I'm no longer their target audience...

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by tv_vt

Well, for some strange reason, I've subscribed to VN for over 30 years.

If you're old enough to have a 30+ year subscription, you're no longer the target demographic for most consumer products.

[Monsieur Toast]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

If you're old enough to have a 30+ year subscription, you're no longer the target demographic for most consumer products.

Depends ... (sorry)

[bikinchris]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

The 2021 gear guide is about new bikes, new bikes have disc brakes, why are you even looking at this if you’re triggered by new bikes? What do you expect them to do, show old bikes? What a crazy thread.

This is normal. If they wanted to do any real good, they would have balked at 9 speed and shut down everything at that point. But no, they let that go and went out and bought 9, 10, 11 and now 12 speed bikes, titanium, then carbon etc. But NOW they balk? That train left the station a long time ago.
Damn luddites.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by Mikej

Don’t worry, AARP sends out a bicycle edition🤣

Mic drop!

[choke]

Originally Posted by tv_vt

Just read through the VeloNews 2021 Gear Guide that came in the mail today. Didn't take long. Every single bike they featured in the issue had disc brakes. And every single bike I own has caliper brakes. You'd think I'd be their ideal target audience.

Except it doesn't work that way. It just feels like the bike industry has moved on and left me behind. Oh well, that's OK. I really like my bikes.

Look at the good side, you no longer have to spend money on worthless "upgrades" that really don't enhance your riding experience.

There was a time when I also looked forward to seeing the 'latest and greatest' and I drooled over them. But that ended long ago and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. More than half of my bikes have freewheels and downtube shifters and they will stay that way.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by tv_vt

It just feels like the bike industry has moved on and left me behind.

I missed the bus too.

I have that issue as well. Virtually every bike is carbon. I'm left on the side of the road with a steel frame and my thumb out.

[El Chaba]

There are cycling products that you want, and there are cycling products that they ( the industry) want you to have. The large companies that increasingly dominate the industry- those large enough to have sizable marketing departments- spend impressive amounts of money and effort to make sure that you wind up with the products that they want you to have. The publication that is the subject of this thread is one of those efforts.

[NHAero]

I'm kinda in the middle. I don't read any cycling publications, Paceline is pretty much my portal into cycling info. I'm a late adopter, having only moved from barcons to integrated shifters less than 4 years ago. Thought full suspension was too maintenance intensive for a MTB, and hydraulics on a bike, who needs that? Tubeless tires and all that goo? No way. Carbon fiber - hell no, give me metal.

Yet I've had a carbon full suspension MTB with tubeless tires and hydro discs for 5-1/2 years now and it absolutely rocks. The incoming new bike has a set of wheels with carbon rims (whoa, innovation!) and tubeless tires and thru axles.

So there's even a modest path forward for the confirmed retrogrouch, sorting through tech and finding where there might be benefits. When I'm very retrogrouchy, like yesterday, I ride the Nagasawa - no gears, no carbon, caliper brakes, quill stem.

[Wattvagen]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

If you're old enough to have a 30+ year subscription, you're no longer the target demographic for most consumer products.

Laughably stupid comment.

Let's say someone get's interested in cycling or anything else in college, around 20 years old. 30 years later they are 50.

Solid earners in their 50's who have the young family thing out of the way and have disposable income burning a hole in their pockets are exactly the target demographic for thousands of consumer products.

But we know, you were just trying to hurt someone's feelings. Not very nice IMO.

[prototoast]

What would the point of a gear guide be if they just showed you what you already have?

You're not in their "target audience" because you've arbitrarily decided you're no longer interested in new bike technology. That's fine, you can just pull out the gear guide from 30 years ago I'd those are the bikes you're interested in. Otherwise, you may want to read the latest gear guide and reflect on why it is you're so resistant to new bike tech.

[El Chaba]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

If you're old enough to have a 30+ year subscription, you're no longer the target demographic for most consumer products.

If you removed all of the 50+ year old consumers out of the cycling market, the industry would collapse.

[NHAero]

All kinds of tech has exploded in terms of what's being made, marketed and sold. Being exposed to that, and exercising discernment as to what would really make an improvement in one's life, seems fine with me. If a publication no longer covered anything I was interested in I'd just cancel the subscription.

I live under a rock most of the time - no TV, don't listen to the radio, have an online subscription to the NYT. My sister tossed a pair of Airpods Pro at me last month, I didn't know what they were, and now I love the silly things - beats hell out of my cordless headset for long Zoom calls.

[Hellgate]

Originally Posted by NHAero

I live under a rock most of the time

The Paceline motto.

[buddybikes]

Originally Posted by Hellgate

The Paceline motto.

I'm moss on the rock

[AJosiahK]

I dont really think they have a real target audience, more so just about adverts as mentioned above. To that I agree.

What might not be totally true in this scenario is that maybe you (OP) aren't the target audience currently, (nor I) but you might be at some point in the future.

This is what these mags are banking on to circle back. It's about adverts and the push for folks to buy new bikes even when "old tech" is not what's happening right now.

I refuse to give up my rim brake bikes, but I do have a disc bike (gravel)...

This rim brake hate is just a weird manifestation of capitalism rearing its ugly head