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TECH NEWS

Tour tech: Giant Trinity Advanced SL TT bike on sale from September

Bike ridden by Rabobank at the Tour and with an impressive palmares goes into production

The prototype Giant Trinity Advanced time trial bike ridden by the Rabobank team in the Tour de France is to go into production and will be available to the public from early September says the company.

The Trinity SL Advanced prototype first made an appearance in 2008 but the development process has continued. The latest version is the fifth generation of the original. Since then Giant have continued to refine their design with extensive wind tunnel and laboratory stress testing, along the way the bike has been riddent to a time trial Olympic gold medal, a decisive Giro d’ Italia win and a commanding Ironman Germany victory. The fifth-generation prototype moves into production as the Trinity Advanced SL.

“This whole project started with two guiding principles,” said Pierre-Henri Medas, Giant’s Global Road Category Manager. “One, the bike would be built solely for function, without concern about design aesthetics. And two, it had to be approved by the UCI. These two principles served the end goal of providing professional riders the tools to win the most competitive races in the world.”

While the Trinity is never going to win a beauty contest it does have an impressive palmares already. The latest version was unveiled for Tuesday's team time trial and while Rabobank had a bit of a 'mare that couldn't be blamed on the bike – although you would have to wonder how that headtube and integrated fork area affects handling in a strong cross wind.

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Everything you would expect of a high end time trial bike is present on the Trinity SL, integrated fork, back wheel recessing into the seat tube (possibly even more so than than even the Cervelo's P4), internally routed cables, asymetric chainstays. Giant haven't stinted on the technical buzzwords either this bike features:

  • Aerodrive – that's the combined aero fork and stem ' control centre' that Giant says puts the rider in the most aerodynamic position of any bike currenly on the market.
  • Megadrive – that's the combinations of the top and down tubes – both of which Giant stresses comply with the UCI's 3:1 aspect ratio rule.
  • Speed Control – the custom designed brakeset, the front mounted behind the fork and the rear mounted on the chainstay, the benefits are a powerful braking system that does not compromise aerodynamics.
  • Powercore – the massively oversized bottom bracket, which provides a stiff pedalling platform, and the the assymetric chainstays which enhance stiffness on the drive side and stability on the non-drive side.
  • Vector SLR – the aero seat post with an enclosed seat clamp and 0,10, and 23mm of offset adjustment.

Frame Geometry is 73° for the head angle and 78° for the seat and is the same for all sizes, Giant achieved this by altering the length of the top tube and headtube – spacer stacks will help riders fine tune their position on the bike.

The new bike will be available in three sizes: S, M, L and will come equipped with Shimano's new Di2 electronic grouset matched up to Shimano's Dura Ace 7900 crankset.

No word on pricing yet, but it's not going to be cheap and will probably be somewhere in advance of the £3,250 the current Trinity Advanced model sells for.

To find out more visit: www.giantbicycles.com

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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4 comments

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thebikeboy | 14 years ago
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Mind you, they are both pig ugly too - I'd say both it and the Spec owe a big debt to the BMC Time Machine as does the Argon 18 and the old Trek TTX.

Being picky not sure it can be the baster son of the Spesh though cos it's older - maybe the Specialized is it's bastard son crossed with a prettier mother, possibly the new Trek  1  39

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cactuscat | 14 years ago
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looks like the bastard son of a Cervelo P3 and that new Specialized. and it didn't get the looks of either.

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Fringe | 14 years ago
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“One, the bike would be built solely for function, without concern about design aesthetics". He's right there, pig ugly of a machine that..still good to hear some honest comment from a manufacturer.

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 14 years ago
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Awesome machine that new Trinity Advanced SL is, like the similarly radical Specialized time trial bike ridden by Fabian Cancellara possibly the most intriguing thing about it is that it has been approved by the UCIl.

While the integrated fork and stem combo, and the headtube, and the junction of the top and down tubes might on their own just about scrape inside the 3:1 aspect ratio rule combined they surely can't, never mind the fact that head tube also look like a fairing. Here at road.cc we're all for innovations but the new Giant also shows just how elastic the UCI's technical regulations seem to be. Below is the template from the UCI's latest clarification of its Technical Regulations for Bicycle Builders into which a time trial frame design must fit.

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