Giant Factory Racing Launches 2023 Team Roster Including Luke & Remy Meier-Smith

 pretty sure Giant is launching the new Glory this season. they wont invest in 3 DH racers for nothing a has spent the last few seasons "prototyping".

 Didn’t they call it the glory hole? I remember a lot of people loved that frame. I had the next generation in 2010 that thing absolutely ripped and was super light for the time , even by today’s standards, 36lbs. My first new dh bike as well.

 @antoniobaca: I think so yeah, been a long time and my memory sucks. They were great bikes, with the first iteration of Fox 40's that thing just ploughed. Had the time of my life in the Alps on it in 2007.

 Danny Hart did well on their bike.

 Yeah they are cheap. They need to spend some money and get bigger names to team. It will give people more buyer confidence if they win some world cups.

 @Rider656: Giant makes most everybody elses frames, so they're not too worried.

 @Rider656: does winning world cups give buyers a sense of confidence?
What does it give them confidence in?

My experience is that 99% of bikes are bought on factors that don’t include racing in any form. It’s a pretty niche form of sport wishing a niche segment of a niche hobby. Giant likely sells a 1000 Sedonas to every Glory, or Reign.
Giants not likely worried too much, and they might just be a title sponsor to the race team, rather than an owned entity of it

 @Rider656: Bigger names dont mean anything. its all about content and fallowers. lame

 @blowmyfuse: They are Giant of that business

 @onawalk: i want a commencal because of their team. i'm not naive enough to think that their team's success has any relationship to the reliability of their product but dammit if Pompon and AP don't make Commencal seem so damn cool

 @mca896:
That’s a fair statement, they’ve done a great job at marketing, and are title sponsors to several teams. But it doesn’t make you “confident” in the brand, does it?
And I still think we are a very super niche group.

 @onawalk: Not many people would buy a Giant just because one of the brothers wins a world cup, but a lot of people might put them on their shortlist when shopping for a new ride and consider them more seriously.

 @Mugen: I'm shallow, I just want a low top tube. Giant top tubes don't appear to be the lowest out there (for a certain length of frame). Their suspension design apparently needs more room than say, something from Canyon or Commencal. Not saying I'm out buying one of those, but those bikes do get me more excited.

 @Mugen: that’s entirely possible,
I think what was meant by the original commenter was,
‘Some additional marketing would help to increase sales”

I just don’t think Giant is especially concerned with selling loads of DH bikes, when they’re real market is very different.

 @vinay: yeah, a buddy has a Reign, long seat tube, makes for less stand over, and less dropper drop

 @dirtmcleod: which is an owned subsidiary of, wait for it, Giant. It’s not just 1 factory, it’s several. So if we are being pedantic, you are correct in saying that “Giant” does not make Spesh frames (just an example) but they’re manufactured by the factory that also makes some of Giants bikes, which is a parent company (sister company?) of Giant

 @mca896: I like my commencal a lot but theres no attention to detail in the frames. In the finish. their headsets, BB's and seat post holes are all really messy, unclean inside. But they ride good

 @onawalk: That decision is probably pretty complicated for Giant, because they sell a ton of bikes based on their value. If they invest a lot in racing, they might sell more carbon bikes and high end builds, or maybe not... And then they will have to pay for the racing efforts by increasing cost, and selling less value bikes.

Maybe what they really need is a Lexus to their Toyota. Have the Cadex brand produce whole bikes and do racing/ R&D

 @onawalk: Yes, you said what I said just with more words.

 One other thing worth mentioning is that sponsoring a World Cup DH team doesn't "guarantee" results that proof out your bike's performance capabilities.

Just because the bike itself "could" win a World Cup, riders, tracks, conditions, injuries....all might leave your team empty handed at season's end and a negative reputation for your brand.

Or...you could do like GT, storm back onto the WC scene & the first pic of your new DH bike be a sheared off head tube/downtube junction with a bunch of crazy party boys busting selfies with it stoked to see damage galore.

Man...the internet sucks. I can't find that pic. At one point you could just google GT DH bike and it was the only pic that would pull up.

 @vinay: That was over 10 years ago. Somewhere around that time the management at Giant must have changed, because they have hardly done a single interesting thing since. Pretty much just a boring generic 'value' brand now.

 @Glory831Guy: you might have lost me,

 @nzandyb: Really,
I think the whole Trance line looks great, good geo, great spec, good value, spectacular colours (outside of the live valve)
Reign looks great, same comments as the Trance.

I think we all sleep on the brand, cause of a lack of marketing, which they prolly don’t really need

 @onawalk: The lack of pros and competitiveness at world cups, rampage etc equals less allure. We sleep on giant because that's in line with their effort.

 @jtorrento: yeah, those are all marketing tools, racing, rampage, etc. Don’t confuse it with anything else, it’s a tool to sell more things to more people.

Giant doesn’t appear to put too much value in that sort of marketing, they might not see a ROI to it. That shouldn’t change the fact that the current bikes look great, are a good value, are from a company that produces a quality product, and have great dealer support. WE are the ones sleeping on it, not Giant, they’re just quietly going about their business making, what look to be a very good product.

 @onawalk: Honestly, the best marketing change Giant could make would be to rename a few of the 500 different models of Trance. I'm a big fan of Giant, and I own 4 of them, but even I confuse the many models of Trance sometimes.

