Giant TCR

dahat

ozzy jr wrote: »

Seen the TCR in the flesh today. It's worse than I thought, ruins the bike.

Christ,I've plans to buy one in early 2021. My LBS guy may be able to work his magic on cable lengtht but it is something to bear in mind.

fat bloke

So now the rim brake one is:

lighter
cheaper
better looking
and properly assembled and cabled.

Remind me why anyone wants the disc one again???!! :pac:

ednwireland

fat bloke wrote: »

Remind me why anyone wants the disc one again???!! :pac:

Cos discs are what all the cool kids have

byrnem31

ednwireland wrote: »

Cos discs are what all the cool kids have

I was coming down from blessington yesterday in the wet on my defy at nearly 60klm an hour.
That's when my hydraulic disc brakes really came into their own.
I had hydraulic, went back to rim, changed my bike again to mechanical and now I'm back at hydraulic. Hydraulic is miles better than rim me thinks.

Weepsie

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Pure bullshít? then why have I had to change headstock bearings and main crank bearings on a less that 2 year old Giant that is fairly well looked after, meanwhile I have a 20 year old Raleigh that has had a more abusive history of use and a lot more kms up on it and everything is original bar the tyres.

You may have got very lucky with the Raleigh and unlucky with the giant. You can't come up with that hypothesis based on the a sample size of 1 though.


On the other hand I'd expect to hear more complaints about giants than most brands, simply because they're one of most common brands.

The headset on my Trek went to ****e pretty quickly, so again not sure where you're coming up that they're necessarily better when they're probably about the same.

byrnem31

Weepsie wrote: »

You may have got very lucky with the Raleigh and unlucky with the giant. You can't come up with that hypothesis based on the a sample size of 1 though.


On the other hand I'd expect to hear more complaints about giants than most brands, simply because they're one of most common brands.

The headset on my Trek went to ****e pretty quickly, so again not sure where you're coming up that they're necessarily better when they're probably about the same.

Trek frames are made by giant. Plus, I'm on a giant owners forum on Facebook and lads that have giant bikes from 1990 are still flying along on theirs. It's one of the few bike makes that you still see people cycling on decades later.

fat bloke

byrnem31 wrote: »

I was coming down from blessington yesterday in the wet on my defy at nearly 60klm an hour.
That's when my hydraulic disc brakes really came into their own.
I had hydraulic, went back to rim, changed my bike again to mechanical and now I'm back at hydraulic. Hydraulic is miles better than rim me thinks.

Yeah but the only reason you need that snappier braking is to haul up all that extra frame and disc weight!

Mind you the wallet lightness probably counteracts it a bit...

Tony04

fat bloke wrote: »

Yeah but the only reason you need that snappier braking is to haul up all that extra frame and disc weight!

Mind you the wallet lightness probably counteracts it a bit...

Discs arent even more expensive when you consider how you save when replacing the discs rather than rims(wheels).

I guess buying a new bike for racing it might be a way to save a few pennys but than if you want to race on budget you may aswell buy a bike with aluminium and tiagra.

fat bloke

Tony04 wrote: »

Discs arent even more expensive when you consider how you save when replacing the discs rather than rims(wheels).

I guess buying a new bike for racing it might be a way to save a few pennys but than if you want to race on budget you may aswell buy a bike with aluminium and tiagra.

Eh? Most racers use rim braked bikes. Including Team Ineous on the most expensive bikes in the peleton.

I have personally never worn out a set of rims.

Weepsie

fat bloke wrote: »

Eh? Most racers use rim braked bikes. Including Team Ineous on the most expensive bikes in the peleton.

I have personally never worn out a set of rims.

They probably calculate how many inclement weather days they actually have and saw that in reality there are only a handful of days where the discs will make a difference, particularly with the bike handling ability of pros

byrnem31

fat bloke wrote: »

Yeah but the only reason you need that snappier braking is to haul up all that extra frame and disc weight!

Mind you the wallet lightness probably counteracts it a bit...

8.9 kg is not too heavy for my defy.

Tony04

fat bloke wrote: »

Eh? Most racers use rim braked bikes. Including Team Ineous on the most expensive bikes in the peleton.

