After teasing it to the world at the recent Tour de France, Giant has today announced the launch of its new Propel aero road bike. The launch sees a marked shift in focus for the bike, as Giant claims the top-tier Propel Advanced SL 0 tips the scales bang on the UCI-appeasing 6.8kg limit. The new Propel’s shallower tube profiles compared to its predecessor are a clear indication of Giant’s choice to make this an all-rounder, rather than a bike reserved for the flat days.
However, it’s not all about the weight loss. Giant claims improvements across the board, including a 6.21-watt better aerodynamic performance, an overall stiffness increase of 9.2%, and a boost in compliance of a whopping 85% thanks to a new integrated seat post design. That’s all accompanied by a redesigned cockpit that Giant says is now faster and easier to adjust or work on.
Of course, this isn’t the first we’ve seen of the new Propel. We’ve had a few sneak peeks at it already. We first saw it in a (probably intentional) leak on Tony Martin’s Instagram. In those photos, the thinner tube profiles confused us a little, but gave clues to the newfound direction in which Giant is taking the previously all-aero Propel. We were then able to get hands-on with it at the Team BikeExchange hotel ahead of the Grand Départ in Denmark. We were forbidden from weighing it, but we were allowed to pick it up, and could tell it’d been on a diet. It was there we also spotted aero bottle cages and a new way of integrating the cockpit.
Luckily for our fragile egos, today’s official launch confirms much of what we have already been able to deduce, but now we have details.
Efficiency
A recurring theme in Giant’s marketing is a discussion of efficiency, which in this context at least is based on the ratio of stiffness to weight. To increase efficiency, Giant could either reduce the weight or increase the stiffness. It did both.
Not unlike the approach taken when launching the TCR in 2020, reducing the weight of the Propel came via a sum-of-all-parts approach, for a total saving of 225 grams. The frame was a clear area of focus, as is evident through the use of shallower tubes, and the resulting loss on the frame alone is 137g, down from 982g to 845g. A further 18g was dropped from the fork, 17g from the derailleur hangers, and 66g through the introduction of a new Integrated Seat Post, while the difference is made up by minor savings to headset spacers etc. That’s all complemented by the new Giant…
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