2nd Ride: Giant 2008 TCR C2...

I got back from my 30 mile loop around 360 on my new Giant TCR. After logging 50 miles over 2 days, I can say the ride quality is really amazing compared to bikes I rode 5 to 10 years ago. It is somehow stiffer and does a great job absorbing the bumps in the road for a smooth, comfortable ride at the same time. This has always been a trade off with road frames. There's an article about this here.

The latest generation of frames and wheels do an amazing job of both. It takes off when sprinting and is remarkable smooth over rough pavement. This bike begs to be ridden hard. Put the hammer down and it responds instantly.

It's handling is very responsive, yet stable. You probably wouldn't want to ride down the rode in a trance, but the handling rewards attentiveness with an ability to be chucked instantly into corners. This is after all a race bike first and foremost, but its comfortable and stable enough for anyone that likes to ride hard even if you aren't competing. 

I did plenty of 30+ mph efforts and hit 45 mph coming down the hill to the 360 bridge and sprinted uphill on the bridge at 30 mph, and I can say that high speed stability is great and inspires confidence. I would have no problems bombing down a mountain at 50 mph on this bike.

The Mavic Aksium Race wheelset is great. It's much more aerodynamic and smoother rolling than than standard Mavic Open Pro 32 straight gauge spokes I usually run. It features only 20 bladed spokes on both the front and rear wheel. The wheels are clearly superior than the standard wheelset both in aerodynamics and smoothness. It was quite windy today and I didn't have any handling issues with crosswinds. The only concern I have is durability because of the low spoke count. But only time and miles will tell how well these wheels hold up.

The only thing that I need to work on is my position. As with every new bike, I tried to copy my position from my old bike, but there's always that few weeks where I need to tweak my position in order to feel comfortable. Something is still a little "off" (I'm not sure what yet) with my position, and I'm going to need a couple weeks to sort it all out.