teknoTurtle

What are your favorite bike magazines?
My 2 favorite are Bicycling, since it has a lot of tips, and Bike, because of its articles.

Dirtgrinder

I would say Bike and MBAction. But I'll read anything if it has to do with Bikes!

bikeman

I personally like Cyclling Plus and Cycle Sport, a couple of British magazines. The articles are great, the photography is very nice, and I like the different point of view of the Euro scene. Expensive since they are imports. I could buy two US magazines for the same price, so I buy them only on occasion. I don't know what it is about the British magazines, but the same applies to car magazines like EVO and CAR. A whole other level of quality in journalism and photography.

I also used to subscribe to Velonews. Got to be too pricey for me since I usually couldn't read it all in a week. I buy single issues during the racing season to read about the Tour and the Giro d'Italia.

I do like the photography and some of the articles in BIKE for the US magazines. One of the best of the domestic journals.

velocipedio

I subscribe to VeloNews. I enjoy it very much although the LANCE ARMSTRONG IS THE GOD EMPEROR OF CYCLING AND WILL WIN EVERYTHING FOREVER stuff gets a little tiring. Their coverage of the American cyclocross circuit this year was excellent. It's timely and generally well-written and it doesn't ignore Canadians.

I also read Cycle Sport and Pro Cycling, two excellent British magazines, from time to time. The February issue of CS had a typically great set of articles on racers who didn't produce to expectations in 2001. The problem with these mags is that they're pricey in Canada and we always get them a month late. Outstanding photography, though...

I should point out that Pro Cycling and Cycle Sport are very roadie-oriented.

Richard D

Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike are the two I regularly read. My neighbour subscribes to Bicycling so I get to read that fairly often. I'll occasionally buy MBR it has a few good articles but is a bit 'laddish' for my liking. I generally avoid Mountain Biking UK as its incredibly purile to put it mildly.

Richard

lotek 

I like Pro Cycling and Cycle Sport, I get Bicycling because I got
hijacked by my neighbors kid in a subsciption scam....hehe
Cycle sport has some nice retro articles if you're into
that kind of thing.
What I really like is that they both cover the pro scene
which Bicycling DOES NOT (except TdF).
Not much for mountain bikers in either one tho.

Marty

MichaelW

Cycling Plus, like people say, is very good esp for utility/commuting/touring as well as off road and racing. I built up a lighting system from their plans and saved loads of money.

The Cyclists Touring Club magazine is good for technical stuff, tour ideas, and historical articles. They were the people who first noticed the exploding rim phenomena a few years back. Their "oldest bike in continuous use" competition was great (1920s touring bike, used daily).

fubar5

I get BIKE.
I say there is a lot lacking in cycling magazines.

gmason

Unfortunately, English language magazines do not seem to have the best to offer. I really like ProCycling, but have found no others worthy of note.

Other languages offer more. 'Fiets' in Dutch is one of the best. 'Tour' in German is also very good. There are some French ones as well - 'Velo' springs to mind.

I do subscribe to 'Bicycling', but it epitomizes the current trends in almost everything: whizzy, zippy, coooooool, hip rad and noughts, ... OK, I guess, but not my style.

Cheers...Gary

toolfreak

I like O2bikers, a belgian mtb magazine and sometimes i buy MBR, because of the good articles and testing reviews.

fubar5

I hear that Dirt, an English publication all about DS and DH, is real good.

bikerider

I heard that too. I know that it's about $10 here but I have not bought a copy yet. I think I will soon. I used to buy Buycycling on the stand occasionally but it really is 'lacking' as you put it. I figure I'd rather spend $10 on a great magazine than $4 on garbage.

fubar5

Well said.

fietser_ivana

Gary, how do you get TOUR? I used to buy a copy almost every second month (it's a monthly) but it's no longer on sale in the local shops.. that REALLY SUX since in my (not so) humble opinion FIETS is the Dutch equivalent of Bicycling..its' contents were greatly diminished in the last few years with less longish articles.
An alternative, albeit too pro-bike path is from the Dutch Fietsersbond, which focuses mostly on commuting.. Awhole different animal is the Wereldfietser which is made for world cyclists and while B&W has (of course) fantastic stories.
And strangely, but true the Automoibile Association has a great outdoor magazine with sections on bike travels.. (others are walking, canoeing and bits of more dangerous passtimes like mountaineering, but also x-country skiing).

The British mags are OK and I'm very content about the Audax UK's magazine (am a member of that organization). I also used to be a member of CTC (because I sympathize with the British who fought so hard to fend off a mandatory bike path law), but it wasn't worth the money to keep a subscription.

In summer time I also occasionally buy the Dutch magazine on road racing.. but not very often.

Ivana, who's an editor of a yearly cycling magazine in Esperanto (both paper & electronic, about 200 subscriptions in 20 countries)

wabbit

I like VELONEWS, which covers everything- cross, MTB and road. I really like Pro Cycling and Cycle Sport. I'm impressed with the quality of writing in british magazines, and they aren't always fawning over Lance Armstrong. Mind you, some of the brit magazines, like Cycling Weekly are a bit heavy on the David Millar worship.

gmason

The only place I have found it is at the AKO in Schiphol. I have looked in other places like Bruna, and AKO elsewhere, but not seen it at any of those.

Cheers...Gary

Feldman

Riv Reader and Cycling Plus here. I read Mountain Bike and Velonews to keep up on what my customers want to know about but they aren't fun reading anymore. Except for RR, American cycling magazines are just about worthless. I'd compare Bicycling to Rush Limbaugh--the worst information believed by the most people.

MadCat

I've been bothered by bike magazines forever. Nobody ever dares talk about winter cycling or the urban cycling nightmare. It's always trails and raceing and mountains and how much new bike that you don't need can we cram down your throats. No offence to those riders who soley are into that stuff.
I wonder if "BikeForums Magazine" would fly. Yahoo did it.

gmason

Ivana -

I found "Tour" in the AKO at Leiden CS today, so maybe that is the way to go. What is close to you? Arnhem?

Cheers...Gary

Road Warrior

I like Velo News, Bicycling Magazine, Pro Cycling. I recently subscribed to Cycle Sport. All of these publications touch base in a diversified manner regarding cycling.

fietser_ivana

Yes Gmason, Arnhem is close to me , actually I'm heading over for Arnhem tonight as I have a course there every Wednesday night.. normally a nice bike ride of 25K but now a bit rainier (according to the forecast) and windier.. but I'm certainly happy it wasn't yesterday.. I would have taken a bus then!

Now just try to find out where an AKO is..

Isn't it weird that though we live so close to Germany, we (Dutch) read more silly American magazines than really excellent German magazines... German isn't THAT difficult!

I'll try to fid an AKO and have a look... better still I'm going to call them..

Ivana

fietser_ivana

Gmason.. no luck, I've contacted AKO and they don't know the policy for individual AKO's in the country.
But they gave me the nearest ones ... both are at 40K away.
I called one of them, and the sales person said they no longer carried it, he hadn't seen it in a few months at least.. they USED to have it..

Good grief, the ONLY decent all-round cycling magazine is no longer on sale in the shops... while magazines that are much worse are still being sold, among which some American mags....

Obviously quality doesn't sell.... :-(

Ivana