GIANT TOUGHROAD SLR 1
£1099 › Mountain bike-inspired with tubeless tyres and thru-axles
What’s that? A mountain bike?” said the tester’s wife when she saw the Giant Toughroad. We don’t see those very often at chez Withers. And the answer is, well, sort-of-butnot-really, though there’s a lot of modern mountain bike DNA influencing its features – and in a very good way. Think the likes of hydraulic brakes, thru-axles, tubeless wheels with chunky gravel tyres.
So, what makes it a commuter bike, then? Well, Giant certainly thinks the world of urban travel is within its remit, as it says: ‘Fly through city streets. Climb a rugged mountain
pass. Ride some gravel or venture into the woods. Now you can do it all on one ride, with one quick and capable machine.’ This Toughroad is also pleasingly free of a suspension front fork, an unnecessary energy-wasting addition to an urban machine.
The frame is nicely finished in a brushed aluminium with dayglo orange highlights, comes with front and rear racks for full-on touring and even a minimal mudguard under the down-tube. The short stem keeps the handling sharp enough for city roads and the flat bar isn’t too wide, so you can squeeze through smallish gaps. It’s always good to see flattened handlebar grips for comfort, and you could fit small bar-ends for touring. This tester would.
The kit is very well chosen – as you’d expect from the world’s biggest purveyor of quality bikes. Giant has gone for Shimano hydraulic brakes, not Giant’s own hybrid cablehydraulic discs. Stopping is exemplary at all times. Simple as that. Powerful, controlled, minimal effort. The gearing is slightly quirkier but very clever.
The first thing you see is a sideplate-sized cassette, the sort usually seen with 1x gearing. Here, though, Giant has paired it with a subcompact 44/32 FSA chainset, giving a fantastic 21-113in gear range (similar
Nips along smoothly over tarmac, grit and gravel while shrugging off potholes
to a 34x42 bottom/50x12 top); the bottom gear keeps you seated when climbing, the top allows you to keep a decent lick.
Shifting comes courtesy of Deore, which is about halfway up Shimano’s off-road groupset hierarchy. Gear changes are slick and positive. The rear mech has Shimano’s Shadow Plus technology to prevent the chain slapping around, and we couldn’t get any mis-shifts even when trying to induce them.
You’re rarely going to be speeding, but this nips along smoothly over tarmac, grit and gravel while shrugging offpotholes. That’s what 50mm tyres mean, especially as they’re tubeless. They’re comfortable, and while there’s more friction than with slicker tyres, the trade-off is a toughness over rougher stuff.
Comfort? There’s loads of it. Those super-wide tyres are accompanied by Giant’s carbon D-Fuse seatpost that’s familiar from its road bikes. You could trim weight if you’re not gravelling regularly, sticking on slicker, narrower tyres and removing a rack or two if they’re not being used. But that’s not really what this bike is all about, as the Toughroad’s upright riding position is about as non-aero as you’ll find. What this bike is about is toughness on road and off, camellike load-carrying abilities and bags of long-distance comfort. We were never going to break our PB on our 17-mile commute, but we could travel with pannier rather than backpack and arrived without that tell-tale sweaty back.