Giant Fastroad AR
 

Anyone else seen it? It's a fast hybrid for light gravel/light offroad riding. Edit: I though it had been released in some markets for a year, but I think their Giant websites had just been updated with the new bike a little earlier than others. I have been looking at the Giant Fastroad SL recently, wishing it had a few of the Fastroad AR 1 features (1x11, thru-axles, etc) and am quite favorably impressed with the new bike.

I don't much like the Giant D-fuse seatpost and find Giant own-brand wheelsets to be fairly sub-par on the whole, but there is a lot to like about the new bike. 12 mm thru axles front and rear are a welcome upgrade from the QR of the Fastroad SL, and the more gravel(ish) geometry is that of a flat bar Revolt. Looks like a great bike.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/au/fastroad-ar-1-2023

that's a cool looking bike.

Anyone got any info on the S-X2 wheelset? I'm trying to work out if the hubs are loose bearing cup-and-cone hubs, or whether they're sealed bearing/cartridge. e

The hubs are listed as house brand alloy hubs. I'd bet a moderately expensive coffee that they're cup-and-cone hubs.

Knowing Giant, they are probably low end cup and cone hubs. Their wheels were never great but it is Giant so kind of like plain cake. Not vanilla or lemon just sugar and flour and oil and some leavening agents and no frosting. Edible and close enough to satisfy a cake itch but not to wow you.

It seems kind of like the flat bar Diverge from Specialized or some of the other flat bar gravel stuff that has been out a while but with odd proprietary seatposts because Giant has to be Giant.

Giant recently updated the D-Fuse seatpost. Have been keeping an eye out on a possible Revolt to replace my Sub Cross in about a year. What I have found is the new D-Fuse can be replaced with other seatposts now since it's not the odd shape it used to be. Will admit though, this Fastroad is a nice looking bike. Betting as usual, the color is much better in person than in pictures.

When I bought my Trance over a year ago, it was listed as the Giant Alloy hubs, but was surprised to find Shimano hubs with surprisingly internal bearings. Believe it is the only Shimano hub that doesn't use cup and cone.

My daughters hubs on her Liv bike though, yea internal cup and cone. But seems like a decent hub. It's not like some of the Shimano's I've had in past that I needed to immediately repack the bearings in them with grease.

Yeah, I'd say they're cup and cone hubs. Giant make excellent frames, but the wheelsets they put on them are questionable at times. Still, with a replacement wheelset, you could have a really nice bike and keep the original wheelset in reserve or sell it. The Fastroad AR is basically a flatbar revolt and they've just released the new Revolt with front suspension, so I was having a chuckle thinking about the reaction of some of the more vocal of the gravel sceptics online if you put a 40 mm travel gravel fork on a Fastroad AR. Some of the outbursts and tantrums over that one could be seen from space.

So has anyone picked up this bike in the Aluminum or Carbon version. Giant website says it's limited to 42mm tires but wondering if that is actually true.

You could also do a 650b conversion and throw 650x47 WTB Horizons on one, or the Byways for rougher gravel. Even find some wildly expensive but feathery light Rene Herse 650b tires in 47-50.

So has anyone else had a deal on these? In Korea, there is a deal where you can trade in your 2023 Fastroad or 2023 Fastroad AR for a 2024 Fastroad AR model (deal has caveats etc., but that's basically it), and we also got the 1x version, after disappointing 2023 models released in February. It was just a strange release schedule, release a 2023 model in late Winter (early 2023) and then release a 2024 model in Autumn of the same year (late 2023). Really odd.

Doesn't appear anyone here has purchased this bike yet?

I just bought a Fastroad Advanced 2 this weekend. I had my eye on it, the Trek FX Sport and Specialized Sirrus. I'm replacing my Marin DSX2. I've never loved my Marin as it's kinda heavy and a bit slow. I upgraded the Marin's wheelset as I wanted to run tubeless and I just can't get it quite to where I like. I'm a mtb rider first and foremost but wanted a bike for rainy days when I'm stuck on gravel/streets or a bike to do pub crawls with. I won't do dropbars and I would have gotten the Advanced 1 but I also don't do 2x chainrings. I leave both those things to roadies. Anyway, no thoughts yet on this bike as I've just started riding it up and down the street and getting all the adjustments made. I can say that right away it's faster than my DSX 2. I don't love the groupset or wheelset on this but unless I see a glaring problem I'll probably keep it as is.

