Cycling For The Middle Class

http://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6610,s1-1-8-16266-1,00.html

It's articles like this that make me consider not buying Bicycling anymore... The majority of this article is nothing more than an ad for a $5,000 set of wheels: Seriously, how many of you spend that on one bike?

But that's not all. The pages of Bicycle magazine reviews are always filled with $2k-$5k bikes. I've not met people riding these bikes, at least not that I could tell... What I see is people on $1k-$2k road bikes, often several years old.

Magazines like car and driver review cars people actually buy, you know: Civic, Focus, Taurus, (whatever Chevy makes), etc. And then they review the cars we don't buy. But even when they do that they'll throw us a bone and review the more popular overpriced sports cars such as Corvette and Mustang.

Maybe Bicycling readers should demand useful reviews from the magazine. Not ads covered with bad writing for products we can barely afford and wouldn't want to even if we can.

$5,000 for a wheel.
By the way, the cheaper wheel they review is $980. Still ridiculous.

Maybe there's a roadie magazine out there for tourers rather than wealthy racers and I'm just missing it?


Of course, after I consider not buying it I remember why I do buy it: The health and technique tips and the pictures of pretty bikes I'd never buy. And sometimes there's an interesting story, sometimes.