MKahrl

It was an even better magazine back in the 70's and 80's. Besides all the usual articles for beginners, and in the early 70's that was nearly everyone, they actually did testing of equipment. Frank Berto built a drive train testing system and would tell you how derailleurs shifted (late or early) and what impact that had for you and what it meant with indexed systems. He would produce tables to show you chain wrap, cog range and cog upper limit a rear derailleur could handle. When was the last time anyone has seen that? He wasn't afraid to point out problems no matter how much advertising that maker had in the magazine.

They used to have identical frames built of different tubing and leave off any identification and have the testers see if they could tell any difference between the rides.

My favorite bike magazine now is Bicycle Quarterly. It's head and shoulders above all the rest.

munkyv22

Get it. Love it.

DrPete 

Touch it! Love it! It took some time but he is smitten viss you, I can tell.

chipcom 

All levels of cyclists? Oh that's right, last month's cover girl was the bag lady on the old cruiser bike with the baskets and the streamers.

chipcom 

IMO they appeal to what we used to call the yuppie crowd - cycling is the new golf, and all that - those who have the largest cross section of wallet and the least cross section of dedication to cycling.

DocRay

Dunno about the US, but in Canada Bicycling is on the shelves at grocery stores, checkout lines, etc. Next to the "National Enquirer" , "Cigar Affecionado" and all those weight-loss magazines.
They refuse to put a real bike racing image on the cover.
It still appeals to yuppies.

Road is nice to look at, but not much depth.

fore0121

Now is zee time in BF where vee DANCE.

fore0121

+1

Love the magazine, but the bracelet thing is getting to be overkill.

f

redden

By reading the magazine I found out that I could get a decent bicycle for a mear $6500

cyccommute 

Not only did they test equipment, they actually gave good advice on touring, commuting, advocacy, etc. I have an article from March 1980, that I still use for wheel building. I haven't seen anything like it since.

But (and I've had a subscription since 1979 ) I do have to say that they are better now then around 5 years ago. An editor back in 2000 or so, decided that it would be nice to do away with words and we got complete 5 page spreads that contained a maximum of 200 words. Was like looking at a web page. I've seen children's books that had more words in them!

At least now they do articles that require some reading ability. The articles on the Flying Pigeon, the little red bike and, my favorite, pavement were really pretty good. I didn't like the article on clydes so much, however...especially considering that what they consider to be super heavy, frame crushing, component busting riders is anyone over 180 lbs (their testers seem to all be tall and skinny too). They implied that anybody over 160 was in serious danger of having the bicycle collapse on them. What was most amusing to me about the article was that I read it while riding a bike loaded with me (220+) and 60lbs of gear along the Lewis and Clark Trail. Bike survived just fine

jjmolyet

I said cyclist NOT bike rider...there is a difference

chipcom 

Oh yeah, the infamous 'serious cyclist' - sorry I don't subscribe to that rubbish - if you ride a bike you're a cyclist.

Treefox

I sometimes poke my nose in at the local Borders (when all the good bookstores in town have closed for the evening) and flip through Cycling Plus.

I think it was Cycling Plus who, for like a five or six month stretch, had cyclists on the cover who were subsequently nailed for doping. There was even an article towards the end of it about what do do with the old covers - including how to copy and paste other heads onto the photos. It was rather amusing actually.

classic1

A few of you seem to be confusing 'Cycle Sport' with 'Cycling Plus'.

Cycle Sport concentrates on the Pro cycling scene.
https://www.cyclesport.co.uk/content/features.htm

Cycling Plus is a British mag that covers all facets of cycling, from advocatcy to racing to touring to MTB to commuting. They do excellent product reviews, you won't see any cash for comment. They aren't afraid to call a spade a shovel IMO.
https://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/

Cycling Plus also has a forum where the hilarious Tony Bell is a regular poster.

Bike Lover

There's an article in this months issue that would be close to Hipcycler's heart, er... hip. It's about a replacement hip and F. Landis. Other than that, it can be pretty repetitous, how to get faster, lose weight, and neutrition are all repeating topics that currently in this mag.

VoodooRada

About once a year, Bicycling surprises me with a very good article; the Graeme Obree bio in 2003 (I think), the Pantani piece in early 2005, and the Ferrari interview this past year.

Then I waste newsstand time looking for that next good read.

Rotten Bastard

+1 on Cycling Plus. They give lots of useful, detailed tips that roadies need, like a recent article about how to deal with a punctured tube if you've forgotten your patch kit. One solution was tying your tube into a knot (a solution so simple I honestly never woulda thunk of it).

