Korina

Cycling publications have been dropping like flies, leaving a lot of talented reporters out of work. Well, some of them got together and created the Escape Collective.

Diane Jenks of the Outspoken Cyclist podcast released her interview with Caley Fretz here. To quote from her site, 'Along with Caley Fretz, who was the editor in chief of Velo News, a slew of these top-notch journalists have come together to offer up a product just for you – not for advertisers, not for clicks or page views – just for you.'

delbiker1 

No. About the only magazines I look at anymore are cooking mags I get from the library.

stevel610 

Looks great. Glad they got profanity in there...cause there's nothing that says "command of the English language" like a good f-bomb....

TiHabanero

Delbiker1, I'm with you on your sentiment/observation. Sadly the f-bomb has somehow become a defacto term of maturity, suave, cool, and other platitudes of social status with the younger crowd. I'm too old or immature to accept it, thus am hesitant to believe the writing skills of the contributors to the collective they are promoting will graduate beyond a school-yard level.

staehpj1

If we are talking about actual paper magazines, I have not read one in many decades. I used to read Bicycling way back. Some of the mountain bike oriented ones too. Dirt Rag comes to mind. It apparently was around until recently but I hadn't seen an issue in at least a decade when went out of business. The bike magazines I read were mostly in the 70s to the early 90s.

The last outdoor oriented mag I subscriped to was probably Outside, but it has been quite a while since then. I do still get one magazine subscription (Woodsmith). It is a gift from my wife and she renews it every year.

drlogik 

I miss Peloton. They got soaked up by the Outside group and it's not the same magazine.

mstateglfr 

Are cycling publications dropping like flies?

CyclingTips, the place where Fretz and most all others who are part of the Escape Collective, is still very much around. They just hired people, actually. So that certainly cant count in your narrative.
Its odd that Fretz is referenced as the old EiC at VeloNews since he hasnt worked there in 6 years. He is definitely most recently known as the overseer of CyclingTips, so surprised that isnt what is mentioned.

mstateglfr 

I dont think the point of that comment was to prove a command of the English language exists. The point was to highlight and show outrage as well as solidarity with those who really disliked the NFT route that Outside took. It, in part, caused CT to basically disband and thats been verified by the CEO on an earnings call. It was 100% part of the chain that led to what we are discussing now- Escape Collective.
I am sorry to hear that word is such a trigger for you. It is a rare word which can mean so many things depending on how it is said, which should make it quite invaluable.

squirtdad

And it then got killed as of 4-5 months ago

drlogik 

Yep, and it was such a good magazine. Quality reporting, quality and interesting articles and a load of reading in each issue. It's what a magazine strives to be but I guess the profits weren't there.

canklecat

I haven't read a print/paper cycling magazine since 1979.

Cussing hasn't been cool since robots mastered it.


Took me years to stop using cussing as a meal rather than a garnish after leaving the Navy. Now I use it only for shock value in totally inappropriate situations. Feels good, man.

Reflector Guy

Pick a subject matter - any subject, it doesn't have to be bicycling, and you'll probably find the number of magazines to be a lot less than they used to be.

Camilo

Or, it's just the way people talk, smart, dumb, educated, non educated. I've been talking that way since I was a teenager (born in the early 50s fwiw). I'm very well educated and have made a career among professionals. I take no offense in such language as long as it's in a place/venue/medium I can choose to attend to or not. I don't like it when idiots drop the F and S bombs loudly in public places, and I rarely, if ever personally used it any work setting, except by great accident. Time and place you know.

79pmooney

I'm on board. I may have wasted some money but I sorely miss the old VeloNews days with Charles Pelkey. I'm hoping this will fill that void.

Edit: Thanks Korina. I would not have seen this.

smd4

I’ve been missing good cycling magazines since Bicycle Rider and Bicycle Guide disappeared.

Bicycle Quarterly looks ok, but not enough pictures.

Kapusta

I miss Dirt Rag from before it spun off Bicycle Times (along with all the non-MTB content) around 2009. It was never as good after that. Then Bicycle Time went under… and then Dirt Rag.

stevel610 

No worries, it's just a generational thing. BITD professional journalists, let alone the editor, would never put this to print prefering to express disdain with any number of non-vulgar adjectives. Times change. Thanks for your comment.

Reynolds 531 

FYI, Bike Magazine is back from the Outside Corporation train wreck, but instead of the genius of Kristin Butcher, we get an intern using one of the cruder A.I. generators for "content".


A sample of the prose:

"While his run was obviously impressive, it seems like commenters were distracted by the hilarious noise of the brakes. "Bro rockin' the new opera breaks," wrote @SamDaman. In addition, @Realdanielhorrell commented that he thought the brakes sounded like wild animals. "Sounds like a flock of geese," he noted.

It's also important to note that Chaplin is much more than just his squeaky brakes. The Vancouver Island mountain biker has made a name for himself thanks to actively sharing his rides via his social media accounts.

Yet, according to Chaplin, he wasn't always so tech savvy when it came to documenting his rides. Like many, his presence online began slowly, mostly sharing "behind bars" photos of his ride spots. However, things took an upward ascent after he purchased himself a GoPro 9. After buying the camera, he began putting out more clips and videos like the one above.

Later, he realized he had tons of footage of his rides in his arsenal, and he decided to make his Instagram public. Before he knew it, he had curated a whole community on his page of like-minded individuals hungry for more of Chaplin's journeys behind his handlebars.

While we're not sure what's going on with his brake situation, we can say for sure that we'll be keeping tabs on Chaplin as he takes us along with him on his rides."

smd4

Got my first issue of BQ. May be the worthy successor to Bicycle Rider.

No ads may be a plus (excepting the owner’s). More pictures than I expected. Quality printing and binding. Enough to read over three months.

We’ll see.

PDKL45

I like https://www.bikeradar.com/ I don't think they actually have a print version anymore, but I actually visit the website and read articles. Watch them on YouTube and listen to the podcast as well, largely because they're British and not afraid of commuting, fenders, racks, tandems, MTBs ridden on pavement, weird frankenbikes and a bunch of other non-racing stuff. The podcast can be every bit as exciting as watching a puddle evaporate, but the Hill Climb Diaries Youtube videos are an awesome mashup of modern bike tech and tea with cake in the village hall. It's kind of sad that there's not more content aimed squarely at the types of bikes and riding that most of us do, rather than hardcore shaved legs and EPO smoothies racing content.

raceboy

I read in the newspaper that magazines are going out of style.

Steel Charlie

Remember when it was a newspaper format? Great articles, race reports, even a way cool classified?