The New GIANT TCR ADVANCED SL 1: Should You Buy? // Expert Picks

Hello friends!
In this episode, I bring you the buyer’s guide for the all new GIANT TCR Advanced SL 1 road bike.
It is a stunning piece of cycling engineering.
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Links from the video:
Giant TCR Advanced SL 1: https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/tcr-advanced-sl-1-axs-2025
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Thumbnail photo credit: Giant Bikes
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Thank you for watching.
Cheers!

So you have set your sights on the new giant TCR Advanced SL1 road bike the Sleek the mean and money sucking machine that promises to turn you into a cycling superhero but before you remortgage your house let’s see if this fancy cycling Steed is right for your inner tour the

France winner so Hello friends and welcome to another episode of cycling Insider so in this episode I will give you the buyer’s guide for this latest greatest creme de La Creme giant TCR Advanced SL1 which has a retail price of an i watering 9,000 hard earned British pounds so

First thing first let’s answer the question who is this bike for well listen this bike is definitely built for different you know Podium finishes of course this is you know a lightweight climbing stiff machine and if you are in the market for something like this definitely the giant TCR should be one

Of your shortlisted bikes or even one of the you know the first choices you can definitely think about of this giant TCR is almost as a Ferrari of the car world slash in this case you know the cycling World okay when we look at the paint

Scheme on this bike you will get only one paint scheme to choose from and this is this it is a bit of a stunning you know blue metallic blue paint Scheme I think they even call it like a dragonfly Blue Giant always has some very interesting you know paint scheme names

For this uh different bikes but again when you think about 9 ,000 British pounds for a retail price I would truly expect them to offer you at least another pain scheme on this bike it is what it is unfortunately only one pain scheme to choose from now let’s dive

Into the specifications and really see what are you going to get for your hard-earned 9,000 British pounds speaking about these 9,000 British pounds isn’t it kind of eye watering that you can buy many used cars for this 9,000 British pounds unless you are you know driving something like a

20-year-old Toyota Corolla but there is nothing wrong with a 20-year- old Toyota Corolla but I digress in this situation so let’s talk about the carbon uh fiber frame and the fork on this bike so this is the highest level crem de La Creme giant TCR Advanced SL carbon fiber frame

And the fork and in this instance you will get the lifetime warranty on this carbon fiber frame you will also get 12 mm through axles front and the back and uh a press fit bottom bracket on this carbon fiber frame absolutely this Advanced SL grade of the carbon fiber is

The highest level as I said creme de La Creme that giant can do absolutely no special complaints here but but you need to be aware that this uh SL carbon fiber frame comes with the integrated carbon fiber seat post this is almost a signature of the giant Advanced SL and

In this case you truly need to you know measure three times and only cut once because once when you have cut this integrated seat post you will only have a bit of movement with this uh with this seat clamp I believe it’s something about 25 to 40 mm of the movement so

Definitely you know measure twice and cut once with this integrated seat post of course Giant in this instance will say that with integrated seat post they can control better the the comfort of this bike the stiffness of this bike and this is all true but as a regular us

User you really got to you know think twice before you buy it when it comes to the settle on this bike this is a Giant’s own production settle you might like it you might hate it but it’s very easy to replace the settle with your preferred one also I got to mention here

When it comes to The Handlebar and the stem on this bike nothing is super proprietary here this is a carbon fiber pieces of handlebar and the stem from the from the giant a giant contact SLR handlebar and the stem nice carbon fiber pieces and if you would have cables on

This bike they would be run internally and also the cables would be going under the handlebar under the stem then into the frame in this instance you will only have a cable from the hydraulic this brakes running you know Under The Handlebar under the stem into the carbon

Fiber frame so very easy nice solution nothing super proprietary as I said and very easy to adjust your position on the bike now let’s talk about the group set that you’re going to get on this bike so in this specific instance with this giant TCR Advanced SL1 I’m looking at

