About MOUNTAINBIKE

MOUNTAINBIKE

MOUNTAINBIKE is Germany's leading mountain-bike magazine, published monthly from Stuttgart by Motor Presse Stuttgart. As the German edition of the American MountainBike title — licensed from the U.S. publisher Rodale, per industry reporting from 2010 — it has served the German-speaking mountain-bike community for three decades. With a distributed circulation of around 38,436 copies (IVW, second quarter of 2023), it reaches the riders who test, tour, and race on the country's trails: the cross-country and marathon riders, the trail and all-mountain bikers, the enduro racers, and the e-mountain-bikers. In the Motor Presse Stuttgart cycling portfolio — alongside RoadBIKE, the gravel quarterly Gravel Bike, and the e-bike titles — MOUNTAINBIKE is the flagship of the off-road cycling press: the magazine where Germany's mountain bikers find their tests, their tours, and their technique.

Overview

The magazine presents itself as the complete journal of the mountain-biking sport: the monthly guide for the riders who take their bikes off the road. Its editorial program covers the sport's full spectrum: the exhaustive bicycle and component tests — the hardtails, full-suspension bikes, e-mountain-bikes, wheels, tires, suspension, and accessories evaluated in the magazine's test laboratory and on the trail; the tour and travel features — the Alpine crossings, the trail centers, the destination guides for the riding holidays; the training and technique articles — the fitness programs, the riding skills, the nutrition; and the scene's news and race coverage — the World Cup, the German racing scene, and the industry's product news.

The readership is the German-speaking mountain-bike community in its active core: the riders who buy bikes, components, and accessories; who book the riding holidays; and who follow the sport's equipment developments. The magazine's authority rests on its testing: the comparative tests, the long-term tests, and the test seals that guide the purchasing decisions of a readership for whom the equipment is the sport's essence. The digital hub at mountainbike-magazin.de — under the BikeX branding, part of Motor Presse Stuttgart — extends the monthly print magazine into the continuous cycling information.

The monthly rhythm — twelve issues a year — follows the cycling seasons: the spring issues for the new-model year and the season preparation, the summer issues for the tours and the racing, the autumn issues for the product tests and the season review, the winter issues for the training and the travel planning.

History

The German MOUNTAINBIKE emerged as the licensed German edition of the American MountainBike magazine — the U.S. title that, for 25 years, served as the leading off-road cycling magazine, published by Rodale. The German edition was launched by the Stuttgarter Motor Presse (Motor Presse Stuttgart), which held the Rodale license for the German market. When the U.S. publisher Rodale folded the American MountainBike into its Bicycling title with the November 2010 issue — 25 years after the first American edition — the German edition continued independently under the Motor Presse Stuttgart, maintaining the MountainBike name and program.

The magazine developed within the Motor Presse Stuttgart's cycling and outdoor portfolio as the mountain-bike flagship. The publisher segmented the cycling readership into the disciplines: the sister title RoadBIKE, launched in monthly frequency in March 2007 after a 2006 test issue as a special of MountainBIKE, serves the road cyclists; Gravel Bike, published four times a year, serves the gravel riders; and the e-bike titles serve the electric cycling segment. The editor-in-chief Jens Vögele's portfolio — responsible for MountainBIKE, RoadBIKE, and Elektrobike per 2022 reporting — illustrates the integrated cycling program.

The mountain-biking sport's development shaped the magazine's history: the 1990s boom of the sport, the 2000s technical revolution (full suspension, disc brakes, 29ers), the 2010s enduro wave, and the 2020s e-mountain-bike surge. The magazine documented each wave in its tests and tours. The publisher's July 2022 acquisition of the digital company Upfit — provider of individualized nutrition plans — extended the group's digital health-and-fitness infrastructure around the cycling titles.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's coverage follows the mountain biker's world. Bicycle and component tests form the core: the comparative tests of complete bikes — hardtails, trail bikes, all-mountain, enduro, downhill, and e-mountain-bikes — evaluated in the test lab and on the trail with the magazine's test seals; the component tests — wheels, tires, suspension forks and shocks, brakes, drivetrains, cockpits, and the accessories; and the long-term tests that assess the durability over the season. The tests' methodology and independence are the magazine's commercial foundation: the readers buy on the magazine's recommendations.

Tour and travel features cover the riding destinations: the Alpine routes — the transalps, the trail regions of Austria, Switzerland, and Italy; the German trail centers and bike parks; and the international destinations — reported with the route knowledge, the maps, and the practical information the touring reader needs. Training and technique articles provide the sport's knowledge: the fitness and endurance training, the riding technique — the cornering, the jumping, the descending — the nutrition, and the bike setup and maintenance.

The scene and race coverage documents the sport's competitive and cultural life: the World Cup downhill and cross-country, the enduro series, the German racing scene, the industry's product launches, and the personalities — the athletes and the industry figures. The podcast appearances of the magazine's editors, such as the 2021 Gain³ interview with editor Lukas Hoffmann on the magazine's content ideas and athlete selection, illustrate the editorial culture: the magazine's staff are riders themselves.

Organization and Ownership

MOUNTAINBIKE is published by Motor Presse Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG — the Stuttgart special-interest publishing house behind the auto motor und sport, the motorrad titles, and the outdoor and cycling portfolio. The magazine belongs to the publisher's Sport and Leisure (Sport und Freizeit) division, alongside RoadBIKE, Gravel Bike, Outdoor, Runner's World, Cavallo, and klettern. The distributed circulation of around 38,436 copies (IVW Q2 2023) documents its market position as Germany's leading mountain-bike magazine.

The editorial team — the mountain-bike specialists, the test editors, and the touring writers — operates from the Stuttgart publishing house, with the cycling titles' integrated editorial structure under the long-time cycling editor-in-chief Jens Vögele (responsible for MountainBIKE, RoadBIKE, and the e-bike titles). The commercial model is that of a special-interest magazine: subscriptions and newsstand sales to the mountain-bike community, advertising from the bicycle manufacturers, the component and accessory industry, the tourism destinations, and the e-bike sector — the industry whose products the magazine tests.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is mountainbike-magazin.de — presented under the BikeX branding as part of Motor Presse Stuttgart. The portal extends the monthly print magazine into the continuous cycling information: the test results, the tour features, the product news, and the technique articles in digital formats, with the news, the videos, and the social-media channels reaching the riding community between the print issues.

The Motor Presse Stuttgart's parallel online portals — the analog digital offerings to the print titles — form the network in which the mountain-bike content circulates. The cycling titles' shared digital infrastructure — the BikeX platform, the e-commerce and service offerings, the Upfit nutrition integration — extends the magazine's reach into the riders' digital lives. In print and online, MOUNTAINBIKE remains the German mountain biker's journal: the monthly tests, tours, and technique from Stuttgart, every month at the kiosk. The magazine's test seals and comparative verdicts continue to guide the purchasing decisions of a readership for whom the equipment is the sport's essence — and its tour features continue to inspire the riding holidays that define the mountain-biking lifestyle.