[Closed] Mountain bike mags

I don't bother with any now. Had Singletrack on subscription but It's full of waffle so i cancelled, same with MBR.
Sometimes I flick through whatever's on the shelf in WH Smiths or whatever but can't remember last time I bought one.

I have subscriptions to Singletrack and Cyclist, plus I get members mags from Cycling UK and Audax UK. Provides enough decent reading and reviews to keep me happy

MBR is tosh, I think MBUK is better though.

I only bother with mbr and MBUK when the subscription 'free' gift is something that is of significant value to me to bother getting a free magazine for a few months.

Finished on a test of 10k mountain bikes.

Urgh, budget bike tests are the worst.

I bought a ‘hard’ copy of singletrack last year, first mag I’ve bought for years, had loads of old ones that I would flick through on the bog/ in the bath, I’ve gradually been getting rid of them and I’ve realised I miss having them to flick through.
Happily read them online but not quite the same somehow.

Magazines were better when I were a lad.

No really, they were. I've been clearing out the spare bedroom for my lad to use as a gaming room and dug out loads of old MTB mags; Dirt, MBR, MBA, MBUK. They are thick and glossy, not like the borderline newsprint rubbish that most mags seem to be these days.

Singletrack and cranked....

If you want a physical magazine to actually sit down and read, then Cranked is what you want. Yes, it's pricy, but it's more than a ten minute read.

Singletrack, Cranked and Misspent Summers output.

James, if you read this, bring back Dirt 🙂

Only Singletrack, and TBH I've got to be in a certain place/mood to read that TBH (In the garden with a beer works nicely)

Lols at Tomhoward 😀

Singletrack only for me now

Gave up on Cranked after spending a tenner on it and finding it was the retro edition which held no interest whatsoever for me...😒

.

Singletrack and Cyclist here. Covers what I’m interested in and enough good writing and pretty pictures that even if it’s not talking about some aspect of cycling that I adore, it’s still worth a read.

There's a magazine not just a forum?

I thought Singletrack would be something I might grow into eventually. A bit like Radio 4. I'm not there yet.

I haven't paid money for a magazine since Dirt. The last bike magazine I really enjoyed was Albion BMX mag. That was a good read full of crazy stories on thick paper which smelled amazing. Sadly it was short lived. Sometimes it was so deep I forgot I was reading a magazine about adults riding kids bikes. There's some wild characters in BMX. MTB is sterile in comparison.

I do really like the physicality of magazines. The extra thick singletrack that they did for a few years reeked of quality.

Content wise ST is definitely at the classier end of things. It must be difficult to think of content though, it’s either bike rides somewhere nice (which need to be really obscure to be interesting now), or be contemporary and informative without repeating press releases like a parrot.

I’d really like to see more industry journalism - what would the big players in the industry not want us to know about what goes on etc.

I’ll probably be committed to print copies for a while either way. Singletrack with a tea is me time, but I’ll grab a copy of cranked next time I’m at the FoD.

Lol at Singletrack bike the radio 4 of the mountain bike world!

I wonder what station they have on in Singletrack towers. I’d have guessed 6…

Really enjoyed the last two issues of cranked. No reviews. Just articles about people, places, trips. Expensive but it has more than you would get out of 6 months of many magazines.

I need to give single-track another go as haven't read that in a few years. I'll be honest and it's when I look at the contents and it says reviews it turns me off as that's wasted pages for me.

^albian was good agree on that. Type of magazine you don't want to come out on a set schedule, but come out when they have more collected enough high quality stories.

I don't really 'read' magazines - but subscribe to Singletrack mostly for the pictures!

Shreadder MTB zine

Stopped  buying them all as i got a bit disillusioned by the expense of everything bike related. I have the digital sub for Singletrack now but more from a point of view that i enjoy the forum and feel i should give something back.

The best bike magazine in my opinion was BIKE magazine the US mountainbike mag, brilliant stories and amazing photos. It always inspired me to get out and ride.

