The Giant awakes.....

I received my new Giant XTC 1 29er today. I have decided to ride it stock standard apart from changing the tires to 2.1 Maxxis Crossmark as the 1.9 Kenda Karma's I feel would be a bit light on for the rocky loose stuff we will encounter in Victoria. Apart from that, the bike feels great! 

I won't bore you with all the specs but suffice to say a mix of Shimano SLX and XT make up the running gear with Avid Juicy 3 brakes and a selection of Giant branded bits to top it off. It weighs in at around 11.8kg with pedals so it is no light weight but it is still respectable. 

I've set the bars and seat height and basically the bike feels pretty close to the Fisher. I have heard good things about the tapered steerer tube and the 15mm through axle (non bike nerds will have glazed over well and truly by now!) and when I get the thing on the dirt we'll see for real. All in all, we're both ready to race.

Massive thanks to Giant, I can't thank them enough. Massive thanks to Jarron and Mark at Cyc'd for Bikes for the race strip and other suppoort along the way and of course to Spencer for building it up and making it run smooth. 

Check out the photos and stay tuned for the ride reports to come.