The Paper Magazines
Every month a whole new batch of mountain biking magazines comes out on the newsstands, and like a fool I plunk down $5 and read the thing from cover to cover in about half an hour and think, "What a waste!" I am speaking of the American magazines like Mountain Bike Action, BIKE, Mountain Biking and Mountain Bike. The articles are always geared towards cross-country racers who actually train. You know who I am talking about; riders who ride with a wireless heart rate monitor and have the correct percentage of carbos, fat and protein in their diet. It's not that I don't respect these people, they possess a discipline that I lack, but reading a comparison test of energy gels when I am craving for some info on the freeriding scene is a frustrating experience.
The gear reviews are especially aggravating. There is no such thing as a bad review. Apparently these magazines are so controlled by advertisers that they are deathly afraid to make a single negative comment. For example, the January 2001 issue of Mountain Biking contained a two-page review of DDS Microshift Digital Drive System that is, "currently an OE-spec item on some 2001 comfort and juvenile bikes". Who wants to read about that? This gem of a product review is followed by three pages about Mozo forks. 50mm travel forks that retail for $90 US. What the ????? Who wants to read about this crap? Are these magazines so desperate for advertising dollars that they are willing to publish infomercials? Apparently, the answer is yes.
The startup of NSMB.com helped a long way towards satisfying my media craving. I like the photos, the ads and the buy and sell. The videos take a long time to download but are cool to watch. But websites have their limitations. They're not that great for reading in bed or on the bus. Being an old fart, I still like reading things on paper. Fortunately, I found a solution: the British.
The British magazines may cost a fortune ( my last issue of Mountain Biking UK cost me $11) but if you are a magazine junkie they are worth it. Twice the price, but more than twice as good. The last two British magazines I bought were MBUK and Dirt. MBUK is more of an all-round type mountain biking magazine. It features, downhill, cross-country and trials. The photos are great and the writing is irreverent and honest. One of their columnists wrote that women have no place in downhill racing or dual slalom. I don't agree with the sentiment but I appreciate the editorial leeway. I can't imagine an American magazine printing anything like that. Dirt magazine is devoted to downhill, bicycle supercross and dirt jumping. Dirt had an amazing article on Interbike in Las Vegas. All the magazines had Vegas articles but Dirt's talked about the road trip as a whole and didn't just concentrate on the gear. Many more words were devoted to drinking, strippers and firing machine guns than mountain bikes. There were a couple of photos of some stellar babes complete with cheeky captions.
Another great thing about the British mags is the ads for gear we just don't see out here. Some local companies like Kona and RaceFace advertise in them but even better is the ads for companies like Orange and 24/7. They have some very nice gear and I wonder how it would stack up against the stuff we have here. If you don't know about these companies then pick up a British magazine and check it out.
I have a written a comparison chart to help you sort out the myriad of choices available. By no means do I claim this to be a complete list of magazines, they just happen to be the ones in my magazine rack right now.
| Magazine | Best feature | Worst Feature | |
| Bike | Nice photos | Gear Reviews are too short |  |
| Dirt | Calls shore riders "queer slow-ass forest tree top riders" | Hard to find |  |
Dirt Rag |
Written by alternative college types | Written by alternative college types |  |
| Mountain Bike | Cheapest | Zapata Espinoza |  |
| Mountain Bike Action | The mail order ads with fourteen thousand products listed in tiny, unreadable type complete with cost and weight in grams. . | Articles are indescribably bad |  |
| Mountain Biking | Panders to Norco so there is a fair amount of shore stuff. | Panders to everybody so all the reviews suck |  |
| Mountain Biking UK | Over 200 glossy pages covering all aspects of mountain biking | $11 for a freaking magazine!! |  |
Stefan Merchant
