Reviews

Giant TCR Advanced Pro 1 Disc road bike

Balanced all-rounder brought up to date with disc brakes

The TCR is Giant’s road race platform and, having been updated in 2015, it’s now gained disc brakes for 2017, bringing the frame bang up-to-date by combining the Taiwanese firm’s know-how with disc brake technology.

The TCR is based around Giant’s Compact Road geometry, which some argue paved the way and set the blueprint for modern road bikes, but what really impresses is the balanced ride the frameset as a whole provides. The TCR is an all-rounder at heart, built to give an optimum blend of light weight, compliance and stiffness; instead of being an industry leader in just one area, Giant aim for the perfect balance.

That, of course, will be a matter of opinion as we’re all subjective, but with features like the ‘Megadrive’ (retro Sega games console fans, relax) downtube, to provide a super-stable platform through oversized squared profiling, matched up to an oversized bottom bracket (dubbed ‘PowerCore’) and headtube areas, the bike is clearly designed to provide a thrilling ride.

The rear triangle features super-narrow tubing to help with rear end compliance, while also keeping mass down, and in tandem with gently flared chainstays, you can really open the taps out of the saddle and give it the beans without feeling any real loss.

Match this with the short wheelbase (976mm in a medium-sized frame), and a small 57mm trail coupled with 545mm stack height, that means it’ll rise like a demon, responding sharply and decisively underneath you even with the marginal weight penalty of disc brakes taken into account.

Those are integrated as neatly as possible around the specially-designed forks and rear stays, which use the increasingly universally-adopted 12mm thru-axle standard, claimed to boost stiffness further.

In this Advanced Pro model, you’ll find Shimano’s Ultegra Di2 drivetrain, with all the smooth and precise, self-trimming shift efficiency bonuses you get from using Shimano’s electronic system.

Efficiency is the name of the game elsewhere too. Brakes are BR805 Ultegra-standard hydraulic stoppers, and the wheelset and tyres neatly complement the bike, with Giant’s own Gavia SLR 1 Disc setup circled by Gavia SLR tubeless 25c rubber.

RCUK 100 2017 - Giant TCR Disc road bike

Giant TCR Advanced Pro Disc

Price: £3,799
Website: Giant

In keeping with the in-house flavour of the bike, Giant have also provided handlebar and stem, as well as the saddle – so all contact points are covered. You’ll also notice the tidy carbon seatpost that fits inside a neatly designed integrated clamp.

Ultimately, what the TCR is, is a seriously well-engineered machine, borne of the years of innovation and tweaking. From the ground-up, it’s a race-ready disc-brake machine that’ll be just as at home during the weekly chaingang as it is on the high climbs of the Alps. Just the ticket, we think.