In the pro pelothan it's a minority now. And they're going to be phased out in a few years.
It's a bit like 2 x 12 speed record as soon as shimano launches microspline road 11 speed is going to disappear.
After all 1x saves a fair chunk of weight and is cheaper but we couldn't take the embarrassment of walking up steep hills in our lycra, could we now?
Ineos only use rims as their pinarellos are manufactured heavier and need to get down to the 6.8kg. Plus pros have lost of every gram of body fat they possibly can, so minor weight differences might just about be noticeable dont think that's the case for anyone on here.
Ok rim brakes all the way for hill climb bikes but how many people acctually would build a bike specifically for that.

Weepsie wrote: »

They probably calculate how many inclement weather days they actually have and saw that in reality there are only a handful of days where the discs will make a difference, particularly with the bike handling ability of pros

Guessing you haven't rode discs?

If you use that logic xc racers may aswell use rim brakes as usally WC races are done in fair weather, there bike handling is even better than roadies soand they're going up such steep slopes every gram counts.

who_ru

byrnem31 wrote: »

I was coming down from blessington yesterday in the wet on my defy at nearly 60klm an hour.
That's when my hydraulic disc brakes really came into their own.
I had hydraulic, went back to rim, changed my bike again to mechanical and now I'm back at hydraulic. Hydraulic is miles better than rim me thinks.

i've noticed the same, it's in the wet when disc brakes really perform, tremendous stopping power.

Weepsie

Tony04 wrote: »

In the pro pelothan it's a minority now. And they're going to be phased out in a few years.
It's a bit like 2 x 12 speed record as soon as shimano launches microspline road 11 speed is going to disappear.
After all 1x saves a fair chunk of weight and is cheaper but we couldn't take the embarrassment of walking up steep hills in our lycra, could we now?
Ineos only use rims as their pinarellos are manufactured heavier and need to get down to the 6.8kg. Plus pros have lost of every gram of body fat they possibly can, so minor weight differences might just about be noticeable dont think that's the case for anyone on here.
Ok rim brakes all the way for hill climb bikes but how many people acctually would build a bike specifically for that.



Guessing you haven't rode discs?

If you use that logic xc racers may aswell use rim brakes as usally WC races are done in fair weather, there bike handling is even better than roadies soand they're going up such steep slopes every gram counts.

I have indeed. WC is a very different type of thing though. Even in a perfect dry day it's very different, at least in terms of needs for any sort of downhill breaking

The weight thing on pinarellos is a bit of a myth. More of the sky smoke and mirror nonsense
Their f12 frame is sub 800g

Xc racers, in all respect to them, probably don't plan to the absolutely minutest detail in the way ineos do.

I'd also suspect it's possibly for slightly quicker wheel changes between riders if there's no support car close

Cormo87

byrnem31 wrote: »

The cables on my defy advanced 2 2020 were messy when I bought it. I cleaned them up with a bit of black insulation tape.

I bet down from the hellfire club today on the hardcore trail at 45 klm. Bike handled very well and smooth over rough terrain. Got a puncture though on the stock tyres as they aren't great. But still it was great to really push the bike on hard gravel and see it handle so well.

Any pics of your front cable tidy-up?

Picking up a Giant Propel advanced next week and was thinking of what to do with the cables

Tony04

Weepsie wrote: »

I'd also suspect it's possibly for slightly quicker wheel changes between riders if there's no support car close

Yeh I think that's the main reason as they can use wheels from other teams as quick release is much easier to swap out than thru axles and easier to use other teams wheels.

Tony04

Cormo87 wrote: »

Any pics of your front cable tidy-up?

Picking up a Giant Propel advanced next week and was thinking of what to do with the cables

Shorten the cables and use some heatshrink

dahat

I've watched a few video reviews of the new TCR over the last few days and by god that front end cable system is awful. The cables are hanging out all over the place with the front brake hose a particular horror show.

joey100

There's a fair bit in this thread about the cabling at the front. Can't find the exact post but think it's more the initial set up rather than what you have to have. Plenty of pictures of clean front ends on the thread. Especially if your going disc Di2.

https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=161064&start=270

byrnem31

Cormo87 wrote: »

Any pics of your front cable tidy-up?

Picking up a Giant Propel advanced next week and was thinking of what to do with the cables

When collecting the bike, get the shop to clean up the cables with cable ties or that. It's s lot of money for a bike so they should do it for you. My bike got delivered when my two young kids were upstairs so I took it in a hurry and cleaned up the cables myself. Join the giant owners club on Facebook and ask the lads for pics of how they cleaned up their cables on their tcr's as I have seen posts about them before and after. It's a great page on Facebook.

