Oh! The irony! MBA complains about being confused!

[scratchy]

OK, we're all lucky to have more choices of Aussie MTB media than ever before. Flipping through the latest MBA (not AMB) the editor laments: "despite being distinctly different to many 'dude' magazines on the newsstand, many people still confuse us with other publications."

Surely he's taking the piss!?

Due to vested interests I shouldn't say much more, but I hope some of you saw that and spotted the irony!

[johnny]

[Mag bitch session]

I recently purchased my first ever MBA mag. I couldn't be bothered reading any more accademic stuff and just wanted some light material whilst I bussed it home to my loving lounge.

It was "MOUNTAIN BIKING Australia" With a catch cry of "Australia's down to earth MOUNTAIN BIKE magazine". In this mountain biking magazine it had a letter, the winning letter of the month that is, that said that the mag truly WAS down to earth "whereas the other mag [assumedly AMB] seems full of itself and arrogant". I'd like to say at this point, Craig the letter writer is a FUCKING SYCOPHANT! But this is not my gripe. The magazine is called MOUNTAIN BIKING Australia. Yet when I read this issue [Aug/Sept/Oct 2005] I found it to be OVERWHELMINGLY oriented towards only ONE style of riding! A further content analysis displayed:

DH content: fifth page article partially talking about riders accomplishments page 12, quarter page article on the GT IT-1 on page 13, quater page pic page 84

FR content: an advert for Diamondback on page 39,

DJing content: quarter page picture on page 46, small pic rear cover advert for Raceline

Street/urban content: zero

Trials content: zero

XC/Enduro content: EVERY page

There are a few articles on nutrition, bush repairs etc. that can be generalised across the whole sport and possibly other sports as well. But the magazine is almost completely aimed at only ONE side of the sport, the XC/Enduro market. Now there is nothing wrong with this, I also have an interest in these genres. My problem is the name of the magazine itself and its catch cry of "Australia's Down to Earth Mountain Bike Magazine".

It is NOT a mountain bike magazine per se and its title is almost misleading! It's a bloody XC/Enduro mag. I bought the bloody thing thinking that I could see pics of tricks and jumps and stacks and drops and berms and, etc. All I got was pictures of people riding over flat ground, riding bikes up hills, pushing bikes up hills, riding bikes over flat ground, standing on finish lines, sitting on start lines, riding bikes over flat ground, sitting on chairs next to bike....on flat ground, riding bikes through water, riding bikes over logs, riding bikes on the road....flat road, and of course, the ever ubiquitous people riding bikes over flat ground.

If the magazine is only for XC/Enduro riders and almost resents the other types of MTBing (evidenced by their catch cry and the winner/wanker of the month letter) it should stick to that! Forget your token adverts and pics or little stories with XC content interspersed through it and most of all, forget the bloody title of the magazine itself! "Australian Mountain Biking" is misleading, call it "Australian Cross Country Enduro Magazine".

If you want to separate and distinguish (in the condescending way that you do) yourself from the rest of the sport, don't be shy about it! Call yourself who you are and don't fool chumps like me into spending $7.95 on something that only has about $2.50 value for them!

[/Mag bitch session]

(Sorry Em but it had to be said :o )

[roasted]

OK, we're all lucky to have more choices of Aussie MTB media than ever before. Flipping through the latest MBA (not AMB) the editor laments: "despite being distinctly different to many 'dude' magazines on the newsstand, many people still confuse us with other publications."

Surely he's taking the piss!?

Due to vested interests I shouldn't say much more, but I hope some of you saw that and spotted the irony!


do we mean mountain bike australia or mountain bike action?

[cam-o]

Yeah I bought it once and won't be bothering again.
Might be great for the XC/fitness fraternity but I didn't really get into it.
While we're slagging mags, picked up UK mag 'Dirt' last month. The photos are sensational but I found the editorial content to be really dull. Reckon I didn't bother finishing 30-40% of the articles. Won't be dropping a tenner on that one again either.

[scblack]

I have the very embarrasing admission that I SUBSCRIBED to this mag once.:o How dumb was I? But it was six mags for the price of four, and half price if you got a mate to also subscribe. (I have to justify that decision somehow).

It is such a NICE magazine isn't it? Nothing offensive at all, ever.

They once had an article on cornering, how to roll down steeps, but the rest were just NICE articles.

A waste of newsagent rack space if you ask me.

[thecat]

[Mag bitch session]



XC/Enduro content: EVERY page

(Sorry Em but it had to be said :o )


To be fair it was marketed as the Enduro issue....

Also it's aimed at average MTBers. XC/Enduro makes up something like 70% of the Club based, state and National racing scene.

The Mont had something like 2400 entries.

That's the market they pitch to. Don't like it? Not your scene? Don't buy it.

How easy is that?

[dilemma]

[Mag bitch session]

I recently purchased my first ever MBA mag.

...

(Sorry Em but it had to be said :o )

No worries Johnny, no personal offence taken! ;)

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and will like different magazines for different reasons.

I think the cat is right about the target market for MBA, it's very much aimed at the weekend warrior/non-competitive end of the mountain biking scene (which funnily enough makes up a large number of entrants at endurance events). These riders make up more than 90% of mountain bikers in Australia, with the other 10% split up into XC - 69%, DH - 28%, MTNX & Trials - 3%.

So gauging from that it is fair to say that MBA will not appeal to the majority of farkiners and that's fine.

BTW there's a great story in there about riding in Byron Bay, hehehe but not to plug myself or anything :p

[scratchy]

Different strokes for different folks. Maybe I was too crytic in my initial post. It's great the consumer has so much choice nowadays. Vote with your wallet.

I just found it Ironic that the mag that copied another mags name (just swapped the words around) complains about being confused with other publications.

