Yeow - Giant Mountain Bikes Have Landed at Outside Sports

We’re thrilled to have Giant bikes on board with us at Outside Sports. We’ll be selling, hiring, and servicing Giant mountain bikes at our Bikes By Outside Sports stores in Wanaka and Queenstown.

In this article we'll introduce you to the Giant story, so you can see why we're so excited to have been appointed as their key MTB store in the Southern Lakes.

Giant was founded in Taiwan in 1972 to manufacture bikes under contract to some of the world's top cycling brands. Giant soon began building bikes under its own name, and today Giant is the world’s largest bike manufacturer, making well over one million bikes a year, under its own name, as well as for Trek, Scott and Colnago. 

In the industry Giant is known as the ‘Toyota of bikes’ because with Giant you get quality, durability, and exceptional design – which all adds up to a highly satisfying ownership experience. 

Giant has also been an extremely innovative bike manufacturer, and has introduced several revolutionary design and manufacturing processes to the bike world – more on that below 

• Founded in Taiwan in 1972 

• The world’s largest bike manufacturer 

• Responsible for several revolutionary steps in bike design and manufacture 

• Synonymous with quality and reliability 

• Makes bikes for Trek, Scott, and Colnago 

Giant was the first manufacturer to use computer-aided design (CAD) in the production of carbon fibre road bikes with the CADEX way back in 1987. The CADEX put super light carbon bikes within the reach of everyday road racers and triathletes. I had one and loved it - you could pick the whole bike up with one finger! 

Stiffness, and strength combined with light weight is the holy grail in bike design. It's especially important in mountain bikes which need to be agile and easy to handle in difficult terrain.  

Giant’s innovation of the shorter seat post with an angled top tube connecting to the stem made all that possible. It also made bikes more versatile for different riders as a shorter seat post gives you more adjustability for rider height. 

The actual size of the bike frame can be smaller too – saving weight and adding stiffness due to a more compact triangle. And of course smaller frames are more agile and flickable too on trail too.

Many brands have defined their own unique look, which runs across every product they make. This design still is often called a design language, because it’s intended to communicate the values of the brand - like precision, fun, technology or whatever. Some of the design languages you might instantly recognise are Lexus‘L-Finesse’, Mazda‘Kodo’, and Mercedes ‘Sensual Purity’, which give all their cars a broadly similar ‘family’ look. 

Giant call its own unique design language ‘Tensio’, which refers to ‘flexibility of motion.’Tensio shapes range from simple to complex, but they all feature forms and colours that together create striking visual combinations with crisp metallic tonesand vivid graphics that highlight the freedom of riding a bike.

Erik Klemm 
Giant Design Manager 

"Our goal was to create a dynamic nature, functional purity and inclusive technology across our entire product line. Not just something you could see, but something you could feel.“ 

With their MTBs Giant have aimed to make the riding experience as simple and intuitive as possible. Giant ebikes use Giant's own SyncDrive motors, which have been co-developed with Yamaha and Shimano.

You can either use the control unit on the bike or the RideControl app on your phone to easily fine-tune the drive settings to match where you’re riding – for instance you might want set up the drive differently for a cross-country trail ride than you would for sessioning Bike Glendhu or the Skyline - Giant RideControl puts it at your fingertips.