Good luck with the bike. The frames on the giants are on another league as they make their own in house.

Tony04

Yeh as above giant and merida make the best value frames for money. The general consensus on other bike forums is that giant was/is a subcontracter for trek, scott, cannondale, bianchi and colnago. While it's for definite that merida produces everything for specialized.

So basically giant or merida have the economies of scale to produce frames for less, although their quality isnt necessary better as different brands have the rights to their own frame moulds that they developed with their own r and d.

The best frames out there are time and look as they manufacture their own frames and have a high quality control standard so if you had the money I'd buy one of theirs.

Some Chinese open mould frames arent half bad either but as it is a open mould the frame isnt as well designed as a bike brands own mould.

But judging a bike by how much its cables stick out is worse than judging a book by its cover. Really when you buy a bike it's not just sticking new pedals on and going for a ride theres finishing touches like helicopter tape to prevent scratches etc. and sorting out the cables is one of them

dahat

Following on from the mention of Merida within the thread.

I've just watched a really positive review for the 2021 Recato 6000 which will come in around €3000. Its alot tidier than the Propel or TCR with weight it's downfall but not a major factor for me.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5MMQZ-VVHB4

Some mods around wheels in time would make this a proper bike. The giant pm isn't a factor for me given the poor reviews for it.

fat bloke

Well make sure you get the disc brakes anyway, cos like rims brakes are crap and there's no way you'd be able to cycle or brake effectively on rim brakes. I mean especially on any kind of loose surface :pac:

dahat

Ah that win was a fluke, discs all the way!!!

MojoMaker

Class act WVA, did notice he was one of the few still on rim brakes. Starting to stand out now in the peloton.

fat bloke

MojoMaker wrote: »

Class act WVA, did notice he was one of the few still on rim brakes. Starting to stand out now in the peloton.

Apparently he said the main reason he went on the attack out of the peloton was 'cos he couldn't stand to listen to squealing, scraping and rubbing of the all the bikes around him on discs anymore.

Tony04

dahat wrote: »

Following on from the mention of Merida within the thread.

I've just watched a really positive review for the 2021 Recato 6000 which will come in around €3000. Its alot tidier than the Propel or TCR with weight it's downfall but not a major factor for me.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5MMQZ-VVHB4

Some mods around wheels in time would make this a proper bike. The giant pm isn't a factor for me given the poor reviews for it.

Meridas have really nice frames for the money, especially considering any new frame branded s works has been made by them. Although some of their oem parts especially wheels are often lackluster.

That reacto looks nice especially full internal cable routing for that price but would definitely agree that it would benefit from a new pair of wheels

Personally I'd prefer the double diamond frame climbing oriented scultura, but each to ones own.

Imo if you want a shop bought bike I would rarely look beyond giant or merida as they just a level above all other competition at each price point.

fat bloke

dahat wrote: »

Following on from the mention of Merida within the thread.

I've just watched a really positive review for the 2021 Recato 6000 which will come in around €3000. Its alot tidier than the Propel or TCR with weight it's downfall but not a major factor for me.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5MMQZ-VVHB4

Some mods around wheels in time would make this a proper bike. The giant pm isn't a factor for me given the poor reviews for it.

That does look like a lovely bike in fairness, and the blue looks much better in the video than on Merida's own website pic.

If you're a size 47, this is a fabulous deal on the 2020 version, though you will have to concede that precious 1 watt saving at 45kph :rolleyes: over the 2021 model.

https://www.donedeal.ie/bicycles-for-sale/free-delivery-merida-recto-6000-disc/19926336

Personally I love this colour - not sure what the difference is going down to 4000 though, but a striking looking bike for affordable beans:

https://www.donedeal.ie/bicycles-for-sale/free-delivery-merida-reacto-4000-disc-2020/23327808

MojoMaker

Some nice touches on the Reacto definitely. Can't quite come to like the frame design though - bit like the System Six, it looks like it's trying too hard?

Tony04

MojoMaker wrote: »

Some nice touches on the Reacto definitely. Can't quite come to like the frame design though - bit like the System Six, it looks like it's trying too hard?

Would definitely not call it ugly but it is very tt-esque. Unlike the system six it isnt a €k overpriced and merida doesnt have a reputation for creaky bbs