How Well Made are Giant TCR's? (we found out)

A BIG Thank You to Gary, Hambini, Jay and Aaron for their involvement in this piece. It was great to have so many perspectives, enabling a well rounded evaluation. Cheers, Cam

The guy at the Giant store was super nice; he even offered a warranty frame for the experiment.

Credit to the Giant guy, who offered a warranty frame, instead of getting a sale for a new frame,

Carbon manufacturer here. I like the video but take issue with the first conclusion which is incorrect. 10.37 says the wrinkle made of glue is a "weak point". its not a weak point. if the wrinkle is made of glue (as the bike shop chaps reported) and the fibres below are straight then there is no reduction in strength. It has the same carbon, in the same orientation, and some additional glue that filled up a wrinkle in the bag. Sure its nicer to have an EPS or wax mandrel that give smooth surfaces. It makes zero measurable impact on performance or safety. What would be good is to flatten out that area of glue down to the carbon suface and identify if the fibre orientation is straight or wiggly - that would indeed make a performance difference. No I'm not from Giant, but I can see some people in the comments responding to the incorrect diagnosis in the video.

Like every other Giant TCR owner, my heart was in my throat from start to finish.....but im delighted to see that my 'boring Toyota' frame is good.....and by the way, i love it!! thanks for the vid 😄

When the GIANT salesman realised he was dealing with a mad man... priceless moment in film history. Cheers, Chrissi

Great video Cam. Well done. Giant TCR is usually considered a benchmark choice. Solid but boring option. It’s their BB that bring us the most work. Things tend to go wrong when someone has installed something other than the plastic BB from Shimano and the hole in the frame is not good enough for a more precisely made BB. The extra paint can cause issues with brake alignment sometimes. Thanks for making this vid.

Hello Hambini fans! The uncut version of the chop shop is available on my channel! I made it whilst drinking. Thanks to cam for having me on the channel!

The other reason Giant is an excellent choice is because Giant makes many other mainstream brands, and could be seen as what would be reasonably expected of others as well.

3 mins in and I love the bike shop guys reaction and offer of a warranty frame instead. Then I think I yelled at the TV when dude was cutting the headtube with a recipricating saw and had his hand UNDERNEATH!! Exciting vid so far.

Now for full transparency and fairness, cut open a BMC frame. With it being seen as a less desirable frame by the pros, it would be interesting to see how it stacks up.

sold Giant in Saudi Arabia for 10 years. in the 10 years i did with them, not one recall. i today own 5 Advanced SL ISP bikes built fromn the frame up including a 2024 TCR Adanced SL frameset. i did crack my 2012 frame when i hit a roadworks ditch pre-sunrise. wrote Giant. got a brand new 2018 TCR Advanced SL replacement. no questions asked.....

Now THAT was a really cool video. I watch your stuff from time to time and really enjoyed this one. Thank you for going to the time and more over expense of doing this.

Great video Cam. Legit actual journalism- love it.

Excellent vid eventhough i wont be doing that to my giant frame. But then again im still riding my 2010 TCR advance SL. Still kicks arse! Please cut a LOOK frame up as Hambini loves em.

This VID is AWESOME!! Thank you 😎💯👍 Watching with my popcorn 🍿🍿🍿

Wishing you all at Team RCA a very Happy Christmas and a great 2024 thanks for so many interesting videos in 2023 keep them coming .

Should have gotten a couple warranty frames to cut open instead - including the more common frame without the integrate seat mast.

All my recent bikes have been giant, so I'm glad it just managed to squeak through the Hambini shite test, I don't know what I would do if it didn't, I guess I have so little faith in the industry that I wouldn't switch as I expect all manufacturers are similar.

Very interesting video….thanks Cam, well done!