best cycling touring mag.
best cycling touring mag.
What is the best cycle touring magazine to buy.
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rualexander
- Posts: 2645
- Joined: 2 Jul 2007, 9:47pm
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Re: best cycling touring mag.
There isn't really a true cycle touring mag in the UK, the closest thing is probably Cycling World http://www.cyclingworldmag.com/
Internationally, then Adventure Cyclist is probably the best dedicated cycle touring mag, http://www.adventurecycling.org/mag/
Bicycle Traveller is an excellent online or downloadable pdf magazine http://bicycletraveler.bicyclingaroundtheworld.nl/
Internationally, then Adventure Cyclist is probably the best dedicated cycle touring mag, http://www.adventurecycling.org/mag/
Bicycle Traveller is an excellent online or downloadable pdf magazine http://bicycletraveler.bicyclingaroundtheworld.nl/
Last edited by rualexander on 14 Apr 2013, 5:32pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: best cycling touring mag.
jags, you beat me to it! I was going to post about the lack of cycling magazines that cover touring and leisure riding. Taking a look at the mags on view in WHS you could swap covers as they all look the same. I'm tired of seeing Lycra clad "roadies", eyes hidden behind wrap around shades and riding stripped down peloton machines. Inside they are pretty similar too - concentrating on performance riding, diet etc.
I used to buy many cycling mags each month but have cut down over the last year. I subscribe to Cycling Active but that too is starting to slip into the Sportive/fitness/diet niche and I think I may "unfriend" it soon. I follow the racing scene so am not against the sporting side of cycling but all the magazines are becoming clones of each other.
"Cycling World" was a pure touring magazine but has recently adopted the Lycra cover pictures and printed some heavy "advertorial" pages as well as increasing its advertising pages. "Adventure Cyclist" in America is a great magazine but very American. Its layout is clean and simple and easy to read - much better that the confusing in-you-face style that the UK mags adopt.
I am just a leisure cyclist who likes to get out for day rides when I can. None of the current crop of cycling mags cater for this although Cycling Active does print a few pages each month covering rides in various parts of the UK. More cycling mags - like more TV channels - has not given more choice, just more of the same.
I used to buy many cycling mags each month but have cut down over the last year. I subscribe to Cycling Active but that too is starting to slip into the Sportive/fitness/diet niche and I think I may "unfriend" it soon. I follow the racing scene so am not against the sporting side of cycling but all the magazines are becoming clones of each other.
"Cycling World" was a pure touring magazine but has recently adopted the Lycra cover pictures and printed some heavy "advertorial" pages as well as increasing its advertising pages. "Adventure Cyclist" in America is a great magazine but very American. Its layout is clean and simple and easy to read - much better that the confusing in-you-face style that the UK mags adopt.
I am just a leisure cyclist who likes to get out for day rides when I can. None of the current crop of cycling mags cater for this although Cycling Active does print a few pages each month covering rides in various parts of the UK. More cycling mags - like more TV channels - has not given more choice, just more of the same.
Re: best cycling touring mag.
Jags
I think that CTC's magazine is about the best at the moment. Like others have said I got fed up with the " mean and lean" type magazines which just seem to rotate content on an annual basis. I've looked at the American journals on line and they are very attractive - and very American!
Now I tend to go to the CrazyGuy web-site for my fix of armchair touring!
I think that CTC's magazine is about the best at the moment. Like others have said I got fed up with the " mean and lean" type magazines which just seem to rotate content on an annual basis. I've looked at the American journals on line and they are very attractive - and very American!
Now I tend to go to the CrazyGuy web-site for my fix of armchair touring!
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rualexander
- Posts: 2645
- Joined: 2 Jul 2007, 9:47pm
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Re: best cycling touring mag.
CTC magazine is good but its not a cycle touring magazine.
Re: best cycling touring mag.
PaulB wrote:jags, you beat me to it! I was going to post about the lack of cycling magazines that cover touring and leisure riding. Taking a look at the mags on view in WHS you could swap covers as they all look the same. I'm tired of seeing Lycra clad "roadies", eyes hidden behind wrap around shades and riding stripped down peloton machines. Inside they are pretty similar too - concentrating on performance riding, diet etc.
I used to buy many cycling mags each month but have cut down over the last year. I subscribe to Cycling Active but that too is starting to slip into the Sportive/fitness/diet niche and I think I may "unfriend" it soon. I follow the racing scene so am not against the sporting side of cycling but all the magazines are becoming clones of each other.
