GCN - what's the deal?

bungle73

vimfuego wrote:

philwint wrote:

As for John Cannings, I actually find some of his stuff OK, I just can't help seeing him as the original Holly from Red Dwarf for some reason. Kills any attempt at serious advice completely.

Something to do with the way he was first introduced?

w00dster

This just shows how difficult it is to make content for all.
Philwint, I agree about Neil and Doddie, but I find Blake's videos really watchable. I ride MTB but I'm not someone who sends it, so its great to see how simple he makes it look - and he's always having fun on his bike which is contagious.
Emma is a legend and growing into her role, but sometimes she can be a tad awkward on camera. Dan was the same when he first started but he's spent enough time with us mere mortals and appears to understand the juggling of work/family/riding balance, that he now comes across really well. Matt was always amusing in a the fact that he didn't mind being the butt of the jokes.
I loved the red bull crit race, plus the Japan trip.

Methodical

Can't stay on top forever.

Plus, I don't think they are funny; it doesn't come natural for them and I find they try too hard to be funny, which makes them, not funny. It's cool to watch some of the nice bikes they get to ride though.

bungle73

They've got Jenson Button in their latest video! 8)

neeb

Methodical wrote:

Can't stay on top forever.

Plus, I don't think they are funny; it doesn't come natural for them and I find they try too hard to be funny, which makes them, not funny. It's cool to watch some of the nice bikes they get to ride though.

Humor is very subjective. I find them funny enough, but it's not a comedy show after all - I think one of the best things about GCN is the balance between informative / interesting content and a lighthearted / amusing style.

At the end of the day I keep watching it, so they must be doing something right..

hostman

I'm a fan of GCN, some great content, very professionally edited videos, knowledgeable and experienced presenters.

There isn't much I don't like they produce ... videos are also quite short so you can watch more or less anytime/anywhere.

neeb

No new videos for the last couple of days, which is unusual..

bungle73

neeb wrote:

No new videos for the last couple of days, which is unusual..

Er yes there have been, like the one I just mentioned.

neeb

Bungle73 wrote:

neeb wrote:

No new videos for the last couple of days, which is unusual..

Er yes there have been, like the one I just mentioned.

Damn.. the problem is that they haven't been updating them on the GCN website itself for the last few days - the last one there (at time of typing) is "Ask GCN Anything" from 3 days ago..
https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/

But I now see that on the You Tube channel they have three more recent vids:
https://www.youtube.com/user/globalcycl ... ork/videos

bungle73

neeb wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

neeb wrote:

No new videos for the last couple of days, which is unusual..

Er yes there have been, like the one I just mentioned.

Damn.. the problem is that they haven't been updating them on the GCN website itself for the last few days - the last one there (at time of typing) is "Ask GCN Anything" from 3 days ago..
https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/

But I now see that on the You Tube channel they have three more recent vids:
https://www.youtube.com/user/globalcycl ... ork/videos

I hardly ever go to the website. I always go directly to YT.

edward.s

Oh lord. Canning's 'superbike' build. Paint an old Trek frame with what appears to be green porridge, and then nail a 105 5800 groupset on it, not preparing the frame properly and glossing over most of the 'gotchas' that people will encounter building it up. It looks like the kind of thing I'd have done age 15 with some halfords rattlecans and knowing no better. He has a room full of top-of-the-range Park tools and still makes an easy job look difficult.

The result is an average nice bike, but hardly a superbike.

I struggle to watch Cannings sometimes, he comes over as so awkward and clunky it makes me cringe inside.

joe_totale-2

edward.s wrote:

Oh lord. Canning's 'superbike' build. Paint an old Trek frame with what appears to be green porridge, and then nail a 105 5800 groupset on it, not preparing the frame properly and glossing over most of the 'gotchas' that people will encounter building it up. It looks like the kind of thing I'd have done age 15 with some halfords rattlecans and knowing no better. He has a room full of top-of-the-range Park tools and still makes an easy job look difficult.

The result is an average nice bike, but hardly a superbike.

I struggle to watch Cannings sometimes, he comes over as so awkward and clunky it makes me cringe inside.

The man spent nearly a grand to turn an old bike into an average alloy bike with an alloy fork and old 105. Apparently that's a super bike.

Remind me again how much an alloy bike with 105 and a carbon fork usually costs?

edward.s

Joe Totale wrote:

edward.s wrote:

Oh lord. Canning's 'superbike' build. Paint an old Trek frame with what appears to be green porridge, and then nail a 105 5800 groupset on it, not preparing the frame properly and glossing over most of the 'gotchas' that people will encounter building it up. It looks like the kind of thing I'd have done age 15 with some halfords rattlecans and knowing no better. He has a room full of top-of-the-range Park tools and still makes an easy job look difficult.

The result is an average nice bike, but hardly a superbike.

I struggle to watch Cannings sometimes, he comes over as so awkward and clunky it makes me cringe inside.

The man spent nearly a grand to turn an old bike into an average alloy bike with an alloy fork and old 105. Apparently that's a super bike.

Remind me again how much an alloy bike with 105 and a carbon fork usually costs?

Ribble do the Endurace AL with full new 7000 105 and decent wheels for £999. And it doesn't look like my kids finger painted it whilst high on LSD.

I've built a lot of my own bikes up, mainly 'cause I am a picky bugger and like to choose my own stuff and put it together right. I'm under no illusion that this is somehow cheaper. It pretty much always isn't, but I get what I want first time and I actually enjoy the process.

