Publications like Bicycling practically define narrow-casting. Aimed at a modest population that throbs with interest in their shared pursuit, a magazine like this one has to meet elevated expectations and yet recruit enough advertisers to pay the bottom line and maintain an accessible price.
The result is almost doomed to be something of a hybrid.
In my book, that’s just ok. I read Bicycling as much for the gear as for the articles on new products, new workouts, and exotic rides. Some months, I’m in it for the advertisements, sometimes for the review, sometimes for the workouts, sometimes just for the sheer pleasure of turning the pages and seeing what I can see.
That’s what one should expect from a magazine like this one. It’s not philosophy, not rocket science, and not a training manual for the Tour. It’s just Bicycling. That’s pretty cool.
Canter Bridge 
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