BIKE REVIEW
In honour of Women’s Month we managed to secure a proper bike for our female readers. Giant’s female specific brand LIV was enjoyed and put through its paces recently. Here is what went down rode the 2020 Giant LIV Pique 29 MTB as an experiment to get a feel for a bike brand I had never tried before. I was ultrainterested to demo the LIV specifically because of the fact that it has a ladies-specific design including a ladiesspecific saddle, one of the only bikes in SA at the moment that are designed with female geometry in mind. Dual-suspension, RockShox Recon RL 100mm on the front and RockShox Deluxe Select+ on the back makes this mountain bike a comfy ride on the trail. At first when I rode the bike, the more upright trailorientated geometry took me by surprise and I was tentative on anything technical (I am a bit more used to an aggressive build) but after a bit of time on some singletrack, I felt genuinely safe in the capabilities of both shocks to take hits from almost anything I rode over, so much so that I actually recorded some of my own PR’s
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down Tokai’s Vasbyt trail. The shocks on this bike can both lock out, allowing the bike to become equivalent to a hardtail for tar/ jeeptrack climbs. The lockouts are a bit awkward to reach in my opinion which made quickly adapting the bike from one terrain to another quite difficult. A handlebar lockout switch would make this capability of the bike a lot more seamless. This bike has an aluminium frame although at first glance I never would have said so. The chameleon plum/black colour of the frame is not just eye-catching, it’s beautiful. At first when I saw the colour of the bike, I was a bit dismayed … pink/purple is not really my vibe. However, the longer I spent with the bike, the more the colour grew on me. The alloy frame, although attractive does come with one drawback for me … the weight. As a female cyclist who thrives on climbs, this is the first thing I notice when climbing on any bike. It wasn’t a massive negative for me, especially when I felt how the bike’s weight advantaged me on the descents, however I think personally a lighter bike on the uphills means more to me than shaving a few seconds off on the downhills. One of the unique selling points of the bike is 100% the fact that it comes fitted with a dropper seat post. Admittedly I am not used to riding with one, however, I can see how for a slightly more nervous rider, this feature would help a load with confidence
