I'm a big fan of the "be safe, be seen" adverts and noticed that this month's MBUK has a free rear LED with it.

Has anyone got it and tried it out yet? If so, is it any good?

I appreciate that it won't offer top range performance, but it will be glued to my backpack for my night rides to suppliment my normal rear light.

It has 3 bright LEDs which are either on constantly, flash slow or quick or light one at a time. Seems OK, although it isn't staggering.

it's a 'free' led light... works either well or crap depending on what batteries you put in it. i recommend new ones.

people dissin mbuk?!? i aint havin it. they do some good reviews, bring bikin info from all over the country to us and even though they dont have to they give us free things. if you dont like the free gift, dont use it. i dont use lights because it makes me an easier target for bad drivers but its a good incentive. im with dylan.

5-6 years ago the more traditonal market that you mention was where the big growth in the sport was, now it's in jumping & trials - they're just reflecting that, but they also manage to cover the other areas really well too. IMHO

It's still the only mag on the market that covers all disciplines, lists results from all disciplines & review products from all disciplines.

I dont disagree with that, and there are sections of MBUK which are very good (i.e. grime time), but the main focus is for those people into jumping/trials, and that isn't what I want to read about.

In defence of MBUK, the 'free' neoprene chainstay protector this summer was pretty cool, and it was cheaper to buy the mag for one of those than pay the outrageous 7 quid that lizards skins go for. In fact I almost bought two copies. Shame about the other stuff in the same bag mind.

I notice the chainstay protector is a popular addition to many local kids bikes, which tells you something about MBUK audience and sale figures. But if they are giving away lights thats actually quite a responsible thing to do, as there are plenty of kids riding around in the dark with no lights and hopefully MBUK might change that.

Yeah, what happened to it, I used to read it up to about '96, missed a few (years) editions, and now its full of crap for 12 year olds.

or have you stopped to consider that MBUK actually covers a very wide spectrum ie downhill, trials, jumping, xc, trail riding......

Just because a mag doesn't cover the areas that you want it too, it doesn't make it crap :-)

MBUK isn't crap, and I didn't say that, I just think that the areas it mainly focus' on now tends to be jumping, trials, etc. which IMO isn't mountain biking at all.

I said that the areas MBUK covers are aimed at a younger market (i.e. 12 year olds) rather than the more traditional MTB market which is where its focus was 5/6 years ago.

I talked with someone from the publishing team recently and their defence for the magazine is that it gets the little uns interested in mountain biking from bmx'ing etc, and forms them into the bottom feeders of what we may consider ourselves evolved onto the upper rungs of the mtb evolutionary chain ( ha-ha pun intended ). Are some of us a bit guilty here of sounding like our dads? we all become him in the end you know, although I'm still in denial and fighting hard!

MBUK is the absolute pits. It,s full of mistakes, inaccurate information, they don,t answer peoples questions properly and the final straw for me was when they did a write up about popeye village in Gozo even though it,s on the neighbouring island of Malta. They had pictures and information on how to get the helicopter from Malta to Gozo, anybody else remember the issue. It reminds me of the film Capricorn one where the Yanks fake a moon landing which never really happened.

ads and mint sauce are good. Doddy annoys me.

All things said and done though, i've now got another LED light on the back of my bike and it seems to work fine. Nothing spectacular but that's why it sits alongside two other lights. Can't really complain even if the mag is aimed at kiddies (i'm 30). I subscribe to WMB and MBR and only buy MBUK when there is a freebie i think is worth it. But as somebody else mentioned, their Grimetime articles are quite useful and i'll probably buy it next month to get the second half of the wheel building article.

I still have a soft spot for MBUK, I have read it for over a decade. Yes its not what it once was, but mountain biking has changed in that last decade too.
All magazines cant be written for old XC types like myself.
I also read MBR, and think all the Criticisms of MBUK apply equally to MBR.

If only SingleTrack was out every month.

oh and the free light is a bit poo.

The best freebie I got was the free DVD!

We need more! hint...hint...hint...

For me it's MBR all the way. I've been buying it for the past 3 years and it's still just as brilliant (if not better) as it was when I got my first copy.

On the odd occasion I've been super bored and brought MBUK I would say it's been childish, immature, gramatically incorect and at some points criminal.
Not exactly what you want to portray to their 'younger audience'.

I've yet to read publications such as WMB ans Singletrack as whenever I see them in the shops I'm in Brighton and subsiquently have spent all my money :p

Well I got it (for the free light, which is fine for my spare bike), and have read the magazine. My feelings are:

When they write about bikes, and parts - the quality is great. Not surprising as most of the same people review for the superb What MTB.

When they talk to riders I find the tone a bit sycophantic, especially where Steve Peat is concerned. Interviews are fine but fawning over people is a bit much.

Then there is the rest. Several pages of non-bike related drivel. OK, so BM may have pages and pages of soap rubbish, but we aren't paying for that!

IMHO MBUK is a great mtbing mag, badly dressed up as a lifestyle mag. The leaning towards jumping / DH / freeride etc is more down to this lifestyle angle. The writers like all forms, but the image distorts that.

i put in fully charged lights and they ran out in 5 mins! doh!
mike

Wow, seems the gifts are better than the mag these days.