No raw material has had the immediate impact on the cycling industry that the introduction of Carbon Fiber has had.  As an industry, companies have gone from using carbon fiber simply 'because they could' to now having a truly deep understanding of the material and manufacturing processes used to make cycling components. 

If you want a road bike that is fast, stiff, and lightweight, its tough to look beyond what carbon frames can offer.  From a bike shop perspective....one that comes right from the front lines... we have seen the true test of time be applied to carbon equipment. 

If you search around this website, or talk to us in person, you will quickly get the impression that we like to sell things that have a soul, have a purpose and quite frankly...we like to sell stuff that ACTUALLY does what the manufacturer  SAYS IT DOES!  Well, we are finally getting to the point where we we really like what certain carbon frames bring to the mix.  

In true Smart Cycles fashion, we'll keep our own thoughts on all the tech specs of carbon for in-store discussion...of course, there is a ton of info available on all the manufacturers' websites.  For now, know that we've done our extended homework (also read as 'we didn't jump on the bandwagon') and are happy to have a great selection of carbon stuff to offer our customers.

Italian Carbon Bikes at Smart Cycles

The Torelli Selvino is a very lightweight, very high-quality full-carbon frame for an attractive price. At Torelli, it has always been our goal to offer extremely high performance product for riders who don't feel like wasting money displaying the latest fancy name brand. With the Selvino, we've really fulfilled our goal. 

Materials and design: The Selvino is a lightweight full carbon compact frameset. The frame comes with a full carbon fork, integrated headset and seat collar. It has a clear-coat over the decals and its very distinctive 12K (large weave) carbon wrap

Specifications
Frame weight, small: 950 grams
Bottom bracket: English
Head tube: 1 1/8" integrated
Seat post: 31.6mm
Front derailleur clamp diameter: 35mm
The Selvino is available in small, medium, large, and extra large sizes.

Suggested retail: Frame and fork $1,269.00

Extro

Keen Blade

Keen Blade Tri

Mutant

Devilry

In a world flooded with composite technology, Giant’s legendary fO Composite process stands alone. Born over eighteen years ago in Giant’s own Taiwan-based “Techno Centre” engineering lab, Meta Composite continues to improve through Giant’s exhaustive materials research, state-of-the-art manufacturing development and world-class field testing.

fO Composite is Giant’s proprietary composite technology, developed to achieve a superior balance between the three things serious riders hold in the highest regard: stiffness, light weight and ride quality. It’s a difficult juggling act to keep these three elements in perfect harmony. Get it wrong and you’ll end up with a bike that’s too flexy, too harsh, or too heavy. Get it right, and you’ll have a bike that accelerates like a rocket, efficiently transfers energy and soaks up performance-robbing vibration for all-day comfort. 

What makes fO Composite stand out from the other “me-too” composite technologies currently on the market is that Giant - and Giant alone - controls the entire process start to finish, from the countless field-testing hours, to the meticulous engineering conducted by Giant’s own engineering staff, to the hand lay-up of composite frames at the Giant C-Tech factory. Giant is proud that it can pass fO Composite on to the rider who demands a lighter, laterally stiffer and more vertically compliant ride from their bicycle.

It’s these improvements that enable Giant to craft the best-performing composite bicycles on and off the road. fO Composite’s superior performance begins with bare carbon thread and ends in an entirely handmade frame constructed of strategically layered, Uni-Directional (UD) carbon. At Giant, this combination of painstaking process and a proprietary material selection is more than just materials and technology - it’s a promise of superior quality and performance that no other major brand can make. That’s the fO Composite promise.

TCR Composite

FRAME TECHNOLOGY
Building upon its six-year heritage, the TCR Composite features additional weight reduction and increased lateral stiffness made possible only through Giant’s proprietary formulaOne Composite manufacturing process.

TCR Alliance

FRAME TECHNOLOGY
Giant’s proprietary Alliance frame technology takes advantage of the performance benefits of both aluminum and composite. Through careful, seamless integration of these two materials, riders of all levels can reap the benefits of increased comfort and performance from this unique blend.

TCR Advanced

The pinnacle of race-ready engineering and built to meet the unrelenting demands of the T-Mobile Team, every handcrafted model in Giant’s TCR Advanced series utilizes T-800 formulaOne composite—which features the lightest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any composite material available.

FRAME TECHNOLOGY
Developed to meet the needs of the peloton’s fastest racers, the T-800 formulaOne Composite frameset is laterally stiff, light and highly aerodynamic.

TCR ADVANCED
The pinnacle of race-ready engineering and built to meet the unrelenting demands of the T-Mobile Team, every handcrafted model in Giant’s TCR Advanced series utilizes T-800 formulaOne composite—which features the lightest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any composite material available.

FRAME TECHNOLOGY
Developed to meet the needs of the peloton’s fastest racers, the breakthrough T-800 formulaOne.

MORE PLAIN ENGLISH from Smart Cycles - In today's market, there is a LOT of carbon fiber equipment floating around.  Everyone tells you that theirs is the best because of this and because of that.   As consumers, we should expect that... especially from big companies.  After all, it all REALLY DOES comes down to pretty much the SAME CARBON THREAD and the SAME EPOXY!  Sorry to de-mystify things, but its true.

There isn't a bigger bike company in the world than GIANT, so one might surmise that their 'spin' on carbon would be quite elaborate.  And while GIANT has the resources and the budget to really WOW you with technical info and great graphics, they make a REAL point of telling you what matters MOST when it comes to carbon fiber products:

1. Experience, Research, Feedback.  Giant has more experience advancement of carbon fiber bikes than anyone in the business.  Including extensive experience with riders, materials, manufacturing process, raw materials, performance enhancement, etc.  

2. Timeline. Experience doesn't always come over an extended time period, so we separate the two here. Giant has had a relationship with carbon fiber for a long time.  Giant has developed its carbon products over years and years with riders using their products and providing instant feedback.  Every world-class race is the laboratory for Giant.

3. Control over Process - You can go to Giant to get a carbon frame that started out as a single thread of carbon fiber and ended up a gorgeous work of ride-able science - all under one roof. Giant is the only company in the industry that specs and then spins its own thread and processes it along the way to becoming a bike frame - completely on their own.  Every step of the way.  No sub-contractors, no middle-men anywhere.  This ensures that a very important WATCHFUL EYE is always monitoring the manufacturing process, from start to end.  When you buy a Giant Carbon frame and fork, you can rest assured that it has passed through a very tight process that ensures you get a bicycle that rides and lasts like a premium carbon bike is intended to.

BIANCHI USA!

We also sell the line of Binachi C2C Carbon Road bikes.  7 Different models to satisfy your riding needs and your budget!