Nevermind the actual magazine content, I'm keen to know if @JoB is doing ok? Last 6 months of Mint Sauce have seen him crashing frequently...as Jo has said he tends to draw things that are affecting him, is he ok?

I thought Singletrack would be something I might grow into eventually. A bit like Radio 4. I’m not there yet.

Jokes.

I think of it as more the 6 music of bike mags.

Nevermind the actual magazine content, I’m keen to know if @JoB is doing ok? Last 6 months of Mint Sauce have seen him crashing frequently…as Jo has said he tends to draw things that are affecting him, is he ok?

crashing frequently, and Death making a lot of appearances, crashes and death

i'm doing a funny* one now

(*your definition of funny may vary)

Now almost everyone has the internet in the palm of their hand, magazines have died. Also the race for clicks has pushed out the proper journalist. So we have nothing in depth, nothing but click bate and nothing physical of quality apart from Singletrack and Cranked.

I just flick through them on Readly and I’m always pleased I didn’t waste a fiver on each of them.
I do subscribe to STW as I like a hard copy of it and I do like to contribute. Can’t say it gets a good read though

Remember buying the first-ever copy of MBUK and thought it was brilliant then after a few years got bored of it as it seemed more aimed at adolescent 13-year-olds being dick-heads. Then I don't know whether it was my interest in mountain biking at the time and the current situation of mountain biking in the UK but found MTB Pro to be spot on and read practically every issue cover to cover.

I use to subscribe to Singletrack print but only do digital edition now, more to support them than any interest in the actual magazine. There isn't anything wrong with Singletrack Magazine it's more me. I have zero interest in E-bikes, bike packing or gravel riding which is the in-thing at the moment.

This is where I like Readly, you get most of the UK and US cycling magazines and it also has tons of other magazines in other interest that I like. Flick through most of them and read the articles I want, then delete. A bit like browsing in WH Smiths but in the comfort of your own home.

I do wonder how much proper journalism happens in the mountain bike world. Mtb is a pretty happy place, but if there was a serious issue like (and these are imaginary) high level athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, or a major manufacturer using child labour in the supply chain, which writer would want to risk their place in the magazine/website world for that sting?

I find a lot of content very safe and tame - press releases/reviews/tests/rides. I definitely skip pages in ST that just seem to be filler too. And MBUK is just waffle (I used to subscribe many years ago and quit). I do like ST though, it stands up for the right stuff.

Off road (reviews/guides) and pink bike (insight and comment) are probably what I read the most at the moment.

Now almost everyone has the internet in the palm of their hand, magazines have died. Also the race for clicks has pushed out the proper journalist.

That's the irony though. I think Mike Kazimer and Sarah Moore do decent, proper content. Mike Levy is more of an influencer type, but I think the content is good, I like Rachel Wright's reviews too e.g.

Off road cc Marin Rift Zone

So, it seems like the decent talent has gone online.

Maybe it's management. The Bikeradar site is in a terrible state.

Now almost everyone has the internet in the palm of their hand, magazines have died.

Cranked has had year on year growth since its inception. No web content.

MBR is awful these days, not alot of content. Seems to be morphing into the wst MBI went.
Singletrack still a good read
MBUK seems to have gone through its bad period. Its actually really good these days. Historicly the UK scene owes alot to the mag in my opinion

found MTB Pro to be spot on

Same.  But I could easily never have picked up a copy due to the title, I mean, I’m not a Pro.

I use to subscribe to Singletrack print but only do digital edition now, more to support them than any interest in the actual magazine. There isn’t anything wrong with Singletrack Magazine it’s more me. I have zero interest in E-bikes, bike packing or gravel riding which is the in-thing at the moment.

Also same except I have a lifetime sub.  And really it’s the forum I want to see continue

Cranked and STW subscriber here, though rarely get chance to read them having three kids and a pile of books to work on.

I'll pick up an MBR or MBUK if there's an interesting article but that's rare.

