Favorite cycling magazines
 

What is your favorite road cycling magazine?

Cycling PLUS

Velo News

I like Velo News, but it's slightly expensive.

Ride.

Agreed. But too pricey, I just read it at the bookstore.

Most of the other usa-based cycling mags are relatively useless, I read them for the ads.

Bicycling.

They have great articles, especially about Lance or about how to ride better in 5 easy steps.

Anybody else get a copy of Peleton recently?

So did they interview Cancellara's bike? I love celebrity profiles.

The big problem I have with cycling magazines and the media in general, is that due to the nature of the sport, the media has to act more as a cheerleader than an objective observer. Unfortunately, when you cover such a niche activity, the only people purchasing the product (in general), are more interested in this kind of fawning, PR style coverage. So there is a lack of coverage about what is plaguing the sport, as well as almost NO coverage on team tactics, turmoil within, or critiques of certain riders or teams.

For example - where were the US publications reporting on a very odd, and very interesting situation between Christian Van de Velde and his team? I still feel there is a market for a cycling journal which would cover cycling in this manner, but unfortunately, it would immediately have you blackballed by the sport. It really is equivalent to the Omerta relating to doping, and unfortunately, it turns most cycling mags into nothing more than fanboy rags.

I lol'd.

You know what I hate about Bicycling? Their reviews, made even more outrageous by the fact that they were preceded by those 5 easy steps.

"We put five $6,000-dollar bikes to the test and our conclusion? The person who reads this magazine can't afford any of them!" Seriously guys, the dude who's buying a $6000 bike is NOT basing his decision on what Bicycling magazine has to say. Their subscription costs $11 for Christ's sake. But they recently changed editors, so maybe the ****** running the show now will understand this better than the broad he succeeded.

I am ok with the racing coverage in most cycling mags. My major beef is the product "reviews" which generally read like advertising copy.

I get better info on cycling products here in BF.

I like Road Bike Action. Velo News and Bicycling are OK. I hate Road, mosly because it is too big to fit on the back of the toilet.

Most cycling mags and web-sites (buy-cycling; velonews, cyclingnews, road bike action) have journalists who act as advertisers for bike companies, and much worse, PR men for suspected dopers, backing the most far-fetched spin jobs. Their ethical horizon consists in asking themselves what would please their advertisers. They have the moral integrity of sheep.

With Specialized behind Contador no surprise they swallowed the laughable "tainted beef excuse." And that's just one example.
Other mags pretty much ignore the issue, or only deal with controversies well in the past. I'll take those. Rouleur is one of them.

Road bike action

Ride.

Not likely. Their business model is to appeal to the average cyclist who rides occasionally, but wants something to both keep them "connected" to the sport due to the fact their lives are too busy to ride. Given this, then would you: a) tell your subscriber how hard it is to actually become a strong cyclist or: b) provide simple, albeit dumb fitness tips that they can digest as possible given their lives.

Seriously - it is the same crap as Running, Backpacking etc...

As for equipment reviews - you are being paid by the Company's whose products you review. No one, I repeat, no one who is based on an advertising model provides honest feedback in equipment reviews. But in their defense, unlike electronics etc... bike equipment is highly personal, and dependent on the rider's ability to fit in with the equipment. Equipment reviews are not exactly going to be useful anyways.

I have always felt that a magazine that provides some sort of report for both product defect rates, returns, recalls would be much more insightful than telling me that the bike takes off like a rocket. They also do not do bike reviews justice as all too often, they will describe the ride quality of one frame versus another, and almost completely ignore the impact of component differences. But again, the average cyclist is almost ignorant of components, except maybe knowing at a very high level the Shimano hierarchy.

As for the other mags -again - they are more celebrations of the sport rather than magazines in the traditional, journalistic sense.

However, in today's day and age of the internet, you do have to wonder where their business model is eventually heading.

Does anyone remember Winning magazine? big in the 80's................aweful name for a cycling magazine

Cycle Sport is a good quality rag from the U.K

I sometimes wonder what the difference is between buying Road Magazine (or any other) and a 10 year-old who puts a poster of his favorite athlete on the wall. Isn't most of it kind of a bit childish and "fanboyesque" to buy these magazines? I understand maybe magazines that celebrate riding in general (there are some that are more like the Alpinist magazine, which focuses on the activity, not the pro aspect of the sport). But to buy a magazine that "Profiles" a bike makes me laugh.

still have a stack of them from '89-94.

I like all of the shiny magazines. They feature shiny people riding shiny equipment that cost lots of shiny moolah. I want the shiny equipment so that you can call me...

Fred

There is: the 10 year-old has the brain of a 10 years old, and the innocence and naivety that comes with it. What's your excuse? ;-)
There's really no excuse at all for the buyer of these rags which are in fact largely infomercials when they are not cheerleading for cheats and liars.
Glossy crap for idiots, most of these mags are -- yet people keep buying them.

Dude - I am not the one buying these mags. I am the one critiquing people who do buy them.

Got that. Which explains the ;-)