I am living on my in-law’s farm in the Miaoli hills for a few years while my daughter goes to the local kindergarten here.
There’s not much to do out here, but the cycling is amazing. So far, I’ve only explored it on an e-bike, but it seems to be a waste not to get a road bike and get into cycling while I’m out here. The trouble is that I have practically zero knowledge of cycling and what equipment to buy.
My plan is to go out on short rides with some climbing most days (for around an hour). This wouldn’t involve any long climbs at first, but some of the slopes are quite steep. Once I get fitter, I will go for longer rides up into the mountains or down to the coast.
The guy at the bike shop suggested the TCR Advanced 1 or 2 KOM. Is it worth spending an extra NT$20k to get the Advanced 1 over the 2? Or are both these overkill for a beginner? And do I need to pay extra for disc brakes?
I don’t mind dropping NT$80k for the TCR Advanced 1 KOM with disc brakes if it will make a difference to the ride, but if there’s no discernable difference for a beginner, I would go for the Advanced 2 KOM (or something else)?
Disk brakes make no difference at this point. Regular brakes provide sufficient deceleration and allow you to stop if and when needed.
I don’t have time to reply now. But, how flexible are you? I think a Defy or Revolt make more sense than the TCR for non-pro non-super flexible people.
I do like disc brakes more.
105 offers all you need, and more. Although, if money is not a problem, sure Ultegra is nicer.
Definitely non-pro, non-flexible, just want to be able to get up and down the hills here on my fitness rides and also have something that is good for longer rides in the future.
If you are the type of person that might try to push yourself to go faster and faster once you get fitter, then you should consider the TCR. If you are looking for max comfort then certainly the Defy or Revolt would be the better options although I’ve only ever ridden the TCR.
If you have an “athletic” history, then you could adapt to the TCR just fine.
For steep(ish) climbing just get a 50/34 chainring and 11-34 cassette which all those TCRs have. Shimano 105 and rim brake are plenty good.
Having said that, last year I splashed some cash on a TCR disc with di2 Ultegra 
Get a second hand road bike with 105 and upgrade the wheel set. It’s all you need for now.
Miaoli has some fantastic cycling. Target Xianshan 仙山 at some point.
I don’t have an athletic history at all and I’m in my forties now. Not interested in riding really fast just want to get up hills with minimum sweat and maximum comfort, so seems that Defy or Revolt would be better. How should I choose between these two?
I don’t know anything about bikes. Would rather just order one from the catalog at my local Giant shop in Zhuolan and have him set everything up for me. Will check out 仙山 when I get a bit fitter!
It looks like the Revolt comes standard with 38c tires and 48/32 chainrings and 11-34 cassette meaning it would be “easier” to “spin up” on steeper gradients. However I would guess that the Revolt is heavier than the Defy.
The Revolt looks like something you would ride on mixed surfaces (paved + gravel). The 38c tires will make things even more comfortable but it might feel like riding a tank going up a mountain. But you could always change to a 32c tire.
I don’t see a lot of options on the Defy from the Giant website, but it comes with 32c tires (50/34 chainring, 11-34) and more made for paved roads. The “geometry” is more relaxed versus the TCR and it is built to be more comfortable going over imperfect roads.
Thanks, that’s very helpful. There are some nice roads through the forest and around the reservoir near where I live, but they are very poorly maintained. I guess the Revolt would be better for this type of terrain, but the Defy would be better for peddling uphill on well-paved roads (despite the different chainrings and cassette?). I will do some more research into these two options.
For sure get disc brakes, in a few years time you won’t be able to get non-disc brake wheels and upgrade bits as easily as you will be able to for disc. 105 is perfectly sufficient for nearly all situations, 50/34 and a 11/34 or similar is fine. Either the TCR or Defy will be fine. I personally would get the 2-KOM-disc over the 1-KOM-rim brake as it’s easy to replace the components when they wear out with uprated ones, whereas you can not change a bike from rim to disc.
