Giant TCR Adv mini-hhsrb - obligatory gf fast road bike

Kinda done with my tourer for now, so I can turn my full attention to new shiny stuff and my girlfriend decided she wanted to buy a proper road bike with her bonus this year - my cunning scheme to have her acquire at least as many bikes as me is working.

We had a look on eBay, and in what is becoming an established theme of her shaming my own purchases, I now have a 2011 Giant TCR Advanced SL sitting on the dining room table, taunting me with its superiority, waiting for its moment.

I'm actually very excited to work on this bike - the TCR Advanced was the frame I wanted years ago when I first started road cycling, but there was no way I could afford one. This one has an ENVE fork, because $$$, and while the paint accents aren't the most professional job in the world, they're pretty good and I really like the effect.

It came exactly as is, with the alright-ish 90mm carbon stem, a GXP bottom bracket fitted, and only the one ISP topper - no short topper, adjustment spacers or saw guide, so in the short term I'm looking to pick some of those up.

The vague plan is a mid to high-end groupset, low profile carbon rims and slave-worthy cranks in 165mm, all with minimal levels of decal.

Step one is going for a proper bike fit though, because
a) her touring bike is too big, which makes using it as a template impossible
b) this might still be too long, as apparently only Cervélo are capable of making bikes with sensible sizing
c) this is her first real road bike, and
d) fuck cutting down a seat mast without knowing exactly how high it's going to be.

You can all argue about wheels and groupsets now

fuck cutting down a seat mast without knowing exactly how high it's going to be.

Quite.

Even then, not a job I'd look forward to.

Very enveous - can see this being super-slave, can't wait

Been a while since I did weigh-ins.

Frame, headset bearings, bottom bracket, ISP topper, tiny bit of brake cable

Fork, crown race and steerer bung

Top cap and spacers

Stem - unsurprisingly a bit fat. Will get changed for a Kalloy or Hylix

Love what you've done with the garden.

Mostly her doing. I really must water the tomatoes...

Needs 6800 imo

a hip hop bike need hip hop shoes

Bike fit is booked for next Tuesday, after which we'll know where we stand/sit/pedal. I showed her a bunch of groupset pictures, and being a woman of excellent taste she picked SRAM Red 22 "as long as you can get rid of the red bits". Bonus points for not needing a new BB.

Priority is to find a Red Exogram crankset in 165/170 and wet sand it down to raw carbon, then assemble the rest of the groupset. Probably Force levers/mechs, Red brakes if I can find them cheap enough. Hook me up.

Also need to decide on pedals. Anyone selling some Speedplay Zeros?

Need a pair of those shoes, right now.

Frame looks great in that sizing too.

Love the blocks of colour on this. Looking forward to seeing it built up!

Rival 22 would be the easiest/cheapest option with 165mm cranks. Its 470eur for whole groupset atm. The hood shape is very female friendly plus the reach adjustment is a nice touch.

On my missus' bike I've put a ghetto Sram 1x10 set up with rival 165mm cranks.

That stem you've chosen is 20g heavier than the Kalloy one ;)

You can all argue about wheels and groupsets now

OK

Rival 22 would be the easiest/cheapest option

RED!

Bit fit on Friday was v informative. Shoes set up with Speedplays, some helpful insoles, all that. The fit was done using a Retul jig, so I have both a "perfect" fit and some information from using the stack and reach measurements I provided from the frame. The seat angle is just steep enough and the top tube length isn't an issue, which is great, but a "comfort" fit would necessitate only ~6mm of drop, which is impossible as it is.

That said, the "real world" fit wasn't horrible, just less comfortable. Trawling through Slowtwitch's stack and reach database there are very few frames that meet the criteria, and even fewer that aren't hideously ugly (looking at you Specialized Ruby). So we're going to build it up, and if after a while it sucks, idk, custom?

BikeCAD time!

Also we're going SRAM Red with Reynolds 46 Aero tubulars because why fuck about

Time has been limited of late but things are progressing.

First some tasty wheels from the BikeRadar pit

Then, some gear changers and that from @Shroom

Put it together and what have you got:

Bippety boppity mockup

Gonna be real nice.

Have you considered a more shallow bend? I think NeoClassic or similar would look great. She'll be able to slam it, sit more comfy and still be hh.

Definitely, on the lookout for a nice narrow+shallow drop, this was a freebie but you're right in that it puts the hoods too low

Pro vibe compact bars in small widths can be had on the 'bay quite cheap.

ye, what is going on with those bars.

Splashing out on everything else, but making do with freebie bars..?

As much as I'd love to splash out, this build DOES have a budget. Small parts add up.

But srsly, this is just a mock up. If nothing comes up second hand soon it'll probably get Zipp 70s of some kind. The trad bend is way too low. And obviously the tatty SLR isn't going on either.

Dithering over cables too. Are the Shimano PTFE sets worth it over Jagwire?

Collected a nice box from Ribble today full of Zipp bars and finishing goodies only to find I'd accidentally ordered two sets of brake cables. Luckily the very last LBS I tried had a set of the polymer-coated Shimano, rather than the boring steel ones. Kudos to them. First time using them so will be interesting.

Building commence!

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Continental or english ?

Total weight? Little bike must be light