 @nzandyb: It was a response to the OP. I think pretty much everyone still remembers that Worlds run (and what Warner said about it). Marcelo Guttierez then? I've got this feeling he's a bit of a Peaty in South America. Either way, exciting is different to different people. As I said, if the top tube is low the bike oozes fun to me. Regardless of whether people are winning or even competing on their bikes, I think I could have a good time on it which is why I'd choose to buy anything. Giant may be a bit more "quantity of bleeding-edge quality" (in terms of race pedigree etc) and I can appreciate that. I'm pretty sure the potential of a bike to win races (with the right rider onboard) is wasted on me whereas just being able to get a decent bike to have a blast on. Some say e-bikes and more suspension allows more people to get into mountainbiking, but that's just for the rich niche. Those "boring generic value brands" producing bikes that don't get in the way and don't fall apart after your first huck are those who actually allow people to get into mountainbiking and actually learn to ride them. I've got much more sympathy for those. Time wasted flipping burgers to save up for something fancy when you could already be riding is time wasted.

 @Glory831Guy: that is a fair statement

 @vinay: All fair statements. A good quality bike for a reasonable amount of money is not something to scoff at. For me, it's not enough for a brand like Giant to do that though, they need to do more. Say what you want about Trek and Specialized (I don't own a MTB from either) at least they 'try' to support cycling in a more holistic way, they aren't cashing in on their economy of sale. Even look at Canyon or Commencal, they're still doing something for cycling, even if their bikes are overrated and aren't as good value-for-money as at first it appears.
I'm not hating on Giant's bikes (which I think are solid, decently reliable, and reasonably priced), just that smaller companies (ie: Transition) do SO much more with so much less.

 @nzandyb: Giant selling well specced bikes at a good price is good for the sport too. Some people couldn't care less about pro racing results, industry greenwashing, and social media influencers.

You mention Trek and Specialized being 'more holistic', yet Specialized dealers are less than stoked on the new DTC setup at Specialized. Trek and Specialized sell some of the most overpriced bikes in the industry, especially considering their size/ buying power, so I'm not sure how you can claim that they don't "cash in on their economy of scale."

 @nzandyb: I think its possible you’re getting a little too sucked into marketing and hype, not a judgement, happens to everyone, and all of us. Ford vs Chevy is a thing for a reason.

You know about what Transition has done cause they advertise, and market what they do (dont get me wrong, I’m a Transition fanboy, two of them in my garage right now),
What leads you to believe that Giant doesn’t do anything for cycling?
They support XC, DH and Enduro teams, tonnes of grassroots sponsorship (they supported me, they support two of the athletes I work with) and there’s a big chance they do a tonne for cycling activism as well, they just dont scream about it.

 @onawalk: RT

 @tmtb999: RT?

 If so I'll make a bold prediction that it will use Maestro suspension and look exactly like a 2013 glory

 New would be a big statement

 @blanshard16: You probably haven't seen a 2013 glory for a long time.

 They've been testing all sorts of angles, leverage ratios & materials over the past 2 seasons under Remi, etc.

Bud said might look similar to the OEM, but that's where similarity ends.

I know I couldn't catch the S.O.B. who used to be a hair slower than me that was on it. And when you read this...yes, I was faster at one point.

 @blowmyfuse:

 We aren't getting any younger!

 @Sugarbrad: Yeah...well, you're getting older slower. And you don't have teenage daughters who are phenomenal at making baked goodies.

 @blowmyfuse: Excuses...

 Remy, yes. Luckily he was fine.

 Carter is a beast

 Your mom is the least stablish person in my group

 I am Henry VIII, I am.

 and Giant's got someone with two last names racing Enduro as a bonus

 They'd probably market it under the Liv name, but I don't think there is any at this point indeed.

 @vinay: Rae Morrison? ..pretty certain there are some professional female xc racers on the roster as well.

 @gnarnaimo: Oh yeah sorry, I had my focus limited to DH racing. I'm sure I'm missing a good few more if we look at all mountainbike racing.

 @vinay: I often wonder why they don't rebadge the glory with liv logos. Same goes for Santa Cruz with the v10. Why not?

 THeir Liv Cycling team announcement is forthcoming. I saw a Karen bitch about it in their IG post is the only reason I know.

 @gnarnaimo: There's a bunch of Juliana v10s floating around for sponsored riders out there. Never officially released as a production bike. A keen eye in the sea to sky can see em' occasionally.

 @gnarnaimo: Because it would conflict with Liv's "women need different geometry ethos" rolleyes>

 @j-t-g: Initially the Juliana was their Superlight fully with the build adjusted for women, probably because it was their most "seated pedaling" bike at the time. They eventually made a Juliana version of everything but I wonder how long it will last. Marketing your product as female specific kind of implies that you consider your other brand male specific and I can't see that be cool for much longer.

 @vinay: I want a bike branded for men branded like Dove For Men or Nivea Cream For Men. And none of this man specific packaging, I want the original releases where they just slapped a "for men" sticker on it and called it a day.

I'm not going to get into the value of having a womens specific brand. Giant and Santa Cruz are obviously into it, whereas Trek and others dropped their womens specific lineup a number of years ago. If it works it works, and if it helps women feel like they belong to a special club in an otherwise male dominated sport, who am I to argue. If it makes poor business sense, then I'm sure we will see which way it goes in the future...

 @j-t-g: Fair enough, I'll leave it to all of them to pick their own strategy. The CEO of Giant is female too, I trust the board does what they feel is best.

 Ain't no one heard of Linda Indergand?

Top 10 XCO rider on the world stage for several years now for Liv.

 @Ktron: And Olympic medalist...no big deal lol.

 @vinay: so you're opposed to penis enlargement except in the case of female-to-male transexuals?