Surely that was the point? Or was the editor just taking the piss and I didn't pick up on it.

(PS. Dilemma, the Byron Bay article looks tasty, I was up there 1 year ago, pity it wasn't published back then!)

[Dumbellina]

I am an avid MTB magazine reader. I have a room full of them. My dunny has a collection awaiting a read whilst taking the ooohhh so long bog. I read them with cover to cover, analyse each story, assess each ad, new product and editorial. I just love MTB mags, so here's my learned opinion on them (I am using my memory for the titles, excues errors).

Mountain Bike Australia is probably my favourite. It appeals to my genre, XC and plain old trail riding. The articles are written by articulate authors, the photos are good, the bike and product tests are relevant. Most importantly, the editor is going out of his way to promote trail access, a pet issue of mine.

Australian Mountain Bike tries to be the one mag that satisfies everyone. Its got content from almost all genres. Its my second favourite read. The articles are well written (generally), the photos are good and the articles and product tests are relevant. It was also the first MTB mag I bought and one I have bought for many years (remember when Chucky was there). I don't subscribe to magazines, except Australian Cyclist which comes with Bicycle NSW membership, because I like to browse the mag before I buy it.

Revolution was a mag that promised so much. It was going to change the face of MTB mags. Its contributors were going to be interesting and relevant (including my former mechanic Jesse - whose first story on lubricants was interesting to someone like me who understands and appreciates that level of detail). The latest one was a piece of crap. 99 percent dirt jump, urban, and 4X and one percent everything else (the only XC was the cute pic of Niki doing a race on the contents page - quality dunny material). The magazine was very poorly written, very poorly edited (even stuff MS Word spell-checker should have captured), and full of photos of guys with pants falling down jumping stuff. If I wanted that I'd buy a BMX mag.

There's the broadsheet Freewheel. The articles are good and interesting (again some editing issues) but the pictures are what makes that a good buy and coffee table magazine. Like the North American mag, Ride, great pictures that are well presented and high quality make it a worthwhile buy.

These's Clict which I have trouble finding but last time I saw it, was almost entirely DH. Which is cool, that's the genre and market it's aimed at and I appreciate that.

American MTB mags, such as MTB Action, are good reads if only for their product reviews. The American mag's ads really piss me off, like reading those car classified magazines - with great looking stuff and stupidly cheap prices. Like I said before Ride's photo annual is always worth the wait and trouble finding it.

UK mags are really just Steve Peat fan-zines. I await the headline "Peat gets sloopy diarrhoea from curry". With sycophantic pics of Peat spraying a bowl (not at a skate park).

[RCOH]

I like amb the best because of the rap music reviews ;) :p :)


Seriously, I but most magazines if i need something to read. I always buy AMB & used to buy 'dirt' before their 'new look'. I occasionally buy Mountain Bike Action but generally get pissed off at 1/2 the stories, especially that RC bloke. I have only ever bought a couple of issues of MBA but found it wasn't really my thing. CLict & revolution are cool but like someone else said I find clict hard to get hold of. Decline bites arse.

[floody]

Isn't MBA just Bicycling Australia on dirt? or am I off the mark there? (seriously would love to know, because thats what it reminds me of).
I've only read it when we had free copies at the shop I was working in, and got much the same impression as Jonny, if you weren't the sort of person in the market for a $2000 XC hardtail or $2500 XC dually to race your local 6hr then you need not spend the time..

I buy Dirt for the pretty pictures, and Clict because it is a quality, highly relevant publication - WHEN you can find it... I have little magazine consuming integrity. Dirt has become a little elitist and condescending, but its still aesthetically THE standout mag on the market.

[tnankie]

MTB action is a peice of biased crap! I really hate this mag, it really cut me up when i saw a good review of the nomad, cause RC blows so hard on santa cruz that I really cant tell if the bikes alright.


sorry just had to get it off my chest.

AMB has a lot of coverage of irrelavent stuff to me. their reviews are a little obscure, but the cost to score graph has gone a long way to clarify that.

MBA is too simple, there are somethings I like about it but its pretense to be down to earth and how it goes on and on about that is a little hard to take. Oh and the readers who write in! they certainly do a lot of arse licking.

I am about to move to the UK so I have been looking at their mags and I have found one that seems great. MBR (mountain bike review/rider) lots of trails, more reviews of bikes for trails a tiny bit on enduro events and a lot of great pictures. Not much good for XC race, DH, DJ, or XTreem FR, but for trail riding and light FR I haven't seen anything better.

[S.]

One thing that all Aussie mags have in common though, is terrible spelling (not that I should complain given the standard of some of the people who post on here :p ) . Isn't that the kind of thing they employ editors for?

[Binaural]

One thing that all Aussie mags have in common though, is terrible spelling (not that I should complain given the standard of some of the people who post on here :p ) . Isn't that the kind of thing they employ editors for?

Drives me mad as well. It's pretty hard to bungle spelling and grammar in the age of Microsoft Word, but they manage it somehow.

[johnny]

To be fair it was marketed as the Enduro issue....
I wasn't aware of that.

That's the market they pitch to. Don't like it? Not your scene? Don't buy it.

How easy is that?
Ah ya bloody goose, what do you think I'm trying to say here??

Of course I'm not going to buy it, that was the whole point of the post, that and it should be named XC/Enduro Australia so halfwits like me aren't tempted to waste their money on it.

That's the only problem I had with it, of course I know there is a market for it, the mag would have gone bust by now if there wasn't. I understand target markets and that I'm not in theirs. I have no problem with that, I just like holding on to the frustration I felt on the bus and crying about it every now and then. ;)

[blt2ride]

do we mean mountain bike australia or mountain bike action?

Mountain Bike Action is a waste of paper...