The Ride Journal

So you are interested in contributing something to The Ride Journal? That’s great news as we are always on the lookout for riders who have an epic/ personal/ soulful/ interesting/ emotive story to tell. We are also happy to hear from photographers and illustrators.

I’m afraid we can’t promise that your piece will be printed but I can guarantee we will read it. I’m sure you can understand that we want to keep the quality of the journal as high as possible and also that we don’t cover the same subjects again and again.

So with the negatives out of the way, what should you write about? That’s up to you. Maybe you could start by looking at where you ride? What you ride? Who you ride with? Are there places that mean something special, or a yearly ride or race, or a person who you only know through bikes? A shop that you spend too much time and money at? A season that you look forward to? Is there a special moment that sums up why you ride? A feeling you’re chasing? The pieces we have enjoyed most are the ones that have given us an insight into someone else’s world. The known part is the bikes, these are the reference we all have, the unknown is what it means to you personally, that is what we’re after.

Unfortunately we can’t pay contributors. We’re too small and the amount of illustrators and writers means we’d only be offering an insult. So instead we don’t even pay ourselves. All profits from the journal are donated to a number of charities. Cycling has given us so much that it’s good to be able to give something back to other people while also producing something good to read. If you are happy with this then we would love to read that amazing tale you have to tell. You can either get in touch to talk about any ideas you have, or any other questions, or you can get writing and send over a draft when you are done.

If you are going straight ahead and writing something now, about 750-800 words would be a splendid size that
we could use.

We look forward to hearing from you at
The Ride Journal

The fact that you’ve made it here shows that you love bikes and are looking for something different to the other magazines and journals out there.

That’s good because that’s what The Ride Journal has been created to be. Born, as all good things are, out of a conversation over Mexican food and Pacifico beers, The Ride is an all-encompassing read that was started in 2008.

The idea was to create a journal filled with personal stories. We know that most people who share our obsession with bikes don’t want to be pigeon-holed as roadies, freeriders, track racers, BMXers, XC riders or even commuters. They are just riders. So we wanted to create something for them, and also for us. Something that crosses both cycling and international borders. Bikes have changed people’s lives in so many ways and we wanted to gather a small selection of
these tales.

We didn’t want to give reviews or race reports, we wanted to get under the skin and expose the passion that
flows through riders veins.

Once the seed was sown we spread the word to people from all across the globe. Initially we wondered if it was just us who wanted to see such a journal; evidently we were wrong. From all kinds of riders we began to get favourable responses, people asking why this hasn’t been done before and how they could join us? A snowball effect took place and what was planned to be 80 pages soon grew into the beautiful monster sized journal we have finally ended up with (we are now at almost 200 pages, and chose to have far less advertising than
most other magazines).

As well as the incredible writing we also wanted the magazine to be visually striking. We approached our favourite artists, illustrators and photographers and they have helped give The Ride Journal its stunning visual style.

Our final decision was that we were not in this to make money, just to give something back to the world of cycling that we love. For this reason we decided not to pay ourselves, instead we donate all profits from the magazine to
various charities.

The Ride Journal