Giant TCX 2

Read about Giant's TCX2 on their website and you might think you're buying a full-on CX race iron. "Light enough to hoist and carry, fast enough to put you on the podium, that's TCX", they gush. In reality the £800 TCX is much more of an all-rounder, with a spec that suggests it'll do its miles in the week and spend most of its Sunday mornings tucked in the shed. It's a good bike though, capable of tackling proper off road and long tarmac jaunts too.

The frame and fork

Giant have plenty of experience fluid forming alloy frames, and each year their alloy offerings look a little bit more like the Carbon ones. The top and down tubes are heavily shaped, with the top tube featuring along-the-top cable routing and a flattened underside for easier shouldering of the bike. The down tube is squared off in a similar way to Giant's huge box-section Carbon offerings, and it's wide at the bottom bracket shell which features integrated bearings. The chainstays are tall and the seatstays fairly beefy for a stiff rear end; tyre clearance is good.

The fork is made of the same AluXX alloy as the frame and it's a wide-bladed straight affair that mates well with the frame via an integrated headset. The width and bulk at the crown suggest it'll be a pretty stiff affair; more on that later. Both frame and fork have mudguard eyelets, and there's subtle rack mounts on the frame too.

The components

Shifting duties are taken care of by Shimano Sora STI levers driving Sora/Tiagra front and rear mechs. The chainset is an FSA Omega compact. Sora's not my favourite shifter in terms of ergonomics - I don't like the long sweep and the fiddly release button - but functionally I've never had an issue with it. The Tiagra upgrade at the rear mech is a nice touch, paid for in part by the switch the to FSA chainset which is dependable enough without being particularly sexy.

You could call the chainset - a standard 50/34 rather than a closer ratio 46/36 CX unit - the first clue that the bike isn't really designed as an out and out racer. The second clue would be the tyres; Kenda's Small Block Eight is a great all-purpose choice for road and light off road, but show it mud or slippery roots and watch the colour drain from its cheeks. It's no use in the wet, so that rules it out for every cyclocross race ever contested.

The Kendas are attached to a sturdy wheelset, Shimano hubs and Giant SR2 rims. Light they ain't, but they're nice and solid and stayed true throughout testing. Stopping them going round are Tektro cantilever brakes, and finishing kit is own-brand Giant stuff, which is dependable enough and not over heavy; the bike tips the scales at a round 10kg and that's for a large.

The ride

First impressions are of a rangy, comfortable bike. The large size isn't massive in terms of reach but the neurtral steering and 44cm bars combine to give a fairly relaxed feel from the off. Everything on the bike is good quality and there's no ticks or squeaks, or pinging spokes: it's a well put together machine.

Pumping the tyres up to 90psi and heading out onto the roads, the TCX2 is a very comfortable and capable road bike. Okay it's not lightning quick, especially with the supplied rubber, but switch the Kendas for slicks and you've got a well-balanced, easy to pilot road machine for training or leisure rides. The portly wheels take a bit of coaxing to get them up to speed but that's true of most bikes at this kind of money, full-on road bikes included. Once you've picked up some speed it'll lick along just fine, with the fairly upright position limiting all-out pace but the easily accessible drops giving you a more aero tuck if you want it. I didn't struggle to knock out hilly 23-24km road rides in an hour, which is not far short of what I'd do on my 'proper' road machine.

I took the TCX2 on a variety of off-road excursions too, from canal-path commutes to full-on Peak District MTB loops, and never really found the bike wanting. Even on difficult rocky descents the main fear was always a pinch flat of the narrow tyres, rather than a feeling of loss of control. The bike, though large and rangy, was well balanced and perfectly capable of taking a beating on the singletrack.

Going downhill off-road found the limitations of the braking system pretty quickly though, specifically the front brake. Brake judder on cantilever brakes has long been a problem, especially when - like here - you've got a long section of cable between the brake hanger and the cantis themselves. The TCX hangs the front brake from the steerer stack, down the 17.5cm head tube to the brakes. It looks like a recipe for judder, and it is, despite the beefy-looking fork. Worst in damp conditions, the judder ranged from being slightly annoying to rendering the front anchor entirely useless. I'd bet my best wheels that simply moving the hanger down to a mount on the fork crown would solve the problem at a stroke. Please, Giant. PLEASE move the brake hanger.

Judder aside, the cantilevers were as cantilevers always are, kind of average. If you weren't racing you'd be tempted to swap them for mini-Vs, or full V-brakes with a travel agent. And will you be racing? Well. For all Giant's insistence that this is a 'proper' CX bike, it isn't. not really. The fact that it's specced with compromise Kenda tyres and a standard compact chainset is partly an admission of that, but the bike doesn't really ride like a full-on 'crosser either. It's a bit more relaxed and rangy than you'd want for the cut-and-thrust of an hour in a field. There weren't any races to do while I was testing the TCX2, but my gut feeling is that I'd have been happy enough racing the bike, but with a slight nagging desire for something that felt a bit more, I don't know. Dangerous?

So if it isn't a full-on racer, then what is it? A good all-rounder, that's what. Road loops, MTB trails, fire roads, it's pretty happy anywhere. I chucked a child seat on it too, and a rack and pannier, and it handled just fine with both. You could tour on it, assuming you only needed a rear rack, and with 'guards and a rack it would make a super year-round commuter. Actually, you'll probably want to switch to mini-V brakes for all of those. I liked riding the TCX2, it's a solid and reliable plaftform and very well put together. I was expecting it to be a bit more racy based on Giant's description of it, but while that's not really how the bike rides it's far from being a disappointment.

Verdict

Much more of an all-rounder than a racer, the TCX2 is a good value option for a do-it-all machine. Minor niggles aside, it's a solid bike that should last, and it's a genuinely capable off-roader too.