Composite Technology

With 25 years’ experience in composite engineering, plus a long history of rigorous testing and development with its professional athletes, Giant leads the way in composite bicycle technology. This year Giant offers three levels of composite frame technologies.

ADVANCED SL COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY

The highest-performance T-800 raw carbon-fiber material is painstakingly woven in Giant’s own composite factory to create the most cutting-edge frames available today. This is the technology used by Giant’s world championship-caliber racers as they compete in the most demanding events on the planet. These frames feature the most advanced engineering and construction methods, including:

Fusion Process: Advanced SL toptubes are “grafted” to the seattube using filament winding and co-molding. This complex process involves hand-weaving the two tubes together, then re-molding the area under heat and high pressure to unify the junction—resulting in a lighter, stronger junction than with traditional molding.

CNT Technology: Carbon Nanotube Technology refers to a microscopic polymer added to Giant’s custom-blended resin.* Acting like miniature buttresses, CNT particles strengthen the layers of composite. Frames featuring CNT are 14 percent more impact-resistant than those without it.

Continuous Fiber Technology: This new manufacturing process allows Giant to construct the front triangle of Advanced SL bicycles* with larger, and therefore fewer, sections of composite material. With fewer pieces and junctions, the frames are up to 100 grams lighter and significantly stronger.

*Found on 2012 TCR Advanced SL and Defy Advanced SL models only

ADVANCED COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY

High-performance T-700 raw carbon fiber is used to produce custom composite material in Giant’s own composite factory. Extremely lightweight, stiff and compliant, these handcrafted frames feature the following construction process:

Monocoque Construction: The front triangle (downtube, headtube, toptube, seattube) is assembled and molded as one continuous piece. This front half is then joined to the rear chainstays and seatstays in a secondary process.

GIANT COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY

T-600 raw carbon fiber is used to create the composite material used for these lightweight, stiff and compliant framesets. Blending performance and value, this technology features the following construction process:

Modified Monocoque Construction: Similar to Monocoque technology, but Modified Monocoque eliminates the outermost woven composite sheet (found on Advanced SL and Advanced framesets) to reduce cost without significantly affecting ride quality, strength or stiffness.

COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGIES

  Lightweight T-600 Material Lighter-weight T-700 Material Lightest-weight T-800 Material Monocoque Construction Monocoque Construction Modified Fusion Process CNT Technology Continuous Fiber Technology Giant Factory Built
Advanced SL Grade     x x   x x x x
Advanced Grade   x   x         x
Composite Grade x       x       x