Mountain Biking - mountain bike magazines

are there any mtb magazines out there that have reliable reviews of equipment?

ie...they don't provide only glowing reviews of their advertisers...

any of the zines considered more authoritative than others?

I've never found MBA to be dishonest. I've found them to be absolutely brutal to more than one of their advertisers on more than one occasion. That said, everyone and their cat will tell you otherwise.

Mountain Bike gave the SID carbon a bad review, Rock Shox threatend to pull their advertising, but then SRAM bought them.
Has anyone noticed any outright negative reviews in Mountain Bike since?

The British Mag MBRider gave a negative review of a Fisher, but it was an entry level bike.

No...not even my favorites MBUK or Flow can give good reliable reviews. They will always be biased to products that are paying their bills.

You've also got the problem of them pretty only reviewing bikes costing > $2000.

Originally posted by Zahnster
You've also got the problem of them pretty only reviewing bikes costing > $2000.

Who does? I find MBA doesn't review ENOUGH high end stuff. There always seems to be issues focusing towards to cost concious consumer who only does xc...Its one of the reasons I stopped buying every mag except MBUK and Flow.

I just got a Mountain Biking the other day, and it has some awesome articles on the 2004 fork s coming from Manitou and Fox. The mag has a high wannabe factor though.

I think of all the cycling publications, the one I enjoy the most for content and honesty for reviews iis......drum roll please.......rat-a-tat-tat.....DIRT RAG!

I also read BIKE. The content isn't nearly as good, but they do have some nice pictures in the center portion of the mag.

I occasionally pick up Mountain Bike Action and Mountain Biking if there is a specific article I'm interested in.

I was under the impression that Mountain Bike was no longer. I thought they merged and become one with "Bicycling". Which totally SUCKS BTW! I bought an issue because of a bike review and I got more informatio on the bike from the manufacturer's website than from the review.

That and I think ZAP is an egocentric self centered arrogant, should be writing for a motorcycle magazine jerk!

L8R

i get mountain bike and bicycling... i enjoy it but there's not enough content to read, and i tend to think that only the higher end stuff is being reviewed nowadays (by every magazine). never see any HT's or midrange bikes being reviewed... btw i think zap is alright =]

The main reason more expensive bikes get reviews is because they have the leading technology or at least some sort of new combination (talking about MTB). With new HT models coming out, it's still same basic design and technology. The components is a different story, thy get their own reviews. That's my opinion.

I actually really like MBA..They seem to have a bad rep but I really like reading their stuff. But we all know I'm a magazine beeotch..


I got to see an issue of Flow not to long ago...MMMMM momma!! Awesome pics!

Flow right now is the best mountain bike mag for dj,ds,freeride and dh riders in North America. :)...and it just got bigger haha :)

The issue I saw was pretty thick, I was very suprised seeing as how everything else is getting smaller.

Definately going for a euro feel too. Definately a selling point for me. :)