The version which comes with theam Force excess group set so thisam 4 access group set is a fully uh Wireless group set from samam so shift front Mech and rear Mech everything communicating wirelessly absolutely stunning group set no complaints here it is a 12 speed group set also included

The stram force chain Rings double chain ring at the front stram Force cassette I believe this cassette is 34 too I will double check and just confirm and also theam Force 12 speed chain also with this um C rank set on the bike they are also including the quar power meter

Which is absolutely stunning this is I’m guessing a one-sided power meter but nonetheless it’s going to be absolutely amazing uh on this bike uh when I was speaking about the cassette it is a samam force cassette you will get here 1036 cassette paired with the samam force crank set which is

3346 train rings so a very nice huge gear ratio and very easy to attack any steep mountains I also have to mention here that when it comes to the braking system on this bike you will get the stram force hydraulic disc brakes front and the back at the front 160 mm braking

Rotors at the back unfortunately only 140 mm tiny tiny breaking rotor I really don’t understand this why they are including this tiny breaking Rotor at the back so just keep in mind that in the future I would definitely upgrade this rotor to the 160 mm braking rotor

Because you will have so much better heat dissipation so much better stopping power it is a standard stram paceline breaking rotors which are going to work perfectly fine also with this bike we got to talk about the wheel set because it is one of those you know secret

Sources of this bike so in this instance you are getting the giant SLR Z 40 wheel set if you are buying this thing on the open market you got to be ready for 950 British pounds for the rear wheel and 750 British pound for the front wheel

Again I Ving price for this carbon fiber wheel set from giant but it is a stunning piece of engineering the most important thing you need to know here that this is a hookless rim so you need to be careful that um certain Tire dimensions and certain tire pressures

Are compatible with this wheel set so there is a little you know cable you can download from the giant website about these wheel about these compatible tires and also each tire manufacturer can confirm if they are compatible with the hookless rims this is a tubless ready

Wheel Set uh 40 mm is the rim height of this carbon fiber wheel set and internally 22.4 mm the hubs are the giant own hubs low friction hubs with the rear hub with the ratchet system you know the ratchet system from the DT Swiss absolutely stunning and also I have to mention here

That this is the steel cartridge bearings in these hubs and this wheel set comes with the carbon fiber spokes so just keep in mind that if you break this carbon fiber spoke of course it’s going to cost you much more than a classical you know steel aluminium

Spokes on these bikes uh speaking about the spokes 24 spokes at the back 21 spokes at the front and the warranty on this carbon wheel set is 2 years and the total weight is astonishing 1,340 G so super super light uh carbon fiber wheel set and this wheel set is

Wrapped in the Giants own tires I think it’s the giant gavia Tire let me just double check I’m sorry this is the giant kex race tires tubeless ready tires 28 mm Tire very Supple 100 70 TPI and I’m so glad that the giant here is using a 28

Mm Tire because of a lot of air volume and really really smooth bike ride uh speaking about the total weight of this bike I would expect it to be very light in some kind of size medium large I wouldn’t be surprised if this uh bike would be somewhere on the orders of

Maybe 7.2 7.3 kg excluding the pedals so you add the pedals on top top of it maybe you know 7 and2 kilog absolutely ready to ride so in a summary what is my advice to you when it comes to this giant TCR Advanced SL1 road bike which has an ey watering price of

9,000 British pounds well I’ll put it like this in a conclusion I mean this giant TCR Advanced SL1 is an absolutely you know phenomenal bike if if you have a physique of a of a pro cyclist and I I would say the bank account of of a small millionaire I mean jokes aside

Definitely you know that with this bike you just got to remember that you know with the with the great speed that you’re going to be achieving on this bike it also comes with the with the great responsibility in the sense that every time if you enter some kind of

Local race you will be expected to win it on this bike so you should definitely in my opinion short list this bike if you are in the market market for this kind of lightweight climbing machines giant TCR is a legend and it rarely comes you know better than this cheers