The response to our ‘Ten things the bike industry needs to stop doing’ feature a couple of years ago has been very good, with readers outraged and in agreement in equal measures. So, just because we like giving the hornets’ nest a prod every now and again, we thought we’d respond to one of the comments on there from cynic_al who suggested we need to do a ‘Ten things magazines need to stop doing’. Given that his article never appeared, we’ve taken it on ourselves to get the ‘Mirror of Truth’ out and see if we can admit to a few failings here and among our peers. We hope you enjoy it…
Number One: It’s 2020
Harping on about the Glory Retro Years. In order to remember the glory days of Tinker and Tomac and chainstay-mounted U-brakes, you need to be at least 45 years old, which makes you a bit of a has-been already. Those were the days of cantilever brakes that didn’t work, tyres made of hard plastic and pudding bowl helmets. Get with it, grandad! There’s much better stuff going on right now.
Number Two: Deifying Riders.
It’s not all about Peaty, Peron and MacAskill you know? Just because they’re the quickest this week, or they have the best #shredits doesn’t mean you have to feature them Every Single Feature. It’s not that there aren’t a load of other great personalities and bike riders, racers and bike people out there. Where’s the John Peel fanzine version to the Top40 of the glossy magazines?
Number Three: The Mouthpiece
Being the mouthpiece of the bike companies. Seeing everyone come out with the same press release with the same information on the same day is getting a bit dull. Don’t you do any proper journalism any more? Where are the scoops and the industry insider leaks?
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Number Four: Not Everyone Has A Bike Journo Shed
Assuming everyone has a bike shed full of top shelf spares to play with. It’s all very well for you to talk about the merits of different 12 speed chains, or to play with three different widths of carbon bars. Most of us are riding around on ten speed Deore. And the next time someone says ‘Oh, I just reached into the giant box of free tyres and swapped treads on my carbon rims…’
Number Five: Where Are The Women?
Ignoring women. There are plenty of female mountain bikers out there, so why aren’t there any on your pages and staff rosters? If half of the mountain bikes are being bought by women, they don’t want to see sweaty blokes on every page. And don’t get us started by noticing how white everyone is…
Number Six: Too Much Glamour
Always focussing on the exotic locations. No, we’re not all off to Whistler this summer like you are. We’re going camping in Wales. Having magazines full of exotic sunsets over places we’re never going to visit isn’t inspiring, it’s depressing!
Number Seven: Not Enough Glamour
Always featuring some dull woods or a quarry in England. Where’s the glossy magazine inspiration? We don’t want to see the same Surrey corners or Lee Quarry drops. We want exotic sunsets in Whistler to inspire us! There’s enough dull riding to be seen out the window.
Number Eight: Going With The Standards
Ignoring the price of things. No one buys a new bike every year. How can you review six different SuperBoost wheelsets when we’re all on 142mm (that you told us then was the best wheel standard in the world…) Do more £500 bike tests and forget the £500 handlebars and GPS units…
Number Nine: What a waste
Ignoring the environmental impact of our sport. Yes, we’re riding push bikes, but what about the raw materials used, the carbon fibre we can’t recycle and the endless trips in the company VW T6 up and down the M4 to do all of those shoots at BikePark Wales? Not to mention flying off to California and the Alps a few times a year to get that one shot…
Number Ten: You Print Magazines On Paper?
Printing magazines on paper. Don’t you know that the world’s gone online? Why are you still chopping down trees to print stuff months after we could have just read it on an iPad screen while simultaneously watching Celebrity Bake-off?
Number Eleven: Catch My Drift, Moto-Bro?
Talking like you’re from California/the Pacific Northwest/14 years old. ‘We’re stoked to see the gnarly trails being shredded by the sick cool dudes, man. Steeze’. You’re from Kent, you numbskull.
Number Twelve: Stop Making Lists!
Stop making lists of ten, twelve, twenty things that annoy us. You know that we never read this kind of thing…
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Agreed, Though I enjoy a feature about a drizzly day in the lakes more than one about some exotic place I’m never gonna get to, find it more relatable. Paper over screens everytime for me as well, love thumbing through a good magazine or book.
Read Mike Berners-Lee. You’d have to read a lot of paper magazines before the co2 impact is worse than making/purchasing/packaging/daily charging an ipad (or other electronic device)…quite apart from the server farms providing the Internet from which to download said content….
The magazine is like a lovely little novella through the letterbox. A moment of tactile joy…
Guilty as charged, but I’m still dreaming of dusty trails in Spain looking down on a high flying eagle with the sun reflecting off the Med whilst the blood dries on my shins….show me the world outside of mine.
