Canceling subscription to Bicycling
 

I’ve come to realize Bicycling Magazine is not about the enjoyment of cycling but selling products to newcomers. It spends too much time reviewing thousand dollar bicycles and fad diets that will cost you a whole lot of money. Every week there’s more information on nutrition and what product you need to buy along with its website. Then there’s a monthly insignificant human interest story about a group of heavy guys who are losing weight with bicycles or some retired racer who started a youth club. Wonderful. Did I mention the constant discussion about Bike Town and how they are converting dozens into the world of cycling. Great. But this is now what I want!

I’m at the stage where I don’t need to read another Lance Amstrong article or bicycle review on the incredibly expensive Atlantis. Other than the articles on bicycle maintenance, I really haven’t learned much at all from this magazine. There was a small article on GPS in the June issue but it focused more on product features than how to use the thing for actual ENJOYMENT! Lets not forget the constant bombardment of SUV’s and other four wheel drive cars that take up page after page in Bicycling. As a result, I’m going to let my subscription run out and I’ll pick up a copy every now and then.

I was looking at Backpacker magazine and it seemed like a breath of fresh air. Seriously. The motorcar advertisers were there but they actually listed places where you can hike with GPS coordinates and all! Needless to say, I was envious. This is what we need as cyclists for it seems like there’s a never ending discussion on these forums on safe routes. I’ve never seen Bicycling provide this kind of specific information at all yet everyone seems to be looking for safe roads. When Bicycling does have a feature on a particular vacation destination, you’re usually given the name of a costly tour guide who can show you around. I don’t know why there isn’t a bicycle magazine that’s more focused on destinations (with GPS coordinates) instead of selling the newest carbon road bike?

Anyway. I’m done with Bicycling. The latest issue devoted several pages to bicycle racing, Lance Amstrong, dieting and new bicycles. I went through the whole issue in fifteen minutes and didn’t learn a thing.

maybe we need to start a thread with just gps cords of good places to ride

Just how long did this take you? I noticed a pattern after three issues, and I've never renewed.

Unfortunately most cycling mags treat us all as Lance wannnabes - not there's anything wrong with racers, but that's such a small slice of the cycling pie.

Don't you just *love* all those car ads????

I canceled my subscription back in the '80s. :eek:

I flipped through it the other day, and they were running a special section for fat cyclists, recommending parts and such for the large and in charge. I noticed that instead of being helpful, it simply recommended the most ludicrously expensive parts. Yeah, every overweight rider needs a Shimano Saint crank to deal with the extra weight, gimme a break. That magazine sucks.

I let my subscription lapse in maybe 1984 when the mgazine dutifully informed me that the new bike I had bought six months earlier was essentially obsolete. I still regularly ride that bike.
:)

But it's the slice that drives the industry! Companies who spend lots of money on ads in bicycle magazines rely on guys who buy new multi-kilobuck bikes every couple of years.

i agree the focus of the mag does not fit the avarage cyclist, mtn bike action is just as bad only focusing on extreme downhill bikes

I think it's more like we are seeing the end of hard copy magazines in general. There are so much more information when you need it on the net.

I have dropped other subscriptions too. It started looking more and more like unnecessary paper waste.

You got that one right.

I used to like Mountain Bike Action a lot, but I picked up a copy last week to read at the airport, and 75% of the bikes in that magazine were super downhill machines with the bars 6" above the seat, and super slack angles on everything. What ever happened to x-country bikes?

Anyone remember Road Bike Action? I was in love with that mag, but they cancelled it after something like 4 months.

Sheldon Brown needs to start publishing a cycling magazine. I'd rather re-read his old literature and technical essays than waste my time with 95% of the irrelevant drivel in Bicycling.

The Rivendell Reader is a good mag., yeah, Sheldon Brown would write one that even kicks more ass but until then....

I get it free without the free tag I would not subscribe

I knew that one was in trouble when every cover had a picture of a road bike catching air. They seemed to have missed the point.

I wish there was an American equivalent to Cycling Plus. Those folks do it right with information about reasonably priced bikes, places to ride, clubs, racing, randonneuring, audax, commuting, AND expensive bikes.

And that's why the bicycle "industry" in North America is virtually non-existant. Except for the product (manufactured in the Orient) sold at the big box stores, the industry ignores the majority of its potential customers and has done so for at least three decades. Bicycling Magazine caters to those racer wannabes who might purchase the overpriced "industry" products available at boutique bicycling shops. And those who purchase SUVs for hauling their high priced bicycles to places where they might use them.

Rivendell Reader is great, and so is Adventure Cyclist. I got Bicycling from the League of American Bicyclists membership, but I never read it anymore.

I agree that Bicycling magazine is seriously lacking in so many ways. Have you ever read Runner's World? I think it's a pretty good magazine. Even though I'm not a runner I find more interesting articles in RW than Bicycling. The strange thing is they are published by the same company in the same building.

You can read through the content in 20 minutes. The rest is just oversized pictures and advertisements. I do like style man though...

You want to hear something a bit ironic? Runners World & Back Packer, 2 other magazines mentioned in this thread, are both published by Rodale Press, if I am not mistaken. Rodale also publishes Bicycling Magazine. So it makes one wonder why a company like Rodale would publish 2 very good magazines & 1 crappy one. The only reason I read Bicycling is because it comes free with my membership to the League of American Bicyclists.

I reccomend dirtrag magazine. Hoinest reviews, they have regular literature and art contests, It's a great mag.

They also have beer reviews if that's your thing. :p

Howdy,
I find RBR the on line mag to be pretty good about addressing the kind of riders a lot of us are....

M.R.

My impression is that the LAB is industry captured, too. Their goal seems to be to help the bicycle industry sell bikes, not to make the roads safer for the cyclists already there.

What we really need is a Consumer Reports for bicycles--no ads, and they have to buy all the stuff they test.

It seems all my favorite RAGazines that I once subscribed to have,too, become this way.