GIANT'S BEST BIKE EVER?
TCR: THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ROAD BIKE OF ALL TIME, RADICALLY UPDATED
The original TCR changed the face of race bikes forever. On the eve of its ninth incarnation we take a look back at this game-changing machine and a look forward to the latest, and maybe greatest, TCR yet
The TCR’s original concept came from legendary British bike designer and engineer, Mike Burrows. Like all great innovators, Mike has a reputation for stepping away from the normal. He’d been a long-time advocate of singlesided fork and frame designs (for aero benefits), he was obsessive about correct crank length, and saw the traditional two-triangle, horizontal top-tube design of a road frame as archaic. His out-of-the-box thinking led to amazing, radical and proven designs, such as the Lotus Type 108 that Chris Boardman propelled to Olympic pursuit gold in 1992, and on which Boardman set the hour record in 1996. The story didn’t end there, though – the 108 was outlawed by the UCI and that hour record scratched from the official ‘athletes’ hour (Boardman took that record too, on a more conventional Look bike).
This wasn’t Burrows’ first (or last) run-in with cycling’s governing body, the UCI, as back in 1987 an early aerodynamic carbon monocoque was banned by suits in Aigle before the then-interested BCF (British Cycling Federation) had a chance to race it in competition.
Skip forward to the mid-1990s and Taiwanese brand Giant was one of the biggest bike makers in the world. An impressive feat as it’d only been in business since 1972 (overtaking huge marques such as Bianchi and Raleigh in the process). The company drove innovation with inventions, such as the mass-produced CADEX carbon bikes that launched as early as 1987. However, it had its sights set on becoming a leading brand in road cycling, and that meant professional sponsorship and a bike that could compete with world-leading bikes of the day from legendary brands, such as Pinarello and Colnago.
Rather than emulate the European brands, Giant looked to innovate, turning to Mike Burrows and the development work he had been doing on using a sloping top-tubed frame from a mountain bike to make a more aerodynamic time-trial bike. t would become the Total Compact Racing bike, or TCR as it’s now known.
Total Compact Racing
That original design used compact sloping frame geometry and adapted it for the road, the idea being that a smaller front triangle is both lighter and stiffer than a traditional one. The back end was also more compact, which saved weight and made the engineers’ job easier by improving power transfer and efficiency. The early models had a major advantage in aerodynamics because the much longer seatposts could be aero-shaped and built from carbon fibre, which also added comfort. Burrows designed a new bladed fork to give front-end aerodynamics a boost as well.
There’s no getting away from the fact that the TCR was a commercial win. Back then, road bikes came in myriad sizes, normally 10, some models as many as 12, so that’s 12 different tube-sets and 12 different jigs to weld up, which is complex and expensive. With the TCR, Giant only had to manufacture three sizes: small, medium and large, adding in different-sized (carbon fibre aero) seatposts and alternative (and fully angle-adjustable) 105, 120 and 135mm stems. However, by 2018 Giant had reverted to five sizes – XS to XL (still less than most brands) to fulfil the TCR range.
That original bike was held up in legal wranglings, again by the UCI, who said that sloping frame designs contravened the rules on