Magazines

[roadking]

Agree with DavidB and the American market...however, I do like a good magazine and there is not one cycling magazine I buy regularly.

I used to buy (and have a complete mint set) Winning Magazine, which to my mind covered the European pro scene well, great photography by Graham Watson and superb special weekly broadsheet editions (by subscription only) during the TdF.

Rouleur is sometimes interesting and I've bought a few in the past, they ran a very interesting article on Reynolds a while back.

Part of the problem is cycling as fashion and cycling as consumerism - hence the product nature of the monthlies.

Roadking.

 

[David B]

Cycling Weakly - a good read? Not if you look at the comments on other cycling forums, they ALL consider it rubbish these days. I wouldn't buy it, virtually no content about UK racing and mainly 'lifestyle' articles getting regurgitated every 18 months.

Hardly even warrants a flick-through in Smiths these days. In fact, I can't remember the last time I actually bought a cycling magazine apart from an annual spend on a TdeF special issue.

Miserable old git............................................ :roll:

I only buy CW for the TdF preview issue so I know the route and teams. Now that the race results section is pared back to the minimum, the fun of looking out to see if you're appeared in CW has vanished. Advert sections not as full of bargains as was once the case either (now seemingly congested with uber-expensive road bikes ridden about twice by podgy middle-aged middle-management types before the novelty wore off and their fitness didn't magically improve overnight), although that's probably a knock-on effect of the rise of eBay. And yup, too much of a "lifestyle" angle with emphasis on sportive rides, which although popular - and it is good to see more bums on saddles throughout the UK as a result of such events - ain't everyone's cup of tea, especially racing-orientated bods like myself.

David (a miserable 30-something git )

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

Cycling Weakly - a good read? Not if you look at the comments on other cycling forums, they ALL consider it rubbish these days. I wouldn't buy it, virtually no content about UK racing and mainly 'lifestyle' articles getting regurgitated every 18 months.

Hardly even warrants a flick-through in Smiths these days. In fact, I can't remember the last time I actually bought a cycling magazine apart from an annual spend on a TdeF special issue.

Miserable old git............................................ :roll:

I only buy CW for the TdF preview issue so I know the route and teams. Now that the race results section is pared back to the minimum, the fun of looking out to see if you're appeared in CW has vanished. Advert sections not as full of bargains as was once the case either (now seemingly congested with uber-expensive road bikes ridden about twice by podgy middle-aged middle-management types before the novelty wore off and their fitness didn't magically improve overnight), although that's probably a knock-on effect of the rise of eBay. And yup, too much of a "lifestyle" angle with emphasis on sportive rides, which although popular - and it is good to see more bums on saddles throughout the UK as a result of such events - ain't everyone's cup of tea, especially racing-orientated bods like myself.

David (a miserable 30-something git )

Maybe we should start our own magazine. We could call it Cycling Weakly.

 

[David B]

Maybe we should start our own magazine. We could call it Cycling Weakly.

Given the cynical attitude displayed by Old Ned and myself in the last 2 posts, how about Cycling Bleakly?

David

 

[fiks]

I wish it still had all that in it! I was actually thinking of suggesting a design classics slot. Roger St. Pierre still gets a page inside the back cover - this month's was about Barry Hoban. It's often the best bit of the magazine, not just because its usually long on adventure and short on energy gels and moodily lit bib tights, but because he's a cracking writer too.

I forgot about about Roger St. Pierre; great articles.

Classiclightweightsuk is effectively an online magazine on old bikes and cycling, and it's non-commercial put together purely as a hobby. It's got articles, reader's bikes, guides on maintenance etc, the only thing it lacks is a forum.

Part of the problem is cycling as fashion and cycling as consumerism - hence the product nature of the monthlies.

Quite.

I suspect any commercial magazine on old bikes is going to be a "lifestyle" type of magazine to promote bike splitters and current frame builders.