For 2016 Giant redesigned the TCR road bike from the ground up with a lighter and torsionally stiffer frame and a lighter fork. Giant will also have new tubeless-ready road wheels and a new line of saddles, complete with a measuring tool for shops in the form of a saddle with pressure-sensitive gel that records your position by changing colour.
While the Propel is Giant's aero machine and the Defy is the endurance platform, TCR is the straight-ahead road race bike. Giant's lead TCR designer Doug Barnett said the three core values behind the TCR redesign were efficiency, handling and race-tuned ride quality.
“When we talk about efficiency we’re talking about how the bike performs in the hands of the guys who push that bike to the limits, the GC athletes who ride in the pro peloton,†Barnett said.
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(Claimed) facts and figures
Giant claims the top-end TCR Advanced SL has the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any road bike. Barnett said Giant bought samples of all of their competitors’ bikes to test, and the TCR Advanced SL came out 7% stiffer than its closest competitor, the Cervelo R5.
The 2016 TCR Advanced SL frame weighs a claimed 856g. While Giant admitted the Scott Addict SL frame to boast a lower weight of 732g, the company said the Addict SL was the least stiff bike they tested when ranked against race bikes from Cervelo, Specialized, Trek and Cannondale.
Giant developed a new wheel and frameset stiffness test to better understand and quantify how frame and wheels work together, and, unsurprisingly, the TCR Advanced SL came out on top when used with Giant new wheel system (more on that below).
Details across the three-tiered range
Riding impressions
New wheel systems
- SLR 0 - ultralight full carbon wheelset, 30mm deep, claimed 1,331g a pair US$2,300
- SLR 0 Aero - full carbon aero wheelset, 55mm deep, claimed 1,535g a pair, US$2,300
- SLR 1 also carbon, 30mm deep claimed 1,425g a pair, US$1,300
- SLR 1 Aero - full carbon aero wheelset, 55m deep, claimed 1,700g a pair, US$1,300
- SL 1 - alloy l30mm deep, claimed 1,585g a pair, US$500
- SL1 - alloy/composite hybrid rim, 55m deep, alloy brake surface, claimed 1,860g a pair, US$800
New saddles
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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