I like the short form, can read on the loo articles that you get snack in 5 minutes.

Like others a Singletrack hard copy subscriber. MBUK / MBR for socks, hats or Mint Sauce stuff. MBR is total tosh these days.
Singletrack is more about the sort of riding I’m likely to be doing these days. Still enjoy a ‘blast round the woods’ with me mates and even a pump track session with my stepson. But more often these days it’s bigger rides,often with the o/h. Singlespeed or cx bikes get used much more nowadays too.

I do wonder how it must feel for the folks who make this their vocation, i wonder how many left university with a degree and thought "Some day i hope to be writing articles for people to read while they're taking a dump."

I don't think I'd get singletrack any more if it wasn't for the connection to the forum, but I do still enjoy it. And I get MBUK, I like the kit/new stuff aspect more than I think a lot of ST readers might? (there's 3 sorts of bike feature, "features about bikes", "features about riding" and "features about people" with blurring between and those 2 mags just have very different focus).

Picked up a couple of issues of Cranked, it didn't quite take. I reckon if I'd been subscribing for years I still would get it but it didn't quite make that jump.

I reckon I could get everything I get from MBUK just by reading the various websites, but that's not the point, I like magazines. And there's no such thing as an e-magazine, just badly formatted websites, you can't consume them the same way.

Anyway... At the moment, I'm going through a pile of old motorbike magazines, Bike and Ride and TWO, and the difference in quality between those and mtb mags is just crazy. More content, more in-depth writing, more real journalism... More staff.

It's a really unfair comparison, because they're all at least 10 years old, when there was way more money in print (and there's probably always been more money in motorbikes). But unfair as it is, it still tells a story.

I will keep getting paper mags as long as they exist and I hope that's forever though

Back in the 90s I use to buy every magazine going although I remember giving up with mbuk for a bit , back then they really were the only link to a wider mtb world . Just singletrack now and I read MBUK and Australian mountain bike through press reader .

I quite like reading gear reviews and find that stuff interesting as I’m a bit of a bike geek but I find I get all that online so I want my magazines to be about riding and not about bikes as such .

A few years ago whilst reading MBR I think I realised I must of read a variation of an article about Gypsy glen at least 10 times over the years .

I quite like reading gear reviews and find that stuff interesting as I’m a bit of a bike geek but I find I get all that online so I want my magazines to be about riding and not about bikes as such .

That's exactly how I feel. If I want reviews I will go on the web and read several and try and pick out the information from a few sources. I want magazines to be about people places riding, scenes.

Ok, just had my copy of mbr through the post.... Completely agree with the op 100%, took about 2min of flicking through to realise there's absolutely not one review or article I want to read.....

Most of the mags are about bikes, hence why they are so dull. If they were about riding bikes and the people they’d be much more interesting. Keeping advertisers happy I guess.

And there’s no such thing as an e-magazine, just badly formatted websites, you can’t consume them the same way.

I do prefer reading a paper magazine to online content, but enduro-mtb's app is pretty close.

Android

ios

Most of the mags are about bikes,

This month's mbr specificly- if you discount the journalists reg rides every bike review is an ebike with the average price @ 9.5k....

The only review I read was the new gx level axs only to compare to my x0. One page out of 106.
I only subscribe for the 'free' gift though 🤷‍♂️

I don’t think I’d get singletrack any more if it wasn’t for the connection to the forum

This, most definitely.

I’ve read Cranked a couple of times and like it but the only magazine I enjoy from cover to cover is Rouleur (yes I know it’s not MTB).

Again, only subscribed to MBR at the time as the 'free' gift was worth it. Sub now cancelled. Be nice if every now and then features, reviews etc. would take account of those without 1000s to spend, or a non 6' roadie-esque physique aka those of us who are shorter and rotund around the middle. I like STW, but even here, bikes reviewed are regularly £5k+

Well to be fair new bikes are expensive. That's why (imo) reviews are not magazine material.

