GCN+: Worth the Money?

When GCN (the Global Cycling Network) announced a new offering last February called GCN+, I was beside myself with excitement. GCN has, hands-down, the best cycling content on the Internet. And this new offering promised even better content.

GCN+ has now been out for about eight months, and I’ve been a subscriber since the beginning. So the question is: will I be renewing my subscription when it runs out?

For the uninitiated, GCN is primarily a YouTube video channel that covers everything and anything related to cycling. They have a mix of presenters, and their videos have a high degree of professionalism. They publish multiple times weekly, including a live show where they discuss news in the world of cycling and various related topics. Pretty much every cyclist who’s been riding for at least a little while is familiar with GCN.

I’ve loved their stuff for years, and was anxious to see what they would do with this new platform.

It’s clear that they’ve done a lot. GCN+ can be roughly broken down into two categories: long-form videos that are essentially documentaries, and live bicycle racing (the races are also archived so you can watch them on demand like all the other content).

The videos are published regularly, i.e., on a weekly basis, but not as often as they are on the standard GCN YouTube channel. That makes sense as these videos are in general much longer, more polished, and clearly take more time and effort to produce.

Racing and Traveling

The races are what you’d expect, with standard (but informed and lively) commentary. There’s a lot of race coverage, but there are limitations to what you can see based on where you live — I’m in the United States, and numerous races are unavailable here. Still, there’s no lack of races to watch on a regular basis.

Overall I enjoy the documentary videos more than the racing. Many of the videos are essentially cycling travelogues. This isn’t a bad thing, as I love that kind of stuff (I’m a fan of Rick Steves, for instance). For me, a big part of cycling enjoyment is getting outside and seeing the world, whether it’s around my county, in another state, or another country.

The videos in the “Films” section are further broken down into topics like Adventure, Challenge, Science and Technology, Culture, History and Legends, and workouts with music. The least useful topic for me are the workout videos. I use Zwift and TrainerRoad and more specific programs for that kind of thing.

Last week I watched a documentary called “Westfjords,” which explored the extreme western reaches of Iceland. This was a delight, as it focused on the beauty of the area and dug into the people and the culture in these incredibly remote little villages. I also really like the presenter, Jenny Graham. She’s natural and friendly, and doesn’t try to project a false image for the camera (I can’t stand YouTube presenters who try to be MR./MRS. PERSONALITY!!!, all bubbly and fun-loving and so over-the-top enthusiastic that the fakeness comes through every single frame).

GCN+ goes all over the world with these videos, and it’s a great pleasure for me to learn about these regions. Some of the videos are less successful — one I watched yesterday was in the “Cycling Heartlands” series, of which there are a number. This one focused on Melbourne, Australia. Although it was entertaining enough, I found the interview segments far too long and uninteresting. It seemed to me that they were left that long simply to fill out the time and make it long enough to be included on the channel. Still, I have yet to see a video that I just didn’t like.

The quality of each video is uniformly high, as is the entertainment value. I’d estimate that I’ve watched roughly 80% of the videos on the site, and I eagerly look forward to each new one.

There are some technical issues here and there with GCN+. It doesn’t work as smoothly on all devices as I’d like it to. For instance, when I try to watch something on my iPad, I usually have to log out of my account and back in again to watch anything. On the whole, however, these are minor things and have a minimal impact on my enjoyment.

GCN+ was $49.99 USD at launch. As of this writing, that’s still the price if you sign up for a year in advance. Otherwise it’s $8.99 per month USD.

Back to the original question: will I sign up again for GCN+? One way I look at these things is, Do I have to think about whether I want to re-subscribe or not? Certain things like Amazon Prime and my Office 365 subscription, I renew without any internal debate – they’re automatics. Other things, like ESPN+ and my SiriusXM radio subscription, I look at the positives and negatives, and whether it’s worth my hard-earned dollars to re-up.

When my GCN+ subscription comes up again, I’ll renew without a second thought. That in a nutshell summarizes my feelings on the channel.

I’d love to know what you think of GCN+. What do you like and not like about it? Let me know in the comments below.

(Full disclosure: I have no relationship, financial or otherwise, with the Global Cycling Network. They have no idea who I am, or that I was reviewing GCN+.)