2018 Liv Langma Advanced 2 Womens Carbon Race Bike : 105 : Silver

The Liv Langma is a welcome addition to the women’s brand. It is designed to meet the needs of racers and aspiring racers or those who are looking for a stiff, lightweight road bike that doesn’t punish you over longer races or rides.

Like all Liv bikes, the Langma is a ground-up project and is created with Liv’s 3F philosophy as the cornerstone. Fit, Form and Function drive each product’s creation to ensure that as a female rider you get the best bike for your riding style. Unlike many brands who simply take an existing men’s bike and adjust the geometry, Liv have an extensive development process that begins with the Global Body Dimension Database. They use this to analyse trends in body shape (eg. arm, leg, torso length) and combining these data with the bike’s intended use along with pro-rider and consumer feedback, deliver an optimised bike to offer the rider every advantage, from weight and stiffness to comfort and style.

Liv (in the guise of Giant) have produced a women’s ‘race’ bike before – a women’s version TCR, and with many years of Avail and Envie development, are no stranger to the requirements of women riders and racers. When it came to re-visiting the race bike project, Liv wanted to make it clear that the machine was not simply a TCR but a specific bike for women that stood apart. Indeed, the Liv Langma is a more accomplished, up-to-date and a more advanced bike than the Giant TCR men’s equivalent.

Langma is the Tibetan name for Everest, so it will come as no surprise that the Liv Langma is intended to excel in mountain stages and dominate as an all-round performance race bike for racers and passionate female riders. There has been no compromise in aerodynamics, stiffness or weight.

The Langma uses a completely different carbon lay-up from the men’s TCR and each lay-up is size-specific to ensure that, regardless of your build and size, the ride feel and qualities will be the same for any rider. When compared with the TCR the Langma is more aerodynamic, more compliant and thus more comfortable and stable as well as being equally stiff at a lower weight. It doesn’t stop there. The new Flux SLR stem featured on this Liv Langma Advanced Pro 0 model and the models above is unique, it is stiffer than the Contact SLR whilst offering improved aerodynamics thanks – in part - to a moulded-in spacer, and reduces drag by 1.75%. Further aerodynamic enhancement comes from truncated tube profiling on the downtube which widens lower down also improving power delivery.

Like the other Giant and Liv ranges, the Langma is available in 3 iterations, the Advanced, Advanced Pro and Advanced SL. The SL models are the top of the range, pro level bikes and feature Giant's professional-grade raw carbon with the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio available today. The Langma SL uses Torayca's T800 raw carbon fibre as the building block of the SL platform for exceptional stiffness and low weight and Liv have used a new resin which employs Carbon Nano Tube technology. CNT is a polymer that is blended with Liv’s resin and which act to strengthen the layers of composite for incredible strength - 14% more to be precise. Liv have also employed Continuous Fibre technology. This method of frame construction utilises longer runs of carbon fibre allowing for greater strength and less material to yield significantly lower (up to 100g) frame weights without compromising on strength and stiffness. Furthermore, advances in frame construction include a Fusion Molding process used to join the toptube to the seat tube; by hand-weaving the area together and re-molding at a higher temperature, the junction becomes far stronger and lighter. Not only are the Langma SL frames real performance pieces, they are also all hand-made, demonstrating the incredible value inherent, when you consider their price and that of the competition.

The Advanced models, like the Pro, use the same frame but reduce costs by using an aluminium steerer on the carbon fork and by using wheel sets (traditionally laced rim / hub / spoke combinations) rather than proprietary wheel systems. While this adds a little weight it helps keep the costs down whilst maintaining the essence of the Langma.

Regardless of model, each Langma frame features Compact road geometry specifically engineered for female riders to ensure lower weight, higher stiffness, greater compliance and excellent fit. The SL and Pro models feature oversize headtubes and fork steerer tubes for improved handling and front-end stiffness making them the finest handling bikes in their class. All models are tubeless ready to further reduce weight, improve control and reduce the risk of puncture.

The Liv Langma Advanced 2 blends the lightweight, spritely but stable Langma handling with sensible component choices to offer incredible ride quality and specification for the money.