I miss Dirt

Really regret getting rid of all my back issues a few years back

I love a good paper magazine, never bother with ‘online’ copies.  STW was very good and I enjoyed it. But I find the website infuriating, the later iteration of classified section is a joke, so decided not to support anymore.  The biggest shame is that I realised I didn’t miss it.

MBUK and MBR....what a complete joke those mags are.

None of these comments are surprising. The internet, smart phones and they way you have to make money from the internet has changed everything. We and businesses are still trying to figure that all out. We are at the end of normal print media. Sure, there is space for niche output like Cranked, but that's it.

I don't think there will be a good solution however. The internet is not a level playing field, take video content - its mostly on YouTube, who control the revenue to providers and the amount of advertising forced on you. Most content providers do not make a living out of it, whereas YouTube does.

Also consider that most people will consume online content via a screen about as big as the palm of your hand. That makes it difficult to consume anything in detail or in depth, so very little quality editorial or journalism will be consumed.

The internet has given us all of everything and in doing so has diluted the good bits to zero, the attention span to 20 seconds and offers no chance of the good rising to the top due to the way it works. Sadly.

MBR, MBUK and a bunch of road mags are all available free in the libby app using your local library card.

MBR has been rubbish for years now. I saw a copy in WHS recently and was amazed by how thin it was.
They long had a reputation for rehashing the same couple of dozen routes (usually the wrong way round...).

The internet has given us all of everything and in doing so has diluted the good bits to zero, the attention span to 20 seconds and offers no chance of the good rising to the top due to the way it works. Sadly.

I used to love the Armchair Feature in STW - a longer read designed to be enjoyed with a brew. Do people actually read magazines that way any more?!

I get Cyclist Magazine on subscription and I buy the Cyclist Off-Road quarterly mags too. I like Cyclist - it sits quite neatly in between the Cycling Weekly / Cycling Plus at the lower end and Rouleur at the higher end.

I used to read a lot of mags many years ago as that was the main source of info. Now we have the internet so i just get bad advice from forums like this instead.

I thought Singletrack would be something I might grow into eventually. A bit like Radio 4. I’m not there yet.

I'm a big fan of Radio 4 but I think Singletrack (and other mags) are more likely something you grow out of.

There are a fair few reviewers (print and online) whose opinions I respect, but in bike reviews in particular they often don't really address the things I want to know about how a bike rides in various scenarios.

It's either all tech waffle or it's clear the reviewer hasn't ridden many other bikes (this may be particular to ST). TBH I often think I could do a better job myself.

The ride guides/reports are massively hindered by RoW issues, and where some might have been aspirational in the past - they often seem a bit tame now.

Pondering on it, I think Instagram, Strava and Trailforks now fill that inspirational and informational gap which mags once occupied for me. With Insta in particular, I can see other riders' activities and chat directly with them about routes, bikes, tyres etc. (including some of you off here).

The question above about has the internet stolen all the good journos - well, it's more complex than that. Singletrack is "the internet" in that it's a media outlet which was originally a magazine and has remained in print.

Pinkbike is the only MTB outlet which is visibly thriving and I have to salute them for their willingness to invest in content (written and video). Hard to see how the other outlets can get to that level TBH.

MBR do some decent reviews (Mick Kirkman's tyre reviews are excellent), but their web output is veering more and more towards clickbait drivel. Bikeradar is variable in quality, very formulaic but have some good writers. NSMB can be interesting but often goes up its own arse.

Urgh, budget bike tests are the worst.

😆

Do people actually read magazines that way any more?!

