MORE ADVENTURE PLEASE
NEXT MONTH AUGUST ISSUE ON SALE WEDS JULY
I’m a subscriber to your magazine which I really only buy to read about and see the places other people ride in your features, and I always enjoy these. I’m lucky enough to have a good bike, a nice campervan and the freedom to make the most of this occasionally so I often search and add these locations to my own ride list. I’d love to see more features documenting the adventures of riders whether they’re young, old, any gender, race, or geographic location over the monotonous new bike reviews that fill so many pages.
I think your budget bike reviews are a vital necessity to helping newcomers make the right choices to suit them and allow them to enjoy what I have known and loved for so long, but reading about how good a £10k S-works or Santa Cruz is just bores me. For contrast, I ride a Yeti which I bought brand new a year or so ago, and I probably could have bought one of these ridiculously expensive S-works or a top spec Santa Cruz, but I don’t share much interest in reading about how fantastic these bikes are, it’s quite obvious from the price tag that they’re going to be fantastic, I’d much prefer to read about the places they’re being ridden at.
Maybe you could start incorporating both of these two things together, taking the bikes you review to exciting places that your readers will be equally enthusiastic about reading about? Maybe head off two bikes together at a time to give comparisons that are relatable to each other?
All that said, I do find your sections reviewing clothing, gadgets, and accessories really useful as these are products I (and I assume many other readers) can realistically regularly nip online and buy an upgrade as opposed to bikes which for me are something I’ll probably only buy once every five years or more.
I would really like to see some reviews on mtbfocused smart watches as I struggle to trust the reviews on sales websites and currently feel the need to replace mine. I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4 but it doesn’t record any hike-a-bike, which I find myself doing weekly, living in the Lakes and riding in Scotland regularly too. I can end rides with my Strava showing the exact same route as my riding buddies but a quarter of the mileage and as much as half the height climbed can be missing from my Strava recording.
I hope my words come across as constructive and don’t sound too negative! I love it when my mbr drops through the letterbox and always look forward to finding some time to read it.
Just a final little thank you note also for including the likes of Trash Free Trails and environmentally friendly packaging in so many issues and articles recently. I wear my TFT tops with pride and I have been collecting litter from trails, car parks, road verges for many years and even from beneath the feet of ignorant chavs at trail centres. Culturally there needs to be a big change here and it’s going to take a long time but it needs big names like you guys and brands to set the examples for the rest to follow suit.
Ed – thanks for the suggestions and the support Ian, we’re always keen to hear constructive criticism (although fawning praise is the best of course). Funnily enough we did used to enjoy the testing/adventure crossover, and most of the bike tests in the early days would see us travelling far and wide, riding international trails often wearing a selection of bizarre costumes. However, most readers seem to prefer that we keep it separate – let us know, you lot, if that’s true or not. It’s certainly more effective to review a bike on trails you know, and also easier to explore new places on a bike you’re familiar with.
WINS
ROOST NOT RUST
In your review of the raw stainless Starling Roost, you said that if you scratch it, you can polish it out with wire wool. However, if you do that it will surely rust as microscopic particles of steel will embed themselves into the stainless. Sorry but I think you have given duff advice.
Ed – You’re right Julian, that should have been stainless steel wool, or brass wool.
SMALL TORQUE
Hi… Just to say I’ve been an mbr reader for nearly 10 years. At the moment I’m really interested in e-bikes as my next future purchase after hiring a Trek Rail 7 29er twice at Cannock. I’m hanging on to my Transition Patrol 27.5 as long as possible though and keep trying to catch up with all my mates on their e-bikes!
My main issue is I cannot get on with 29ers. I did have a Specialized Camber for a few years, very fast, brilliant uphill but I struggled in tight corners. The bike is simply too long in length. So I now see that nearly all the new e-bikes are 29ers, some are mullet wheel e-bikes, which I haven’t tried yet. There are not many 27.5in e-bikes around, which gives me limited choices of getting one. I guess they will make a comeback especially with a well sorted motor in the near future as fashion comes and goes. I would love to see a hydraulic motor on a mountain bike which would have no battery and nothing electrical. Imagine the extra power from pedalling! Keep up the good work.
Ed - You know what you’ve got to do, right? Try a mullet e-bike. The combination of big up front for speed and small at the back for easier cornering is often a winner, and works especially well if you’re shorter to avoid the rear wheel whacking you on the bum. Failing that, Canyon’s Torque:on immediately springs to mind because it has diddy wheels front and back, it’s a good bike (check out the review on mbr.co.uk), and it’s actually nearly, so nearly, in stock (December, the website says).
THE BEARING PROCESS
I felt compelled to write after reading the latest update from Ben Smith on his Kona Process 134 Supreme. I too have been subjected to a main bearing replacement on my Kona Process 134 CR – earlier than expected, although nearly 18-months into ownership including two winters of slop.
There was no indication that mine had ceased and the nut design had continued to hold everything together despite the stress of continued suspension movement. Imagine my surprise/relief when my LBC was gladly able to confirm that there had been no damage to the frame – testament to careful carbon lay-up and engineering from Kona!
Thanks to my LBS I have been back out on the trails after a three-week absence and glad to say that the bike feels like new. However, I shall be far more careful when inspecting the pivot bearings for wear in future. Keep up the good work on the mag.
RIDE DON’T HIDE
Over the last two years It would be fair