MCN - do they realise just how sh*t everyone knows it is?

Dont read the first 3 or 4 pages. After that it's all right. I only buy it 'cos I want something to read on the bog. It's weekly and I've finished RiDE or BIKE within a week of buying, so without MCN I'm back to reading the back of the shampoo bottle for the next month.

As Viney said more CRAP than news, but it's better than a bottle of pantene and the warning label on the razor socket!

Originally Posted by Razor

Yep I like the race pages too.
I'm so broke at the mo I can't afford the MCN...
Today at lunch I went into WH Smiffs and read the latest ish of BiKE... I felt like a student again...

i dont know you'll be weezin the ju,uce next lol

[Spanner Man]

Morning all.
Ride magazine used to have 'Tells it like it is' on the front cover. Well I can assure you that they don't.
In 2001 there was a problem with certain grades of gold DID chain, namely 520 & 530 VM. The sideplates were cracking at an alarming rate, & due to the nature of the cracking I suspected that the sideplates had been overhardened. I had 9 chains that I had supplied crack over a period of 12 months. I suspect it was due to a change in the production process, or a relocation of the manufacturing plant, as there were no faults on other gold DID chains, DID 'black' chain, or chains from any other of the main manufacturers. It was just confined to 520 & 530VM, which coincidentally were DID's most popular sellers. Fortunately no-one was injured as a result, but there was some damage to the bikes on which the chains had broken.
Without going into a long story, suffice to say I had the bit between my teeth, & simply refused to be fobbed off with crass excuses from my wholesalers, or Bickers the importers.
One such excuse was it's the road salt used in Britain! Well if it was, surely it would effect all chains, not just the above. Not to mention the one fitted in June that broke in July!
I had in my possession a 530VM which I had supplied in 1998 which was completely worn out (one of the worst I've seen) but with no cracks in it.
I also had a 530VM which I supplied in 2000 which had 13 cracks in it, not including the link that broke. I was sure that a metallurgist would have been able to discern any differences between the two.

I contacted Ride magazine, who by then were part of Emap. I sent them every bit of information I had, together with statements from my customers who had been inconvenienced by the problem, I told them about the two chains in my possession which could be used for comparison. Guess what? It was deemed to be not newsworthy!
Well, if a potential problem that exists out there that could literally kill people is not newsworthy I don't know what is.

I wrote back to them & told them that perhaps they should change their slogan to 'Tells it like Emaps advertisers say'....Needless to say I didn't receive a reply.

Cheers.

Thing is, unless they report loads of racing coverage (which many riders, myself included, are not really interested in) there isn't really enough bike "news" to justify a weekly paper IMO.

There are only so many transport reports, proposed new laws etc. relating to bikes a year and there's only so much you can talk about without repeating yourself. Likewise, there are only so many new models in the works. It's tedious how the main bike mags review the same bike about 7/8 times over a year. Increase the frequency with which it comes out by 4.5 and it's clear why a weekly newspaper runs out of things to write.

[johnnyrod]

It's like the Sun, but that is probably insulting the Sun a bit. I love bieks and will be a biker as long as there's a hole in my backside, but the bull aspect, which you get from plenty of other bikers too, is something I hate, and this only serves to propagate it.