Correction: we’ve spoken to Giant and need to clarify that this isn’t actually a new ‘standard’. You’ll be able to use everything except a 1.5″ (or 1″…) steerer tube in the Overdrive 2 headtube. It’s also only going to be appearing on seven of Giant’s mountain bike models next year, not 57, as stated below, although that’s what Chipps was told originally.
OK, time to sit down and get the pen and paper out… Giant Bicycles has a new headset standard for you to get your head round.
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This is the premise: OK, so with everyone getting wider and wider bars, there’s a lot more sideways force going through your stem and steerer – a 1 1/8th inch steerer that harks back to the days of quill stems. So what Giant proposes is that everyone adopts a new size for stems and steerers. They call it ‘Overdrive 2’
So, what’s Overdrive 2? Well, it uses a ‘normal’ tapered head tube (Giant has been doing tapered since about 2008) – but the fork steerer tapers from 1.5in at the bottom – which is the normal size for tapered steerers these days – to 1.25in at the top. Yes, that’s an inch and a ‘didn’t Gary Fisher do that size, ages ago’ quarter.
Giant’s own testing reckons that it makes the steering stiffness 30% stiffer. Obviously you need a 1.25in stem, but these are already being made by Giant, Ritchey and Truvative.
And how does Giant squeezed that big steerer in? It has developed a new, skinny top bearing with FSA that, presumably is 0.0625in thinner (if our rusty fraction arithmetic is correct). Giant reckons that the new system weighs no more than the current tapered system (that we’ve had for only a couple of years.)
Giant is touting Overdrive 2 as an open standard and expects many other companies to hop aboard next year in having, we’ll call them ‘shallow taper’ (or chunky stemmed) front ends. To show its commitment, Giant will have 57 models next year with Overdrive 2.
Comments by the Singletrackworld.com massive are, as always, welcome and expected…
“I don’t think so, hence the need for a 1.25″ (rather than 1.125″) stem?”
The fork steerer will be different, but the headtube of the bike looks and sounds like standard tapered, just with a smaller top bearing fitted.
… and we all know what happens to smaller bearings. Isis BB bearing anyone?
What a load of crap…
I’ve got a ’94 Yeti Pro Fro sat in the garage with a 1 1/4″ headset. No, it’s not tapered, but who cares and really – who would notice any difference when riding?
These companies are going round in circles trying sell us something ‘new’ every year!
Giant have no idea what we want, do they?
Don’t put countless thousands into the R&D of pointless ideas, save this money & offer us more affordable deals, hey presto, more customers…
How much more expensive are forks going to have to be to recoup the additional tooling costs for a fourth new “standard”?
“Whatever headset is plumbed into it… that Reign SX looks flippin’ ACE. Need to ride that one ASAP.”
That one ^ ?? The one in the pictures above? The one with the sort of pale minty green and matt black paint job cleverly matched to the sky blue cables?
If you say so…
can manufacturers please drop the inches and go metric!
Like my 21:9 Philips TV, it’s a great idea that works better in the real world, and only upsets people who bought 16:9 TVs. You upgraded too early!
Nice backtrack Giant.
No, I still won’t be buying any of your products anytime soon.
shoot – best upgrade or I’ll be left behind.
Ooops! I thought it would swear filter that, what I meant was **** right off!
This is so wrong is so many levels. For starters, we need to make Metric Standards (steerers of 30mm, 40mm and now 32mm) to show those Imperial-System-using **** that this is the 21st-effin-century and we use a god-darned bar of iridium to measure distances as opposed to fractions of the foot of a king dead centuries ago.
as rob warner did.. and danny hart does.. ride for Giant – I think they should be forgiven.
that probably does not really help though
“You’ll be able to use everything except a 1.5″ (or 1″…) steerer tube ”
so just 1 1/8″ then?
Although you may not like another “standard”, bikes have got better and better through new technologies and new “standards” – Just when you’re the inventor or creator of a new standard and there’s no one else doing it does sound a bit nonsensical – People have over the years poo-pooed suspension, V-Brakes, 9spd the list is endless, yet all in all they’ve made bikes better .
The 30% stiffness thing may actually be quite noticeable
now as bars have increased in length so much I imagine the leverage difference is quite pronounced on the steerer, on e thing that we agree on in the office is 1/8th forks feel noticeably more wobbly than tapered steerers.
Specifically at Charlie the Bikemonger – and new standards… All of those 29er’s you flog were only available a few years ago -were ultra niche , there were hardly any tyres available for them, but were being touted as the future by some American mags…. Things with time and context look very different – The Giant Standard may fall by the way side – you may all have them on your bikes in a few years – who knows.
I don’t understand ‘hatred’ against Giant for doing what Fox did with 15mm and many other comapnies have done before – introduce a standard that differentiates their product, while giant haven’t really stopped anyone using most other options. The 15mm axle was way more pointless.
Personally I think the ideal headset is already here, it’s XX44. Why use anything else? But if a brand does and you don’t like it, vote with your wallet. Anymore than that is a bit of an extreme reaction…
Giant are apparently in talks with a fork manufacturer to create a tapered bolt through axle. Recent studies have found that people like turning right and to combat the stresses that puts through the fork leg the RHS of the axle will be oversized. 😉
[i]Although you may not like another “standard”, bikes have got better and better through new technologies and new “standards” – Just when you’re the inventor or creator of a new standard and there’s no one else doing it does sound a bit nonsensical – People have over the years poo-pooed suspension, V-Brakes, 9spd the list is endless, yet all in all they’ve made bikes better[i]
We’re not talking about a new area of development, like suspension, disc brakes or materials technology, instead we’re looking at something which smacks of planned obsolescence and is only going to drive up the cost of forks just for the sake of an illusionary improvement.
A frame’s stiffness isn’t dictated solely by the headtube junction, which is why I remain very skeptical about Giant’s claims when there’s already a 1.5″ headtube standard out there that would appear to fit the bill perfectly, the investment would be better spent elsewhere on the frame.
You don’t have to buy new forks to buy that frame do you? It’s an option – if it had been worded differently and had said “Giant offer the chance for you to use three different types of forks in the same frame!” would you still be annoyed? 😉
The press release also doesn’t claim to make the frame stiffer, but steering (and by that I assume flex through the fork steerer) stiffer- so Giant haven’t spent any money on the frame either have they? They’ve offered a choice which they think may improve the ride. A choice .