And yeah, their reviews are unbiased. They're not afraid to criticize.

One problem I have with Bicycling Magazine is they only review bikes from the big makers that advertise with them. Doesn't give a wide range of stuff.

sfcrossrider

I was gives a bicycling as a x-mas gift last year by a friend. WORST BIKE MAG EVER!!! Crap, crap, and more crap. Have any of you seen this months? What crap. I do get a kick out of style man (or style guy... I don't effing know or care). Nothing like reading the rants of a duchebag yuppie with a God complex.
The friend (who doesn't even ride) that gave me the subscription did it as a joke. She thought it was one big ad when she saw the mag @ a book store, and thought I would get a kick out of trashing it.

You know a mag sucks when...

The_Convert

It is a bad magazine for sure, but I actually love Styleman

TWD

well said, prior to the last two issues I liked it also. Lets see if the next issue rehashes anti-doping, raves about CSC, and pushes their wrist bands.

gcthree

I'll only offer two comments on the content of Bicycling magazine: 1) a friend of mine said that the best way to assess a magazine is by counting the number of pages that go UNREAD in a magazine, and 2) when a magazine runs a full catalog of cycling equipment in its issue (Veltec catalog in the current issue), and the catalog is more interesting than the magazine it is in- well, there's something really wrong with that magazine.

As one who happens to be in the magazine biz, let me correct you: magazines make all their money via advertising. That subscription they sold you for $4.95 for the year? They're losing about $7 on you just on printing and distribution alone. That does not take into account the marketing they did to get you in the first place. These days, it's costing a publisher about $60-$70 per reader (via direct marketing) to get you to subscribe. Then they 'monetize' the readership via ad rates where they're charging $108 per thousand readers, or $43,415 per page. Supposedly they have a circulation of 400,000 copies per issue, but if you look into their circulation statement, 80% of the subscriptions sold are 'sponsored'- that's the $4 subscriptions everyone is getting. An agent sells you a cheap subscription, sends $12 to Rodale with your name so you are counted as a paying subscriber (has to be 50% of the base price to count as paid), and then Rodale sends a check back to the agent for $9 as a marketing allowance or commission. You end up with a reader that got the magazine because it was so damn cheap he couldn't say no, and not because he absolutely had to have this magazine. And, oh, did I mention that the advertisers negotiate the crap out of ad rates, so discounts of 60% or more aren't unheard of? Bottom line, the traditonal printed magazine business model is broken, and they're scrambling to make it work....

So, the answer is digital publishing. Take a look at the magazine we are publishing on the web: www.windingroad.com (I know, I know, it's a car mag, but just take a look- it won't hurt!) It's a free subscription with no strings attached. People on the web do not expect to pay for their access to information, and the quality of our product is probably better than a print magazine. And the advertisers support it, but they pay a fraction of what they would pay for an ad in a print magazine, so everyone wins. We believe it's the future of magazines (check out the embedded videos in the magazine...) in the near future.

So, if I suggested that we would do a cycling magazine along the lines of Winding Road, how would you react to this idea? A real cycling magazine for real enthusiasts, and not the recycled fluff that I'm hard pressed to imagine who it is directed towards.....

DannoXYZ 

I've been reading WindingRoad since the 1st edition. Way, way better, more interesting, more in-depth and pertinent to my interests than any of the printed magazines I used to get. Keep up the good work!

t4mv

Uh, yep...



On the subject of Bicycling, they were better in the '70s and '80s, and then Winning and more interesting magazines came along. I have a long-running subscription to CycleSport, which, as has been posted earlier, is now starting to come off as over-priced blah blah blah diatribes on anti-doping. With Basso joining Disco, we can all be assured of at least two more month's fallout on more anti-doping blah, blah, and, oh by the way, get your endless supply of anti-doping wristbands by signing up for our over-priced magazine and products on WCP...sigh.

Oh, wait, were we talking about Bi-cycling...?

Jeffrey

for you triatheletes I reccommend "Triathelete" magazine plenty of articles and race results. It seems to me that Bicycling is more for people who spend more time shopping than cycling. This isn't bad, its just geared more towards a VERY non-competetive audience. Hence all the weight loss B.S. Triathelete on the other hand is all about sport.

gcthree

Count on us to only make it better as we go forward, and we are seriously considering a cycling mag for a couple of reasons: first, as this thread illustrates, you are hard pressed to think of a good magazine in the market, and secondly, the bike manufacturers have small ad budgets, and Bicycling's ad rates are just unattainable to most companies in this industry- perfect for a digital (affordable) solution.

Thanks for reading!