Looking like this one:
DEFY ADVANCED 2 - 捷安特 | 自行車 | Giant Bicycles | Taiwan 臺灣 (giantcyclingworld.com)
That’s what I said when I was thinking of switching from MTB to road bike. After I made the switch, I realized how much lighter and faster I became. Trust me, you will want to go fast, far and high after you start riding a road bike. 
Do it.
Don’t forget to get a bell with it.
Disclaimer: I have not ridden any of these Giant bikes. So, I am not going to go deep in the analysis. Just a generalization about the type of bikes that can also apply to any other brand with similar bikes.
TCR is a climbing race bike (Propel is a race bike for flatter terrain). It is designed around pro cyclists to win mountain stages in the Tour de France. Body position is the lowest of the three. It is also the nimblest in curves and the most nervous at high speeds.
Defy is an endurance/gran fondo bike. Probably not a lot of race pedigree, but maybe used in ultra-long races. It is designed for the average Joe that wants a road bike but doesn’t have the flexibility of pro athletes in their 20s. It has fender mounts in case you want to ride often in the rain. It sits in the middle in terms of body position, stability and agility.
Revolt is a gravel bike. Designed for light off-roading and broken roads, which does not mean it can not be used in well paved surfaces. It has the highest body position and it is the most stable of the three. It has fender mounts and backpacking mounts (I like the one in the top tube for a small bag to store the phone and food). It can take big tires (but also regular roadie sizes).
You said this:
(You’re me)
So, my advice is to avoid the TCR. Yes, it is tempting to have a proper race bike. The frame geometry that wins races around the world. But, unless you can hold the lower body positions that this frame allows, you won’t have a significant aerodynamic advantage over the Defy or even the Revolt. Moreover, you won’t even have the race look, because you’ll have a bunch of spacers above your headtube and/or a shorter stem.
Regarding the handling. Unless you have a very good technique and you’re willing to take the risks of cornering real fast on open roads, I don’t think you will feel like the Defy or the Revolt will be slowing you down in the corners. You’ll also have greater stability with the latter two.
Between the Defy and the Revolt. I don’t know, I chose the Merida Scultura Endurance (equivalent to Defy) instead of a gravel bike (this new Revolt wasn’t in the market at the time). Taiwan does not have a lot of gravel roads; and around Taipei, road surfaces are pretty good. Miaoli may be different. You may want to do bikepacking (I would love a top tube mount for a bag on my bike). It will take mudguards and big tires maybe without toe overlap (when your foot can hit the front wheel). I, personally, would choose the Revolt over almost any other bike today. Maybe I would want a test ride before, just in case.
Regarding the gears. I don’t think 50/34 11/34 is enough for most people in Taiwan. At least, it wasn’t enough for me. I don’t buy that 34-34 is low enough so anyone can climb the Mortirolo at 90rpm and 170bpm. Taiwanese main roads have, in general, reasonable gradients. But many secondary roads are paved goat trails. In Taipei, if I don’t want to encounter 20% gradients, I have to carefully plan the route. It is almost impossible to go to the mountains and do not face 15%s unless you stick to the main roads (more traffic).
I have 46/30 14/40. I know this is extreme and I don’t very often use the lowest 30-40 gear. But I am the worst off-the-saddle cyclist in the world. I cannot hold it for long, especially after a few hundred meters of accumulated elevation. I also like my knees and want to keep them, so I want my cadence as high as possible while climbing. Finally, I have a high heartbeat; I love my heart even more than my knees.
Sadly, the market does not offer a lot and even the Revolt is sold with a ridiculously high 48/32 11/34. Mountain bikes are sold with 32-51 or 32-52 but gravel riders have to face similar gradients with a 32-34. Ridiculous. Go bikepacking with that.
Anyway, enough rant. The 48/32 of the Revolt is a little bit more forgiving than the 50/34 of the other two. But you have to be very fit to “get up hills with minimum sweat and maximum comfort”.
Get an endurance frame with 105 di2 groupset and disc brakes. If you are at all heavier disc brakes make a HUGE difference. If your are a slim then there is less of a benefit but as someone stated above in future it will even be hard to get wheels for rim brakes.
