Our Honest Opinion On Pas Normal Studios & Cycling Press Reviews

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Time for another round of overrated or underrated I kind of feel like we’ve just done a round of overrated or underrated so we’re going to do some more I’m going to read out a list of things and you’re going to tell me if you think they’re overrated or

Underrated so the first is suggested by Jared doing your own bike maintenance underrated under yes right I think you should you should know more about your bike because the more of Maintenance you do on it the more you’re going to know if something’s wrong or if something’s

Not wrong but also you’ll enjoy your bike more cuz if something small is wrong like your headset’s loose you don’t want to be riding with it Loose for two or three weeks until you get into a bike shop you just want to be able to fix it on the spot get away with

It it’s kind of if it it will allow you to enjoy the bike more learn a bit more about the bike even if you if you never want to do your own maintenance you’re going to always take it to someone else to do at least learn

About what it is just so that if you if you go to a shop or somewhere they’re not taking your eyeballs out even from a safety aspect yeah yeah just so you know that there’s something wrong with it yeah oh yeah I I think is underrated I don’t think that that means that

Everyone like you don’t have to do your own bike mechanics but like you said knowledge is definitely something like a a good useful thing like like I guess the same thing applies to like cars you know you need to know if your car is there something wrong with your car to

Be able to go and get it fixed so that it’s safe same applies to the bikes exactly like you said I think that’s a good point um next is cycling press reviews most overrated thing in cycling show me one where they give them a bad like yeah it’s just you read them

And they they say this is bad this is bad this is bad and this still gets four to five or can all right so I’ve got a review in front of me um on road CC um I’m not I’m going to give you the so it’s for a long sleeve jersey that costs

£190 I’m going to read through their pros and cons and you’re going to give me what rating you would give that out of 10 just based on their summary of the pros and cons um so the pros are luxurious stretchy material soft cuffs and thick fleeced collar zipper wind

Barrier reasonably relaxed cut zipper valuables pocket and then the negatives are short front price average insulation and windproofing muted colors for 190 pound long sleeve jersey a long sleeve jersey that isn’t very good thally the pros the pros are all just standard things flee line doesn’t mean you mean

You can get a tqu Jersey that does that zipper is windproof but then the Jersey isn’t windproof 190 quid I’d give it four out of 10 actually no sorry sorry 190 quid I forgot that two out of 10 do you want to waigh in yeah I think you can get rid a

Lot of the gof there and the main things that stand out are price and the fact what was the thing not very thermal or something like that average insulation and windproofing average with a premium price tag equals premium not premium super premium that’s jacket money not Jersey money the the main the main

Functional part of a long sleeve thermal Jersey and it has average I would say what’s an average five out of 10 and then you add a price four out of 10 four out of 10 no two for me seven out of 10 m cuz it’s not an average price Jersey

So it can’t even fall in the average category yeah cuz that’s that’s exuberant more expensive Jersey yeah if you were getting average performance for average price average average then five yeah but that’s thing but then show me a single review where it’s five out of 10 what was the Jersey I’m getting really

Worked up about this we’ll lead up into that in a minutes so I think I personally think the main issue that that cycling press reviews have is they almost discount the price although in every single review would say it’s too expensive but then they don’t factor

That into the actual star rating and I I hope it isn’t because they’re thinking about keeping brands on side because they need to advertise to them it’s just the whole the whole structure is just absolutely rubbish they then have a blur about how we how they test products

Which is just kind of like in general and it basically says they’ll just test it as long as they need to to gather insights and they do their best to reflect to have a score that reflects function value there is not a single chance that this review reflects that

Product but when you when you consider that they are factoring in value I think I might be wrong in this I should have probably studed this before but tour magazine it’s a German cycling magazine and they they do like best bike uh in the world every year and things like

That but they they actually penalize Brands if your brand says a medium Fram set weighs 987 grams if that thing weighs 960 grams or nine a thousand grams they penalize him because you’ve given the wrong information to the so that actually cut the frames up and they

Get into depth about everything about it and then essentially it’s a rating system and at the end that’s a score it’s not a thing of yeah it’s far too generic isn’t it it’s like they’re forgetting who their consumer is having worked in traditional press not cycling but traditional press

There is a massive issue with consumer journalism and that is that there is such a close relationship between the journalists and the brands whether that’s the brand specifically or via PR agencies because ultimately places like rad CC it’s not just them but places like rad CC rely on

Click-throughs to sell ad adverts so therefore they need eyes on stuff so the more reviews they can build up like like this the more eyes they’re getting on stuff so therefore they need products to review and therefore they need to keep a good relationship with Brands and with

