Giant announced this week that it launched its own range of single-crown suspension forks. Reportedly, "Crest" forks will offer performance and reliability that matches or exceeds present offerings from the likes of RockShox, Fox, and SR Suntour.
Giant won't be the first bicycle brand to develop and sell its own suspension components, but it may be the first to succeed. Cannondale, Specialized, Trek, K2, AMP, and Scott headline the list of bike brands that went out surfing and crawled out burping after launching their own fork or shock. Giant's bid for a piece of the suspension market, however, could stick.
Manufacturing Advantage
Giant Crest 34 Details • Use: Trail / XC
(not e-bike approved)• Construction: Air-sprung, aluminum steerer, crown and stanchions, magnesium lowers.
• 34mm stanchion tubes
• Cartridge damper
• Travel: 100/120mm
• Adjustments: Low-speed compression & low-speed rebound, air-spring tokens
• Self-adjusting negative spring
• Remote lockout option
• Weight/Price: NA
• Contact:
Crest landing page Giant Bicycles is internationally recognized as the most vertically integrated manufacturer in the cycling industry. In layman's terms, that means raw materials like plastic, steel wire, bare carbon fiber, and aluminum ingots enter at one side of the factory and bicycle frames roll out the other side. Giant's brand is a global powerhouse, but their manufacturing division also makes and assembles bicycles for a number of prestigious names.
To meet those production demands, Giant Taiwan consumes volumes of components - numbers that defy imagination. Much of those are purchased from notable suppliers like SRAM, DT Swiss, Shimano or Maxxis. Larger numbers come from lesser known, more economically friendly sources, but over time the Giant factory has taken over much of that business, using its manufacturing expertise and economy of scale to further pad its bottom line. Now, it seems, Giant is ready to fold a significant portion of the forks it has been purchasing from the big three suspension makers into its in-house manufacturing machine.
After you've made a ten million elite level carbon and aluminum suspension bikes and a gazillion dropper seatposts, a single-crown suspension fork should seem like a piece of cake. Unlike the aforementioned bike brands, Giant actually makes their own stuff, so they have the ability to control their quality, evolve the technology, and make incremental improvements as production moves forward.
Consider also that suspension for technology has reached a point of stability, The greatest leap forward in the past five years has been the addition of a rubber bag on top of the damper cartridge. This is a perfect time, then, for a large, vertically integrated manufacturer like Giant to enter the suspension business with a lower priced, equally performing product that is targeted to OEM customers. For the right deal, that "Crest" logo could just as easily become "Trek" or "Specialized."
Every indication points to a massive commitment to future production.
Can Crest Suspension Succeed? We know very little about Giant's Crest fork, beyond the tech that is sparsely peppered into their press release and video. What we do know it that follow-through, not vanguard technology is the key to success in the suspension arena.
If Giant demonstrates a manufacturing program of continuous improvement, and can successfully navigate global customer service, warranty returns, and technical support, they could easily become a
Why the Others Failed
The reason bike brands failed is that they don't make their stuff and their overarching concern is selling bikes. Five engineers whose main duties are designing and trouble-shooting bikes are tasked with coming up with a suspension fork. They work with a reputable manufacturer and eventually, one appears and it's probably good, but then the team goes back to work on bikes.
Forks arrive and get sold and that continues until a problem arises. At that moment, the fork is usually out of date anyway, so it's easier and more economical to drop the program entirely rather than to start over. Bikes are your bread and butter, not suspension - if you're a bike brand, you always have a fall-back position. The exception here is Cannondale, who established a separate suspension division for their Lefty and made a valiant, long-term commitment.
If you are a suspension maker, that's what you live or die for. The reason that Fox and RockShox are still around is that everyone from the top down lives and breathes suspension, and that creates the environment of constant improvement and the stream of micro-innovations that make their products both durable and trustworthy. Arguably, follow-through and customer support makes or breaks suspension companies, and this will be Giant's greatest challenge.
key player - especially in the emerging e-market, where customers are less brand motivated when it comes to key components like wheels, drivetrains, and, um, suspension. If I were Fox, SRAM or SR Suntour, I'd be concerned about this.
We see so many bikes brought in from big box stores that simply aren't safe.
Same factory
DVO is made there too.
Even my 3yr old boys' bikes were taken apart and reassembled when i got them home.
So...watch your back. They're coming for you. Heh
I've since learned the mechanical skills of that guy only exceed mine because he has a phone# to warranty
It’s an attempt to capitalize economies of scale, but (again) it’s also the exact opposite of lowering overhead.
Didn't think so.
There are definitely skills involved in being a good bicycle mechanic. There's no need to piss on someone else's job.
