Tight Giant wheel bearing

Fixed!

My bike shop said that despite what they were telling Giant (below) they insisted the wheels were within tolerance. 

The shop guy knew that no way should these hubs be that stiff. He'd figured out the problem:

On each side, the hub axle has a shoulder that should sit either flush with or the smallest amount proud of the installed inner bearing race, butt up to the quick release flange, stopping quick release pressure getting to the inner bearing race (the flange diameter always sits completely inside the outer race diameter)  On these wheels, the shoulders were a tiny amount short, ie inboard of the races, so the inner races, unprotected by these shoulders were being pushed inwards by qr pressure. In that situation, only the loosest qr adjustment let the wheel turn anywhere near free.

The bike shop fix was to fit a shim to make the shoulder slightly wider.  Problem immediately solved, thanks!

Doesn't say much for Giant though, ignoring what the bike shop was saying.

The bike shop had tested different wheels, including brand new ones, all the same.

We're happy now, and guess it will all go away anyway with the fresh through axle hubs.

Dave

Update,

Towards the end of 2016, the bike shop finally received replacement SLR 0 and SLR 1 wheelsets from Giant, but I was then told not to bother coming down for them because these had exactly the same problem ie hubs going stiff as soon as quick release tightened.

A few weeks gap after I injured myself on my mountain bike but now picked up again and we're all still waiting on Giant. Today the bike shop has just said they are finding out if Giant are sending any more replacements. 

As an aside I am seriously wondering now about Giant quality control.....I've just discovered that the disc pads, certainly on the front of the Defy (haven't checked others yet) don't sit correctly over the rotor so that that there are outer edges of pads that never wear. Presumably because of wrongly dimensioned caliper posts on the fork. I'm wondering what happens when the calipers self adjust enough for the unworn pad section on each side to touch together. Not a big deal on its own but because of the other problems I'm beginning to wonder about Giant.

I know that none of these things are going to stop the bikes from working, and that most unsuspecting newcomers to cycling might not spot them. But all the same, they are faults, that should definitely not be on bikes each costing thousands of hard earned pounds.

I'll just keep plugging away at this and I'll post the outcome here.

If anyone else has these wheels, maybe check them out....

SLR 1 disc, rear

SLR 0, disc, front

Thanks for comments. Here's what it was:

There Is a problem despite the first shop telling me that it's "a bit like running a new car in" etc even though I'd specifically said it was Only when the qr was tightened. I knew it had to be something not in line etc  The answer came from a second bike shop (same bike chain!) He tested for bad bearing seating but in the end it was that the axle profile is manufactured wrong, shoulders too far inboard so that the qr pressure bears not on the shoulders as it should, but on the bearing races which is bad news and no amount of playing about will fix it, it's just made wrong  The bike is one of what must be tens of thousands sold world wide  so I'm guessing that there must be a lot of tight wheels out there but how many would notice because a stiff hub is normally only tangible when you're spinning the spindle using your fingers  At the rim it wouldn't notice much but it would still be there. Because it's only there under qr pressure, no way to notice it unless eg using the spacer trick with wheel off the bike.

So if your wheel spins beautifully free but even just a bit less free when the qr is tightened, then there is a good reason and it should not happen .

There