Singletrack Staff Blog

A familiar scene - it’s Sunday, I’m in the office with proofs to correct, some high calorie junk food and a pint of coffee. Must be deadline time again. Despite it claiming another weekend of my life, this issue’s been going together well and we know we’ll hit tomorrow’s deadline. If we can save another two days next issue, then I get a weekend back in which to go riding. Now that WOULD be a treat.

In other, less whingeing news, I’ve just heard that there’s a Yeti ARC frame on its way for me. That’s going to be this summer’s light, fast, race machine, and I can’t wait to start shopping for bits for it. I’ve also been having a bit of a clearout and brought my pink Bianchi PUSS singlespeed into work to give to Matt. He’ll ride it far more than I would - and I still have my Surly Karate Monkey 29er for the two or three times a year I ride one speeds. Now I need to tidy my cellar… A job for next week I think.

I’ve had my head buried in the accounts for what seems like weeks now. Sadly, despite the monotony and the fact it’s about as far from riding bikes as you can get, I’ve found it really quite interesting. I admit that’s probably mostly down to th efact that they are OUR numbers and not someone elses. I can’t imagine the tedium of being an accountant for a wallpaper company. But these are our numbers and that makes it thankfully a lot more interesting.

So here’s a few of the impressive ones..

Paper Weights
The last issue of Singletrack (issue 40) had a print run of just short of 24,000 copies and issue 39 sold a total of just a few dozen short of 15,500 copies! On first look that looks terribly wasteful and it is really. But as it turns out we are one of the most efficient titles on sale in the Newstrade. Yes that’s right! For every two copies of Singletrack sold another copy doesn’t sell. And those unsold copies get turned into pulp by the newstrade. They do end up being mostly turned into more mags but even so, it turns out that selling magazines is very wasteful. Learning all about this stuff is what is making me look at ways to make Singletrack more efficient on the newstand. It’s also another reason to buy our PDF version of the mag too.

Digital Print
For every standard subscription we sell currently we sell two Premium Subscriptions. Our Premium Subscriptions are subs that include the usual seven printed issues but also access to our entire back catalog of PDF downloads. To be honest we only really introduced the PDF version of the mag to try and offer our overseas readers a version of Singletrack that is more affordable than the print version. In the US a copy of Singletrack ends up being around $12 on the shelf! That makes it tough to compete when the domestic titles are selling for a fraction of that. But to our surprise it seem PDF copies are universally popular even here at home where we sell printed copies the cheapest.

Subscribers
There’s currently 4436 subscribers to Singletrack. Our subscriber levels have NEVER reduced in all our seven years.

They love us!
WHSmiths seem to be going bonkers for us! There are about 525 WHSmiths stores in the UK and they are pretty much the dominating force in magazine retailing although Tesco are trying to grab some of that share from them (Remember how it always used to be fruit and veg you hit first when you went in the supermarket? Now it’s racks of mags and newspapers). Well last week we found out that WHSmith have increased us yet again in terms of the number of shops they stock us in. Now we are to be found in 495 WHSmiths, that’s lots more than majority of other bike titles out there. And then there’s Tesco. they currently have us on the shelves of 250 of their biggest stores. Adding up the numbers from all over the UK it seems we are on the shelves of a grand total of 3000 shops, which is a lot more than this time last year.

All in all, Singletrack is easily the fastest growing mountain bike mag in the UK by a long way! And even though I’ve spent the best part of the last month moving numbers around on a screen, that sort of information really does remind me that I reckon I have the best job in the world. I just need to ride bikes a bit more

Well there are working here… That’s another weekend of my life I won’t get back. It’s a pity that this job seems to be all feast and famine. Three weeks ago I was in Japan, which was great. I then return and don’t venture further than the office and home, and only going home to sleep at that. It’s all very well saying ‘This year, I’ll ride more and be at work less’ but it’s only at 10.30pm on a Sunday night that I can leave, knowing that the 5% of the magazine we have to do tomorrow is doable in the limited time we’ll have. It does seem that I only appear on here to whinge - but I’d much rather be boasting of great rides I’ve done to be honest. My last ride, of any persuasion is already a fading memory…

Expect me to arrange to be out riding a lot next issue. And then expect me back again this time next issue complaining that I haven’t had time… Don’t get a job editing a mountain bike magazine if you want to ride bikes, y’hear kids?

