Is C+ still worth buying?

[snorri]

It's just another indication of advancing years when your favourite mag loses appeal and you realise you probably know more about some of the subjects covered than the guy who wrote the article. It can also be a realisation that you were living in a bit of a dream to think you might eventually own some of the more expensive products featured.

 

[gavintc]

Just back from the Flanders sportive to meet this month's edition. I have just had a quick scan. It looks pretty good to me. I can't see what all the fuss is about. Decent bikes, decent wheels; what you would find as the staple diet for most recreational sportive riders.

 

[Andy in Sig]

The answer is obvious really. We've just done the Cycle Chat shirts so the next project has to be: (drum roll) ... "Cycle Chat - The Mag"!

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Just back from the Flanders sportive to meet this month's edition. I have just had a quick scan. It looks pretty good to me. I can't see what all the fuss is about. Decent bikes, decent wheels; what you would find as the staple diet for most recreational sportive riders.

Well said. They are a commercial magazine that needs readers to survive. To say they are not responsive to readers' opinions is ludicrous - they may not be responsive to your views, but that is different. How typical are you?

The reality is that riding 'sportives' has been the growth area of road riding over the last 8 to 10 years. The magazine reflects this. Similarly, fifteen hundred quid bikes are not some mythical 'unattainable' super bike', but the pretty normal ride for shed loads of 'recreational riders' or even decked out tourers. Their core market probably also dreams of 'one day' owning something even more exotic or adding a bit of 'bling' to their present bike. Or at least enjoy reading about these things.

However I do think C+ tries to be all things to all men, and I'm certain they know a) the demographic of their core readership, and what they like to read about. That's why they're still in business.

If you don't sit comfortably in their target readership, then try another magazine or start your own if you're convinced they're are millions of other like you. But I bet after a couple of years of filling a monthly magazine you too will find yourself re visiting the same subject matters. That's why there is a definite 'life cycle' to any magazine readership.

 

[Chris James]

Just back from the Flanders sportive .... It looks pretty good to me. I can't see what all the fuss is about. Decent bikes, decent wheels; what you would find as the staple diet for most recreational sportive riders.

You are evidently the C+ target audience so are bound to like it.

Perhaps if you had started 'Just got back from the shops on my Brompton' you would have a different view!!

 

[Danny]

It's just another indication of advancing years when your favourite mag loses appeal

Speak for yourself. My years may be advancing but I still enjoy doing most things I did when I was younger

As others have said, the problem is that C+ is now just focussing on high end road bikes, and the associated equipment, rather than being a general magazine for all cyclists.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

But I bet after a couple of years of filling a monthly magazine you too will find yourself re visiting the same subject matters. That's why there is a definite 'life cycle' to any magazine readership.

Absolutely true. I'm not criticising C+ particularly, it's just that I read it for around two years and started to see the same articles appearing again. So I stopped reading it.

 

[Arch]

I was given a Velovision subscription for Xmas. It's a pretty good read, in my view, and worth the money. Although it only comes every third month, it is a real pleasure to receive. And it lasts several days, whereas all other cycling magazines can be got through in half an hour.

I'm very pleased to hear that Nick. I have to declare an interest, since I work for it! I realise it's probably a bit more 'Special Interest' than C+ can ever be, well, a lot more and of no interest at all to a lot of the folk here I suspect. But even having proof read the latest issue (if you find a typo, I wanna know!), I've still enjoyed looking through it, more than once, whereas I was also finding that C+ had become something I flicked through once, and increasingly only bought for long train journeys. Haven't bought it for months and months, just not my scene I guess.

It is the case that some stories will come round - even taking the whole field of recumbents and stuff, nothing is ever completely new, each new model is an upgrade of something else - the trick is to find the new way of looking at it perhaps... But I can't get excited about a review of a set of wheels I'm never going to spend that much on. Although I can get excited about a review of a recumbent I'll never be able to afford... Horses for courses I guess.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

I used to subscribe, bought a copy a couple of months back and have to say it didn't whet the appetite to buy again.

Yep, I have to agree. The comic is going down hill a bit too, I was in WHSmiths this morning just browsing and, all the cycling mags seem to be re-branding, there's lots on the shelves too, which suggests they're not selling too well, at nearly a fiver a go it's hardly surprising, for all the reasons that posters have mentioned already.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I'm very pleased to hear that Nick. Although I can get excited about a review of a recumbent I'll never be able to afford... Horses for courses I guess.

You need to be more optimistic. Once you've got a big fat job recumbents will be your oysters ... er, if that makes sense.

 

[Arch]

You need to be more optimistic. Once you've got a big fat job recumbents will be your oysters ... er, if that makes sense.

And on that confusing metaphor, I go for lunch....


Nah, the great thing is, I often get to try stuff out anyway, unless it's not possible to adjust it from the 6' something" editor to 5' 3" me...

 

[NickM]

...The comic is going down hill a bit too...

Going? Long gone, in my opinion - ever since it became Self Improvement Weekly. The constant nagging got on my wick, and I stopped buying it after being a regular reader for years and years. And I bet I was faster than 90% of its readership!

Keep up the good work, Arch

 

[Arch]

Keep up the good work, Arch

Cheers! I've only been on the payroll for a couple of months, but I've been contributing stuff for a while.. And it's gotta be the only place I'm ever going to be a cover girl (a few issues back)...

 

[goo_mason]

Did anyone else enter the C+ competition to win a Boardman road bike round about Xmas time ?

About a month and a half ago I got a call on my mobile asking if I was the goo_mason who'd entered the competition in C+ for the bike and I thought I'd won.... but sadly they were phoning up to offer me 3 issues of the mag for the price of 1 if I took up their offer, with the option to cancel after the three issues.

I agreed, but since then no DD has been set up and no mags have been forthcoming. I wasn't intending keeping up a sub as I only usually buy the issues which have comparison reviews of things I'm looking to buy (lights, bib longs, locks, gloves etc). Like others have said, they seem to think that the readership has thousands to spend on bikes and kit and are aiming at that top end, which is way, WAY out of my reach financially.

Been keeping my eye on my bank account since in case they were con-men who'd got hold of a data disk from Future Publishing, but so far no strange transactions....

 

[Mac66]

Could we have a photo of the cover, just to see the bike/bent/trike or other transportation mode of course.

Who knows, perhaps your cover shot will launch a subscription frenzy