I don't claim to know the reasons for special mountain stage bikes but I suspect a lot of marketing spin is involved. I mean what gets the press and bike nuts alike talking about your stuff more than trotting out special prototype or one-of equipment? Taking into consideration the UCI weight limit of 6.8kg, it's not difficult to get stock bike down to that weight, after you slap on some really light wheels.

I live in Taiwan, Taichung specifically, where the Giant is headquartered. The president of Giant live one floor above my apartment and once over a dinner (last year) I asked her, yes, it's a her, that if they make custom frame for the ONCE race team and she said no. So I don't care if some people believe me or not, but I will vouch for the guys here who said Giant doesn't built custom bike for race teams.

p.s. I don't know if they will do it for Ullrich, but at least for ONCE, they don't.

How many times do I need to say it. It's not really a "custom" frame.

Look, when Giant has to build a new bike, aka. the TCR Advanced, they need NEW molds, right?

OK.

Since they are building a new mold, they are going to tweak the geometry to fit Ullrich. The frame will not be his own personal frame, but it will be the mold the Giant uses as the size large as well. Lances size 58cm, is really size lance, and sold as a 58cm.

In addition they can change the layup to make the frame more suited to the riders needs.

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MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT! HUH!

SL you might want to consider when the OCLV molds were made...Lance was still riding a Litespeed. Ironically the Madone dimensions don't vary much from the other OCLV bikes.

Looks like Lance has a pretty common body size.

You do know that they make more then one mold for the frame right? They have been making the 5200 for years, since early 90's I beleive.

Lance didn't get it made until the 5900 came out, in which they tweaked the geometry to fit him, and is size 58cm.

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MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT! HUH!

I agree, Giant will not manufacture a custom geometry carbon frame - The process is prohibitively expensive!

Hasn't anyone noticed the ridiculous setup on those bikes, in particular:
-height of spacers
-length of stem
-heigh of seatpost

What bike Jan rides? Time will tell...

Once again, we are not reading the provided information! Please people, read the whole post!

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MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT! HUH!

Mama should have told you that assumptions do not become facts by just repeating them as often as possible. And also that repetition is getting annoying.

Yeah....

Lances frame geometry is a fact!

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MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT! HUH!

Lance is quoted in procycling to have said that he rides a stock 58 frame because he wants the longer top tube although he would prefer a 56 but think the top tube is too short. This would hardly be the fact if his frame was custom made.

MROWKOOB......its like pulling teeth, isn't it?

Giant may not have made them, but there were some Giant branded custom Titanium frames under Jaja and Olano in some Tour stages that someone made. So it isn't that far out to assume they also made some Al ones. Cycle Sport magazine had an article about the Giant frames ONCE were using and claimed that they made seven sizes of frame for the team instead of the consumer available five. If that claim wasn't true, I'm sure Giant have a good legal department that would have at least made sure a retraction was printed.

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Ride lightly!

Actually... with modern Solids Modeling programs and CNC equipment, it's not. I can say with certainty that [for someone like Giant] the molds for an all-carbon frame could probably be made by a few people in a few days. This is <B>far</B> from being "prohibitively expensive". They may not be absolutely perfect molds capable of very high production... but they'd be <I>more</I> than adequate to knock out 50 or 100 frames.

Not only that, but <B>if</B> Giant were to build frames with different geometry for Ullrich (or anyone else), they would be stupid to admit it to <B>anyone</B>. After all... they are in the business to make money, and they do that by selling frames to the public. To "admit" that what is being sold is not exactly what the pros are racing (whether it is or not) would be like shooting themselves in the foot.

It's better to be talked about then not be talked about at all, dixit Oscar Wilde...

I don't think Giant minds these discussions... as long as we talk about them instead of any other brand...

If I'd be the Decision Man in some HQ in Taiwan or in Wisconsin, and I'd have to choose between:

1. Make the perfect frame for Lance or Jan ...

or

2. Make the mold for 100.000 buyers in the world...

I'm sure i'd choose the second one.
It's quite obvious that if the two things should perfectly overlap... I'de be very happy to make the perfect frame for both my pro-athletes and my customers!!

Bye, Benz.