I've been working (part-time mainly) at a shop for the last 25 years. I've been selective in which shops have employed me, but for the most part the folks I've worked with have been pretty sharp. Typically you have one kid that assembles bikes, but their work is checked and criticism is applied. If they can't get it they get the boot.
I've worked with some knuckleheads over the years, but the vast majority have been smart hardworking people.
The production is being shifted away from Giant Manufacturing's facilities in China. Giant Manufacturing's Irene Chen said she would not comment on Giant's OEM business, but noted that the company is focused on e-bike and high-end traditional bike manufacturing and is seeing growth in those areas.
"The overall global economy and market poses many uncertainties due to the trade war between U.S. and China," Chen said. "Giant will continue to take leverage of its Asia and European production facilities, focusing on short supply lead time and global positioning to maintain its growth opportunities in this challenging market."
basically they only have capacity for their own bikes as they are gaining market share worldwide.
I couldn’t help myself sorry
I appreciated it.
The only comment in this thread worth reading.
People have long accepted it with bars, stems, saddles, grips, pedals. It’s only a matter of time until they also accept it with suspension.
We all know the performance difference between a Renthal Fatbar and a Giant Contact SL bar is pretty much nonexistent at the level most of us ride.
So 7050 series aluminium is a low grade aluminium? That's what my specialized Alu bars are made of
What's expensive? Few machined aluminium parts, some washers, rubber bladder and a couple of seals? With modern manufacturing and design process it's not a problem at all. I believe Giant has more than enough know-how and manufacturing capabilities to make MTB suspension which, frankly isn't a high tech product like some brands would lead you to believe.
It's far cry from automotive suspension (which ironically is actually less expensive!) and has to deal with far less stress, slower speeds and doesn't have to meet safety standards. Not to mention it's "expected" to be serviced annually or even more often whereas suspension on most motorbikes and cars goes on for years without service.
Remote resi shocks for a truck are expensive AF.
This isn't stuff you can do in your garage.
When the trance comes in for almost $1k less than the competition how can you knock it?
For some reason they have a bad reputation for not being elite, boutique, or what...? cool enough?
Carbon frames...? damn ya
Carbon wheels...? yes please
Dropper posts...? sure
Single crown trail forks... ? hell yes bring them on
Thanks Giant for letting us old guys buy awesome bikes for mid grade prices
The new TCR/Defy come full carbon,Di2 for around what Naked or Dekerf frame/fork go for.
I should’ve went Defy. But I let my ego get in the way. The new TCR uses geo numbers very similar to the Defy geo from a few years back.
I will say that Trek Domane in Celeste with gumwall tyres is drool worthy.
@Lehott, go and work for years with goretex, vibram, or one of the other companies that licenses tech to everyone and let me know how you feel after that. Or name another company that can make products that have seen and continue to see more Everest and 8000m summits than anyone else, but is also lusted after by the same people who want $300 Nikes.
You don't know what you're talking about Tyler Lehoux.
Kinda a shitty thing for @pinkbike to do considering when you enter it in your profile it says "Your email and name is NEVER displayed publically to anyone on the website. It is only used when you send a friend request email in order to identify yourself clearly."
I’m quite surprised Giant hasn’t done it now that you mention it.
Specialized... I have two Power Arc saddles. I love them, but if there was another brand making the same shape for the same price or less I would not buy Spexialized. I’ve had a few Butcher and Slaughter tyres which I only bought because they were half the price of Minions.
As for Giant’s home brand name, other than Cadex, any suggestions?
I like the product range progression that Gorilla, Gibbon and Baboon would provide. Baboon for the lower end, mostly alloy parts. Gibbon for the mid range and Gorilla for your no expense spared, XTR level kind of finishing kit.
They did attempt something a decade ago but I think they confine themselves to OEM production for other brands as far as bicycle suspension goes. The bicycle world really isn't a big enough market to warrant their attention really. That's also why Amp Research got out of bicycles to focus on automotive / motorcycles.
what does this even mean? reportedly? at the $400 price point maybe. no qualification in that statement at all. LOOK OUT SUPERBRUNI & OHLINS! Giant's in the game now!
What if Stan's had a Trance wheelset?
Lawsuit no?
As far as DVO goes can’t speak to that but they do have a loyal following. And it would appear that they are receptive to their customer base.
It’s kind of a shame- they (Spesh) have some innovative bikes. The new Enduro and the SJ Evo are interesting to me, and it seems to me that the move to a regular mount rear shock is that there is someone beginning to get it at the top of the food chain. So maybe there’s hope yet.
For rockshox at least! Fox was using a bladder in like 2004. Manitou was already using a spring backed IFP, then Air IFP.
Even Marzocchi gave it a go before RS finally caught up.
"constant improvement and the stream of micro-innovations" Constant stream of 'How can we copy that without copyright infringement?'
