cooker

Bicycling ran a feature, recently "Bike Town" where they gave free bikes to people in communities experiencing hardship, and watched to see if it improved their quality of life. I really liked that article. In a subsequent issue they reported on doing it again, but when I saw that this time they had given free bikes to Microsoft!! employees I just about puked.
Robert

Bontrager

Someone has probably already said it but why not just go to your local Barne's and Noble and read your magazine of choice over a cup of coffee?

kuan

Take a look at Climbing Magazine, also Rock and Ice.

Daily Commute

There's nothing wrong with buying a $50 bike at a big box store, but would anyone buying a fifty-dollar-big-box bike pay another $20 a year for a subscription to a bicycling magazine?

On an unrelated note, are you capable of writing a post that doesn't insult someone? Are there any cyclists (other than yourself) whom you respect?

hi565

ever been to Barnes and nobles? They have some cycling mags that are not erally lance focused. Theres a mag called cycling(? not completely sure) But for a 100 bucks you can get it for a year, and its def. not lance focused.

JBar

procycling is a good mag focused on the Euro pro scene. Bicycling is just like most other specialty mags (Acoustic Guitar, Outside, Canoe, etc, etc). They're interesting for the first few issues, but by then you've seen all the regular tech features and realize that the product reviews never call anything a piece of crap, etc, etc. All of the articles are of pretty good interest to the newbie with little knowledge base, but after a few issues, it's just S.O.S.

I-Like-To-Bike

There is such a magazine. It is called Consumer Reports.

They do periodically test the type of bicycles bought by a large slice of the American public; but not the high priced specialty products found at boutique bicycle shops featured in Bicycling Magazine and so admired by cycling afficianados.

Crank It Up

Agreed. Stopped reading it since the late 80's. (btw that Bruce Lee clip: pwned! is way cool!)

TomM

Instead of car ads, bicycling should be promoting alternate means of transportation like bicycles.

Bikepacker67

Ohh ya? I see a shytload of Boomers touring, and pleasure riding.

Doug Campbell

While your at Barnes & Nobles, check out Cycling Plus , and English mag. Not bad.

Dahon.Steve

Holy Cow..

I didn't think this thread would strike a nerve since most of my topics hardly get looked at. I struck a nerve!

I think we should have a thread with just GPS coordinates and those of us with GPS's can contribute each week. You're recomendation is the best I've seen in a long while.

Dahon.Steve

There's nothing wrong with the racers either. I know it fuels the sport but there are already two or three magazines devoted to this topic. If I want to know about racing, I'd buy Pro-Cycling or Cyclesport buy dedicate precious space to this topic in a magazine with limited space.

Dahon.Steve

Agreed. I've learned more on these forums in the past 3 months than in 3 years of Bicycling.

Dahon.Steve

Cycling Plus is better than bicycling for they actually use compare bikes against each other! Unfortunately, Cycling Plus is too expensive and many of the bikes are not sold in the U.S. They also spend too much time on new products instead of CYCLING which is what it's all about in the first place.

swifferman

On a side note...Does anyone have an April Buyer's Guide they could send my way? I could return the favour by sending you an Urban Male Magazine if you want it, or wait for my new next magazine as they usually go straight to bathroom readers and thus, look crappy.

I just like looking at the products as it's hard for me to do online.

I agree though, the articles are generally awful however I re-read the Editor's choice section over and over again from one of the two trial issues I have as I like looking at the products.

Thanks

linux_author

- instead of the insipid sexual performance drug ads, there should be more of a news hole for good articles...

- i'm letting my subscription lapse to this piece of trash flash, obviously laid out and designed by ignorant 'tweens' without a clue about bicycling, its history, or real meaning to people who actually ride (and buy) bicycles and bicycle accessories...

- this putrid editorial effluence's headline writers should be flogged in public...

- a disgusting experiment in exploitation, IMHO... Bicycling Magazine has no editorial or advertising integrity as evidenced by its last three issues... (i subscribed in June 2005)....

Daily Commute

They test such a tiny slice of even the low-end market that they probably shouldn't bother. It would be helpful to have something that tests, for example, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra and Dura Ace cassettes to quantify exactly what you get at each higher level (other than weight and price).

In all hobbies and sports, there are some people who are happy to stay at the entry level. There's nothing wrong with that. Even the roadies you love to hate stay at the entry level in some activities (home maintenance, cooking, etc.).

But what those of us who want to go beyond the entry level in cycling need is a magazine that gives as much attention to bicycles and bicycle equipment as Consumer Reports gives to cars like Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW.

I-Like-To-Bike

Really? How many cyclists besides yourself and whomever else is "us" do you believe exist with this unfullfilled "need" for equipment reviews? Apparantly few (i.e. ZERO) entrepreneurs agree that there is any profit to be found servicing this alleged "need."

Is this "need" related to the "need" to educate/train "entry level" (whatever that is) cyclists who have yet to attain the exalted status of "those of us" who consider themselves superior to lowly "entry level" cyclists?

dee-vee

I get the mag for free and since im in team performance they gave me a free year just a while ago.

Bontrager

I used to subscribe until I realized they just wanted my money to fuel their Suzuki Samuri lawsuit. While I do give them credit for some of the work they do, some of it is pure rubbish. Some of their comparisons completely miss the mark to the point that it makes me wonder.

I almost laughed when they rated the Jeep Wrangler.

Daily Commute

Given the number of threads in this forum started by people who want very specific information about what products work best, it's clear that your desire to remain in the dark about the products you use is not shared by all. My guess is that a lot of the subscriptions to "Bicycling" and other cycling magazines are from people looking for information on what products are better than others.

Finally, I'm not an expert or serious amateur carpenter (and never will be), but I won't call a carpenter a snob for wanting technical information on what tools and techniques work the best. Why do you do the same for cyclists? That leads me back to the question I asked earlier, other than yourself, are there any cyclists you respect?

I-Like-To-Bike

Your irrelevant text about carpentry and equally irrelevant and smug "personal" questions notwithstanding, it is equally clear that this unserved market of curious "serious cyclists" with unanswered equipment questions carries little weight in the information market place. IMO, few cyclists give a dang about this "missing" info, except for a handful of those perpetually curious about the latest and greatest gizmo from the Bicycle Boutique Industry.

FarHorizon

Although I wouldn't call even their worst reviews "pure rubbish," I agree that Consumer Reports (CR) often has priorities that don't match mine. For example, they seem to rate loudspeakers by how much bass the speaker can reproduce - not my priority at all.. However, even when CR's priorities don't match mine, CR usually does a good enough job of stating their biases that I can tell whether the review is of use to me or not.

On the other hand, reliability is reliability. If I'm buying an appliance (or a car - which is an appliance to me), reliability and safety are my top priorities. I find CR most useful in those circumstances. I'm not interested in CR's opinion of how quiet the car is, how comfortable the car was, or how CR rated the car overall - only the safety and reliability. For this reason, CR is useful to me, even when I disagree with their overall assessment of a product.

I still subscribe to CR even though I disagree with about a third of their overall assessments. It isn't that they did a bad job on the review - it's just that my priorities are different than their reviewers.

TomM

Sometimes it seems that reviews in magazines are too sterile. I prefer to post questions on sites like BikeForums asking for experiences with specific products.