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Loving and hating Bicycling Magazine

11.09.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 11 Comments

Back when I first took up “serious” biking, I tried to read a lot of material about the sport, so I could bring myself up to speed quickly. One of my monthly reads was Bicycling Magazine.

Actually, it still is. I read it every month. The trouble is, I can read what I consider the important stuff in less than an hour’s time. Even the featured articles are so short, they often don’t cover more than two pages. And much of those pages are taken up by ads or pictures.

And the teases on the cover — they drive me crazy. Talk about promising more than you deliver! A cover headline that reads, “Stay With the Pack,” will often have no relation to the article title it’s promoting. After skimming the magazine fruitlessly, a search of the table of contents points you to something like, “21 Tips for Getting Faster.” Then, when you finally find the article, those 21 tips are a list, with short descriptions. Usually, some of the tips (many of them?) are so elementary, they even offend the Bike Noob: “Learn to draft.” Ah ha! That means next month, there will be another article on how to draft, and since there are no new breakthrough techniques on drafting to report, the one-page article will rehash stuff you probably know already.

Rodale, the publishing house that owns Bicycling, is feeling the same economic pressures as all media are feeling these days — falling ad revenue. So they laid off 10 percent of their workforce last week, or 111 people. I don’t expect the look of the magazine to change much, since a lot of it seems to be done by formula anyway, as these three covers suggest:

lean

“OK Herb, just plug in the ‘Get Lean Now’ headline on the cover again this month. We’ll hold off on the ‘Great Abs’ headline with the picture of the good lookin’ girl in the unzipped jersey until next month.”

abs“Wait a second, Herb. When you do the abs cover, let’s not be sexist about it.”

cplusThere are alternatives. In my opinion, the British magazine Cycling Plus delivers a lot more solid information each month than Bicycling. The ride reports are well written, with terrific maps and good pictures. Of course, all the rides are in the British Isles, and it’s not likely I’ll get over there anytime soon. And its big drawback is the $10 news stand price here in the U.S.

Ah, what the heck. I know darn well what the weaknesses of Bicycling are. But I still find myself looking forward to picking it up every month. I’m part of that “old media” generation that likes to hold pages in its hands when reading, instead of squinting at a flickering computer monitor. I suppose the evolving media landscape will solve my dilemma for me — when Bicycling and just about every other print publication adopts online as its only delivery platform.

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Categories // Odds 'n ends Tags // abs, Cycling Plus

Songs in my head

10.28.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Nothing unusual to report from this evening’s ride — so maybe I’ll report something usual.

When riding, I often get a song in my head — one that I can’t get out.

This evening, it was the harpsichord bridge from the Beatles’ “In My Life.” It’s just a short passage, and sounds out of place in the song. But it’s one of those things that sticks with you. Perhaps because it’s a rather short passage, it didn’t stick in my head for too long. Instead, it morphed into Pachelbel’s Canon, which seems to have roughly the same chord structure.

Normally, I’d get irritated when a song sticks in my head and I can’t shake it. But I can put up with Pachelbel. What really bugs me is when it’s a bad song. Then, you try to fight it, and it usually wins the fight. Luckily, I don’t get stuck with the really bad songs too often. Mostly, they’re ordinary pop music dreck.

This phenomenon has happened to me while golfing, too — and is particularly troublesome when I’m trying to line up a putt. You try to stand still over a three-footer when the Four Tops are singing, “Sugar Pie Honeybunch.” Some part of me will move in time with the beat, and then — here comes a bogey.

The trouble with the song in the head is that it never ends. If I get the song early in the ride, 15 miles later it’s still riffing along.

Oh, well. I guess I’ll just continue to live with it — and hope the next time I’m out, the song will be by Amy Winehouse, and not Wayne Newton.

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Categories // Odds 'n ends Tags // music, songs

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