Yep, me. I read bike mags for different reasons, Singletrack for me is like an adventure magazine that just happens to be biased towards mountain biking. They print the adventures that I'll probably never get to do, and they talk about bikes in a way that makes me want to just go out and ride. I like the style of it, and the content is just perfect for those rainy post ride Saturday afternoons when you just want to sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and toast. MBR and MBUK are cool, obviously MBUK has Mint, but I also like the group reviews they do. MBR is a weaker, and it's grown noticeably thinner in recent years, but I still enjoy it, they often seem to review newer or more interesting bikes before most people do.  The only Bike mag I can never seem to get along with is Cranked...It's editorial house style feels like a rider that takes him/herself just a bit too seriously. It feels like it's trying just a little bit too hard to be Rouler/Cyclist for MTB

The ride guides/reports are massively hindered by RoW issues, and where some might have been aspirational in the past – they often seem a bit tame now.

Thing is, back in the day, MTB mags were the primary source of routes for many people. That and guidebooks.
Now with Strava, forums, social media and so on, a lot of the route guide stuff is less relevant plus for obvious reasons it had to stick to legal RoW where in some situations they were not always the best routes.

It also costs the magazine a lot of money in terms of expenses for the riders/photographers who are travelling around the place and you often have to put up with whatever weather you find at the time - I remember doing one photoshoot on the only day that all of us could get together before deadline and the weather was heavy snow and ice. We rode some of the route, the photographer managed to get some suitably epic pics (although completely unsuitable for a magazine that was due to be published in early summer!) and it basically had to do.

I use to buy mtb magazines and look for some every now and then. But after I filter out all the stuff about jumping, enduro, and ridiculously expensive parts, there's not much left.

I want to read about trails where I can actually ride to the top instead of driving to the top. And skills for trails other than just jumping. Bike parks are fun but only when they are not smoothed over with gravel and only pointing down.

Now with Strava, forums, social media and so on, a lot of the route guide stuff is less relevant plus for obvious reasons it had to stick to legal RoW where in some situations they were not always the best routes.

Plus the type of rides we do has changed so a lot of the time we are riding laps of forestry sites, going down various (mostly) unsanctioned trails all day.

Not going to make a thrilling magazine feature even if the trails are amazing.

I've got a subscription to Cranked and a digital one for here. Cranked is a treat when it arrives and here is to support the place and so I can read the odd article online that interests me, very rarely will I read enough to warrant a print version. That's nothing against the people at STW, it's just what appeals to me. Cranked may be over £10 an issue but I can easily take 3-4 hours to read it at my leisure without it going out-of-date so it's better value than MBR and MBUK by a big margin. I did pick up a copy of them both during the first lockdown (so full issues, not curtailed by travel restrictions or stock issues) and had finished both within 90 mins and nothing really stood out as good.

I have a Cyclist subscription, but have become rather dismayed that it seems to be morphing into a gravel bike magazine - every advert is of a gravel bike, more of the reviews are of gravel bikes than road bikes. Ability to go off road seems to be the only thing that matters, which would be fine if it wasnt a road riding magazine. Annoying as I got suckered in a couple of years back and bought a gravel bike, which is brilliant ... on gravel, but a lot worse than my MTB for most off road, and totally incomparable to my Ridley Helium SLX on the road...

As someone who spends their working life staring at a computer screen, I would much rather flick through a real paper magazine sat out in the garden though.

Said it on another thread recently but if anyone wants a copy of Privateer, this lot have been sat under my desk getting in the way for a while now. Let me know.

I wonder what everyone down the pub thought back in 1440 when the printing press was invented. Did they sit there moaning into their pints about how this new fangled printing invention was going to be the death of conversation ?

Oddly we are now moaning online about how the internet is the death of printing. We should be down the pub having this discussion..............Oh, wait. Covid has put an end to that.

I have a Cyclist subscription, but have become rather dismayed that it seems to be morphing into a gravel bike magazine

Well that's intriguing. There was the Cyclist Off-road spin-off mag for a while, but it doesn't seem to exist any more. I'm not particularly surprised - too niche. But I wonder if they're trying to incorporate some of its content into the main mag?

