Problems With Giant Tcr Carbon Fibre Frames

greenpeter2001 said:

I ride a 1997 giant CFR and to date it has been faultless.
Couldn't speak highly enough of its ride and reliability.
Was looking at upgrading to a carbon fibre TCR but i hear talk of problems with the frames.
Has anyone experienced any structural problems?

Not one problem in 10300km's

greenpeter2001 said:

Was looking at upgrading to a carbon fibre TCR but i hear talk of problems with the frames.
Has anyone experienced any structural problems?

how much BS do you suppose is out there?

I have a 2004 TCR 2, I weigh 112kg and have a habit of breaking bike bits. No problems so far.

I think there is a lot of BS out there, and most of it is motivated by competitors. One LBS, who sells Specialized and Avanti but not Giant, tried to talk me out of buying any full carbon bike. That same LBS is also said to have been spreading rumours that Giant carbon frames had a habit of breaking. In response to that rumour the lBS I purchased my TCR2 from put out a challenge - if anyone can find proof of a Giant bike breaking, the person who finds that proof would get a free Giant carbn road bike. The latter LBS has not given a single bike away.

Now the really interesting thing is the first LBS now sells full carbon road frames, and promotes their purchase. Perhaps they have been feed some BS by their reps.

happier than a pig in 5hit with mine.

have clocked only around 1500kms on my '04 TCR 2 - all good so far.

though the shimano R540 wheelset is getting rust spokes😠 LBS is looking into getting this prob sorted with their shimano rep

Balderick said:

I have a 2004 TCR 2, I weigh 112kg and have a habit of breaking bike bits. No problems so far.

I think there is a lot of BS out there, and most of it is motivated by competitors. One LBS, who sells Specialized and Avanti but not Giant, tried to talk me out of buying any full carbon bike. That same LBS is also said to have been spreading rumours that Giant carbon frames had a habit of breaking. In response to that rumour the lBS I purchased my TCR2 from put out a challenge - if anyone can find proof of a Giant bike breaking, the person who finds that proof would get a free Giant carbn road bike. The latter LBS has not given a single bike away.

Now the really interesting thing is the first LBS now sells full carbon road frames, and promotes their purchase. Perhaps they have been feed some BS by their reps.

Wonder if that challenge covered Giant forks as well, because Giant did have a problem with CF forks on '01 model TCR and OCR bikes. They issued a CPSC recall to replace some 2400 forks on bikes produced in early '01.

Of course, any manufacturer could run into this situation. I applaud Giant for standing up with the recall and free replacement of their suspect forks. It's just that when a salesman trys to say their product is perfect, that they've never made a bad one....I take that with a grain of salt.

I agree with the bike shop thing. After working in one for a while, and hanging out with guys who work in them, you really cant take the word of a bike shop employee very well. They hawk a lot of [censored]. They are fed info from the reps, and trained to make their product look the best. I used to work at a bike shop that only sold Giants, and they ARE great bikes. The only broken cf frame I've seen, the guy got hit by a cement truck. I ride one myself. I think they look fantastic, ride great. The only problem with them is the sizeing. You have to fit on one, and that s, m, l, xl stuff isnt for everybody, despite what they say.

Rompinrhino said:

I agree with the bike shop thing. After working in one for a while, and hanging out with guys who work in them, you really cant take the word of a bike shop employee very well. They hawk a lot of [censored]. They are fed info from the reps, and trained to make their product look the best. I used to work at a bike shop that only sold Giants, and they ARE great bikes. The only broken cf frame I've seen, the guy got hit by a cement truck. I ride one myself. I think they look fantastic, ride great. The only problem with them is the sizeing. You have to fit on one, and that s, m, l, xl stuff isnt for everybody, despite what they say.

Just learned a bit of the history of Giant from these articles. Thought they were just a US importer, but they are a taiwanese producer company who started their own brand name and went global. An impressive corporation...now I want one.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2004/07/10/2003178447
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2003/12/30/2003085732