[Closed] STW front page becoming indistinguishable from Pinkbike?

Theres a stw front page? Didn't know that 😉, I just use the forums. I've even started looking at the classifieds every now and then.

Why torture yourself looking at bikes that cost more than your car? Prices are ridiculous now so I tend not to look.

I suspect pink bike has a much higher budget.

I feel like every time I open the front page all I get is a carbon copy of the same industry press-releases, in identical order, with no analysis

Quick scan of the Pinkbike front page, lots of cool original content amongst videos:

* 49 Bikes of Whistler Bike Park Opening Day 2020
* Bike Check: Leigh Johnson's Pole Taival Steel Hardtail
* Now THAT Was A Bike: Nico Vouilloz's Sunn Radical+
* Photo Epic: The Season That Almost Wasn't - Whistler Bike Park Opening 2020
* Profile: Cecile Ravanel's XC Roots, Recovery, & Whether She'll Race Enduro Again
* Bike vs Bike - Nino Schurter and Kate Courtney's Scott Sparks

I find the "you must be logged into to view this content" annoying.

Because some of them don't work even when you are logged in.

STW has the occasional slightly edgy self-involved introspection piece

link to the edgy ones? Don't think I've seen any of those.

I don't ever look at the front page, and as I'm no longer a subscriber, it'd be a bit rich moaning about it anyway.

There's not much to talk about right now. No events, no racing, just product launches and industry talk. Give it a few months for racing to start back up and travel to be easy again and there will be more actual riding for them to talk about.

This is a magazine website! Supporting content...

You want articles? Buy the magazine!

I find there's much more readable content on Pinkbike these days, which is a surprise as it used to be a bit UR XC Jeyboi. They do some pretty innovative stuff, and some fun, silly stuff but as above, I think their budget is higher. It's also done quite irreverantly while ST takes itself very seriously sometimes (though the latest Diversion Diary is fun).

The biggest problem on the STW front page is Andi not having his articles edited or proofread - until about two weeks ago almost every single one had some spelling or grammar error that should never have got near the front page of a magazine's website. And his non-news articles about something he's seen on instagram are really tedious.

+1 for Pinkbike having a much stronger content proposition, but then you'd bloody hope they would have, considering their resources.

Professional courtesy prevents me from singling out specific STW contributors for criticism but, as alluded to above, they've been relying on non-writers to produce much of their content for some time now - and that does show in the lack of polish and awkwardness of execution (and some naff ideas).

But I'm still happy to pay my subs for use of the forum - and some of the bike reviews are decent.

Pinkbike are setting the standard for online MTB-related content at the moment IMO, see this recent interview with Nico for evidence...
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/down-the-rabbithole-nico-vouilloz-on-bike-setup-and-design.html

It may be overshadowed by the North American biased PB, but ST still the go to for UK based knowledge.
Right now there's stuff on UK trail centres, Tweedlove, Lyme disease.

Some of the reviews/launches/first rides I could have written from the spec sheet, but others are brilliant. Actual insight from someone who's ridden the thing, rather than repeating some cliches and phrases about rim widths or something.

Plus some off the wall stuff which is interesting to me, its never going to generate any sales or anything, so I'm glad they do it for me to read for free:
https://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/bike-nerd-bingo-linkage-driven-high-single-pivot-steel-full-suspension-prototype/
https://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/what-would-it-look-like-now-the-gt-lobo/

 I think their budget is higher.

I think they spend money on different things, AFAIK Pink Bike isn't a website supporting a print magazine.

Pinkbike have been knocking out of the park lately. they've also changed their moderation policy to pretty much zero tolerance on racism and drive by trolling

Pinkbike?

Pinkbike?

yes, probably the most read webpage relating to off road cycling.

In years past it was all about downhill racing and bike parks, with the users and articles actively shunning and mocking anything lesser.

Now it covers everything on the off-road spectrum, and from product reviews, events and racing both proffessional and amateur, and some well thought out, albeit controversial opinion pieces.

They are/were putting money into better coverage of the EWS, the competitive sport that must have the worst ratio between competitor enjoyment and remote spectator enjoyment; and they seemed to have pulled Ben Cathro out of retirement to go back into the World Cup racing as a competitor, documenting/filming the experience.

They also gave us Trailforks and that keeps getting better.

Also, please stop using title case on your headlines STW.

It Makes Them Harder to Read and Sentence Case is Just Better

They've had some fantastic coverage of the XC World Cup the past couple of years on PinkBike. The photography on there has been great.

The biggest problem on the STW front page is Andi not having his articles edited or proofread...

Do you think that was ever a massive issue for Dirt? The grammar and spelling was terrible at times but nobody was paying attention to that.

As said, PB supports itself whilst Singletrack has the website and forum as an afterthought to support a magazine. I'll say no more on the subject though as its a sensitive topic.

Fair enough, Pinkbike might appeal to people who just want to ride bikes, but the STW forums have such amazing technical insight.

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/notepad-question/

Do you think that was ever a massive issue for Dirt? The grammar and spelling was terrible at times but nobody was paying attention to that.

The subbing in Dirt* was just non-existent, to the extent that too many articles were laughably inept, you'd just sigh and get on with your day. at least Singletrack has maintained a pretty good standard over the last 20 years

*and let's be honest, it's become a burden heroically shouldered by MBUK recently.

Do you think that was ever a massive issue for Dirt? The grammar and spelling was terrible at times but nobody was paying attention to that.

