NEW Giant TCR: Marginal Gains, Minimal Change

Giant’s 10th-generation TCR road race bike has launched with claims of fulfilling that famous holy trinity – lighter, faster and stiffer.

The main change comes at the front end with integrated cabling, but the updates are more than aesthetic.

Liam Cahill takes you through the changes you need to know about and Warren Rossiter shares his thoughts, having delivered an in-depth review of the new bike.

#cycling #bike #giant

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:40 2024 Giant TCR Weight
02:40 Is the 2024 Giant TCR Stiffer?
03:57 Is The 2024 Giant TCR Faster?
06:50 2024 Giant TCR Pricing
07:43 Is This Update Enough?
09:46 Ride Impressions
11:10 Outro

Warren’s full review of the 2025 Giant TCR Advanced SL 0 Dura-Ace Di2
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/bikes/road-bikes/giant-tcr-advanced-sl-0-dura-ace-di2-review

Giant Propel 2023 | A 6.91KG Aero Road Bike… With Disc Brakes!

NEW 2024 Giant Defy | What’s Changed? + First Ride Review

Giant TCR Vs. Cannondale Supersix EVO

Giant TCR Advanced Pro 2 Disc Long-Termer

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Giant’s lightweight TCR race bike has been updated for 2024 with a lower weight more Arrow design and stier Chassis the major news is that the front end is now fully integrated with not a single cable on show but there’s also a new fork and new Wheels it’s a massively

Popular bike and is often seen as the way to go if you want a lot of bang for your buck but are these changes enough on first look it seems like a case of marginal gains and minimal change but let’s get stuck into the big news before Warren brings us his first ride Thoughts in fantastic news for all of you weight weening out there the giant TCR is said to be lighter than the old bike with the advanced SL model weighing a claimed 1358 kilos for the frame set being the SL model this includes the integrated seat post giving you a claimed weight

Saving of 38.4 3 G over the 20121 model giant tells us that this weight saving comes down to several new state-of-the-art production techniques and the first is according to Giant a new Ultra precise cold blade cutting technique that replaces the laser cutting process from the previous generation now this apparently leads to

Fewer and more precise pieces being used used for a lighter overall frame weight though a quick note this is limited to the SL frames only a single inner bladder is then used in place of the old frames 3 to create a onepiece front triangle now giant claims that this

Further minimizes frame weight without sacrificing stiffness or aerodynamics at the front end you’ll also find a new stem that comes with some feathery weight claims the contact SLR Aero light stem that comes on higher end models weighs a claimed 123 G for a 100 mm length while the aluminium contact SL

Weighs a claimed 161 G there are also new Wheels with Advanced SL bikes getting the recently launched cadex Max 40 at 1,249 G they feature carbon Spokes and aerrow hub flanges but lower end models get the new giant SLR 40 wheel set which also featur carbon spokes a similar Rim

Profile and comes with a claimed weight of 1,339 G despite the weight loss giant says that the new frame is stiffer in key areas these are according to Giant frame stiffness which determines the amount of overall frame and fork torsional Flex under load and pedaling stiffness which

Measures the lateral Flex of the bottom bracket area when you’re giving it some Welly most of the gains in stiffness are said to come from modified sections of the head tube down tube and bottom bracket areas the net result is giant claims an uncompromising race bike that delivers explosive acceleration and

Unyielding pedaling stiffness the result giant says is a 0.53% Improvement in terms of frame fork and pedaling stiffness for the SL model over the 2021 SL model a marginal Improvement but an improvement nonetheless giant is also very keen to shout about these very fancy cadex Max 40 Wheels which launched last month and

Alongside it the giant SLR 40 Wheels which both get carbon spokes these Wheel sets come with data that claims that they’ve got better stiffness to weight ratios than comparable wheels from zip lightweight Ral boner and Syncross along with the weight savings giant claims the new TCR is 4.19 watt more efficient than the 2021 model at 40 km hour now the most notable feature which will be aiding this figure is the neatly integrated front end the TCR uses a semi-integrated cable routing design

Via its brand new contact SLR aerrow light stem and the 160 G contact SLR handlebar not only does giant claim that the integration is more Arrow but it’s also apparently adding flexibility by allowing extra cable length during assembly making it they say easier to adjust height using the headset spacers

The fork has a new d-shaped stero tube that we first saw on the Propel before it moved over to the defi but that’s not all it also has a new crown and aerodynamic leg shape that was developed in conjunction with the down tube now this giant says also features a new

