Bicycling Magazine Subscription

I subscribed to Bicycling magazine because, well duh, I cycle. I ride a road bike regularly, even occasionally doing a little cycle commuting. Here in the Austin area, the weather's OK for riding about 10 months a year (although a bit toasty for 7 of 'em), so I get to ride almost year 'round.

I regularly toss the magazine unread for several reasons:

1) The thrust of every issue is directed almost entirely toward competition. Every article features info on how to amaze your buddies, thrash the next rider, and blow away the competition. I'm fifty years old and I don't ride competitively, but I still spend a lot of cash on bike gear. There are a lot of folks in my age group who ride for exercise and fresh air, but Bicycling routinely ignores us.

2) Articles on average joes and janes? Ha. Every article features someone who won his or her age group in some race somewhere. Bicycling never features anyone who has lost 35 pounds or dropped her cholesterol level 46 points -- nothing about the HEALTHY aspects of cycling. I guess that's because healthy riding doesn't sell as much product for the advertisers.

3) The magazine features smart-mouthed columnists with attitudes that would have gotten my behind smacked when I was a kid -- and would get my kids behinds smacked today, if I had any kids. I don't need some loudmouth 26-year-old mental midget telling me about "style" in the voice of a thirteen-year-old. Keep that garbage to yourselves.

4) Rodale has also ruined the other sports magazines it publishes by overemphasis on competition (Runner, for instance -- I dropped it 10 years ago, but I didn't quit running). They also spend far too much page space on pictures of pros shilling for whomever their sponsors may be.


I recently joined the League of American Bicyclists -- the only "benefit" they've seen fit to offer me is a discount subscription to Bicycling. Looks like I'll let that membership lapse, too.