Bikemagic, in association with our Tarmac (and occasionally cobble)-based colleagues over at RoadCyclingUK.com, is about to launch our very own magazine. Yes, that’s right, a big lump of sheets of Actual Paper with pictures and words on them.

This may seem a somewhat bizarre, not to say utterly bonkers, notion, given our historically staunchly 100% on-line nature. But few would deny that there are things good old magazines can do that websites cannot. Being convenient to read on the loo is an obvious one, but beyond that nothing can match the impact of great printed pictures, and it’s a whole bunch easier to read substantial chunks of text on paper than on a screen.

So that’s what you can expect from SHIFT – great pictures from pro photographers like Dan Barham, Seb Rogers and others, alongside meaty slabs of top-notch writing from our very own Mike Davis, David Arthur, Richard Hallett and Bex Hopkins, backed up by a wealth of freelance talent.

You’ll also get a unique blend of MTB and road riding – we all do both, we believe that lots of you out there do too. We’re celebrating the joy of cycling, regardless of the surface underwheel. Whether it’s great UK rides, amazing international destinations, getting into the heads of key figures in the world of bikes or marvelling at the technology behind them, you’ll find it all in SHIFT’s glossy pages.

What you won’t find is news or race reports – nothing can beat the immediacy of the interwebs for that stuff. Think of SHIFT as a portable, no-batteries-required, travel-friendly version of BM and RCUK with bigger pictures…

SHIFT will be available directly from Bikemagic and RCUK, although you can expect to see it in certain popular bike shops too. Issue 1 brings you 108 pages (nearly all editorial…) of bikey goodness for £5.99 (including postage) and will be out on 31 May. Find out more…