Truncated ellipse tube shape for improved air flow as before the giant TCR Advanced SL uses an integrated seat post while the advanced and advanced Pro Models get a more common two-piece system giant says that all of the tube shapes were developed using computational fluid dynamics or cfd with

The result being a new air foil section that giant says consistently lowers drag coefficient at a wider range of your angles compared to traditional teardrop frame shaping Giants testing of the TCR took place at the GST wind tunnel in Germany and it used a dynamic dummy which according to Giant more accurately

Reveals the aerodynamic effects of the rider while pedaling this also means that the testing included wheels that were spinning and a drivetrain that was moving rather than static giant says that the most significant gains were achieved in the down tube seat post and Fork shaping to ensure real world

Performance giant says that it designed the aerodynamic flow around the down tube with 500ml water bottles fitted the new Giant and kadex wheels add giant says to the overall Arrow savings with a redesigned hookless Rim profile which is 22.4 mm wide internally now this giant claims creates a seamless interface

Between the rim wall and the tire sidew wall of a 28 mm tire for which they are optimized though there is no external rim width stated and no Arrow claims attached to the wheels if even wider tires are your thing then the bike will now take 33 mm tires up from the old

Bike’s limit of 32 mm tires pricing seems to be a mixed bag depending where you are in the world at the base of the price structure the giant TCI Advanced 2 remains at £ 2,699 in the UK but in the us it’s up by $200 to

$3,200 meanwhile at the top end of the scale the advanced sl0 with Jura Ace costs $1,999 or $12,500 that’s up from $10,999 or $122,200 the bike that I was riding in the shots the advanced Pro zero is 62 Grand in and dollar that’s £500 or $250 more than before full pricing

Details are over on bik radar.com if you want details for a specific model or region now 28 years ago when the original TCR was launched it was revolutionary in recent years though giant has had a conservative track record for developing the bike Simon recently wrote an excellent article

Exploring what he would love to see from the new TCR so let’s have a quick game of check what he was right about this will be fun Simon wanted to see better aerodynamics and he got that he wanted a more Progressive rim design another check there space for wider tires check

But Simon didn’t want to see integrated cable routing that has happened unfortunately so there’s an unhappy Simon he didn’t want to see a threaded bottom bracket he argues that a pressfit system if done correctly is better giant has stuck with pressfit so another check there he also wanted to see the end of

The integrated seat post but giant is seemingly wedded to that so the final score is four out of six for Simon’s TCR wish list his article also points out that the bike currently sits in a bit of an awkward position the Propel which is giant arrow race bike is a faster

Machine that gets very close to the UCI 6.8 kilo minimum weight limit so Racers are likely to pick the Propel because it’s much faster and they can’t go much lighter anyway the TCR seems to be stuck between the faster Propel and the uci’s minimum weight limit so with bikes like

This the specialized AOS and TX amonda surely it’s finally time for the UCI to reconsider this outdated rule I would imagine that a good chunk of you watching our TCR owners and I’m really interested to know whether you like the look of this new bike and is the update

Enough for you I’ve made a poll over on our community tab there’s a link in the description or just leave your thoughts down in the comments right I got to ride the TCR Advanced Pro zero model when we were shooting the ride shots for this video I

Must admit that it was a delight to ride but we were just sessioning a few lanes Warren Roseta however has been out in much sunnier climbs and so I thought I’d share some of his ride thoughts firstly he said that it’s an impressively light bike his large test bike with two bottle

Cages and an outfront Mount TI the scales of Truth at just 6.42 kilos even adding his time pedals only shifts that up to 6.68 kilos weight aside the best thing is Warren says that they haven’t broken it it’s still the TCR that he knows and loves now the handling is

Perfectly balanced he says Warren told me that the cornering is very very direct and the bike responds with a willingness you only get from a super stiff frame set yet on the smooth Taiwanese tarmac roads which I’m very jealous of it’s an impeccably comfortable machine don’t expect a see

Change in performance the TCR was already a benchmark race bike but this new bike just refines and polishes everything that’s good about the design it doesn’t shift the bar into the stratosphere but it certainly he says the best TCR to Date now if you enjoyed this video and you like the new TCR then give this video a like and if you love a nice giant TCR then why not check out Simon’s long-term review of his nice 2021 model thank you very much for watching and we will see you next time