Also suggest getting a normal stem and handlebar with exposed hoses. It makes it a ton easier to adjust and believe me, you will be making changes if you have not ridden much before. Its hard to believe how much for example 20mm stem length change means until you actually feel it your self.
Also make sure to get proper gearing as you will need it in Taiwan unless again you are very slim and fit and even then some of the steepest parts here are hard unless you have the gears.
Do you think the more forgiving gears of the Revolt would make up for the extra weight when climbing? I read that the frame is only 200g heavier than the Defy, but the 38c tyres would add a lot more weight. A lot of people suggest changing to 32c, but that would cost more money and make it less useful as a gravel bike?
I don’t really have time to get into bikepacking at this stage (have a 4-year-old at home), but some of the smaller roads around here are in quite poor condition and would be fun to explore. But there are also plenty of well-paved roads to cycle on, so this is not essential.
What do you mean by proper gearing? If I just buy the Defy Advanced 2 or Revolt Advanced 2, then I’m assuming the gearing will be fine.
For the exposed cables, is this standard, or do I need to ask the guy in the bike shop to do this for me? I can speak Chinese, but I don’t know any cycling vocabulary, so will need to figure out how to explain all of this. My preference is to get something that suits my needs “out of the box”.
Giant is one of the few big brands that has not joined the trend of guiding the cables through the headset. So, don’t worry about it.
Proper gearing depends on the rider and the terrain. Last weekend I saw a guy in Shamao road with a tiiiiny little cassette, probably an 11-23. Maybe that is what he thinks as proper gearing for Taiwanese mountains, but he should be winning the Giro di Italia, and he’s not, so…
If you can do a test ride, that would help you a lot to figure out whether a lowest gear of 34-34 is enough for you and your roads now (or it could be in the future if you get fitter [but don’t forget that we are getting old and kids do not give us a lot of free time for training]).
Worst case scenario, you’ll have to skip some steep roads or change your gearing. There are third party options to install 46/30 chainrings in Shimano cranksets, while Shimano has 46/30 chainrings for GRX cranksets (the crankset of the Revolt). Please note that in some frames it is not possible to install a 30T small chainring. The Revolt should be able to take it without any issues. The Defy, most probably. But, maybe, it won’t be possible in the TCR.
And with both 105 long cage and GRX rear derailleurs you can use MTB cassettes as big as 11/40. Please not that Shimano says that, in both cases, the biggest compatible sprocket is 34T. But there are many experiences you can find online that both derailleurs work without issues with a 40T. My 105 RD-R7000-GS (long cage) shifts perfectly fine. Anyway, if something breaks, don’t blame me.
Finally, please note that changing gearing most certainly will also require adjusting the length of the chain.
Also, if you can do a test ride and you think you may need to change the gearing, talk about it with the shop. They may agree to change the default gearing of the bike before you purchase it. It is a work that any bike mechanic can do in less than 20 minutes (including readjusting the shifting).
Give or take, it will be more or less the same feeling. Stock tyres are usually not very good, so you may find yourself upgrading them pretty soon. I am know using TPU inner tubes and they save A LOT of weight per NT. Yesterday, I bought a Revoloop inner tube for 650NT, it weights 38 grams. My butyl inner tube weights 126 grams and it is 3 times bigger. Weight savings will be even bigger for a bigger tube, so you can end with the same weight that someone riding 28c tyres with butyl tubes.
If the bug of cycling bites you, well, you’ll find yourself expending some money on your new bike sooner or later.
Sound is shite. So, unless you’re Spanish is very good, you won’t understand a thing, but you can look at the numbers. They are professional Spanish riders talking about what they will use in the Tourmalet and L’Angliru. Angliru is one of the hardest climbs in professional racing, but you can find similar climbs and percentages in Taiwan.
Most riders say that they will use around 36-32 for Angliru, while for Tourmalet most of them say that they will use something slightly higher. Fran Ventoso even says “the lowest they can give me” (34-32).
So, if professionals need 36-32 for steeps around 20%. I am pretty sure that I can’t do that with a 34-34.
Note: I think I posted a similar post to this one in Forumosa already.