Rouleur magazine

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kedab

Veteran
Location
nr cambridge
i too have recently sub'd to Cyclist after buying the first few editions off the rack and then struggling to find it in the same place. l like the articles, i like the style, i particularly like the non glossy cover and pages. it's rather smart imho.
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
I was looking at a copy in a poncy London bookshop yesterday but couldn't quite bring myself to fork out £10 for a mag, then I went and blew £15 on coffee and cake!
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
I'm fairly lucky in that I work for IPC Media so I get Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport for free. Rouleur is nice but no magazine is worth £10 in my view. As the OP has said, Cyclist is well worth a try and you can get 3 issues for just £5 at the moment, it's a little like Rouleur but not quite so up its arse

I completely disagree. Most average magazines are essentially disposable vehicles for advertising. As Zizou has said, Rouleur's aesthetic and depth of content is more like a book - it is something you keep and go back to - it is the cycling world's McSweeney's. There are no other cycling magazines I know of that have anything like that aesthetic or quality of content, so it's well worth the £10. It's the £5 monthly magazines that are a false economy - you are basically paying to be advertised to - and spread over the year, Rouleur is actually not much more anyway (£80 vs. £60).
 

thom

____
Location
The Borough
Rouleur's usp in the realm of cycling periodicals is that it is primarily good quality photo-journalism, so longer well researched articles supplemented by professional photography. They don't chase news events or do road-testing of equipment like other magazines but look for more substantial stories and get above average cycle journalists to write for them. Still, around 20% of it is explicit advertising and I bet the manufacturers don't mind having 10 page articles written about them.
If you are looking for the best cycling magazine with writing, this is probably it but the writing in general isn't in my opinion strong enough to stand up on its own outside of a cycling magazine. The best written article about Lance Armstrong I saw was published in the London review of books I think. It didn't come from within the cycling press. Despite the allusions to literature and history which suffuse the average Rouleur article, there is a stylistic vanity and frequent reliance on nostalgia that I fear makes it akin to the Rapha clothing marketing strategy. You do feel good about your purchase but you feel you're joining a smug club of ponces too.
I continue to subscribe despite this suspicion of guilt.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
Just picked up the Tour edition, good stuff and still only a tenner!
Send it on to me when you've read it, a tenner!!!!!!:thumbsup:
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
I completely disagree. Most average magazines are essentially disposable vehicles for advertising. As Zizou has said, Rouleur's aesthetic and depth of content is more like a book - it is something you keep and go back to - it is the cycling world's McSweeney's. There are no other cycling magazines I know of that have anything like that aesthetic or quality of content, so it's well worth the £10. It's the £5 monthly magazines that are a false economy - you are basically paying to be advertised to - and spread over the year, Rouleur is actually not much more anyway (£80 vs. £60).
Agree.

Every other magazine has a life of eighteen months to two years max as the just become repetitive after that. "How to ride a sportive," "Which entry level race bike", "What pedals," etc etc regularly wheeled out every year.

Cycling Weekly is just a shadow of the essential read it once was.
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
What a great link FM, nice one. I hadn't come across this before.

Did you see this pic from the review for The Climb, apologies if it's been shown before but it's fantastic and worth repeating anyway.

image.jpg
 
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