So Cannings now has a poorly assembled old bike with a shit paint job and old series components for not a bargain price. Excellent. For his next trick he'll be buying a Morris Marina, painting it with Artex, bodging in a Redtop and pretending he's made a Ferrari

dannbodge

edward.s wrote:

Oh lord. Canning's 'superbike' build. Paint an old Trek frame with what appears to be green porridge, and then nail a 105 5800 groupset on it, not preparing the frame properly and glossing over most of the 'gotchas' that people will encounter building it up. It looks like the kind of thing I'd have done age 15 with some halfords rattlecans and knowing no better. He has a room full of top-of-the-range Park tools and still makes an easy job look difficult.

The result is an average nice bike, but hardly a superbike.

I struggle to watch Cannings sometimes, he comes over as so awkward and clunky it makes me cringe inside.

That's what the spray.bike paint is like. It comes out like a powder rather than a wet paint.
IMO it looks crap as well. Should be glossy and smooth.

Tashman

edward.s wrote:

So Cannings now has a poorly assembled old bike with a shoot paint job and old series components for not a bargain price. Excellent. For his next trick he'll be buying a Morris Marina, painting it with Artex, bodging in a Redtop and pretending he's made a Ferrari

Whilst I agree it's a strange result for the price of a modern off the shelf bike, why is it poorly put together? I know nothing about putting a bie together and thought it was informative from that perspective. Honest question, what has he done wrong?

neeb

They can't get it right, can they? Either they're not funny enough or they're not building the perfect budget superbike.

It's a bit of fun, this particular feature. I like Cannings and his enthusiasm, he seems to get a disproportionate amount of stick for it..

chippyk

Cannings is poor, some of is unwatchable in my opinion. Barely watched it since Matt Stevens left, and I’ve not seen Emma Pooley in a while. The chemistry between Lloyd, Simon and Stevens was good.

daniel_b

Agreed, the Poolmeister has been a bit absent of late

bungle73

She was only in a video less than a week ago....

Matthewfalle

neeb wrote:

They can't get it right, can they? Either they're not funny enough or they're not building the perfect budget superbike.

It's a bit of fun, this particular feature. I like Cannings and his enthusiasm, he seems to get a disproportionate amount of stick for it..

i just watched that feature (well, the last episode) because of this thred and, tbh, it seems alright - nothing to blow your socks off but to pass 20 minutes while you are having a coffee its alright.

i think his style is ok as well - nothing special, but remember he has to present to everyone: newbie to club fast sunday chain gang matching clothes hero so he can't please everyone.

lettingthedaysgoby

I quite like Jon, the video where he visited Corsa Corsa in Japan really showed his absolute love for bikes and the sport, he was like the proverbial kid in some kid of a store

I think a lot of people here also don't realise just how hard it is to present to a camera well...

Matthewfalle

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

I quite like Jon, the video where he visited Corsa Corsa in Japan really showed his absolute love for bikes and the sport, he was like the proverbial kid in some kid of a store

I think a lot of people here also don't realise just how hard it is to present to a camera well...

oh no - that was awful. And learn to pronounce the names of bicycles. I'm Italian cringed when he was talking about anything Italian.

carbonclem

Daniel B wrote:

Agreed, the Poolmeister has been a bit absent of late

Its almost like she's quit the gig.

Oh, hang on ...

daniel_b

CarbonClem wrote:

Daniel B wrote:

Agreed, the Poolmeister has been a bit absent of late

Its almost like she's quit the gig.

Oh, hang on ...

Oh bugger, just seen her tweets, deffo gone.
That's a big loss in my eyes, she was coming on a treat

bigmitch41

I mostly enjoy the GCN content, in fact Its all good entertainment even if they do make the odd blunder (washing your bike with WD-40 etc) turn it off if you're not happy with it...

simon_e

Daniel B wrote:

CarbonClem wrote:

Daniel B wrote:

Agreed, the Poolmeister has been a bit absent of late

Its almost like she's quit the gig.

Oh, hang on ...

Oh bugger, just seen her tweets, deffo gone.
That's a big loss in my eyes, she was coming on a treat

NOOOO!!!

Cleverest presenter on the channel, a great pro cyclist/athlete, and a real scientist. And of course a brill role model and a great contrasting personality to the blokes.

The only thing I've always found uncomfortable is her excessive modesty (which I believe genuine). Always talking herself down, she even slipped it into a farewell instagram post (https://www.instagram.com/p/BvaG0I1gKno/):

"Maybe GCN will invite me back as a guest presenter - but, with the pool of much better talent on the team, I’m not sure they’ll need me!"

On that point I have to strongly disagree. They will undoubtedly know what they've lost.

lettingthedaysgoby

Yeah, sad to see her go, the channel needs female presenters/role models. My young daughter loved watching her.

daniel_b

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

Yeah, sad to see her go, the channel needs female presenters/role models. My young daughter loved watching her.

And @SimonE

Totally, AND she's from Norwich, so doubly good.
Love the banoffee breakfast oats recipe she demo'd a while back, well worth trying.

luv2ride

I hadn't realised she'd moved on before seeing this. I'll miss her on GCN, did some great stuff, always engaging, modest and knowledgeable. Just a thoroughly likeable character...

kiteloopy

same, sad to see her go. Her appointment was what the channel needed, diversity.

In regards to the others, Ollie is quickly becoming my favourite presenter. Matt moving to other things is proving quite entertaining.