I’m lucky to ride the Vosges & Black Forest most weekends, with semi regular trips to the Alps.
I’m always more than happy to read about those small corners of the UK that I’ll probably never get to ride, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.
As for the mag proper, I read all the web content on a daily basis, check the classifieds, contribute to the forums occasionally, but always, always read the mag in paper form. Have some downloaded for airports etc. but realised fairly early on that it wasn’t the same thing.
As for the female riders & contributors, yes, we need more, but then Singletrack are leading the way there too.
The other mags, not so much…no matter what they tell you on social media.
Just keep on doing what you’re doing!
Oh & being the wrong side of 45, maybe not a Deity, but ‘Tomes’ is still a bona fide Legend…always will be. 😉
Another: Avoiding criticising products. We’ve all had completely duff products – hardly ever picked up by the magazines beforehand.
I agree with it all except the magazine side. I subscribe to three MTB publications including Singletrack. Singletrack is by far the nicest magazine to thumb through. The iBooks download misses so much out! I need my glossy image-packed magazine fix! Keep up the good work.
The wrong side of 45? How about staring down the barrel of 65? Pardon me for not feeling upbeat but when your E Bike tries to kill you then a few days later you get a ride in an Ambulance with chest pains reality hits the fan with a resounding splat! I’m actually so old some bikes are now more expensive than our first house
Love reading the exotic locations, the travel and adventure articles/features are the first things I read in the mag. I consider Singletrack an outdoors/adventure mag that happens to concentrate almost exclusively on bicycles. Product reviews I can read on line.
Far fewer reviews of high end kit and more of the kit that people not in the bike trade can afford. Fanny packs – include the cheapo’s along side the EVOC £110 job etc.
How about a test of forks from one range – ie. basic pike, more expensive and top end, with guest punter testers so we get a real unbiased verdict on the real world benefits of the top end over the more basic options. It must be hard to think of original features to write, I don’t envy you that task.
I love the uk based routes, especially with Maps.
65??? bloody kids !
Well, at 65 I am not so much a has been, as a never quite was. It is some years since I had a jolly weekend in the coronary care unit, and indeed contrived to set off the cardiac arrest alarm 3 times ( and caused consternation when I sat up and told the medical team to bugger off).
I think your main sin is in promoting kit that is ridiculously expensive, but advertising being what it is I don’t suppose you have much choice.
Remember your a bike magazine. We’re not all interested in coffee or many of the so called lifestyle stuff. If I want to read about coffee or craft beers etc then I’m sure there are magazines catering for those interested. I realise it’sa tough year but i don’t really care about cargo bikes our step though schwins. I’m sure their owners love them but you are a mountain biking magazine.
ST digital only 🙁
Had a digital only subscription, I upgraded to print & digital because I missed reading the actual magazine.
“but i don’t really care about cargo bikes our step though schwins. I’m sure their owners love them but you are a mountain biking magazine.”
We’ve not had any coffee or cargo bikes in the magazine. The website, well, that’s free to read and it covers a wide range of interests. The paper magazine just has mountain bikes in it.
I rather like coffee and beer. And can afford to try a few more of them than £7k bikes.
Maybe I should upgrade my subs to add on beverages.
Pork pie* reviews would be worth an article too. From grey nasty petrol station ones, through the quality farm shops at the services at Glawster and Killington, and something if a classic benchmark from Melton.
Cured ham in it or not ? Mild or peppery? Worthiness of being stashed in the camelbak for mid ride snack of delight, or left on the chiller isle shelf.
(* vegan options NOT available)
If I start wearing a frock to work, and shave, and start to practice personal hygiene… I think the Singletrack staff Male:female ratio might flip to a somewhat unconvincing mainly female.
There’s one thing I think ST does pretty different than the rest of the bike media: you guys/gals write from a blue collar’s perspective. Even when you get to throw a leg over 10k dream bikes a lot more often than the rest of us, you reckon we don’t all need top-shelf stuff to enjoy the trails.
The sport is becoming more and more exclusive, both on the bikes and the equipment departments. Finding a pair of decent bike shoes for less than a hundred bucks or a pair of riding shorts in the same price bracket is getting harder and harder every year.
I get it, MTB is in the “disposable income” column of almost everyone’s budget, but living in a third world country the ladder is getting steeper every single year. As you say, most of the folks our there don’t change their bikes or equipment every single year, and I believe most of us do think a bit about where are we going to spend our hardly earned salary.
“We’ve not had any coffee or cargo bikes in the magazine.”
You definitely had the e-cargo bike in the lockdown edition. For understandable reasons that were explained, and it was IMHO the best head to head test article I’ve ever read.