When I was little, I got a TCR racing set for Christmas. In those heady days, TCR stood for "Total Control Racing". Something like a Scalectrix, but without the slots, so the cars could change lanes.
In July of this year, I bought a new bike, a road-racing bike from the Chinese manufacturer "Giant". It too is called TCR, but this time round I've no idea what it stands for. What I do know is that, for the money, it's a fine piece of machinery and over the next virtual page or two, I'll tell you exactly why.
Spurred back on to my bike, after more than 10 years of neglect, by a declining level of fitness and an expanding waist-line, I started riding again at the beginning of this year. For the first 6 months I rode my mountain bike on the roads of Essex in an attempt to get fit. My fitness did improve, but every weekend I would be labouring along the road at what I considered a respectable speed, only to be rapidly overtaken by a stream of cyclists on road-racing bikes. My frustration built until I could take it no longer and had saved up enough to buy myself a road bike.
Not knowing much about road bikes, a quick skim of some cycling magazines revealed that I could probably spend anywhere between £300 and £6,000. Obviously, my preference was for closer to £300 than the opposite end of the scale. But there is a lot of variety in road bikes; from tourers to fitness bikes through to time-trial and triathlon machines. Each is designed for a certain type of cycling and I wasn't sure what I wanted/needed - I just wanted to continue improving my fitness and ride a bit faster.
I shied away from the mud-guard-and-pannier look of the tourer and the price of the time-trial beasts scared me off. So I was looking at the fitness and road racing models. There is significant choice in the market so I set my price bracket at £600 - £800, which narrowed it down quite considerably. I then set about looking for the bike that gave me the best balance of components and frame geometry against the price.
The bike I finally settled on was the Spring 2006 Giant TCR Team Hybrid. It comes with a compact aluminium frame with carbon fibre forks and a carbon fibre rear triangle. The components are all provided by Shimano and specified to a reasonable level - Shimano's 105 series sits mid-way in the range of price/performance.
I found a local bike shop that sold the bike and went for a test ride, at the same time comparing it to several other bikes from other brands in the same price bracket. The Giant was head and shoulders above the competition. In my brief test-rides, it showed far less flex in the frame, allowing real power to be applied through the pedals without any noticeable loss. The angles of the medium-sized frame also suited by build better than most, relatively short legs and a long torso. The feel of the bike was one of immediacy and nimbleness. The carbon fibre front and back ends left excellent weight distribution and also helped take some of the sharpness out of any bumps in the road, carbon fibre being able to flex more than aluminium. The steering was responsive without being twitchy while the gear changes were crisp and immediate, no grating around the cogs before switching. The dual-function levers were a revelation, a world apart from the tube-mounted, non-indexed levers I'd been used to on my first racer.
With it's steeply sloped "compact" road frame and finished in a kind of egg-shell black with the carbon fibre weave visible through the lacquer, it looks something akin to a stealth fighter. I was hooked. Unfortunately, the local bike-shop wouldn't match the on-line price from Wiggle, so Wiggle got my business. A £1,100 bike purchased for £770.
I've now been riding it for 4 months and have covered more than 600 miles, mostly along a training route that I follow on local roads. Over that time I've definitely become quicker and fitter. My average speed has increased from 14mph to 18.5mph and, according to my hear-rate monitor, for roughly the same level of exertion.
I believe that the bike has played a significant part in this improvement. It simply encourages you to go faster, rewarding every ounce of extra energy with increased speed. Confidence through corners is also a big help, and the sure-footed feel of the TCR adds additional benefit there.
It weighs under 9Kg, so the majority of unnecessary weight is all on me. Heck, there' aren't even any mud guards (or space to fit them). The triple chain-ring provides a wide range, although it sacrifices all-out speed in favour of versatility with tooth-counts of 52, 42 and 30. The smallest chainring can come in handy on a steep climb. The 9-speed sprocket (from 12T up to 23T) means there is a total of 27 gear combinations, although the extreme combinations should be avoided. The ratios are close enough that shifting is smooth and is a great help in maintaining a steady pedalling cadence. The handlebars and dual-function levers allow enough change of position that stiffness can be avoided on all but the longest of rides. The brakes are grippy and have enough feel that you don't always end up locking the back wheel. The wheels are lightweight and rotate freely, yet they are strong enough to have retained their shape over some of the less well-surfaced roads in Essex, despite carrying a 13st rider.
The only thing I am likely to change in the not too distant future is the saddle. While there's not too much wrong with the Selle Italia Tri-Matic 2 that is supplied, I've found that on a longer ride I start to get a bit of a numb bum. I'll be looking for something a bit more anatomically sensitive in the coming weeks.
While I hesitate to write it for fear of jinxing myself, I've not had any mechanical problems yet either. I keep the chain cleaned and lubricated - apart from that it's been a low-maintenance bike. A recent change of the cartridge-style brake blocks for wet-weather ones was trivial. The occasional check of cable tension and the tightness of important bolts takes only a few minutes. A wipe down with a soft rag after a wet ride has so far been enough to keep the egg-shell paint looking good without the risk of a pressure washer forcing muck into places it really doesn't belong.
As a company, Giant is building quite a reputation. It still doesn't have the cachet of the longer-established brands but if it's value for money that you are after, they are an excellent choice.
If you are in the market for a decent road-racing bike that will spur you on to improved levels of fitness and is good enough for some entry-level competition riding, the TCR Team Hybrid is outstanding value. If you can pick up the previous years model it's going to be even better value. Combining a better than average component level with aggressive frame design and light weight, it is a bike that will reward your efforts and leave you wanting to push that bit harder.
