Today, the world's most popular road race bike got updated. While we are not here to tell you exactly how it rides (yet), we want to dissect what the TCR stands for and why it has gotten the reputation in the world that has made it so popular.
To do this, we must go back a little and understand Giant Bicycles. Giant Bicycles are a titan in the industry. It is the biggest manufacturer of bicycles, and many would draw parallels between giant bicycles and car manufacturers such as Toyota.
Understanding the size of a Giant is important, as with size comes a certain economy of scale. With size also come refinements and optimisations to the supply chain, which ultimately allow them to have some of the best-valued bikes on the market at any price point in any category of bicycles. Their dominance is so strong that the closest rival's purposely tries to price themselves higher to target a more luxury and premium audience, but Giant has always utilised the same winning formula.
Design a bike that does everything well and isn't overly offensive, and introduce it into the marketplace at a price point no one else can match. When we say no one else can match, we mean non-D2C (direct-to-consumer) companies, as D2C isn't quite the same as having a local dealer support network.
The previous TCR as a road bike is no slouch and has been a staple on roads worldwide, but it was definitely showing its age. It arrived just before all bikes went through integration, and sure as expected, the new TCR uses the new OverDrive Aero Steer from the Propel and Defy. This is a really simple system that is easy to work with from a mechanical point of view, and the new stems that Giant has released to support the aero steerer should offer an option for everyone.
The usual improvements are all there. Slightly stiffer, slightly lighter, slightly more comfortable, and slightly more aerodynamic. We wouldn't expect any company to launch a bike that is seemingly worse than the previous generation, so in this regard, we can just go ahead and assume this bike is going to be an improvement on the previous TCR.
One of the most important features of this new bike is the new manufacturing method, which is mostly hidden to end users, but it does bring about some manufacturing advancements that, on the surface, are less exciting but no less important. Ultimately, it will allow Giant to produce bicycle frames that are more consistent with less chance of failure.
So who is the TCR for and why is it so popular? The TCR is for the cyclist who just wants to ride a bike that has all the modern refinements/features in a really compelling price package without being disadvantaged in any significant way. This is probably the easiest way we can sum up the TCR 10th generation.
Looking at it this way, it is almost the polar opposite of another popular bike we see a good amount of, the Pinarello Dogma F. Just exciting enough and ticking all the boxes may seem like a boring way to approach product design, but the scale that Giant has dictates that they must make a bike that suits not just that 0.5% of consumers in the cycling world but the majority of cyclists looking for a new road bike.
In this way, the 10th generation is exactly what we expected from a giant. The perfect modern road disc bike for the majority of cyclists. We will also be testing the new 10th gen TCR internally as well so look forward to a more in-depth short term and long term review in the future.
