Giant TCR Carbon Gold

Giant TCR Carbon Gold

Giant TCR Carbon Gold TCR Carbon with 24 carat gold plated components and Campagnolo Record groupset. Number eighteen of thirthy-five made, and one of six allegedly in the UK. A true collectors dream machine, with low weight (15.5lbs) and performance to match.Here is the review from  http://www.cyclingnews.comForging the Gold - Giant's TCR Composite Gold Road Bike What do you do when you're a company known for making solid-value road and mountain bikes, but you sponsor a top Tour de France team, and you have a state-of-the-art carbon fiber frame that you want people to really notice? If you're Giant, you make a black and gold special edition for your racers and when everyone goes 'Wow' over it, you produce a very limited edition of 35 $10,000 bikes decorated with real gold plate. This is how it all happened. The bike is Giant's TCR Composite Gold, and Taiwan's biggest bike builder is offering just 35 of them, individually numbered, to deep-pocketed riders and collectors. To find the spark of this slightly mad idea (after all, who really needs a gold-plated, ten grand bike?) we go back to December 2001 when Giant's Sport Marketing Manager Tom Davies and ONCE-Eroski manager Manolo Saiz got together to discuss ONCE-Eroski's product needs for the 2002 season. It was the first time Saiz had seen the final version of the TCR Composite and he was impressed.Further discussion between Saiz and Davies at the team's January training camp saw Saiz arguing that the team's TCR Composites should be something special as far as decals went, and that led to the notion of a gold or silver bike to be launched at the Tour de France. Saiz even offered to do one design himself, so Giant's Chief Engineer Jack Chen sent over an old frame to Spain for him to experiment with. The frame was returned to Giant in March. It was glossy and bold and reminded Davies of the classic Lotus F1 car of the 1970s, the John Player Special. Davies passed on Saiz's design to Wina Smeenk, Giant Europe's Art Director, who retained the glossy finish but created a two-tone gold skin design with minimal decals. Worth Their Weight In GoldAssembling the 35 TCR Composite Golds took Faustino Muñoz and his team four long days at Giant Europe's assembly plant at Lelystad. You don't rush the assembly of bikes like these, and Saiz and the mechanics clearly savoured the experience, as their comments show.Manolo Saiz, ONCE-Eroski directeur sportif: "I've always said that the bike is an extension of a rider's personality, just like the tennis racket is part of a tennis player, and the TCR Composite Gold is no exception. We should never forget about combining the aesthetics of athletic experience with the experience itself. Here is one way of doing it. This isn't just a tool, of course, but it's not because of the gold that it's the best bike in the world, either. It has other qualities as well."This project is also a source of inspiration. Every year we should try and do something equally special, not just in 2002. But it was clear that for the mechanics and for myself the best time of year to do it was after the season - this is like any Christmas present, you can't just have one at any point in time."Creating these bikes has been a beautiful operation, and a very special one. "It's an elegant, classy model, but also as we know from the Tour de France, an extraordinarily successful one as well. That level of performance makes it even more satisfying a project." TCR Composite Gold road bike component listFrame: Giant TCR Full Composite with glossy finish. Handlebar: Giant Composite with glossy finish. Stem: Giant Composite with glossy finish. Handlebar Tape: Black cork Cinelli Handlebar Caps: Giant, gold plated Seat post: Giant Composite glossy Seat post clamp: Giant, gold plated Bottle cages: Tacx Tao, special gold design Component group: Campagnolo Record 10 speed, Black anodised with gold lettering Pedals:

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