You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / MTB Gear / Flow MTB
Flow MTB
I havn't bought a Mtb magazine for a couple of years now as most of the info i ever need and ever read is on the net.
Last Thursday i signed up for a subcription with Flow MTB, It's a new online Australian mag with regular updates and stories of current Mtb stuff in Oz and around the globe.
It has a few different levels of subscription and i thought i'd throw myself in the deep end and splash out a meager $50 for a years worth of Access all areas membership. This includes a quarterly (old school paper style ) magazine delivered to your door as well as all the online content including interviews, how to's and reviews etc. All in print and video form.
The mag can be dowloaded to your phone or any tablet/laptop etc.
Just browsing through tonight and all i can say is i'm rather impressed and am looking forward to the mag being delivered.
Anyone that knows me on here will know that i have no affiliation or anything to do with Flow but you should have a look and see what you think?
http://flowmountainbike.com/
[Mod. moved to MTB gear]
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Gazza
I downloaded magazine this morning and i would agree the content is pretty impressive.
Will be interested to see if the mag can keep up the content / quality
First impressions look good though
They interview some dodgy people. there is a Groucho Marx line in here somewhere... I refuse to be par of a club that would have me as a member... or something.
Great guys, cool first addition that lived up to the mass of hype. I hope they can keep it up, and at 50 for the year for full web access + quarterly mag, shut up and take my money already.
Ha! You're right about the dodgy characters
I liked the paper copy i bought at the news agent. Nice to have Southwood and Ross back as editors of something vaguely mtb related ... at least they know their stuff unlike those who replace them at AMB (cringes)
I might even subscribe...
I picked up the first print version down at the Scott 24hr, and have to say it's one of the best looking mags I have seen. I also like the fact that the contents will vary for each form of media, rather than just being repeated throughout.
They have impressed me enough to sign up.
I had a chat to Mick at the scott 24hr race and their strategy sounds good. The website has all the news and reviews so that it gets out quickly and the magazine is for the feature articles and the pretty pictures. The second issue is going to have even more pages too. It is also nice to have the 'how to' section on the website, much easier to explain riding technique or bike repairs with a video rather than in print.
I picked mine up at the Scott with a t-shirt to match, spoke to Mick & Chris for a bit , surprised Chris remembered me from meeting him at the races I volunteer for , was good to catch up & looking forward to reading the mags in the future .
There will be some WA content in there as well people. Say hi to Chris and Mick at this years Cape to Cape.
As a relative newbie I buy just about any MTB mag I can get my hands on, but I've never been so engrossed in a mag like I have with Flow. The thing that appealed to me the most was how they write about the adventure as well as provide good info about the trail / person etc.
After reading Chris' intro I subscribed immediately.
I'm a big fan of the cross platform content idea, I think its got legs. As some of you have mentioned, as long as they can keep up the quality and quantity of content then they will definitely be on a winner.
Great launch issue
/Begin Rant. Disliked the darn thing - didn't think it was much different from others in terms of content, coverage and the 'hype' language seemed even worse. And another article on wheel size! IMO it is too similar to the others, far to eastern states focussed - they have an article about riding "the west", oh good, I thought, something about the trails in the "west". Guys that wasn't the west, it's west of Sydney but you are NOT writing for just Sydney! (or are you?) This illustrated the eastern states focus - there is over half the bloody continent further west than "over the ranges" from Sydney - like SA, NT and WA. Typical Sydney based mind set.
So what rides did they cover, North east, east, then further east (USA)
- how about covering ALL the Australian states before you drag in some almost irrelevant stuff about rides in the states, especially in your first edition. And how many times have there been articles about Colorado and Utah in other mags. Give us something different and even critical. How about considering rides in all states. Yeah it may be ok to read about overseas rides, but there are a whole bunch of rides that can be covered before you bring in the OS stuff.
But WTH - maybe it will improve if Travis can overcome the eastern bias and they can start writing for those not in the 'east'. +1 for the web site and online access.
Wonder if the Cape to Cape will be covered under the headline something like "Racing in the Far Far West"!
I'll just peruse the next few issues before I decide to buy another.
FWIW from a GOP
.
/End Rant
Good point Oldernslower, I must admit I had the same gut reaction to the title "way out west" to find it was on the Blue Mountains, you can rest assured the message will be communicated to them (maybe write to the editor yourself).
There will be some WA content, but in this issue I did a piece on Strava instead. I think it's called Quickest way from A to B. I'm haven't got home yet to check the printed edition.
to be fair the the Go west article was, a get out of sydney thing.
There was a bit on the cairns scene and you can't expect to cover the whole country in one issue, what would be left for issue 2?
Hi Flynny - This is just my opinion and it's worth every cent paid for it
. If it was a "get out of Sydney" article then they could have used an appropriate title, them not realising that the title was only relevant to 'Sydney' indicated a mind set problem to me. And being in WA, Cairns is roughly North East. And no they can't cover the whole country in one issue and would not expect them to, but cover more of the rides in all states in a number of issues before you rope in other countries. This doesn't mean don't cover other countries, but there are very 'unique' routes in all states. But don't other mags cover such rides already? I just think there are a lot more issues and trails around MTB in Aus that can be covered before they leap into the 'overseas' trails. As the magazine seems predominantly web based, (+1) all articles can be updated and available for a long time, if there is a good search facility.
I suspect that the web side of the mag will be the selling point, and would not be surprised if the print mag was eventually discarded.
FWIW
Im sure the boys at Flow aren't actually bathing in money and have to stick to a tight budget until they actually start making sales.
I know that a lot af articles in these magazines come from oportunistic trip away ( races or trips overseas/interstate ) Rather than, " Oh lets do an article about a certain exotic trail in a far away land" and then all book tickets and go on holiday to said exotic trail.
I've seen on Facebook that they're going to compete in the Cape to Cape this month so i'm sure you'll see a bit of content on that.
Give them a chance. Australia is a very small market place for MTB compared to somewhere like the USA.
I thought the article about riding in the west was going to be about the Perimeter and Long trails.
I've signed up for the $50 a year membership and like the split between more 'adventure' stories in the print version, versus more practical, timely info on the website. It's kind of a mix between strategic stuff in print, and tactical stuff online
I think, as someone mentioned, that the US stuff was opportunistic - I can imagine that it's a great opportunity to include an international flavour on the back of a junket paid for by one of the bike companies. e.g. the release of Giant's 2013 range in Whistler. Why not do a story on the region if you're going to be making the trip anyway?
I think the print version will always have pretty good content - hell, they'll have three months to write for each one! I guess i'm more interested in seeing how fresh/relevant the online info stays, as that takes a bit more rigour to keep updated