It’s time to look back at the year and reflect on what we’ve done. Here’s our list of the top ten most read stories we published in 2015. It’s a bit of a moving target really as these stories continue to be read and the totals increase day by day. Those stories published the longest are naturally at an advantage although the fact that the number three story was published only a few weeks ago does indicate the propensity for stories to catch the moment. Anyway, without further ado, we present our top ten stories of 2015.
10 – Printed Bike Fails At Press Launch
28,358 reads
Press launches are usually rehearsed to within an inch of their lives. The last you thing you want is for things to go wrong, although normally that tends to be the projector not working properly or a microphone malfunction. Can you imagine launching a new kind of bike and then have the bike snap in two in front of the collective journos and cameras?
9 – Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail Epic Crash Video
29,284 reads
Ok, this one may owe some of its grand read tally to the ever so slightly clickbait title. That said, it’s well worth it’s top ten ranking regardless.
8 – 1x XT First Impressions
30,963 reads
Shimano was a little late to the party when it came to 1x groupset options but it did eventually turn up and it was no surprise to anyone that its version of the simplified drive train worked a treat. This story was not the full review but just our first impressions from the first ride we got at the launch event.
7 – Shimano 2016 11 Speed XT
31,315 reads
Another first look story – this time the full XT groupset options presented to us in April in their not altogether finished form.
6 – 7 Tips For Fixing Punctures And You Won’t Believe Number 4
32,179 reads
Our northern correspondent, Sanny, will be so pleased with himself for making the top 10 with a story about, of all things, fixing punctures. Yes, the title is clickbaity, but there are some really clever and strange tips in there, not least of which is actually cutting the hole out of your tube altogether. Yes! with scissors – we even included video proof that it actually works.
5 – Reinventing The Wheel Again
37,799 reads
With phrases like, ‘carbon fiber, single wall nano tubes’ in the press release we were intrigued. It turns out so were 37,000 of you lot too.
4 – About Jenn
41,392 reads
In October we lost our deputy editor, Jenn Hill to cancer. She was just 37. Her loss is one we will all feel for a very long time at Singletrack.
3 – Sexism In Mountain Biking An Open Letter To Maxxis
55,900 reads
This was one of the most controversial articles of the year and the read count reflects it. It was only published a matter of weeks ago and it’s safe to say that it is still climbing the charts as we speak and is likley to reach the top spot in a matter of days. But for now it’s only made 3rd spot.
2 – Martyn Ashton Rides Again
56,248 reads
From controversy to inspiration – this is a story of how you really can’t keep a good man down. Martyn Ashton, despite life changing paralysis got back on a bike and rode down a mountain side with the help of some rather well known friends of his.
1 – QRdisc Brake Recall
58,960 reads
It’s probably fair to say that the humble and for most of us, historic, quick release lever is about the dullest component on a bike. It is, however, one of the most important if you happen to be riding a bike with one holding your wheels on. This is the story of how Trek were first to start a mass recall of the cheaper variety found on millions of bikes around the world when it was discovered that under certain, rare circumstances (if they weren’t actually done up properly in the first place) they could lead to rather a nasty accident. Careful caution or a sign of the litigious times in which we live? We’ll let you be the judge.
