GUY KESTEVEN mbr is dead, long live mbr

Sadly this is the last page of our last ever issue, but while the print magazine’s journey ends here, the ride continues online. Just Get Out and Ride!

Back in 1997 my mum’s dog Toby Wentworth sent some words down to London on a floppy disk, destined to be printed in the first ever issue of mbr. Everything was very different then. Suspension and disc brakes were still rare away from DH racing, everything handled like crap, and magazines were the only media that mattered. To be honest they were the only media at all, apart from the occasional VHS tape, shot by some flashy Americans or uptight Europeans.

Perhaps the writing was already on the wall in 1999 when two tweedy geeks from Bikemagic.com (one of the first mtb websites) asked if they could put their URL under the title of my magazine. To be honest I had no idea what a URL was, but they promised it wouldn’t hurt, and it turned out to be a really good move. Within a few months Maximum Mountain Bike magazine was no more, but Bikemagic had already grown rapidly enough that I started working for them instead.

Which brings me right to where we are now. After an adventure across all sorts of publications and online outlets for the past couple of decades, a few months ago I finally returned to where I started on mbr magazine. Just in time to be given the news that I was not only underwriter but also undertaker in terms of wrapping up the literal final issue of its printed version with this opinion column.

And it’s definitely a big shame that while tyres and bars have got wider and travel and top tubes have got longer, magazines have become thinner and shorter. But like rim brakes, 26in wheels and suspension made with rubber bungs, everything has a timespan, and eventually it’s time to move on. So while we’re not that proud of some of the subscription ads we ran way back in the ’90s, the drunken conversation on a stranded train that led to the first 50-strong bike test was an iconic moment worth celebrating.

Danny, Al, Jamie, Paul, Mick, Roo, myself and many others have since forged a ferociously independent and extremely strong testing and feature format together over the past quarter of a century too. Every score and sentence of a review is chewed through endlessly so they’re as honest and as useful to you the readers as possible. Every image and caption is commissioned and written by the editorial team.

Not fished off a free content website and then underlined by a jobbing sub-editor from Horse and Hound who doesn’t know a stanchion from a stallion. We’ve sweated through tens of thousands of tests and several million words over the years and spilt a lot of blood and early-hours coffee in the process.

And it’s this experience and dedication that’s made mbr hugely respected, feared, and probably even hated at times within the global bike industry. Why? Because the magazine’s responsibility has always been to its readers and not the brands and their marketing departments. There are too many landmark issues to mention too, but the women’s issue last year was really significant in terms of celebrating a very welcome change in the demographic of mtb. Something the team was really proud to give wings to.

But the most important thing is, everything that’s made mbr the magazine you choose to read and rely on isn’t being lost. It’s just shifting off paper and moving entirely into the digital world of our website: mbr.co.uk. Already a great resource of up-to-the-second news, reviews and video content, our website will become even more jam-packed with reviews and features now it’s getting 100% of our attention. Without the constraints of prehistoric printing deadlines and the increasing costs of materials and moving magazines around, we can invest a lot more in creating the content that matters. What’s more, there’s a much broader range of options in how to present it too.

So while tapping the keys for the last issue of the physical mag is definitely the end of an era, we’re not going anywhere. In fact we’re going to haunt your computer like that one site you swear you never visited deliberately but has somehow completely taken over your algorithm. Because frankly we bloody love bringing you all the latest news, tech and gossip from around the world of mountain biking. And given how much fresh stuff is being talked about, torn apart and tested to death just in this final issue, it’s probably a good job the internet is infinite to cope with everything the team is planning to do.

But for now, thanks to everyone who’s bought a copy of mbr at any point since the first issue with its bare-headed rider, bar ends and ‘free’ VHS video on the cover

334 issues ago. We massively appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing you on the World Wide Webs for not just more of the same, but a bunch of even better stuff too.

mbr’s responsibility has always been to its readers and not brands and their marketing departments