In article <0c42vv8fb51raha775hromtfbntdn22cqo@4ax.com>,
MP <Schlabotnik@DELETESPAMmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 05:20:24 GMT, "Pete" <ptr@usaf.com> wrote:
>
> >"Kevan Smith" <Kevan@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message
> >news:lqu1vvgic78mafh9mgc5jla4sksbb3g9gb@4ax.com...
> >> On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 03:48:31 GMT, "Pete" <ptr@usaf.com> from Road Runner
> >High
> >> Speed Online http://www.rr.com (http://www.rr.com/) wrote:
> >>
> >> >"Kevan Smith" <Kevan@mouse-potato.com> wrote
> >> >
> >> >> Stay away from Bicycling magazine published by Rodale. It blows.
> >> >
> >> >That's what my kids got me for xmas. I gritted my teeth, smiled, and said 'thanks, dudes'.
> >Although it DID have a nice one pager on a 4 wheel couch bike.
> >
> >Pete
> I got an included subscription to Bicycling when I joined the L.A.B. (I know, that's likely to
> start another argument). I used to read it years ago, and was quite surprised at how bad it is
> now. I'm not sure what bothers me more, the fact that it has so little real content, or it's
> assumption that all it's readers are rich yuppies who can blow thousands on bikes and equipment.
>
> MP
I like making fun of Bicycling as much as anyone, and indeed briefly considered doing a regular
report on the most-recently claimed ratios of the effect of weight on the bike or the wheels versus
the body (the typical formulation is some pseudoscientific tossed-off comment in an article like "a
gram on the wheels is worth three on the bike"). It turns out they don't do this quite often enough
to make tracking it interesting.
Now to the good stuff. First off, a newbie could do worse than to read Bicycling. Most of the advice
is credible, and their reader tips routinely impress me as being worth trying. Their exercise advice
seems pretty mainstream (do intervals to go faster, build base miles, etc.) if a bit repetitive. The
only really dreadful bit is their road-test analyses of the qualities of frame materials (Though I
remember reading back issues in high school, and thought at that time they were putting frames on a
fairly impressive-sounding jig that tested frame flex at various points. What happened?)
But in the last six months or so, I have read (I don't subscribe, but I mooch at the supermarket
magazine rack like crazy) several very, very good feature articles in their pages. They had an
amazing article on Graeme Obree, the ill-starred one-time hour record holder and monster TTer. They
did a very nice report on the world's biggest road race, held in South Africa. They did an
interesting, though somewhat flawed article on an idea they came up with and followed through on:
they gave 50 people in Portland, ME a half-decent Trek hybrid, and then followed up on them
periodically to see what happened. The stories were fascinating. As you might expect, many of the 50
seemed to just have excuses for why they weren't riding their nice new bike, and some just ended up
toodling around the block once in a while (but isn't that enough for some?), but one rider basically
started a block bike ride because of his new bike. One rider lost a bunch of weight in time for her
wedding. One family got a couple of the bikes, and rode all over the place. They did article-size
profiles of a great number of the riders, and had sidebar capsules on almost everyone.
I gave them credit just for trying such a mad idea, even if I thought it was a bit silly.
Bicycling has a lot of dorky features, starting with Style Man (though I think he's just Fabrizio
Mazzoleni's day job) and ending with the goofy back-page grid thingy, and at its worst the whole rag
comes off as Cosmo on two wheels and with fewer ads, but the feature articles I have checked out
lately have been surprisingly good.
--
Ryan Cousineau, rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club
