Buy the Giant TCR Advanced 1 from Pauls Cycles here
The Giant TCR Advanced 1 is an agile and efficient bike that would be at home equally in a sportive or a local road race.
The bike comes with a mechanical Shimano Ultegra groupset, which with its near-faultless shifting and only a marginal weight penalty on Shimano Dura-Ace is everything a fast sportiviste or ambitious amateur racer needs.
The standard build of the bike delivers a Giant PR 2 wheelset which will see you right but as the bike review cliche goes, the wheels could be the first thing you look to upgrade.
With Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d’Italia on a Giant, the brand’s bikes have top WorldTour merit and can climb and sprint with the best of their top-tier rivals.
The Giant TCR Advanced 1 and other bikes worth over £999 are avaiable with 0% finance over 24 months: see Giant for more details.
Click through to page two for our full review of the Giant TCR Advanced 1 review from 2016
Giant TCR Advanced 1 review
Giant TCR Advanced 1 is maximal tech for a minimal spend, and despite being speedy, is forgiving to less flexible riders
Review by: Joseph Delves
About the bike
Something of a classic, when Giant introduced the original TCR (Total Compact Road) in 1997, it genuinely revolutionised the way bike frames were made. Created by innovative British engineer Mike Burrows (who was also involved in designing Chris Boardman’s 1992 Olympic gold medal-winning Lotus 108), its radical sloping geometry has set the tone for bicycle design ever since. It also helped Giant become the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer. Constantly refined since then, it’s still the company’s flagship all-rounder.
The Spec
Frameset In theory, a compact frame requires shorter tubes, which should result in a frame that’s both lighter and stiffer. We can’t prove that it’s the geometry that provides these qualities, but the Giant definitely ticks both those boxes. And with a greater length of seatpost sticking out of the low-slung frame, it should also dampen down more of the vibrations transmitted from the road. In practice, while the carbon seatmast might be light and great looking we couldn’t detect much in the way of flexibility. Giant has a wealth of experience working with carbon, and what it calls Advanced Grade Composite – previously only available on its pro-racing level frame – is now used at a more accessible price point. This experience also shows in the almost sculptural quality of the tubes which join and change profile depending on their purpose. The twin port for the internal rear gear and brake cables is a lesson in minimalism.
Groupset A complete Shimano Ultegra 6800 11-speed groupset is as good as you can hope for at this price point. We’re happy with the ratios too. Racers might prefer a pro-compact chainset for maximum top-end speed but most users will appreciate the slightly less severe gearing when the going heads upwards. With 11 sprockets spanning between 11 to 28 teeth the jumps between gears are fine.
Finishing kit The bars are regulation short and shallow. Compared to most stock options, the stem looks like the sort of oversized number more commonly found bolted to bike of a dedicated sprinter. Unsurprisingly, it’s more than stiff enough to stop the bars twanging when pulling on the drops. The own-brand saddle is reminiscent of Fizik’s popular Arione model. Long and flat, it sports plenty of high-density padding. If there’s one thing we’d change, it’s the velour-esque bar tape.
Wheels While the rest of the spec is pretty remarkable in its generosity, the wheels are more serviceable than noteworthy. They’re middle-of-the-road in terms of weight and stiffness and pick-up from the hub is on the slower side, too. On the road, though, all of this is offset a good deal by the tyres. They’re light, fast rolling and grippy enough to not give you the fear when cornering. There’s not a huge amount of puncture protection lurking beneath their tread, but that’s partly the price you pay for speed anyway. At 23c wide they may be narrower than some would choose.
The ride
First impression This is a great-looking bike. The teardrop-shaped seatpost and integrated clamp could have got lost on the way to a much pricier bicycle. There’s a lot going on with the radically shaped tubing, too. Climbing onto the saddle, it instantly feels a long way down to the top tube below, and it’s clear from the position of the contact points that this is a bike with speedy inclinations, something enhanced by the pretty direct response elicited by stomping hard on the pedals.
On the road A very low-slung frame, so don’t be caught out by the sizing. Our size M/L featured a pretty rangy 57cm top tube. Twinned with a good dollop of seat layback and a decent length stem, you’ll likely want a bike that looks about a size too small. However, once installed on the right size, the general impression is of a bike that’s ready to get down to some serious riding. Slightly higher at the front than the Cannondale, it’s still relatively low, but not enough to rule out less flexible riders. The low weight combined with very little in the way of side to side movement means it jumps forward readily. That’s despite the wheels feeling as if they might not be quite as zippy as the rest of the package.
Handling Despite the radical sloping geometry, the crucial numbers for the head and seat tube are matched at a tried and tested 73° so the handling, while quick, doesn’t do anything odd. The geometry is just tuned back slightly from all-out racer. It still whips around and requires getting your head down slightly to get a hold of, but with a few extra millimetres on the head tube, it’s unlikely to put your back out. Our size M/L weighed 7.74kg, seriously light for a bike at this price. With the lowest mass of any machine on test, combined with a good dose of back-end stiffness, the Giant definitely doesn’t want to hang about. While the wheels are decent if not exceptional, the lightweight tyres mean they spin up quicker than any of the others on test. Once up to speed, their suppleness helps the bike to cling tenaciously to any momentum generated. Despite the stiffness when pedalling, the bike is not overly harsh when battling against less well surfaced roads.
Geometry
| Claimed | Measured | |
|---|---|---|
| Top Tube (TT) | 570mm | 570mm |
| Seat Tube (ST) | n/a | 513mm |
| Down Tube (DT) | n/a | 662mm |
| Fork Length (FL) | n/a | 374mm |
| Head Tube (HT) | 168mm | 170mm |
| Head Angle (HA) | 73 | 73 |
| Seat Angle (SA) | 73 | 73 |
| Wheelbase (WB) | 997mm | 997mm |
| BB drop (BB) | n/a | 67mm |
Spec
| Frame | Advanced-Grade Composite, Hyrbrid Over-Drive fork |
| Groupset | Shimano Ultegra 6800, 11-speed |
| Brakes | Shimano Ultegra |
| Chainset | Shimano Ultegra 50/34 |
| Cassette | Shimano Ultegra, 11-28 |
| Bars | Giant Contact |
| Stem | Giant Contact |
| Seatpost | Giant Performance Road |
| Wheels | Giant Variant Composite |
| Saddle | Giant P-R2, with Sapim spokes and Giant P-SL1 23mm tyres |
| Weight | 7.74kg (M/L) |
| Contact | giant-bicycles.com |
