I have no doubt that the new Giant TCR is an amazing bike. After all, Giant is one of the few OEMs that are actually Original Equipment Manufactures; most other bike “makers” contract to Giant, or someone else, and they have the design expertise and financial clout to design and build great bikes.
Now, I didn’t see an explicit size mentioned, but these weights are almost always of the Size Medium variety. Which frankly only makes it worse. Because as someone who has a 58 (Giant Size Large) S-Works Tarmac Disc, a scale, and a penchant for weighing EVERYTHING. I take issue with the weight claims below: my Tarmac Disc frameset weighs 1345g…
Also, that integrated seat post is rubbish. Not for any good reason, I just don’t like them. All that said, if someone from Giant wants to send me a Size Large TCR to compare against the Tarmc, preferably with Di2, I’d be more than happy to revisit that opinion :).
In terms of weight, Giant admits the TCR loses out to the Emonda by 17 grams, but comes in 105 grams lighter than the Tarmac and 322 grams better off than the R5. It makes up for this on stiffness, however. Using Tour Magazine’s testing protocol, Giant claims 26% more stiffness when compared to the Emonda, 16.6% over the R5 and 9.8% more than the Tarmac.
Giant’s performance testing results, at a glance Bike Average Drag (40kph) Weight Transmission Stiffness TCR Advanced SL Disc 247.5 watts 1266g 149.8 (N/mm) S-Works Tarmac Disc 248 watts 1371g 135 (N/mm) Emonda SLR Disc 261.4 watts 1249g 110.4 (N/mm) Cervelo R5 247.9 watts 1588g 124.9 (N/mm)