The only Bike mag I can never seem to get along with is Cranked…It’s editorial house style feels like a rider that takes him/herself just a bit too seriously. It feels like it’s trying just a little bit too hard to be Rouler/Cyclist for MTB

We're not trying to be anything. We just dig out the most interesting off-road riding stories we've found in the last 3 months and put them in print, on the assumption there'll be some other people who also find them interesting. To misquote Brant, it's not a ****ing * religion. We really don't take it that seriously 😉

What we do won't suit everyone, and that's fine. Riding bikes in the mud / dust / dirt is ace. That's all that matters.

* I typed this in full, because we do swears in print, because that's how people talk sometimes and coy asterisks are crap. But swear filters. What can you do?

MBR has been rubbish [s]for years now[/s]always.

Fixed that for you. I've been buying MTB mags since the mid 90s and whenever I've had the misfortune to pick up a copy of MBR, I've always been disappointed.

What we do won’t suit everyone, and that’s fine

Cool, I've bought a few issues, but it's just not for me. I'm glad Cranked is being published, It's great that there's space for it in what (for a small wet island) is a pretty varied set of magazines. Long may it continue.

Cool, I’ve bought a few issues, but it’s just not for me. I’m glad Cranked is being published

Variety and all that. If we were trying to appeal to everyone we'd have done things differently 🙂 (then again, the mags that are trying to appeal to everyone seem to be struggling, so maybe there's method in our madness after all...)

Last mag read was the one with sheep keyring.

This forum for real knowledge and a chat.

Then YouTube generally,

GCN, GMBN, Warner, GMBN Tech, Bike Vaults, Olly Wilkins, Cardy and Kara Beal etc. and Pilgrim + many others.

This is my Mag now.

Follow the way of the Egg

Plus the type of rides we do has changed so a lot of the time we are riding laps of forestry sites, going down various (mostly) unsanctioned trails all day.

Other than articles about the ethics of off-piste trail building I can't remember an article addressing this in any mag. Around here (Swansea), we've got two officially recognised sets of trails within the city and then an explosion of unofficial trails in every directions. Also, trail centres in every direction, which mainly go unridden by locals because there's so much other stuff. Is it time the mags maybe recognised this, and maybe realised that reviews of kit ridden at BPW/Surrey Hills don't reflect what's happening in the real world?

Not going to make a thrilling magazine feature even if the trails are amazing.

That's down to the quality of the writing, surely?

It also costs the magazine a lot of money in terms of expenses for the riders/photographers who are travelling around the place and you often have to put up with whatever weather you find at the time

This is related to a conversation I had with Lauren - new staff writer, hi Loz! - when she visited us at her previous job, last week. A quick scan through back issues of STW suggests that most - not all - of the UK route articles are based in the north of England and Scotland*, which is probably great if you live up there but most of us don't. And while there is loads of good riding up there, there's also a huge amount of good riding further south. It's a different style of riding - less epic day out, as in the point above. Is this geographical skew because of where the mag and writers are based, or is it that STW is being left behind a bit? Or am I imagining it? 😀

*my pet hate - yet another bloody epic day out in the Scottish highlands where the writer takes an unwilling buddy and goes over a hill too far, or whatever. Always great pics, but boring after the first few times.

Yes - there are too many epic rides up North.

How about joining me on my local ride down south. Where I try to be polite as I ride cheeky or un identifiable trails. Dodging bags of poo hanging in the trees, irate ramblers and discarded shopping trolleys. All the time in search of a decent that lasts more than 20 seconds and some gnarr that justifies the six inches of expensive suspension I've bought.

This can actually be great fun and is pretty typical of most of us.

Sure, the south does have some great riding, which you can write about, but why not do a series on normal stuff that we all ride and enjoy.

which is probably great if you live up there but most of us don’t.

Of the largest urban areas outside London; Only the area of Hampshire (Southampton, Portsmouth) is in the top ten, the rest, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, West Yorkshire, Midlands, Tyneside, Nottingham, and Sheffield.  Are all "Northern"

So in fact, most people do live there...

