Originally Posted by G-Unit
I can't stand those Bike Town issues. I do like the bike reviews, but I think Bicycling tries too hard to please everyone so in the end they just churn out a lot of mediocre feel-good crap.
I live next door to the first Bike Town. It was great. It gots lots of people riding, 'Share the road' signs went up all over, and the most amazing thing of all... cagers started treating us like human beings. I LOVE BIKETOWN. Was I too subtle?
I subscribe to Bicycling. It isn't great, but it is ok. Every hobby I have ever paid attention to had dillettantes that had to whine about the dominant publication.
I get enough out of it that I keep it coming. If something better comes along (that doesn't cost three times as much for half as many issues) I'll get that, too.
But what I think will happen is this....
I expect high gas prices and the growing awareness of the deleterious effects of importing oil will result in a surge of people riding bikes. This will being in enough money from subscribers that hopefully they will have more articles that cost a couple bucks to produce. That depends a lot on management. If they see the rag as nothing more than a cash cow, it will eventually die. Because that same surge will create a big enough pool of customers to create a competitor.