂 )

munrobiker – Member

It’s understandable, though. At least one of their test riders is utter rubbish on a bike.

You don’t really have to be that good to review a bike, as long as you’re honest. I get the MBUK and WMB writers mixed up but IIRC they had a car writer who came on to be a Professional Journalist but really knew nothing
about bikes, and it was a pretty interesting alternative viewpoint. Except for all the time he spent talking about cars. Pros can get very disconnected, I remember one of theirs talking about replacing all the internals in their forks to make them work properly, as if that was just something everyone does and not even worthy of a mark off the bike. I had a go at him on bikeradar for it and the response was basically “yeah but I ride awesomely”

OTOH they also had someone who banged on about how awesome their new longtermer was at a race I did and how it took everything in its stride and made everything easy- yeah so easy you had to push down all the hard bits and finished pretty much dead last.

Chipps is a great example of doing this right I think- he’s a solid, normal rider. And when he writes, it’s as a solid, normal rider, no bullshit. That angle’s really more valuable to more people than some superhero of downhill.

Haven’t seen it in the shops for ages. Wasn’t bothered really, cos it was ALWAYS: bars too narrow (anything <780mm), stem too long (anything >60mm), crank too flexy and that sort of utter nonsense that wound me up every time I read it.