Which is the best Australian MTB magazine to buy???

AMB is by far the best. I have read others, but they don't come close and are far less professional

Depends on what sectors of mtb you're interested in. If DH/Freeride is your thing, AMB caters really well.

I find the AMB product reviews tend to be akin to "advertorials" - fairly uncritical, aim is to promote the product and keep the advertisers happy. That said, I find their periodic tyre shoot-out reviews and ratings very handy.

I prefer Mountain Bike Australia. They call it as they see it. I remember a review of some Crank Bros cranks that kept failing. Rather than not report on it, they called it as they saw it. The distributor stopped bringing the unit in, whihc wsa noted in the article and reflected positively on the brand despite the problem with the particular part, and on the mag: they pull no punches. With other reviews, they are very up front about both the advantages and the limits of the product.

They may not be as slick in their production values as AMB, but by having a more documentary and less promotional tone their review articles carry more cred as far as I'm concerned. They are also a bit more XC/Enduro oriented. I'd say their demographic is a bit older and more mature than AMB, with a more finely tuned BS detector. Like me.

(Not saying AMB contains BS - at all - by the way. Just that the unrelentng "gee whillikers ain't this cool" tone tends to engender a degree of enthiusiasm fatigue after awhile.)

Another mag I like - a lot - is Enduro. They run some great articles on training and nutrition that dig a lot deeper than you'd expect from say MBA, which is decidedly non-technical. Sometimes Enduro's typesetting is a bit hard to get on with, but the content is top notch, especially if you are into going long. Their event coverage focus is 6/12/24hr and multi-day stage races. The race reports are awesome and make you want to go out and sign up - despite the warts'n'all coverage.

In making the above comments, I do have some magazine contribution experience, having once been a regular writer for R/C car magazines locally and in the UK, and being the only one that I know of who was paid for most of their articles.

I like Enduro

For DH Revolution is pretty good.

CLICT is also good if it ever comes out, publishing is a bit random with that one.

Is Enduro an Aussie mag? Not sure, never read it.

About as Aussie as it gets, it's even got red racer on the front, in green.

http://www.freewheel.com.au/enduro/index.html

let them know - we publish a magazine and we would certainly want to know if our proof reader wasn't on the ball - lucky for us she is anal - maybe she could apply there as well, she is a local.

I have read all of the other magazines mentioned (thanks george) and the only one I like is AMB (despite proofreading) and I have to say I find their 'how to' articles really good and have been most helpful in the past

They must be doing something right, loads of magazines are cutting back and losing readership but they have increased their releases per year up to 9...

Our friends in print won't like this, but I read lots of stuff on-line. Print is good for a road trip or flight, or for people starting out to get advice, but on-line news is pretty handy these days.

A few things I read:

Bicycle Design
Bike Hugger
MTBA News
NoBMoB (shock!)
Singletracks
BikeSydney
Singletracks Mountain Bike Blog
Cycleicious
IMBA News
MtbBikeRiders.com
Speedgoat Blog

All via RSS of course... I love Google Reader

This is stuff I happen to have stumbled across without actually searching for any specific topics. I'm sure there would be a far better list to come up with. Any suggestions?

The one that has AUSTRALIAN on the front cover....'Australian Mountain Bike'
Although the proof reader may need to brush up on his skills , 'sum ov the misteaks
in the spelling are atroshus '

In the 7 months I was off the bike, I had to commute by bus every day. Needless to say, I had to have a constant supply of reading material and basically read every mtb mag available ( at least once...) I'm 44 years old and have no real interest in DH or freeride ( or jumps / slopestyle or whatever is next ) With that in mind I found the best mags to be Enduro ( Australian) and Singletrack ( UK ) probably followed by What Mountain Bike ( UK).

I think the most obvious link between all three is that they all seem to be written by adults for adults ( or old farts as the case may be...)

I usually prefer AMB to MBA and particularly enjoy the recent dvd freebies.... 'How To...' and the World Champs at Stromlo. Less fussed about the ones with trailers for various other mtb vids. I tend to find MBA a bit flat but I agree that they are not afraid to make negative comments about products they review.

I keep trying to like Mountain Bike Action ( US) but every time I get one, I find it soporific. I also freak out when they describe a bike as having 4.35 inches of travel and weighing 28.73 pounds without pedals ( which weigh 7.3 ounces). Mind you... if they finally went metric, I would be riding a Yeti 147 instead of a 575...

There is a very interesting comparison when you look at What Mountain Bike and it's sister mag, MBUK they are very much stablemates but WMB clearly aims for more ...ah...mature riders while MBUK is for a much younger market ( so much so that i'd only get it as a last resort...too much 'sick to the power rad' language). I remember when MBUK was the only mtb mag available back in the UK. Who would have thought there would be so many to chose from now ?

CB

They mostly deal with the same stuff as here, just usually a few months in advance.

The only real difference is the frequent references to riding in mud and a preoccupation with talking about the weather... usually the non existent summer...

CB