Global Cycling Network

swarlb

What generally do people think of this (YouTube Channel) ?
Initially I found some of the content to be interesting, but some of the topics are always labelled 'controversial' and tend to be a bit divisive. For example, 'rim brake V disc brake' I mean this years TDF was won on a rim braked bike.... so what does that mean, if anything.
I often wonder if the data collected from the replies is used for marketing purposes...
Having watched the time it takes to change a disc braked back wheel, I wonder if they are worth the effort... specially when the cyclist involved watches his rival sprint away up the hill...
The other thing is 'wide tyres'.... I'm from an era when 18 or 19mm was the norm.... personally I think that fat black tyres on a racing bike is simply ugly, when compared to pretty silk bound tubulars....

ED E

They ran out of topics to cover in 2018. Its all filler now.

Also that plonkers hair of late. Christ on a bike.

The Buster

I more or less have stopped watching. Still appears on my newsfeed so might watch the race review show or the odd interesting story like Conor’s recent Donegal 555 review but my viewing is way down.

swarlb

ED E wrote: »

They ran out of topics to cover in 2018. Its all filler now.

Also that plonkers hair of late. Christ on a bike.

Ahh.... maybe I'm late to the party then....

Macy0161

Sometimes look at some of the "how to" stuff, but the only thing I really watch is the Race Pass. Even then, casting is causing me dropouts if I'm on the turbo, so really World of Cycling while I await their Fire TV app! Highlights/ Replays, the Breakaway etc all on Eurosport App as well.

fat bloke

Not every video is a winner but I think in general they have a lot of excellent content. Have had a lot of change about with presenters and it's always a pity to lose the good ones but the tie-ins with Eurosport now must mean they're doing something right. -I've watched and saved a lot of their vids on all sorts of stuff from nutrition to bikes to ride routes.

magicbastarder

yeah, as long as you remember that they're a commercial operation and have 'sponsors' so don't pay too much heed to some of the weirdly specific gear stuff they have, it can be good.
as ED E mentioned, there are only so many videos you can make about bikes so they did start to repeat themselves a few years ago on a lot of stuff. i think their success is their achilles heel - they're producing a video a day on the main channel, and have several other channels, to try to capitalise on their success, so may be spreading themselves a bit thin.

andy69

I was going to have a little mini-rant about them (their obsession with disc brakes, their obsession with carbohydrates, and then that whole plant-based stuff) but them's all sensitive subjects these days, so best not :eek:

suffuce to say, I don't realy watch it much any more. Thought that whole Race Pass thing was a pile of sh!te to be honest - watching TV from a phone, or casting it to a TV? nope - pas pour moi, merci :rolleyes:

Macy0161

Pre getting a Fire stick, I used to watch eurosport casting from my phone. Still way less hassle and expense than traditional Pay TV.

fat bloke wrote: »

but the tie-ins with Eurosport now must mean they're doing something right.

Taken over by the Eurosport Owner.

neris

Use to be a big fan years ago when it was just the 3 lads and they did some good weekly shows and tech or how to vids but found it became to sponsored/paid promos and then they were trying to push other channels

CantGetNoSleep

It is the constant pushing of race pass that has annoyed me the most

I've been playing the wait and see game with racepass as my Eurosport sub expires on Oct. 2nd and according to my account it will be at the 'legacy rate' of 29.99 so cheaper than race pass and much better value over all I think as long as Eurosport continue to have all the races and they even had the CX on Saturday after the worlds.

Also I've little or no interest in the other parts of the GCN app. I've usually already seen the news articles they repost.

godtabh

neris wrote: »

Use to be a big fan years ago when it was just the 3 lads and they did some good weekly shows and tech or how to vids but found it became to sponsored/paid promos and then they were trying to push other channels

When the introduced the wiggle roulette thing I stopped watching. If I watch anything now its the Conor Dunne stuff only.

Richard Hillman

Conor seems like a lovely fellow. He should be getting paid by Failte Ireland with some of his videos

TGD

Just note that a lot of it "containes promoted content" (not sure of the exact words they use - it flashes up momentarily, so you can't take any of the reviews etc as being objective.
I remember one they gave of some bikepacking guru trialling an new gravel bike in Morocco (or some such place): the top tube was so sloping that, with his frame-bag on, there was barely room for one 500 water bottle, yet this was the perfect bike for remote north-Africa. Somebody paid for two guys and a film crew to go out there .....
It's entertaing somethimes.

a148pro

Find the content really bad, bike radar ones are much better. Also the presenter's style is quite grating and the sense of humour fairly off. Plus the blatant advertising is annoying. They do occasionally cover things that are interesting though, like the arguments for or against certain stuff, cycling orthodoxies etc

G1032

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I've been playing the wait and see game with racepass as my Eurosport sub expires on Oct. 2nd and according to my account it will be at the 'legacy rate' of 29.99 so cheaper than race pass and much better value over all I think as long as Eurosport continue to have all the races and they even had the CX on Saturday after the worlds.

