Giant Bicycle Inc. OCR Touring

Price Paid:  $900.00 at LBS- Harper's in Kno

Model Year:
2005

Favorite Ride:
Cabot Trail

Bike Setup:
Standard but I ditched the stock tires for Panracers and love them for commuting

Summary:
I really like this bike even though I did my supported X-USA ride on an old Trek 520, I like the compact geometry since I have a shorter upper torso than average. I is a bit heavily built in the wheels for just commuting, I have used it nicely for that and will pass it down to my son now for temporary use until he outgrows it.

Strengths:
Cool disc brakes that are sure stoppers.

Weaknesses:
Not really any, but will be be modified by some who want more torque in the low range gears for mountain climbing v. commuting

Similar Products Used:
Trek 520 and Schwinn Voyager

Price Paid:  $0.00

Model Year:
2005

Summary:
A well thought out design . Performing mutiple tasks very successfully. A pleasure to ride and much faster than my Cypress Lx and just as comfortable. Very impressed with it's overall performance

Strengths:
Easy to fit. Brakes are sharp. Blistering speed, sharp handling. You can feel the quality of the components.

Weaknesses:
None to me

Similar Products Used:
Giant Cypress LX, Trek 830

Price Paid:  $1100.00 at Performance

Favorite Ride:
any

Bike Setup:
12..23 road cassette, instead of stock 11..31 cassette. SKS fenders. Rear rack.
Dual NiMh headlights, cyclometer, flash back bar lights, and rear tail light.

Summary:
This is a very nice all purpose bike. It gives the dual ride feel of a hybrid
for pleasure riding and the down on the handles feel of a road bike. It is a tad
heavier than strick road bikes, but it has all the fixings for touring. If
you are rough on your bike, you will appreciate the 3 spare spokes on the frame. It is a pleasure to fly thru the gears.

Unlike almost all road bikes, this one comes standard with very good disk brakes.
You don't have to worry about rain or long downhills. It will stop without
blowing out your tires. A real peace of mind that you can only appreciate after
blowing a tire at 50mph on a steap downhill.

Strengths:
A solid frame with extremely strong heavy welds on frame. No noticable give in frame.
Easy to adjust so fits well. Faults are fewer than most bikes. The standard cassette
is great for all around use, but primary commuters are encouraged to swap to a
road cassette instead of the stock mountain cassette.

Weaknesses:
The only weakness is in the execution of the bike sale. This is not a straight
touring bike, nor is it a pure road bike. It is kind of a hybrid between a "hybrid
bike" and a touring bike. Giant needs either to recommend at least one outside
vendor who can deliver great parts for this bike or develop their own parts
at a reasonable price point.

Aethestically this bike is not as nice as I would like. The problem is the after
market manufacturers don't design their products to work well with disk brakes.
You can get SKS fenders and bike racks, but they will not integrate well with the
frame and must be massaged to fit. After they fit, they are not pretty.

It would be worth it to have Giant fenders that look nice without the SKS
pointy sticks. Because of these aethestical disconnect, I will have to
rate this bike at a 4 level.

Similar Products Used:
You don't want to know. You didn't ride one.