I’m a former road cyclist who had enough friends hit by cars that I sold my bike and quit cycling all together about six years ago. My wife and I have since moved into a house that is a quarter mile from a rail trail that extends about 30 miles to the north in one direction, and then links with other trails 8 miles to the south that can get us to some nice villages and into downtown. After three years here we decided to get some hybrid bikes to take advantage of this trail system.

Being a former road cyclist I was looking for a bike that would serve two purposes: first take nice casual rides to the villages and downtown with my wife, and second provide a good platform for me to bomb around the trails and get a real workout in. I didn’t want to tempt myself getting back onto the roads, so while a road bike was off the table I still was looking for something I could set up to fit and feel like a road bike.

I did a lot of test rides and after being discouraged with the general geometry in the hybrid category, I got online and stumbled upon the FastRoad models. They were exactly what I was looking for as far as looks and geometry was concerned. The only issue was nobody near me had any to test ride. I live in Florida so I was looking for gears spaced tight enough that I would have plenty of spin options in the flats and headwinds. When I saw the 2024 models were going to 1x, I had to source a 2023 model sight unseen from an out of state shop.

I got my 2023 FastRoad AR 2 in this week. I’m 5’11 and went with a M/L frame to avoid having too high of a stack. After a short test ride I flipped the stem to get more of a drop and slid the saddle back an inch to give myself a slightly longer reach. I took it out for a 25 mile ride today and everything felt absolutely fantastic. The location of the gear levers is going to take some getting use to, but I was very happy with the amount of gear options I had to match whatever cadence I wanted to spin. This is also my first tubeless bike, and I didn’t feel as much resistance from the tires as I thought I would. The Sora components are a downgrade from the 105 I had on my old road bike, but shifts are still very snappy and they will serve me well until I wear them out and have an excuse to upgrade them. When I’m fighting a headwind and want to get more arrow, moving my hands closer together on the handlebars allows for an efficient and controllable tuck position.

All in all, if you’re a roadie or a retired roadie looking for a similar setup, I can’t speak highly enough about the FastRoad. Just don’t go too big on the frame because a higher stack will negate all of this feedback.

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https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7d3ac0c03.jpeg

As a follow up, I still haven't gotten much time on this bike due to more mtb riding but now that it's been raining solid for two days I'll be putting the Fastroad on the trainer tonight and then when it stops actively raining I'll be riding the roads/gravel trails while the singletracks dry. I did get to do some loops on our local paved 3 mi bike path and I can say I like it a lot more than my Marin. I was setting PRs on segments while carrying a conversation with fellow riders. It handled the corners nicely and the hills felt easier than ever, not sure if that's due to the bike being 5-6 lbs lighter than my old one. I've yet to hit gravel with this but hopefully will this week.

Hi,
I bought Giant Fastroad AR1 as my cross, hybrid, fitness, flatbar gravel or whatever you call it bike:
Since I'm MTB guy I use it mostly for road and fine gravel rides with my wife.
I made one small modification: I changed the cassette from the original Shimano 11-42 to Sunrace 11-46 to make steep climbs a little easier.
Stock tyres (Giant Gavia Fondo AR Tubeless, 700x40c) are fat enough for gravel and fast enough for the road.

They are for sale here in Australia. I have seen one out in the 'wild'. The thing I like about this bike is the single 42t chainring up the front - would suit my riding style perfectly, but it is a bit pricey.

The bike is also very light. Mine is M/L size, and it's 9.8 kg. With the 42 T chainring, you can easily go high speed on the tarmac. I paid 1200 EURs for mine with a discount.
Max tyre with is 42mm but is can easily go to the 45mm if you want to transform it into gravel bike.

That’sa nice bike. I’ve been eyeing the AR, but my fastroad sl1 is still in great condition.
nice carbon bike

Interesting bike. Been thinking about going with a carbon hybrid. I do wish it was 650bx50 (27.5x2.0"), as I love the ride feel with that size tire/air volume.

You could get a 650B wheelset, some Rene Herse or WTB 650x47 tires and sell the 700c wheelset it comes with, or put it away for a later conversion back to 700c.

Would that change of wheel size work well with the brake system alignment?

The brakes stay in the same place nothing changes there you just have a smaller diameter wheel. However some bikes might have a very low bottom bracket and a wheel swap may not be feasible without short cranks or something like that. I would generally recommend checking with the manufacturer on it just to make sure.