Also I've little or no interest in the other parts of the GCN app. I've usually already seen the news articles they repost.

So the main advantage of Racepass over Eurosport is that it's advert free. That's a huge plus for me. There are way too many as breaks on ES and each break seems to go on forever.

Kevhog1988

GTN is far better

lissard

Wow, tough crowd ;-). As far as I can see these guys have by far the biggest library of YouTube content. Sure they have mined nearly every possible topic at this stage, but very occasionally they come up with some gems. Conor Dunnes stuff has been really good. e.g. He did an episode showing what they eat on a GT, a bit of an eye opener. The maintenance stuff is great.

triggermortis

G1032 wrote: »

So the main advantage of Racepass over Eurosport is that it's advert free. That's a huge plus for me. There are way too many as breaks on ES and each break seems to go on forever.

There was a non-advert feed for the tour on Eurosport player. Not sure if there is always this as I only watched the tour on it.

triggermortis

I tend to watch this in work when things are quiet, but haven’t watched as regularly lately. I’d normally watch the main GCN show and a feature if Conor is doing it, or it’s something relevant to me. If it’s Ollie or Hank I tend to give it a miss

I really liked it when it was Matt, Si and Dan. They had some smashing videos on there. I still watch it but I prefer the older ones.

marvin80

The only GCN videos I really watch these days are Conor Dunne's videos and some of the challenges like where they cycled from West to East of England in a day.
Matt Stephens was a loss - he has some great videos on Sigma Sports now where he goes for spins with current and former pros.

Kevhog1988

marvin80 wrote: »

The only GCN videos I really watch these days are Conor Dunne's videos and some of the challenges like where they cycled from West to East of England in a day.
Matt Stephens was a loss - he has some great videos on Sigma Sports now where he goes for spins with current and former pros.

The cafe rides? That is a good show

crosstownk

barrier86 wrote: »

I really liked it when it was Matt, Si and Dan. They had some smashing videos on there. I still watch it but I prefer the older ones.

I agree with this. I found it both informative and entertaining back when the three lads did it.

I do still watch it but a lot (not all) of it has become a bit 'meh'.

who_ru

overall i find it good, it's better than nothing, some stuff is filler but some other bits are pretty good. i find Dan a good co commentator on euro sport.

DaveyDave

I found them useful for maintenance tips and stuff like the climbing with 5kg weights, with Dan and Simon both doing it to compare or how a new bike compares to an old bike but now it's a rehash video of how to set up XYZ or what kit or lights to use when there's already a video from a year or two ago. It's a different story if it was 5+ years ago and completely different tech but barely any difference.

Lots of paid content clearly favouring specific brands now too, it gets boring. Can an XYZ bike also do 123? oh it just so happens this specific Canyon bike made for [specific niche of riding] can!

Enjoyed them for a year or so.

Macy0161

triggermortis wrote: »

There was a non-advert feed for the tour on Eurosport player. Not sure if there is always this as I only watched the tour on it.

It's usually on the player for all races. I think some races it's not had comms, but that's going back to last year.

redlead

I really like their epic ride and challenge videos. In a lot of videos they are trying to push gear on you but they have to make their money somehow so I just tend to ignore that stuff. From listening to them, I'm left amazed that my 10 year old 105s still do a job. They are calling them retro lol. They also seemed determined to get people to buy gravel bikes.

py

I was a big fan early on with Dan, Matt, Simon and Lasty. I thought they did well to hire Emma too but she was only there a year. Haven't really watched a lot of it since as the content seems to be repeated.

Bike Radar Diaries has kept me interested the past few years over there and the hill climbing season series they do is always good. They even lost some of their good presenters too with Ruben and Joe leaving in the past few years.

Junior

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Conor seems like a lovely fellow. He should be getting paid by Failte Ireland with some of his videos

Conor has moved over to Bath to GCN HQ in the last few weeks so that's the end of those.