It’s my turn to say ‘Thank god the magazine has finally gone to the printers’. I haven’t a clue how this one came to be so hard, but Sim and I are sick of the sight of each other now. I’ve not left the office before 9pm for 12 days in a row - and as for riding mountain bikes, hah! I’ve not ridden one off road for over a month… There definitely needs to be more riding bikes in daylight in my future. I’m going to start this weekend - but at the moment I don’t even want to see a picture of a bike for at least 24 hours… With the magazine not getting to our printers until today, effectively the weekend, it might be later than Thursday before it appears in the shops. Hopefully it’ll appear next Saturday - and it does have a free calendar to cheer you up.

Right, I’m off to the pub… cheers all…

It’s deadline time again - and it seems like a short while since the last one. Though thinking about it, since the last deadline I’ve been to Saudi Arabia, had a couple of days’ holiday, road cycling in Dorset and, er, that’s about it actually. But I suppose that counts as long enough to do enough interesting stuff for the next issue. It’s got some great stuff in it by the way… Hmm, I’m rambling now. I either need more coffee, or less coffee…

Although the magazine seems to be taking shape around me - things are being written, products are being shot, there’s still a lot of un-highlighted squares on Sim’s flatplan of the magazine. I’d best get back to writing then…

In about 15 hours Mark and I are off to the States for Interbike. Before I go, I have to finish the plan for the next issue, make sure I’ve got lots of work for Sim to work on on Monday, pack and make sure all my cameras, computers and assorted gadgets are charged and ready. Oh, and sleep… I’m sure I’ll get it done…

Look for daily reports from Interbike as Mark and I trawl the aisles for fun stuff. And hopefully we’ll get time to go out on at least one evening there to check out the bike industry nightlife…

Touring is the new fixed-wheel-cyclocross-29er - didn’t you hear?

I did finally put the finishing touches (cables mainly) on my new Salsa Casseroll frame. It’s going to be my winter road bike and summer tourer. With some mudguards fitted, even I won’t be able to come up with enough excuses not to ride it, so I’m looking forward to giving it a go when I return. It’ll be proper autumn then too. A good time for jackets and tights and chilly rides and warm cafes. I’m looking forward to it…

I wonder if the frequency of our blog posts goes up whenever we’re on deadline. Actually, I don’t need to wonder. Everyone knows that blogs are the ideal displacement activity, whether you’re trying to avoid doing the washing-up, or writing a magazine…

So, since the Handmade Show we’ve mostly been dull and writing stuff, but there have been good points. Some great spring weather, followed by the current icy snap. Some riding, some hiding indoors and eating and some more displacement in the form of bike fixing and tyre swapping… Only three days until the clocks go forward though and THEN we’ll be into proper spring time ride frenzy land. Woohoo!

I’ve only averaged one bike ride per week for the past month. Not sure why really. Maybe I just rode a bit too much over December and January (which were two of the best riding months ever it has to be said).

But hopefully the recent arrival of some shiny new and extravagantly coloured test bikes will kickstart me again. I may even start posting on this Blog more frequently too

Sometimes riding bikes does feel like work.

Today me and Matt headed up to Coniston in the Lake District to explore the fells there for this issue’s route guide. And what an adventure we had!

We: got sand blasted by hailstones; got slightly lost down a dead end sheeptrack; broke our GPS (thank God for gool ol’ fashioned maps); had our bikes levitate horizontally at our sides during a brief portage session due to insane winds; forced to push down the first few hundred feet of the descent that we’d climbed all day to reach due to insane winds, rode the rest of the descent on egg shells for fear of puncturing in the fading twilight.

Thankfully spirits stayed high (for the most part anyway ;)) and we dug in and got on with the job in hand as the elements conspired against us. The sense of relief/joy/exhilaration/thingy as we finally made it back to the car was brilliant. Managed to get some pretty good pics of the ordeal too.

‘Proper Mountain Biking’ rules OK