Amazingly it's been 3 years since we first rode the Advanced range of TCR and Defy road bikes at the Gigant ride camp at Cannock Chase - I can remember the buzz that these new bikes created throughout the entire UK cycle trade. We were treated to three new models all identically kitted out with Dura Ace, Mavic's and carbon finishing kits and allowed to put them through their paces and compare models.
This launch of the all new line up followed a similar format - three new frames TCR Advanced, TCR Advanced SL, and the Defy Advanced all kitted out with Dura-Ace but this time sporting Giant's own superlight 1390 grm wheel sets and finishing kits.
The rides were all centered on Giant's swish new UK head office near Leicester, and were pre-ceeded by a presentation on the technical changes that have been made with the new models. Giant's tech guys also went into some depth explaining how the difference in construction methods that various brands use can affect pricing and frame characteristics. This was really useful especially regarding raw materials. If we think about it we can pay thousands of pounds for carbon frames that we have no or little idea what the raw materials are or where they originate from, yet it was not that long ago that we would fixate on whether a frame was Columbus Genius or SLX or Renolds 531 / 653 etc etc, strange really when you think that those frames topped out at less than a thousand pounds.
Some brands do seem to 'blind us with own label science and facts'. Not Giant. They are totally upfront with their base materials and in-house construction methods. The only thing that they will not disclose is the nature of the resins that contain and hold the Toray fibres together. These resin's are unique to Giant branded products and not used in the multitude of frames that are produced for other brands.
Relating to Toray - Giant's carbon frame use either T600 in the composite, T700 in the Advanced and T800 in the Advanced SL. That's a complete frames' worth, not just enough to justify a 60tonne or 'Toray' sticker. It makes a difference.
The make up and subsequent cost of a carbon frame has more of a bearing on the final performance and price than the components that are hung off of it, and there are more grades of carbon fibre available than there are of alloy's. Basically cheaper filaments are made and cooled faster than the higher modulus 'stronger' filaments, as a result of this T800 is 3x dearer than T700 which is twice the price of T600 and the blend of carbon to resin is approximately 60/40.
Worth repeating then that with such a high resin content in a frame it can pay dividends if you can control the quality, consistency and supply of such an integral frame component.
Why use higher modulus more expensive carbon?
Because it has higher strength properties you can use less of it hence lighter frames that retain stiffness and comfort. There are lighter carbon's T1000 for instance but these impart far too high stiffness values into the frame rendering it harsh and unforgiving.
(Imagine a car running without tyres or suspension).
Armed with this knowledge about what some frames are constructed from and add in the different construction techniques it starts to make sense why there can be such massive price disparities between what on the face of it are similar products.
Going back 20years to the steel frame analogy it would be like comparing a Columbus SLX tube set with a High tensile steel frame and just accepting that they were the same quality even though the prices were worlds apart.
The final lay-up of the carbon also has a massive influence on the end result, steering stiffness as important as power transfer and this is altered by both lay up and tube shapes.
Compliance is not movement alone but is also absorption of vibrations and shocks, again something that carbon can be made to do well if done logically, allowing the fibres to dissapate the forces throughout the entire structure rather than 'stopping' the flow at a joint intersection.
For instance carbon lugged frames are easy to build but can be heavy hard to tune - Multiple section monocoque are cost effective, stronger and lighter than lugs but the 'flow' of filaments stop mid way as do lugged frames.
One piece monocoques are strong and reliable but expensive as only one size per mold is possible and there are higher labour costs involved in the process, knitted tubes - a' la Time are complex and expensive to make, having seen this process first hand I would have to agree with that, and are again lugged.
Giant's process is called design material manufacturing = full control over the raw materials, the process and the finished product. Each frame takes 9 hours of labour and passes through 32 pairs of hands.
So what's with the new frames?
The Composite frames have more alloy components to them than the Advanced and Advanced SL which are metal free at the bb, head tube and drop outs.
Overdrive2 on all Advanced and SL models means 1 1/2" lower 1 1 1/4 top bearing sets which gives 30-40 % additional steering stiffness.
Power core bottom brackets on all all TCR models utilising the BB 86 bearing standard which offers a slight weight saving whilst giving more stiffness. The use of Overdrive and Powercore means that the tubes in between are 'Mega Drive' read Oversize top and downtubes, in order to tie in with headtube and BB.
'Ride Sense' Ant + wireless transmitters supplied as standard on Advanced and SL bikes.
ISP on TCR Advanced SL and Defy Adv SL with seat post tops offering -5 to + 25 mm of layback.
All Advanced and Advanced SL's are fully Di2 compatible and this year sees internal cable routing on the cables entering at the front of the headtubes. The New inboard rear mech hangers are modelled after some of the mountain bike models and are stiffer.
How do they Ride?
We were allowed to ride three of the new frames all kitted with the new Giant wheel sets (more of that later), full Dura Ace groups and Giants own Carbon bars and stem combo's.
All were stunningly smooth, light and fast. Personally my favourite was the TCR Advanced which was the last bike that I rode on the 12 mile circuit, I could not put my finger on exactly why I preferred it but for me it just felt like a perfect blend of fit, punch and drive and suited my clumsy attempts to look like a road cyclist. I think that this bike with the new Ultegra Di2 at £3499 is going to be hard to keep in stock.
Following up the original Advanced launch was always going to be a hard act, three years on and the development of what is technically one of the worlds most advanced (sic) bicycle frames continues - more as an ongoing refinement of perfection.
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We have been taking in loads of new stock recently so I thought that I would take the opportunity to list some funky items that would cue up nicely as Christmas presents. In no particular order -
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It's not all fun and games working in a bike shop - every now and then one of those really dirty jobs comes along and it only seems fair that I should step up to the plate and take one for the team.