TomTomTim

I watch them less and less now days due to the repetitive nature of their content, the regular presence of
Manon Lloyd doesn't help either. She seems like a lovely girl, but she's a terrible presenter, with very poor delivery. Connor was very bad at first too, but he's improved greatly. Manon doesn't seem to be improving at all though.

dastardly00

Like other posters, I preferred it when it was Dan, Matt & Simon. I still watch some of the new content occasionally, mostly Conor Dunne's videos.

I just googled Simon Richardson there now and he won the Ras in 2009. I didn't know that

redlead

dastardly00 wrote: »

Like other posters, I preferred it when it was Dan, Matt & Simon. I still watch some of the new content occasionally, mostly Conor Dunne's videos.

I just googled Simon Richardson there now and he won the Ras in 2009. I didn't know that

Did you watch the introducing the presenters video for James/Hank? The actual house he grew up in is the Downton Abbey House. I think all the presenters are likeable to be fair to them. There is one for Simon too which is pretty interesting. I think he lost the yellow Jersey on the second last day of the Ras the year before he won it.

Refractions

dastardly00 wrote: »

Like other posters, I preferred it when it was Dan, Matt & Simon. I still watch some of the new content occasionally, mostly Conor Dunne's videos.

I just googled Simon Richardson there now and he won the Ras in 2009. I didn't know that

In his 'Meet the Presenters' vid he said winning the "Rass" was the highlight of his career and mentioned it was the only time he experienced what it's like to have a full team working on his behalf.

I watch it and enjoy it. But then, I like to dream that one day I will be able to do a sportive around a the mountains of Qatar with Jenson Button like Ollie did.

Cionn

I used to watch each video as they came out and found it a good balance of informative and fun. Now though it's all about that presenter Ollie, by God he is annoying after a while. As soon as I see him or the girl presenting I just switch off. It's really gone downhill, the old tech guy was great. This thread has reminded me to unsubscribe.

magicbastarder

redlead wrote: »

Did you watch the introducing the presenters video for James/Hank? The actual house he grew up in is the Downton Abbey House.

a bit before that, it was the house from poldark.

swarlb

To be honest I didn't really check the dates of the videos, and hadn't realised how old some of them were. Like most replies on here I found them interesting but repetitive. Having been away from the sport I'm amazed at how much as changed......
Gravel Bikes !!! I'm afraid I just don't get them, sounds like 'corporate speak' for getting more sales...

cletus

swarlb wrote: »

To be honest I didn't really check the dates of the videos, and hadn't realised how old some of them were. Like most replies on here I found them interesting but repetitive. Having been away from the sport I'm amazed at how much as changed......
Gravel Bikes !!! I'm afraid I just don't get them, sounds like 'corporate speak' for getting more sales...

To be honest, the last couple of posts I've read of yours seem to be mostly concerned with telling us all how you "don't get the new fangled stuff"

In the above post you "don't get" gravel bikes. What is it you don't get? The concept of not cycling on roads? Or is it the "I was doing gravel cycling when it was just dirt rides on 19mm tyres" sentiment I've seen on various forums? I doubt that it's the hipster gravel element, as that seems to be mostly American, and hasn't really taken off here that I've seen

I understand that many in the industry or involved in the sport see gravel bikes as a further bifurcation of an already overly divided market, and there's definitely a heavy dose of marketing gone into the "gravel scene", but that's to be expected from any private company looking to make a profit. The initial impetus behind gravel riding, however, seems to have been a conscious move away from the more traditional aspects of sport cycling.

magicbastarder

GCN did a faintly provocative video where they argued that the rise in popularity of gravel bikes is due to mountain bikes becoming too capable. if you want to cycle through your local woods, a modern MTB is a bit much, but you won't want to do it on slick 25 or 28mm tyres either. so a gravel bike is now the happy medium - more akin to how mountain bikes were in the 90s.

swarlb

cletus wrote: »

To be honest, the last couple of posts I've read of yours seem to be mostly concerned with telling us all how you "don't get the new fangled stuff"

In the above post you "don't get" gravel bikes. What is it you don't get? The concept of not cycling on roads? Or is it the "I was doing gravel cycling when it was just dirt rides on 19mm tyres" sentiment I've seen on various forums? I doubt that it's the hipster gravel element, as that seems to be mostly American, and hasn't really taken off here that I've seen

I understand that many in the industry or involved in the sport see gravel bikes as a further bifurcation of an already overly divided market, and there's definitely a heavy dose of marketing gone into the "gravel scene", but that's to be expected from any private company looking to make a profit. The initial impetus behind gravel riding, however, seems to have been a conscious move away from the more traditional aspects of sport cycling.