Of the largest urban areas outside London; Only the area of Hampshire (Southampton, Portsmouth) is in the top ten, the rest, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, West Yorkshire, Midlands, Tyneside, Nottingham, and Sheffield. Are all “Northern”

So in fact, most people do live there…

Most people live in the north if you start measuring it at a suitably southerly point. But the reality is that a very significant part of the population don't live in the north.

that a very significant part of the population don’t live in the north.

Oh sure, but that's where the "better" riding is, and sufficient numbers of people in these areas mean that it will always get more attention. There are great areas down south, but they suffer by comparison. Regardless, I'd argue that most magazines are trying to find areas that aren't ridden as much (for novelty value) rather than "Another ever-so slightly different route around Ladybower"

Of the largest urban areas outside London; Only the area of Hampshire (Southampton, Portsmouth) is in the top ten, the rest, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, West Yorkshire, Midlands, Tyneside, Nottingham, and Sheffield..

That's not a helpful way to count people.

How about as of 2018, the population of England was broken into:

South East 9.18m
London 8.96m
North west 7.34m
East 6.24m
West Midlands 5.93
South West 5.62m
Yorks and Humber 5.5m
East Midlands 4.84m
North east 2.67m

Add in the Scots and Welsh for balance, but unless the northerners are claiming the Midlands and the east of England for themselves, it doesn't look so convincing now.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/294681/population-england-united-kingdom-uk-regional/

That’s not a helpful way to count people.

"Most" people live in urban areas, that's why I used it, and look on the map and see the M62? Millions of folk live along that in one giant conurbation. and either side of that is some of the best riding in England* and includes both the North West and Yorks and Humber by your definition and that's a total of 13 million people, so bigger than London.  There may be 9 million people in the South east, but the only half decent mountain biking is the Chilterns** and I've lived and biked in both the SE and now Manchester, and the riding up here is by any measure; "better"

However, I know next to nothing about Mid Wales, or the border of Wales/England that has some fantastic riding.

* It's nothing personal, it's just geography

** I'm only partly joking.

Does that South East figure include London or is London considered central enough not to be in the South East? If it does include London then how far out does London stretch?

I think Scotland is about 5.2million in total.

At a guess, a lot of the destinations are dream rides for many, those that live close by but also those who live further south, so plenty material for routes to inspire and encourage. Personally, any routes in the south get ignored when I'm reading anything as in my head they just won't be as good as the mountainous terrain of up north... doesn't really matter where people live, we found out long ago that people were more than happy to drive to ride their bike.

Mags need to cater for that...

Complaining about the location of ride guides... Surely a big part of the appeal is to ride somewhere new? Bit of inspiration or an introduction to an area you don't know? I mean, there's been a couple of times that a local route for me's made it into a mag and I've gone variously "done it" "why would you ride it in that direction" and "**** me, RIP that trail". But never "Oooh excellent, a ride guide that's near to me"

Is it time the mags maybe recognised this, and maybe realised that reviews of kit ridden at BPW/Surrey Hills don’t reflect what’s happening in the real world?

TBF I get the impression most of the bike journos do the same kind of "off-piste" riding we were discussing.

And the Surrey Hills has a surprisingly challenging selection of trails, though it does lack long, rocky descents obvs.

I started browsing Bikemag.com before it went bump, now been re-incarnated as BetaMTB. A lot of articles are behind a pay wall (fair enough) but they are also producing an in-print mag 4 times a year, unfortunately only available in the US.

For me, Dirt was the holy grail - I started reading at issue 4 (I was 15) and the anticipation of waiting 2 months for the next issue was unbearable!

Bi-monthly publishing kept things fresh - wish someone would bring it back, even quarterly would be great! It has to be a labour of love though, imagine no money to be made in print these days....

I started buying Shredder MTB which is defo different, i also bought the first few issues of Sender Magazine, but that seemed to disappear.

The way we consume information these days is scary - imagine waiting 2 months for the next update of the Pinkbike/STW/Vital/NSMB websites!