For the normal, proportionally sized person, the Giant SCR is a great starter road bike.
I bought a Giant SCR last week to help me figure out if I want to become a roadie again. In short, yes, I want to be a roadie again, it’s faster.
Overall, the Giant SCR is a great value for a road bike. It’s somewhat lightweight at 9.4 kg, has a stiff rear triangle, has very smooth working Sora shifters and deraillers and rides comfortably on Taiwan county roads.
Gearing wise, I’m very surprised at how well I’m adapting to the compact double 50/34 in front with an 8-gear 12-26 in back. I’ve been used to spinning a 48/38/26 front and 10-31 back for the past year.
For now, I’d prefer a rear 11-27 and later, a 10-26 when back in shape. That rear cassette change would make going even faster and climbing easier.
In the flats, between the gearing changes and bike stiffness, my casual riding pace and in spite of not being in riding shape, is 4 kph faster. I’m finally realizing how much pedaling energy my Giant LTD shocks have soaked up. On hill climbs, the SCR is grinding up than spinning, but I’m at the same pace and more energetic at the top.
On the downsides, I think the bike is too twitchy and the Sora shifter thumbtack controls limit hand placement for me. I think the twitchiness is more due to the race inspired geometry and I’m not used to it yet. Still, I’m keeping my downhill corners 5-10 kph slower than normal.
On hand placement, my hands are big, but short fingered. As such, I have to pick either riding on the hoods or in dropped position and then set my saddle and handle to accommodate me.
As I’m a go fast kind of guy, my hand preference is in the drops. With being in the drops though, in order for me to safely stop at speed, I needed to turn the front brake left shifter outward and rotate the drop bar downward. This change barely allows my finger tips to pull the brake lever.
Due to the Sora thumbtack shifter, when in the drops, gear changes in both directions are nearly impossible. This isn’t a big issue for the front derailer, but a big one for the rear.
On the right shifter, I can barely change the gears. To do so, I have to loosen my hand position, twist my hand awkwardly inward and up in order to rotate my thumb forward enough to barely click the thumbtack controller.
I’ve mentioned that the bike is a comfortable ride. However, that’s if I ignore the aches and pains from my elbows to hands. I can’t figure out if…
At this point, my hand and arm positions are the real problem areas in finding a truly comfortable position that also lets me have solid control over the bike on flats, climbing and descending.
While in the drops, I’m quite comfortable. However, I can’t safely change gears with the Sora shifters in both directions and I surely wouldn’t mind having more of my fingers on the brake levers.
To counteract the hand position, brake and shifter issues, I’m seriously thinking about buying a used Rival gruppo with double-tab and installing it on the SCR. Then again, if I’m going to drop $ 1,000 USD for the gruppo, I might as well buy a better frame too.
As my goal built bike weight sans accessories is sub 8.0 kg., the SCR is 9.4 kg is a bit too heavy and could potentially be even stiffer when pedaling hard.
In the end, despite my grips above, the Giant SCR is a great entry level road bike. Even when I buy a third bike, I’ll keep this one around for friends, family and wet weather.
PS: Bike buyers, push your bike shop to let you ride for an hour before buying. If they don’t, find another bike shop or try out a friends like model. Personally, once a bike passes that first hour of riding and it’s a potential buy, I need a couple more days of trying it out on routes I’m used to.
Hey Michael!
Your back pains might be linked to a stem that too long, or the handlebars that don’t fit you. If you have setback on your seatpost, you should try adjusting it.
If that doesn’t help, ask you LBS to check out your riding position. Your arms might be slightly longer/shorter than the norm.
Cheers!
Range, thanks for the thoughts.
* the stem is short at 90 mm
* handlebars were changed to ones that do fit
* seat is about halfway back and feels right
* when in drops, arms are barely bent at the elbows
I’ve ridden a couple of road bikes, small and medium, on longer rides now and have had similar issues with my hand and arm comfort. So I’m really thinking at this point, I might need to aim for a criterian or touring than race inspired frame.
Nice review, man. I don’t like the thumbtack shifter either, but don’t notice it as much because I have the chick wings and spend most of my time on the hoods.
Michael
With being on the hoods, the Sora shifters are great. It’s getting into the drops that really has me desiring something else.
Still, this bike was meant to help me figure out my road riding preferences and it’s sure doing such.
Oh man! You are going the way of the racer. This looks to be similar to the geometry of my twitchy road bike at age 20. Fwiw, as I age, the farther up the bars go, the better my hands, neck, back feel. I don’t know if my body is changing or I am getting smarter
Regarding your arm, wrist sensation, check how much weight you are putting on the hands compared to when on other bikes. The big clue from the pic, is that the bars are actually lower than the seat. I suspect that is the issue. You probably need to make adjustments so that your torso rotates backwards (move the CG aft) in order to unload weight from the bars. Like Michael T, I prefer riding with hands gripping the hoods, even tho I have bar-end shifters – I’m able to brake easily. And my finger strength is low, so I do not like the “flight deck” style integrated shifters nor the pushbutton type.
Btw, I just got my custom-cut stem back from Bike Friday. It is awesome, the first time in my life I am riding in a position that matches my needs. They recommend 125 miles of riding with the temporary, fit stem before sending it in. As far as I know, the BF fit stem system is the only way to dial in the h-bar fit. I had looked into going to a bike fitter with my Trek, but you only get an hour in their office, and I don’t think they provide an infinitely adjustable stem like BF. I plan to later convert the stem on my Trek to match the position.
Does anyone know of a fully adjustable stem (up/down/fwd/back) that would allow proper fit to be discovered?
Paul,
I definitely prefer the dropped position to help with getting speed up and wind resistance down.
I’m thinking along the same lines that I might be needing to raise my front end a couple of inches entirely to help shift more of my weight back to get it off my upper body. However, I want to avoid being a sail like on my flat.
There’s some adjustable angle stems that I’ve seen, but now length.
Ciao!
I’ve been compiling a spreadsheet of road bikes geometries. This way, I’ve been able to focus on the angles and sizes I’m looking for. Also, outside of the Scott, these bikes are those I can buy or build for under 60,000 NT here in Taiwan.
Top picks so far to start test riding are.
* Scott CR1 Pro S/M
* Primavera Festino Red L
* Velocite Selene Small
* Pinarello FP1 500
* Specialized Allez Comp Compact 52
* BMC Street Fire SSX01 S
* BMC Street Racer SR01 S
* Salsa Podio 45cm/47cm
* Fuji Roubaix ACR 1.0 S
See the sheet for yourself at https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=wise&passive=1209600&continue=https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key%3D0AobbVjMZX1n5dGJSVng4MnBjN18wQTN6SE9kQzgxd2c%26hl%3Den%26pref%3D2&followup=https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key%3D0AobbVjMZX1n5dGJSVng4MnBjN18wQTN6SE9kQzgxd2c%26hl%3Den%26pref%3D2&hl=en