In fairness to Dirt, most of the articles were fine (and very engaging) but everything Steve Jones scrawled was an absolute incoherent disaster. And I moaned about that at the time too. How that man ever got into journalism I'll never know.

Any bad grammar or consistent spelling mistakes puts me off reading any article, regardless of the subject.

Pink bike has good stuff but the articles by Hanna and Bez on here are really good. IMO of course but that's the only opinion I have!

IMO Pinkbike reviews have really upped their game over the last year, with the linkage analysis and comparisons to other bikes. By contrast most other reviews seem lacking, including Singletracks. Every review almost sounds the same without comparing to other bikes.

I also wish singletrack world do more on the UK race scene once thing return to normal.They're in a great position to report on it and the making up the numbers series was brilliant. More of that please!

I'm part of enough MTB facebook groups to know that the majority of riders do not know how to use your and you're properly so i'd imagine most people don't notice bad grammar.

Most people wouldn't notice if I, as a professional geologist, described a wacke as a mudstone but I'd still be doing my job poorly and my boss would have a word with me about it.

STW and Pinkbike are not really comparable are they? Pinkbike is a slick, professional, MTB media powerhouse and STW looks like it was nailed together in a shed. All the event coverage is mailed in by someone with a camera phone and a basic grasp of English. The lack of interesting original content is either down to a paper thin budget or zero good ideas. Either way I never click on STW for the home page.

I haven't seen the mag in ages. It's all a bit twee and middle agey for me. Oh look, another beardy old bloke trundling along a gravel path. Dirt was a shonky effort but I loved the content and it raised the bar in many respects. Good photography used to be so rare and exciting that it blew my teenage mind. Still, it was only so good because it was pre internet. It wouldn't fly now.

That sounds harsh but I don't envy anyone trying to create any kind of content at the minute. Every platform is just absolutely saturated.

Dirt mag would be profitable still, I'm sure, but the (reportedly quite clueless) owners made the terrible decision to close that and keep running the less-successful website.

Steve Jones' grammar might not be the greatest, but he was still the best MTB journalist I've read - for his ideas, insight and being right about frame geometry long before most of the rest of us realised our bikes were way too short.

Don't be too harsh about STW, I'm sure they'd employ proper writers if they were in a position to, but Mark's been open on here about the fact that they are struggling.

I am fine with the Singletrack website as it is. If there is a good article, I expect it to come up in the magazine.

Except for ‘news’, which mostly doesn’t interest me much anyway.

If Singletrack wants to move to a stronger webpage, with more content online, that would be fine with me too.

Keep the stories in the magazine though, and either add more or put other stuff in the website (like reviews), where they are easier to look up and read when you need them.

I'm always amazed that the number of people who come here and slate the mag, the articles etc and keep coming back....

I'd not go to a restaurant hate it and then go back the day after.

Also I'm guessing theres not much news out there to report on due to covid...

@Sharkattack, you write “ It’s all a bit twee and middle agey for me. Oh look, another beardy old bloke trundling along a gravel path”.
You might want to take another look at the magazine and subriber content. Not much gravel path riding to be seen. Quite a few people without beards (including women).
And, it if it is “middle agey” then it can’t be “old”. In order for there to be a middle age there must be a “young” and an “old”.

If you mean that it’s focused to much on riding natural trail and trail centers, not much dirt jumping or lift accessed riding, that is probably fair.. Part of it is geography, Calderdale doesn’t seem to close to a lift served riding spot.

Part of it is just choice of focus. This is not Freeride Magazine. My town has lot’s of trails, and lot’s of mtb riders. Lift served bikepark too. And the number of people interested in riding a variety of trails is way higher than those only interested in the bikepark, jumplines or the steepest, gnarliest descent trails. Partly because most people who ride that stuff, also like a nice XC ride occasionally.

The OP is a bit harsh - Pinkbike never knowingly features any kind of XC bike or hardtail that isn't gnarr to the maxxx. PArt of the reason I went off it tbh.

[reads more of the thread] - as TJ kinda points out tbh

PB and STW are 2 very different things - both have their place and I enjoy each

I don't see how anyone could compete with PBs WC coverage / insights / photos - it's very aspirational

STW feels like its produced by people like me who go on the sorts of rides that I do - It feels 'local' and 'real' and I find that comforting in a world of hype

Pinkbike never knowingly features any kind of XC bike

Sorry to be that guy, but there was a photo article literally this week on Pinkbike about top World Cup XC bikes from 2015-present, alongside several features on XC racers. I agree they don't tend to test any XC bikes though.

I’m always amazed that the number of people who come here and slate the mag, the articles etc and keep coming back…./

This forum is second to none though isn't it? *high fives everyone 🙂 *

 

I agree they don’t tend to test any XC bikes though.

Next field test is XC/Downcountry (shudders) bikes, and they have no plans to do a DH bike field test...

Just wait until you see the grouptest of gates we have coming up on Saturday 🙂

Don’t be too harsh about STW, I’m sure they’d employ proper writers if they were in a position to

Pretty offensive tbh.

I’d consider paying for STW if there was a toggle to hide all ebikes.

Have a look at CyclingTips for how to write about all things cycling <>mtb.

Just wait until you see the grouptest of gates we have coming up on Saturday 🙂

Derek Purdy wrote me a brilliant “Punters Guide To Gate Locks” in 1997 for mbr. Probably due for a refresh.

@speccyguy you can customise your front page to exclude the other channels. https://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/take-control-of-your-singletrack-membership/

Pinkbike do seem to have a working search function for the forum though. Just sayin'

🙂