Carbon Bikes - Giant CFR3 1997

"Courtesy Bicyclist Magazine, Petersen Publishing Company" and feaured in the March 1996 issue.

By Derin Stockton
Photos by Jim Brown

So road riding fever has finally taken hold. Maybe your friendly once-a-month coffeehouse run on the clunker has turned into a multiple-time-per-week obsession. Or maybe you've spent the majority of your time pushing knobbies off road and you want to feel the speed, rhythm and pleasure that pavement has to offer. It could be you want to go fast without shaving down, oiling up and doing battle with a bunch of weekend pros at the local criterium. Or possibly you're in the market for a good first-time road bike and don't want to spend your entire life savings. Whatever the reason, if you want to keep it under $1000 ($960 to be exact) and want to get something for every one of those dollars, you might be interested in the Giant CFR-3.

The frame's three main tubes are carbon fiber, and the rear triangle is aluminum. Up front, a proprietary bonded-aluminum fork connects to the frame via a Giant alloy needle-bearing headset. With a 73-degree head angle and 4.5 centimeters of fork rake, our 57-centimeter CFR-3 had a balanced feel. It was quick enough to respond to high-speed maneuvers but not so fast that it made the bike feel squirrelly. The design, which makes it stable at high speeds, makes it somewhat difficult to maneuver (due to wheel flop) at low speeds, but it's nothing so serious the rider can't get used to it. The aluminum fork is laterally stiff, yet does a great job of sucking up road shock. Whether sprinting or climbing out of the saddle, the CFR-3 does a good job of making sure that the power you crank into the pedals makes it to the rear wheel.

The Shimano RSX-equipped CFR-3 has a 26/36/46 triple crankset up front and 11-24 7-speed cluster in the rear to give the rider the option of having a relatively large gear on the flats but also a low-enough combination to ride steep terrain without running out of gear. As the 39x21 or 39x23 low gear found on many bikes just isn't low enough for most people to ride hills, the low-geared triple is a key selling point for many beginning riders. It's no wonder low-geared mountain bikes are so popular, despite the fact that the vast majority never leave the pavement. My only concern with the 46x11 gearing is that as riders improve, they will most likely run out of gear on the flats or downhill.

Up front, the CFR-3 comes with STI Dual Control levers that operate smooth as silk and never miss a shift. The RSX dual-pivot brakes do an excellent job of stopping, so if you use all of the gearing to make it up a climb, rest assured you'll have no problems making it down the other side. The TIG-welded stem is only 11 centimeters, which is on the short side, but a longer stem can be swapped at your local bike shop if needed. The seatpost's generous setback and angle adjustability, coupled with the frame's 73-degree seat angle, should make positioning the saddle exactly where you want it an easy operation. The clip-and-strap pedals don't require the purchase of a special set of cycling shoes but seem a bit below the CFR-3's performance level (of course a clipless system could always be added for about $100).

The folks at Giant also made a point of mentioning that although the CFR-3 comes with wide-range gearing and clip-and-strap pedals, it isn't designed for touring. There are no rack braze-ons and the bike rolls on 32-hole RSX hubs laced to a set of Rigida DP 18 V-section clincher rims with IRC's 700x23 Paperlite clinchers. They are one of the first components you notice on the bike and the first indication that it is built for fun and speed. While the wheels are a tad slower to accelerate (due to their extra mass), once rolling they felt as fast as most V-section rims and offered greater lateral stiffness and general wheel rigidity than normal rims�not to mention that they look pretty speedy.

All of these factors turn the CFR-3 into a pretty well-thought-out package. For someone who may not have the lung capacity of Greg LeMond (or the wallet of Bill Gates) but still enjoys going fast and wants to look good doing it, the CFR-3 is a wise choice.