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I don't think much of most of the stuff that is written about mountain biking these days. That being said, I quite like some of the articles by Seb Kemp and James Mcknight.
Any others that you think are half decent?
James McKnight is a name from the (well, my) past! Met him on the pleney in morzine 10 ish years ago, he was frighteningly quick! Nice guy too!
Back on topic, me obvs.
Zak Tempest
The quality of writing is, I think, consistently high. Anyone who can write a few thousand words on camelbaks or jumpers without playing thesaurus roulette is ok in my book.
Jenn always puts a good story together if I were to single one person out.
Bike Snob NYC
Steve Jones is the only serious bike journalist out there, his prose makes the trail come alive.
Richard Cunningham on PB. Mike Levy is Ok aswell.
I still think Benji in STW writes well. His article in the last month or 2 on riding alone struck a nice chord with me.
Can't remember who wrote it, but the chap who rode around the lakes and ate the "Mao Balls" was an entertaining read.
Jenn and Chipps generally write well too.
Steve Behr is quality.
Agree Seb Kemp is excellent.
I think one of my favourites over the last few years though was Greg Herbold doing that piece about the enduro race in Italy. That was fantastic.
Jenn Hopkins. Writes like a human being, for human beings!
I quite like Jonseys ramblings, when the test is readable anyway.
Really struggling with ST at the moment, way too much 'meeehhhhhh' and "you should feel sorry for us, sometimes we have to go out riding when we don't want to", or "another trade show with bike demo's somewhere hot and sunny, we're bored of it" moaning. Seriosuly, if you hate it that much get a real* job. There's an almost inverse proportionality between my desire to read an article and the distance the author is from Todmoren, some of them seem to have fallen out of love with mountainbiking (hence the plethora of stuff about CX, road bikes or camping) or journalism or both and maybe need a new challenge. And a few of the reviews were a bit , "why?", surely the avreage ST reader already knows about or has a dropper post, or SRAM XX1, or XTR. Whereas frames, suspension, and tyres maybe are of more interest to the demographic?
Having said that I've not really read much of the UK bike mags for a while now. I think after ~12 years of mountainbiking I've probably read most permutations of most types of articles, even travel articles about some wierd out of the way place all seem familiar.
*journalism is a real job, bike riding is an income stream for a lucky few.
I rate Steve Jones - I know he knows how to ride a bike proper fast
Jenn for flowery stuff
Steve Worland for bike reviews
timbur - Member
Jenn for flowery stuff
Steve Worland for bike reviews
What he said. I really enjoyed Jenn's article about that big ride thing in America (in both mags that she wrote the articles for - each different to the other)
Steve Worland +2
Mark Ferrentino wrote some good articles for singletrack (now available as an ebook Blame The Dog).
There was a very funny write up of the mega avalanche race in dirt quite a few year back now by a chap from a bmx magazine.
I always enjoy articles by Seb Kemp too.
I like pretty much anything that's in Singletrack, just to different degrees. Jenn tends to be my favourite as I "click" with her writing more. I also like Benji's stuff a lot too.
I also like:
Bike - Seb Kemp, Ferrentino, Brice Minnigh, Vernon Felton and Kristin Butcher.
Dirt Rag -seem to have fairly diverse bunch of riders/writers including now Mr Stevil Kinevil.
Spoke - NZ equivelent of Singletrack/Bike I guess. Lots of good stuff.
Mountain Flyer - great articles and pictures.
I haven't really read MBR, MBUK, WMTB or Dirt for ages but the rare times I have seen a copy they haven't really grabbed me.
There are people who write about bikes? For a living?
Well. I. Never.
Whilst he's not everyone's cup of tea because of his 'dirt diaries' work, Seb Kemp is probably the most impressive self made mtb journalist there is. I doubt there is anyone more ingrained in the fabric of the sport than he is.. Or that back up their knowledge and writing with that level of bike ability.
All off the back of whistler diaries *grumble*
Didn't even know there was such thing as an MTB journalist let alone name one... 😕
I guess I'm not a proper MTB'er..
depends on the topics covered I guess; Mike Ferrentino I like; Jenn as well, some of the old armchair STW stuff also.
FWIW I find Benji almost too provocative and spleen-venting, but that's obviously more a personal take..
Zapata Espinoza was a good one, not sure who he writes for these days. Ferrentino also.
The article that I have most enjoyed was "Clink-plink" by "Piers" in issue 17 of Singletrack. I re-read it occasionally because it never fails to make me smile.
Does anyone know what happened to Piers?
Bike - Seb Kemp, Ferrentino, Brice Minnigh, Vernon Felton and Kristin Butcher
See also: Jacquie Phelan, Michael DiGregorio, Rob Story, Aaron Teasdale, Steve Casimiro etc, etc. [i]Bike[/i] remains my favourite, er, bike mag, ever.
Jenn for flowery stuff
Steve Worland for bike reviews
And this.
Doddy
Northwind, scotroutes et al.
Oh the Roly Lambert columns in stw always make me smile in recognition of my own failings .
Kesty
Zap
Derek Purdy (nicest bloke ever award)
James Huang
Michel Lethenet (ex journo, now press guy at mavic)
Another vote for Benji Haworth. Always enjoy his articles.
Steve worland gets my vote
I think the best bike-mag writing I've read was by Tim March. BMX not MTB but that didn't matter, a lot of it was only loosely related to bikes.
A lot of respect for Steve Worland as a journalist, he's been consistently good for as long as I've been into MTBs.
Chipps's editorial is always a good read, in some issues it's the only bit I'll read.
MBUK is more or less entirely illiterate. It used to be FHM for MTB, but now is at a Nuts/Zoo level.
The MBR chaps are quite nice - they had a chat with us at Afan last year and weren't giving it all that big industry type stuff.
I think Danny Milner is good - shame that he has to spend so much time editing nowadays - good article on PinkBike for instance.
Small world, his sister is my mate's girlfriend. She is a Times journo, must be in the genes.