YOUR LETTERS
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CONTACT US mbr magazine, Future PLC, Unit 415, Eskdale Rd, Winnersh Triangle Business Park, Winnersh, Reading, RG41 5TU mbr@futurenet.com
★ STAR LETTER ★
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 artic
