Bicycling Magazine Subscription

I acquire magazines two ways, either by having them given to me or by subscribing to them free through credit card offers. Bicycling was one of those offered by one of my credit card companies. I personally will not buy a magazine anymore because I deem them a waste of money. Most of them have to many advertisements and are not worth the newsstand price because of this.

I was a bit surprised and disappointed by the amount of advertisements that were included in Bicycling. They took up about half of the pages and this is something that I hate with a magazine. You get everything from advertisements for cars, bikes and accessories, travel opportunities, snacks and energy bars, videos related to the sport, and even cooking book advertisements. Don't get me wrong, I like learning about the new products that are available to cyclists, but I would rather read a magazine and articles pertaining to the sport and find my product information elsewhere.

But despite all of my complaints about this magazine, they do offer some sound advice on everything from good biking spots, to bike maintenance, and even fitness and training advice. A lot of the advice is definitely useful. I have found a better body positioning on my bike when climbing hills because I paid close attention to an article that was featured in one of last year's issues, "How To Conquer Long Climbs." There was also an article in an older edition that instructed readers on how to get themselves properly fit to their bike. Let's face it, if you are not in tune with your bike…you will numerous problems with your body afterwards. Adjusting your bike to fit you is probably the single most important thing a rider can do.

You can also learn a lot about what bikes are out on the market. Featuring everything from the cheaper Giant and Diamondback bikes, to the more expensive Cannondale and Serotta bikes. They feature a few bikes in almost every issue and give a small write-up about each one. This is definitely useful to the consumer buying a new bike and looking for the pros and cons of their favorite brands. The April 2002 issue featured a 2002 Buyer's Guide, which featured pages and pages of low priced to high priced bikes for their readers' perusal. Bicycling sometimes also offers a few pages of questions and answers to those that write in to the magazine with bike questions or problems.

Bicycling also features a few contests in each issue. They offer a "Reader of the Month" in every issue. Best of all, the winner is picked by the readers of this magazine. Three profiles are pictured in the issues along with the winner that month. Readers can log onto the Bicycling website and vote for the next issue's winner. The winner gets a bicycling jersey and a featured article in the next months issue.


~ Subscription ~
Bicycling will give you a one-year subscription, that is 11 issues with an extra 8 issues of Mountain Bike for free. Cost of subscription is only $12.97 plus $1.97 delivery fee. Bicycling sends you two free preview issues before they actually charge you for your subscription. This subscription offer is a good thing for those who used to read Mountain Bike magazine because they no longer offer this magazine for sale without subscribing to Bicycling.


*~ MY THOUGHTS ~*
I have to say that I do like Bicycling magazine, to a certain extent. I was able to find some articles that did interest me and actually help me out in various aspects of my cycling workout. So I cannot totally condemn this magazine. I also think that the magazine could benefit cyclists that have just started to ride, or even those that have ridden for years because of the wealth of information included. Though I would recommend buying the subscription to make the price cheaper per issue. This way, you don't feel as cheated about getting your moneys worth.

Another thing that I found odd about this magazine was the fact that the pages were so colorful. Not in the usual fashion either. Most of the pages were decorated in darker colors, with black being the dominant darker color, which just seems odd to me. It does make it more eye-catching, but looking at the darker colors can become somewhat annoying.

A lot of the information contained with the pages of Bicycling just did not interest me. I was quite surprised by this because I do enjoy cycling immensely…but I don't feel that this magazine lived up to the sport enough to enjoy it. While this magazine is called Bicycling, it seems to emphasize a lot more information on road biking than mountain biking. While this may be fine for me because I do a lot more road riding than mountain riding, it's not fair for those that may be opposite of me. And I was not aware that "bicycling" was a word that referred more to road biking than mountain biking. The magazine might go over better if it dedicates itself to not being partial to a certain terrain.

Bicycling also contains a lot of information on the pro cyclists and the competitions that they win. There is literally an article about Lance Armstrong in every single issue. But besides the page on the contest winner, there really isn't any information on regular cyclists like you and me. I am not a professional racer so cannot relate to most of the stories in Bicycling magazine, thus it does not interest me as much.

I was looking and expecting so much more than what I actually received, thus was disappointed in the magazine. And at about 100-120 pages and $3.99 an issue, I just don't see the benefit in spending the money when there are other ways to obtain the same information. It's not like we cannot access the Internet to research bike information or bike prices and brands. With that kind of information virtually at your fingertips, I would forego spending the money on Bicycling magazine and go out and buy yourself a cycling jersey instead. I'm sure you would get more use for it than this magazine!


Bicycling
PO Box 7592
Red Oak, IA. 51591
www.bicycling.com


~ Happy Reading!

Kim