PR agencies and I think unfortunately it whether you realize it or not that can um skew what you’re saying you know if they give a four out of 10 or whoever this brand is are they going to give them stuff to review next time you know

Whereas you can give a seven out of 10 which seems fine if they just look at it on the surface they’ve they’ve given some negatives but it almost seems like it’s a consume you have to read between the lines of what that review is actually saying doesn’t it yeah so

Should we move on to the next one yeah go on um leading on from our previous one paranormal Studio cycling kit overrated is that what the Jersey was it was yeah oh well then it’s overrated um once again you guys will be able to say more about this

But yeah it’s just it’s so expensive you you you are what I can tell you is you are paying for the marketing and yes because it’s not they don’t make the kit is that it’s mowa or somebody would be making they have probably have a several factories but it’s and those factories

Would make kit for other brands as well which is fine but it’s just to be that it’s not well it’s it’s not even that that the issue the the thing that we have always found really frustrating about the apparel space well not frustrating because it allowed us to

Create a business that had a niche within it which was the Fabrics that we had access to and were using excluding rain jackets we not going to even Venture into that space because that’s a beast the Fabrics of our jerseys and shorts are the exact same Fabrics at the

Same standard at the same level from the same manufacturers as all of the other man the people that are using so the Fabrics that pound L are using in their products are going to be exactly the same as the atus products at least when

We were in control of it um I don’t know what it is going forward and and like the they’re the same Fabrics they’re constructed in very similar ways using the same or similar machines in different factories but with the same level of skill you’re you’re paying 190

Because you want to have something which says poundal on it there’s there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what you like then by all means go for it I just don’t um my business partner Rob keeps buying the kit um he buys a lot he sends a lot back because of different

Sizes things and the things because there’s not yeah um they’re not always the same size things that he but he likes it he likes spending the money on it and that’s fine if you if you like wearing it by all means I think the most interesting thing is they have claimed

The space that Rafa used to hold Rafa used to it didn’t have their core range they were very very premium at a time when no one else was and they got a reputation which I think they’ve tried very hard to get out of as being this

Like elitist thing you know the RCT club and all of that it was it was elitist and they’ve tried really hard to get away from that and it’s like panom Mal have gone okay well we’ll be that space as well but it’s like it’s Gucci isn’t

It it’s any sort of designer it’s just I I watched a really interesting YouTube video the other day that was talking about why designer stuff is no longer for the Mega it’s ultimately it’s for the middle classes and it’s about a display of wealth and that is ultimately

What it was and there will always be people who want to have that display of wealth if you have more money you want to spend more money typically or you will just spend more money and I guess there’s nothing wrong with that but I guess the problem is when it filters

Down as being better that’s when the problem comes because it’s not better you reach a ceiling with any products you reach a ceiling but the problem is with tearing systems sometimes the top stuff makes the middle stuff look better value when it’s still not great value

But I guess we are ultimately in a performance space so there’s the illusion of higher value means better performance which is not the case in this example but I like I said I still completely get it uh I’ll use Pock as an example um they do kind of technical

Shirts for M bik stuff I like wearing them but I like the ones with the Bold white Pock written on because I like the look of it so I wouldn’t buy the ones without the the the Bold white print and that’s purely it’s not a thing of

Technic bet or anything like that is you also don’t buy them I buy some of it Andy does help me out from time to time but yeah uh next we have cameras on bikes uh underrated massively massively underrated so this is this is one of

Your so do you mean like a GoPro on the front of your handlebars well yes or something like the Garmin varia on the back or the cyclic computers on the back and on the front uh just for in terms of full many people close passing I don’t

Know what like in other countries but in this country if a car passes you within 1.5 M uh they’re breaking the law so what so actually when you’re talking about cameras and bikes you’re specifically mean safety it’s a safe not not like to make a vlog about oh no no it’s all

About a safety tool to be able to record other users so that you can report them if needs to be yeah I mean obviously that sounds terrible to what you saying it but at the same time I think the only way it doesn’t sound terrible at all if

Someone’s breaking the law then you have the right to more of a safety thing is I think if if you were to ride in a city a busy City and you’ve got let’s say Newcastle is not a big city but if we had a 100 people over here with the

Cameras and their regularly reported drivers that are close passing or driving dangerously past them um at some point nobody’s going to know which bikes have got them on and which don’t and I think it just be a safer place cuz it’s the same thing of way if you know

There’s a speed camera people always slow down for it mhm um but in this scenario you wouldn’t know where these cameras are yeah I’m I’m you ay and you just people will be a bit more considerate because they’ll realize you close by them it’s going to hurt because

You’re going to have to pay a fine I’m I’m with you definitely underrated keep sending your suggestions to World ones podcast at Cad media. co.uk and we might read yours out on the next show