Discovery snaps up UK cycling specialist (interesting read on the backstory of GCN/GMBN).

I look forward to Mike Brewer buying up a load of old BSOs for 50p and trading them up to a 10k pinarello…

Jesus. An appreciation of the paragraph wouldn’t go amiss in that mass of text!

TL:DR

Is this a good thing? Are we going to see current stuff on the telly?

What would the advantage of seeing it on the telly be? YouTube is scheduled at the viewers request and has advertising possibilities.

Is this a good thing? Are we going to see current stuff on the telly?

If it does then expect the actual cycling content to be slowly diluted and shoehorned into about 5 minutes with about 25 minutes of reality TV drama filling the rest.

Brings new meaning to the phrase “do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”.

Interesting read that article.

The Link back through Future Magazines explains why GMBN appears to be ‘MBUK TELLY’ in disguise, which is no bad thing in my opinion. Its targeted and made just right, in a format that wouldnt wash on TV but works great online.

I noted the group has also been advertising recently for new presenters, they were looking for ex=pro cyclists.

shark week should be fun

Swear will always be the hapless ad manager who crashed and dented the tank on his Ducati Monster at the Malverns one year.

But he does seem to have done quite well.

does this mean the content will get better?

^ har.. some of it is really good and entertaining but there bave been some shockers from the tech side..

only today doddy claimed you can run 3.0 tyres on any width rim as long as they fit the frame wtf!??

btw i usually like doddy’s tech bits and he’s obviously a nice chap. did see the show he did on bike ‘mtb adventures’, but they do need a sharper tool on the tech side of things if little old me regularly spots some dod-gi-ness there.

Tbf you could run them on narrow tyres. You’d just need high pressure

Jesus. An appreciation of the paragraph wouldn’t go amiss in that mass of text!

I can barely read it.

but they do need a sharper tool on the tech side of things if little old me regularly spots some dod-gi-ness there.

Yep, some of Doddy’s tech is as dodgy as Blake’s acting.

The latest video analysis of drops picked up the exact same point I made in the drops thread. Where’s ma royalties bro?

I don’t think there’s any need to panic that Discovery is going to impose silly things like implausible deadlines and fake fights between Martyn and Blake.

I was a very latecomer to GMBN, I subscribed for years but have only started to watch in the last few months.

Martyn and Blake are the stars for me, it’s a shame Jess Strange didn’t work out, I like her stuff and she’s from around my way (she’s not hard to look at either).

Only started watching it yesterday, assume various discovery execs will now justify their existence by ‘improving’ it.

Sorry, think I might be a bit grumpy this morning

What would the advantage of seeing it on the telly be? YouTube is scheduled at the viewers request and has advertising possibilities.

Dunno. I hadn’t really though it through 😆

yours, stuck in the 90s.

I just think it’s great to have some sort of regular bike content that isn’t road or road biased, enjoyed the bike channel although had to pick the shows.

Maybe we’ll see a return of Anna Glowinski to our screens now her health seems to be improving.

“Tbf you could run them on narrow tyres. You’d just need high pressure ”

you can run them, but they’re mishappen. this kind of action is touted as a reason why some didnt get on with plus. they need that wide base to have proper shape and sidewall strength.

maxxis 2.8s actually say on the packagIng MINIMUM 40mm (i40) rim width (I’m running em on i38).

as far as TV crossover goes.. who knows.. I watch GMBN and other youtube mtb stuff on the tv via a fire tv stick (and firefox). works awesome. they do live premiere episodes too (like the recent cheap bike challenge)

I think it’s interesting it sends the clear message that there’s a proper market for youtube channels (especially since youtube have ramped up the targeted ads over the last couple of years) and yes you could easily draw the conclusion that print and “Linear TV” are to some extent dead and niche stuff can be worth businesses investing in.

But as much as I like watching some professionally produced cycling related meeja, I do like watching some of the ‘un-proffessional’ stuff too, and I’m keen that other genuie enthusiast’s channels don’t get squeezed out too…

There’s a fella on YT that goes by ‘Monkeyshred’ who sticks up half hour vids of him restoring various vintage bikes, for some reason I can happily watch a full 30 mins of that, but ten minutes of Doddy and Co and I’m done…

I’m slightly concerned that Google have already developed the al-gore-rhythm to slowly wean us all into “choosing” sparkly, over produced “special interest videos” funded by multi $bn parent companies (all after a slice of the targetted ad revenue) and we’ll lose all the mad pottering in Sheds and genuinly interesting stuff in the process…

Plus I do actually still like reading about bikes/cycling.
Articles don’t need to be in a mag (for me) but if 90% of cycling media all becomes “video on demand” I think it will lose something.

maxxis 2.8s actually say on the packagIng MINIMUM 40mm (i40) rim width (I’m running em on i38).

Odd isn’t it when you consider wide tyres (maxxis’ included) have been round much longer than super wide “normal” readily available rims.

Of course maxxis may have changed the way they build their tyres or it could all be a bit of science and a lot of marketing/fashion that’s become “actual pure science fact”. A bit like wide tyres have less rolling resistance than narrow ones, it’s true* but there are qualifiers that rarely get mentioned along side.

maybe.. IIRC stans did a chart about wall shape and rim width that is interesting.. anyhoo

some GMBN stuff is filler, but they do some great things too. watched the vid of blakes first hardtail enduro. good real world stuff. dirt shed with martyn ashton is good too.

Was thinking their videos don’t have enough dramatic music, hype, fakeness, padded out to an hour with adverts to show us the important and uninteresting bit at the end.

Prefer GCN despite not being a roadie.

It’s MBUK on the screen for the most part.

Some bits are pure genius though. Blake, Brendog and Olly’s deathgrip challenge for example 😂

Blake makes my skin crawl, the constant downplaying of his own ability, combined with ramping up the jeopardy…

OMG I CANT DO THAT ILL DIE JUMPING THAT 4 FOOT GAP!!!

Before doing it, then doing a Backflip over it.

Not to mention the shouting.

maxxis 2.8s actually say on the packagIng MINIMUM 40mm (i40) rim width (I’m running em on i38).

Do they still have comically high minimum inflation pressures as well though?

I’ve always assumed the stuff printed on a tyres sidewall was deliberately rubbish so that if you ever got a puncture and died as a result, Maxxis/Pannaracer/Continental/Schwalbe could just point at the instructions and say “well you were running your 2.3″ tyre at 25psi, the sidewall clearly states minimum 50psi, maximum 65psi”.

it’s a shame Jess Strange didn’t work out

Yeah agreed … I thought she was a good addition to the team of presenters!