Mountain Bike: Giant

2009 Giant Anthem X LTD Carbon

“Across seven continents and fifty-odd countries, underneath thirty-two of the world’s brightest professional cyclists, in over ten thousand retail outlets, and throughout the streets of the world’s most populous nations, you’ll find bicycles designed and built by Giant, ‘The Global Bicycle Company’.”

That’s a pretty bold statement right there. This global philosophy makes it hard to pin down where the HQ is, but they manufacturer out of an enormous facility in Taiwan, according to Wikipedia

From a brand perspective, somewhere in my travels, I’ve heard Giant are the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world in terms of volume. Whilst I can’t conclusively prove this tidbit fact, in past years looking at their range of bikes and the matching components that come at a particular price point, there is no denying that dollar for dollar, they were amongst the best value complete build bicycles money could buy. Their current line up of mountain bikes seems to have shrunk a bit for 2009 relative to previous years, but consists of:

• Competition: Glory DH (Downhill) Anthem (Cross Country Dual Suspension), XTC Advanced (Carbon Fibre Hardtail)
• Trail: Trance X, XTC Hardtail
• All Mountain: Reign
• Freeride: Reign X

Giant’s claim to fame back in the early days of its dual suspension in 2000/2001 bike development was the NRS – No Resonance System – famously developed in conjunction with the Renault F1 Team offering suspension resonance, telemetry and geometry expertise. In 2007 this was updated both branding wise and structurally/technically to become the Maestro platform, which has been met with critical acclaim as reaching that holy grail of compliant under pedal load and active under braking (no brake jacking). The promotional vids went around the net and captured that sense of “get out there and ride”

I find Giant Bicycles a bit of an odd beast at times in relation to the brand, its uptake and the way they go about presenting product and supporting it. There is no doubting the quality nor depth of the range, covering as they do every variant of bicycles from children’s bikes, triathlon, time trials and road across to cyclocross, hybrids, commuters and mountain bikes. Technology is not lacking either, with their own take on carbon fibre gracing the top echelon of product as the pinnacle of design and technical advancement and oftimes various of their bikes showcasing the latest elite and exclusive release products from component manufacturers like SRAM and Shimano.

Pick say the pricepoint of $2,000 AUD for a Hardtail MTB as an example and you are met with the XTC2. In 2009 trim it comes with a mix of Shimano XT running gear, Avid brakes, RaceFace cockpit (seat post, stem, headset & bar) & Mavic rims. Comparisons with other manufacturers will find the tendency to err towards a generic or own brand cockpit and lower spec trimmings around spokes, cables and tyres. Not Giant. Hand over your cash and you’ll find yourself a highly specified and well made bike which has a very comfortable “fits like a glove” geometry and feel to its ride. I find Giants (and this is a gross generalisation) don’t do any one thing brilliantly, but do everything really, really, REALLY well, leading to a true “sum of its parts makes for the greater whole” experience. Alot of my friends ride Giant, love them and they are amongst my first recommendation for anyone to look at. In addition, the sheer scale of the dealer network means that the support is there if things go south. From a riding point of view, I find them a very “relaxed” position having ridden a couple of the XTC hardtails, their original dual suspension cross country NRS series bicycles and more recently the Trance and Trance X series. They’re smooth, easy to steer and just “ride”. Do everything very well, nothing brilliantly.

What I find odd is that this reputation for value for money and good equipment is jarred by the online and instore experience. If you Google the words “giant bikes”, you are met with a slew of different websites. It is not easy to dessiminate which is the official website as opposed to a dealer website. Bad move. Once you get to the official website for your respective country, I find that they are a totally underwhelming experience, particularly next to the likes of Cannondale, Specialized, Trek etc. The websites are bland, and don’t hold a lot by way of character. More noticable (particularly next to the other branded websites) there is little differentiation between a basic $400 steel framed, caliper brake shod 19kg mountain bike verses a $10,000, disc brake, 9.5 kg carbon fibre race ready weapon. This haphazard approach extends to the bike stores themselves. I’d love to say that Giant present a great buying experience, but they just don’t – I’ve never walked into a store that stocked Giant which has totally blown me away in every aspect – sales staff technical knowledge, product presentation, store layout – it just isn’t in the same class as what the guys at Specialized, Cannondale, Scott or Trek do.

• Official Website Portal http://www.giant-bicycles.com
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Manufacturing

Mountain Bike: Cannondale

Cannondale Rush Team Replica 2009

Cannondale Scalpal Team Carbon 2009

Headquartered in Bethel, Connecticut, USA, Cannondale designs, develops and produces bicycles at its factory in Bedford, Pennsylvania, USA. Owned by Dorel Industries, Cannondale operates subsidiaries in Holland, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia.

Cannondales 2009 Mantra is “The Good Fight”. Throughout their website, they have extensive references to fighting to be different, daring to innovate in the face of adversity and challenging the norm. The folk at Cannondale, to be fair can be called a proud lot. From their point of view, it is all driving toward being the best.

And that’s the thing about Cannondale – they ARE different. And that difference has seen their fair share of elite cyclists making up Team Cannondale and a covey of podium wins. The Lefty front shock mountain bikes are an eye opener when you first see them and when you ride one… lets just say you would never have realised how quick and supple your steering could be – it’s awesome. The lower inertia weight of just the one stauncheon and the reduced mass, all contribute to a superb ride. Anytime I see a Cannondale up close, I always marvel at the finish the bikes have – hand polished weld lines, to show up flaws and sub fractures during manufacturer and the famous “Built in USA, Lifetime Warranty” emblazoned upon the frame.

The range is extensive, covering road bikes as well as mountain bikes. Mountain bike wise, they have some of the most well regarded frame geometries out there:

* Scalpal – Cross Country/Race
* Rush – 24 hour/Endurance/Marathon
* Moto/Rize – All Mountain
* Perp/Judge – Downhill
* Taurine/Caffeine – Hardtail

Each of the above ranges are topped off by the Team variants, often with extra high spec goodies. Of particular note with the Scalpal is that it doesn’t actually have a pivot in its rear suspension where the chainstay meets the crank – it is made out a light weight, flexible carbon monocoque, which allows enough bend for the lean 3.5 inches of travel to take out the jitter in your ride. It’s a light and ultra fast bike.

Cannondale also do a cracking range of self branded components – warranting a closer look are the aforementioned Lefty single stancheon front shock, Hollowgram Cranksets and a good range of mountain bike shoes (I ride a pair).

Notable Factory Riders & Teams:

* Team Liquigas (Tour de France/Road)
* Chrissie Wellington – Triathlon
* Mirinda Carfrae – Triathlon
* Tinker Jurez – 24 Hour Enduro MTB
* Team Monivie

The Cannondale website keeps on improving every time I go there. Sometimes I wistfully wish I was part of team Cannondale and had one stored under the house instead of my Specialized, the site doing such a good job of imparting that sense of clan and adventure. Structurally, one of the best MTB websites around – it has good font size, images are crystal clear and the layout of product is excellent. The introduction landing page which directs you to the appropriate country makes use of flash in such a way, I just want to shut the laptop lid and jump on my bike and go for a spin – the action footage is fantastic. Continuing the theme, once you are in the site, language is written in a manner which appeals to mountain bikers – think the 24 hour enduro set, who subsist on 3 hours sleep, 9 litres of Gatorade, Musashi Mongrel Bars, burning through 2 sets of Lithium Ion batteries on their $600 HID lighting systems and riding upwards of 140km with our 2 team mates….

Cannondale’s site inspires – Go ride.

http://www.cannondale.com