Cycling magazines

I like Rouleur a lot, but I'm also really enjoying The Ride Journal - you get more in one issue than you do in Rouleur, and it covers a wide range of riding types (which suits some and doesn't suit others). Both Rouleur and The Ride Journal focus on the 'cyle culture' side of things - neither one has kit reviews, but then all the kit reviews in the workd seem to be available online, so I'm mostly looking for interesting stories and good photography/graphic art. I reckon both of them deliver those in spades.

Rouleur is a bit different from the other magazines in that it doesn't review products and doesn't cover the last months races. It tends to feature articles on famous racers from the past, famous races, iconic places, brands (the recent Shimano articles were excellent) with (normally) great photography.

http://www.rouleur.cc/

The same stable have a mountain bike magazine coming out later in August

http://www.privateer.cc/

Just needed to say how much I adore reading Rouleur ... articles are brilliant, photography outstanding and what more can you say about a publication whose appearance in the post every 2 months in its white plastic wrapping makes we whoop with anticipation ?! I have the Rouleur annuals as well and they are equally superb. As far as other magazines are concerned, I buy odd ones now and again, but it looks like I should investigate Singletrack, too

Been away on my hols for a couple of weeks, so this is a bit late, sorry Super Domestique but I don't think you are going to find a road equivalent of Singletrack it's unique IMO in being so close to its readers, by that I mean that if you took a random sample of Singletrack readers and asked them to produce their perfect mag you'd end up with Singletrack again - that's why so many people seem so attached to it. There isn't anything on the road side that has that same sense of community - maybe C+ did but in its forum rather than the mag - we're trying to go for that same kind of Singletrack vibe but online which of course they do too.

As for C+ Stereojet… if it's not doing it for you anymore it's okay to put it down now When I was editor the thinking was that a typical subscriber would last about 5-7 years, in that time most things would have been done at least twice (at least), and given the seasonal nature of cycling some a lot more than that…

The last edition of rouleur i saw was the one with the dengie marshes photo feature. what was up with that? the pictures were dismal. not 'atmospheric', just crap: out of focus, badly framed (riders in the page gutter), dull.

pity because they can do really good stuff. but the quality control knob has been turned down of late IMO

stereojet: i'm not big into bmx or whetever either, but the ride journal articles are short enough that you can just dip in and out, that's what i like about it

I enjoy reading Rouleur and while its expensive you can easily make most of your money back if you want to by flogging them on ebay.
I'd also buy procycling as they have good coverage of the sport and just a few bits of bike candy.
I used to buy Cycling Plus but as its just full of product reviews it seems less relevent given the internet where these are plentiful. Also the features just seem more juvenile these days (with the exception of the retro page).

Funny reading an old edition of Cycling plus and a review written by Dave!

(Testing cycle racks lol)

i seem to survive on a diet off internet stuff and second hand CW's, and what with the iPad and smartphones etc it seems that possibly print media may well be on its way. with the exception of Rouleur and the like who are more like small coffee table books, good but sometimes more style than content.

I've got a similar dilemma. Been a C+ subscriber for years, but it's getting quite repetitive and as I've got all the kit I want I'm now less intersted in the reviews. I kind of enjoy the know how section, even though I've lost count of how many 'be a better descender/climber/sprinter' articles I've read over the years. The addition of that list of bikes at the end just gets on my nerves. But if I quit, where would I go?

Cycling Weekly is too expensive for the content, although the news section is pretty good. Cycle Sport reads like a bumped up version of CW.

Procycling I tend to read the occasional issue, but its recent redesign seems to have made it into more of a bike porn fetish magazine than one about cycling. It has good coverage of the Grand Tours but its interviews tend to be a little too bland. There are occasional good articles but I sometimes flick through without seeing anything that catches my eye.

I'm with Dave on Cycle Active. Just seems to me like C+ but without the +

The last couple of Rouleurs I've read have been quite poor, especially in comparison with its earlier issues. Plus I'm not sure I follow all that 'cycling-as-mystical-pasttime' stuff. Good photos though.

The Ride's articles are just too short, and for me it tries to cover too much. (I'm not interested in 'cycle culture', BMX, Mountain biking etc. etc.)

I guess they're all good, but in different ways and to suit different riders and their lifestyles. For me a diet of ProCycling and Cycle Sport combined with my regular staple of road.cc (and then Rouleur for dessert) just about sees me right. I get Cycling Weekly to view digitally through Zinio.com.

I like Pro Cycling, the iconic places articles have resulted in a few foreign trips for me, plus the retro articles are some of my favourites.

The Sportive bias of so many of the mags as mentioned by Dave above, leaves me cold. It just isn't my cup-of-tea at all.

Some of the C+ route articles are good, I've travelled to do some of those in the past.

Rouleur I love, I can keep going back to their articles time after time, it's very stylistic, but it's a style I really like.

ps you can download issue 2 from their website for free if you want a shufty without paying anything up front.

Tony and I are both ex of Cycling Plus so we have a soft spot for that particular publication, though it's a bit sportivey these days. Cycling Active is trying to fit the same hole but doesn't do it as well. Cycling Weekly used to be about the racing but it's increasingly trying to get into that Plus-Active demographic it seems. As a weekly it doesn't really work.

Pro is one I never got into really, I like the racing aspect of cycling a lot but I'm not really into it enough to go for Pro. Rouleur does some really interesting stuff and it's much more eclectic but the last couple of issues have been a bit of a mixed bag imho.

CTC's mag has some good stuff in it and it's a cheap subscription considering all the other benefits you get with membership, especially beards are now optional.

My current fave is The Ride Journal - loads (and I mean loads) of interesting articles about absolutely anything, nice illos and photography too. not cheap, but generally worth it. www.theridejournal.com