What he means is change their suspension design every 2-3 years just because.....
Maestro works fine....has been for a decade now. Look at how many bikes change and end up looking like a Session again anyway.
^^ This will be key.
Giant have the skill, might and brand penetration to make this work on the shop floor, especially at the budget and mid-level markets but if they don't follow through with servicing and parts backup they will fail. Here in the UK there are loads of specialist suspension tuners and servicers that will take pretty much any fork and tune it to you, if Giant can get these service houses a ready supply of spare parts and technical manuals they will have that backup covered. Do this worldwide and you get yourself in the market. BOS failed at this stage and a lot of YT Capra's now have Fox or Rockshox kit now to replace them as not being able to service your expensive suspension for nearly 18 months was a deathknell as far as reputation was concerned.
Mind you Fox dropped the ball here too when they switched from Mojo to Silverfish as their official importer/service centre. Mojo took great pride in supporting the product for over 20 years, sponsoring riders and giving them discounted/free setup clinics and servicing. You'd go to any race and see Fox on well over half the bikes and it would be top end product too. Now that Fox have switched importer the fields have much more of Rockshox and the rest, Fox is still around but nowhere near as much as it used to be. I know this is top-end racer stuff but if Giant have any ideas of going further upmarket they need to get that side right too.
As a plus, we might see entry-level forks go up in quality as Giant will have to make their offering demonstrably better than the incumbents. Forks getting praise in £1k hardtail shootouts etc. Could be good for us as consumers.
I know lots of people here on PB bitch about the looks of the Trust fork but I don't mind that at all. Still to me the Trust fork isn't revolutionary either. It still seems like a middle ground transitional product between the common telescopic forks (which have the advantage of being compact and of being easily interchangeable by a competitors product) and having the front suspension linkage actually integrated in the frame where you still have the option to replace the standard shock without messing with the intended dynamic geometry.
But yeah, I guess we had some misunderstanding where I interpreted "free from industry standards" as interface standards and you took it as a departure from the most common bicycle front suspension. Fair enough.
Indeed, I've noticed that a lot of entry-level Syncros (Scott) stuff is sourced from the same manufacturer(s) as Brand-X. That's probably the way to go about it, rather than trying to reinvent commodity parts.
Brilliant I think
The video was about as informative as a grade five book report from a kid who didn't read the book, but honestly if giant can make an average fork to put on their entry level xc bikes they will be able to drop the price even further. That's their niche; lower prices for good bikes. This opens up the low end even more to them.
When i bough my 2004 XtC, nothing else on the market was offering hydraulic brakes at the price.
They already make their own shock, which in reviews i seem to recall is the preferred shock for the suspension platform, over the float.
i suspect the fork will be nothing to write home about, but there will also be no reason to change it either. Itll operate correctly and without fuss for the lifetime of the bike. Servicing it might be its downfall, if it doesn't use generic parts. I suspect the high spec bikes will still get the named brands fitted, but the extra cost wont necessarily be worth it.
Dropper post ever should be specing there own forks!
Maybe the fork is made from two warranty giant contact posts With an arch between
Warranty is no good if you are off your new bike for two months. Or a year because they have to remanufacture every single fork and you are in a queue of thousands. And, having had six Giants crack, I can hear them saying "We've never seen that before!" or "This time we've fixed the problem." Which is why I won't buy another Giant.
But after 25 years in the trade giant has the best wty hands down rarely do they not wty a bike even if you say I don’t think it’s wty they come through with a freshie for the customer
bikerumor.com/2013/05/06/dw-link-sues-giant-bicycles-claiming-patent-infringement-breach-of-contract
@phops:
Full integration!
These won't have the name appeal of Fox and RS but I'm certain the quality will be the same .... Or better.
Vinay, there are tons of good 100-120mm options right now. The new RS Recon is a pretty awesome fork for $300 CAD or whatever. There's a new Revelation as of a few years ago. RS redid the Sektor recently. Fox has the Rythm forks which are pretty damned good, but really only an OEM option. The market is good my man!
Thank you for the needlessly shitty reply. I've been nothing but civil with you, but here you are swinging your dick around because someone dare disagree/correct you. Grow up you child.
1) displacing Rock shox or Fox? Good luck with that (see also: Magura, DT Swiss, DVO, and Formula forks...). Ugh.
2) Specialized, Future Shock, fork and rear shock, 2007- 2008, anyone? Yikes...!
3) completely different, and completely unproven, no matter HOW big Giant is. Why risk it?
4) Resale value = close to zero.
Can't believe they greenlighted this debacle...
Few manufacturers actually spend time to r&d what people want and what works. Look at the fit and finish on a trek or santa Cruz as a couple instances
Just not impressed or ever have been by giant products.