"Cycling World" was a pure touring magazine but has recently adopted the Lycra cover pictures and printed some heavy "advertorial" pages as well as increasing its advertising pages. "Adventure Cyclist" in America is a great magazine but very American. Its layout is clean and simple and easy to read - much better that the confusing in-you-face style that the UK mags adopt.
I am just a leisure cyclist who likes to get out for day rides when I can. None of the current crop of cycling mags cater for this although Cycling Active does print a few pages each month covering rides in various parts of the UK. More cycling mags - like more TV channels - has not given more choice, just more of the same.
I subscribe to 'Cycling Active' as well and totally agree with you that the content is leaning towards the 'Sportive' scene more and more, so much so that I fired off an email to them a few weeks ago saying that they should include more 'normal' articles and replace the 'Fitness' section with a 'How to do it' section for basic maintenance etc.
I also said that, if the content stays as it is, I would'nt be renewing my subscription.
Will see if anything changes but, bearing in mind that the majority of advertising in the mag is aimed at the 'bum in the air, get from a to b as quick as possible without ever noticing the scenery', I don't suppose it will!
Re: best cycling touring mag.
thank's folks yeah i reckon all these mags are basically the same stuff, i stopped buying cycling weekly to much geared towards the roadie , cycle plus used to be great as did the americam bicycling but i stopped with them as well same old stuff.
i want to read about local tours not everyone can do an epic round the world tour if i can manage a week i'm counting my blessings gear reviews aimed at cycle tourists would be nice,
the only mag i get these days is from the fellclub which imho would blow away all those other main line mags ,
but i would say that
still i would like a monthly mag just to keep me up to date with whatever.
, cycle plus used to be great as did the americam bicycling but i stopped with them as well same old stuff.i want to read about local tours not everyone can do an epic round the world tour if i can manage a week i'm counting my blessings
gear reviews aimed at cycle tourists would be nice, the only mag i get these days is from the fellclub which imho would blow away all those other main line mags ,
but i would say that
still i would like a monthly mag just to keep me up to date with whatever.
Re: best cycling touring mag.
Would agree that Cycling World is the best magazine that cover's peoples tales of cycle travel and not just page after page of adverts and Endless tests on Equipment that is far behond the price tag or the need for, to the average cyclist.It really does have that good old touring feel about it which i think most of us are crying out for now in a good magazine. 
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bikepacker
- Posts: 2275
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- Location: Worcestershire
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Re: best cycling touring mag.
Cycling World was a really good magazine in the days of editor Robert Griffiths. Since then poor editorial control and change of publishers altered it's emphasis. It is no longer a cycle touring publication.
There is your way. There is my way. But there is no "the way".
Re: best cycling touring mag.
I find certain sections of this forum a great substitute for a cycle touring magazine, its also free of adverts. You can find those in 'Cycle' four times a year if you want.
I avidly read:
Touring and Expedition
Bikes and Bits - Technical Section
Does anyone know
Cycling Goods & Services - Your Reviews
Unlike magazine articles often written by journos all the posts are written by real cyclists, many with loads of experience. I am very grateful to everyone who posts on these sections, they have provided hours of pleasure and I have learned so much.
The Tea Shop can be a bit of a laugh, full of grumpy old gits (include myself in that!)
The rest of it I cannot be bothered with. In fact I wish there was some way you could identify and list your favourites and blank out the rest. I find myself being wound up by a lot of useless claptrap that I have somehow been drawn into reading.
As for Cycling Active its simply awful, full of useless 'marketing' bling and highly slanted articles and 'reviews' ("you place an ad and we'll include your bike/product in our review sir" - I know I have played that game).
Read the bits of the forum that you like and save a subscription!
Al
I avidly read:
Touring and Expedition
Bikes and Bits - Technical Section
Does anyone know
Cycling Goods & Services - Your Reviews
Unlike magazine articles often written by journos all the posts are written by real cyclists, many with loads of experience. I am very grateful to everyone who posts on these sections, they have provided hours of pleasure and I have learned so much.
The Tea Shop can be a bit of a laugh, full of grumpy old gits (include myself in that!)
The rest of it I cannot be bothered with. In fact I wish there was some way you could identify and list your favourites and blank out the rest. I find myself being wound up by a lot of useless claptrap that I have somehow been drawn into reading.
As for Cycling Active its simply awful, full of useless 'marketing' bling and highly slanted articles and 'reviews' ("you place an ad and we'll include your bike/product in our review sir" - I know I have played that game).
Read the bits of the forum that you like and save a subscription!
Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Re: best cycling touring mag.
al_yrpal wrote:You can find those in 'Cycle' four times a year if you want.
You might want to have a word with them: they should be sending you six per year!