What I 'don't get' is the need to label everything. I apologise for not coming from an era where tubulars were wider than 19mm (apart from cyclocross, which were).
There was one GCN clip, where (I think it was Ollie) took a spin on a 'steel bicycle with downtube gearlevers, and toeclips'. He confessed that he'd never ridden one before, and expressed concern that he'd be able to ride the thing at all. In the end, he seemed happy enough, having discovered that all it was, after all, just a bicycle... albeit a different one to the one he was used to'
It's nothing to do with not being used to 'new fangled stuff', more the need for the bicycle industry to change in order to sell more 'stuff'.
There is very little 'new' in cycling, just 'change'. I wouldn't be surprised at all if in ten years time someone rediscovers rim brakes, or indeed skinny tyres.
If you'd prefer me not to post on here, just because I 'don't get' modern cycling, then that's not a problem.
I thought cycling was inclusive, not exclusive.... maybe I was wrong.

cletus

swarlb wrote: »

What I 'don't get' is the need to label everything. I apologise for not coming from an era where tubulars were wider than 19mm (apart from cyclocross, which were).
There was one GCN clip, where (I think it was Ollie) took a spin on a 'steel bicycle with downtube gearlevers, and toeclips'. He confessed that he'd never ridden one before, and expressed concern that he'd be able to ride the thing at all. In the end, he seemed happy enough, having discovered that all it was, after all, just a bicycle... albeit a different one to the one he was used to'
It's nothing to do with not being used to 'new fangled stuff', more the need for the bicycle industry to change in order to sell more 'stuff'.
There is very little 'new' in cycling, just 'change'. I wouldn't be surprised at all if in ten years time someone rediscovers rim brakes, or indeed skinny tyres.
If you'd prefer me not to post on here, just because I 'don't get' modern cycling, then that's not a problem.
I thought cycling was inclusive, not exclusive.... maybe I was wrong.

I think that cycling should be absolutely inclusive. To the point where all and any type of cycling is acceptable to everyone. That's why I happily proclaim that I don't shave my legs, haven't joined a cycling club, and I've never stopped while out for a spin at the weekend for coffee.

I don't know an awful lot about bike eras, as I only started cycling regularly (not for commuting) about 2 years ago. At 40 years old, though, I realise that there's always change

I'm not looking for an apology, just curious about the "back in my day" elements of your posts. When you unlock your car with the central locking button on your keys, do you look at it and marvel that back in the day you had to put the key in the door?

When you're shopping and it's time to pay, do you "not get" the card tapping capabilities, on the basis that you used to use cash?

Everything in every aspect of life moves on. You could absolutely cycle through the woods on a road bike with 19mm tubulars, but it's more comfortable on a gravel bike with wider tyres, and perhaps a tubeless setup.

As regards you posting here, it's a public discussion site, and I figure anyone who puts up an opinion does so with the understanding that it is open to being challenged or questioned by anyone who cares to.

That's not to suggest you shouldn't post here at all. In fact, the very opposite. If we all didn't post with our varied ideas, opinions and life skills, it would be a rather dull place. I mean, it's not like my wife is going to talk to me about bikes

Macy0161

Why would someone as young as Ollie have ridden with down tube shifters? Probably as alien to him as Gravel bikes are to you...

magicbastarder

it's simple, gravel bikes are basically CX bikes with more relaxed geometry.

swarlb

Macy0161 wrote: »

Why would someone as young as Ollie have ridden with down tube shifters? Probably as alien to him as Gravel bikes are to you...

What was 'alien' was the fact that he actually said.... 'I wonder will I be able to ride this'....
I realise he said it for the humour aspect, but still....

Refractions

swarlb wrote: »

What was 'alien' was the fact that he actually said.... 'I wonder will I be able to ride this'....
I realise he said it for the humour aspect, but still....

They totally ham it up in those videos, I've seen a few on GCN that are the same. Matt Stephens struggling up a little hill on Stephen Roche's Battaglin...pure ham.

magicbastarder

at least it's hammy and not cheesy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMQJnD-gBrk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev8xzPzzrjA

cletus

I'd forgotten about those ads

positron

I like GCN. Some presenters are a bit average and churn out fillers, but overall I think they have a lot of good content. Si Richardson usually does quality videos. Emma Pooley was amazing, shame she left after a short stint. The US guy has his heart in it too. New kids, well they might get better over time. Conor of course is a breath of fresh air and good to see Ireland represented. Overall I believe they provide amazing content, for free. I have nothing but thanks to that team.

positron

And GTN too, struggling with viewership I think but they are alright themselves.