Re: best cycling touring mag.
most of the forums i visit are excellent full of general cycing chat and what have you,
but i like to sit in my favourate chair coffee in one hand good mag in other
i email cycling world last friday no reply so i wont be signing up for that and as bikepacker said it's not a touring mag anyway.
but i like to sit in my favourate chair coffee in one hand good mag in other
i email cycling world last friday no reply so i wont be signing up for that and as bikepacker said it's not a touring mag anyway.
Re: best cycling touring mag.
[quote="al_yrpal"]I find certain sections of this forum a great substitute for a cycle touring magazine, its also free of adverts.
Unlike magazine articles often written by journos all the posts are written by real cyclists, many with loads of experience. I am very grateful to everyone who posts on these sections, they have provided hours of pleasure and I have learned so much.
I agree, this forum offers a wide range of opinion and helpful knowledge.
As for Cycling Active its simply awful, full of useless 'marketing' bling and highly slanted articles and 'reviews' ("you place an ad and we'll include your bike/product in our review sir" - I know I have played that game).
When Cycling Active first hit the shelves I found it to be a good read. It concentrated on people who were new to cycling and those of us who simply ride for pleasure. Equipment and bike reviews were (and still are) across a wide price range - from inexpensive to very expensive and there was much to keep me interested. However, the sportive side of cycling has crept in - combined with fitness and diet advice - and the general feel of the magazine has moved to the performance end of the scale.
Cycling World has also changed. It now looks like every other cycling magazine and there are many more adverts and "advertorials" masquerading as editorials filling the now glossy pages. I was a subscriber years ago when it was mostly black and white. I had several articles published in it and enjoyed reading about other cyclists' travels. It was a bit amateurish back then but the content was more down to earth and it felt like a club magazine. I came across an old copy of the CTC "Cycletouring" magazine a while ago and it had much better content than the hotch-potch publication that is produced now.
Forums like this one really are the new cycle touring magazines. I just prefer to have a paper mag in my hand than read stuff off a computer screen.
Unlike magazine articles often written by journos all the posts are written by real cyclists, many with loads of experience. I am very grateful to everyone who posts on these sections, they have provided hours of pleasure and I have learned so much.
I agree, this forum offers a wide range of opinion and helpful knowledge.
As for Cycling Active its simply awful, full of useless 'marketing' bling and highly slanted articles and 'reviews' ("you place an ad and we'll include your bike/product in our review sir" - I know I have played that game).
When Cycling Active first hit the shelves I found it to be a good read. It concentrated on people who were new to cycling and those of us who simply ride for pleasure. Equipment and bike reviews were (and still are) across a wide price range - from inexpensive to very expensive and there was much to keep me interested. However, the sportive side of cycling has crept in - combined with fitness and diet advice - and the general feel of the magazine has moved to the performance end of the scale.
Cycling World has also changed. It now looks like every other cycling magazine and there are many more adverts and "advertorials" masquerading as editorials filling the now glossy pages. I was a subscriber years ago when it was mostly black and white. I had several articles published in it and enjoyed reading about other cyclists' travels. It was a bit amateurish back then but the content was more down to earth and it felt like a club magazine. I came across an old copy of the CTC "Cycletouring" magazine a while ago and it had much better content than the hotch-potch publication that is produced now.
Forums like this one really are the new cycle touring magazines. I just prefer to have a paper mag in my hand than read stuff off a computer screen.
Re: best cycling touring mag.
I suppose us tourists are really just a tiny fraction of cyclists so you can understand we have no dedicated mag. It's a surprising fact that any magazines income is principally from advertising revenues, not subscriptions. Therefore they are all geared around advertising so the 'bling' type cyclists get the most attention Bécquer they attract more ad revenue. If you think about it if the mag was relying on folk like horizon, who has agonized over his 'to be, or not to be' new bike for months it would soon go broke! In my experience so many of us tourists are cautious like that its not a concept to get rich on.
I belong to a classic car club (dodges brickbats.
) In their monthly magazine they have a nice section with interesting stuff from the Forum. Questions posed from Forum members and answers posted from the Forum. Its a really nice idea.
...and, if you like reading you mag with a coffee consider getting a tablet and have a look at Zineo
Al
In my experience so many of us tourists are cautious like that its not a concept to get rich on.I belong to a classic car club (dodges brickbats.
) In their monthly magazine they have a nice section with interesting stuff from the Forum. Questions posed from Forum members and answers posted from the Forum. Its a really nice idea....and, if you like reading you mag with a coffee consider getting a tablet and have a look at Zineo
Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......