 So welcome back to the Friday vlog series where once again we're going to break this video into two main parts. Number one, I am going to share with you why it took me much longer than expected to sell my giant TCR, which I listed for sale on the 25th of March 2020 and sold on the 15th of May 2020, so 51 days for a very popular bike at a cracking rate of 2200 AUD. And number two, I'll be sharing a few things that have been going on behind the scenes, including what's been going on with the 165mm crank length change, which is a question I've been getting a fair bit on the channel. So number one, why did it take me so long to sell my giant TCR? Now some of you out there might be thinking that 51 days isn't a very long time. However, I have some context that I'm going to share with you during this video to explain why I think for a very popular road bike like the giant TCR, 51 days is quite a significant period of time. Now I know a lot of people out there have been saying they enjoy the piano music that I've been playing in the Friday vlog series, so give me a thumbs up if you're out there and you enjoy the piano music and for today's video we'll play it again. So Greg, you got a little bit more of that piano music, mate? Thank you. So I understand, or from what I can gather online, that a giant is the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world. In fact, it's hard not to go anywhere in Australia without being presented with a giant branded bike store. I live in what you would consider a country town size population, yet I have a giant five minutes down the road and also another one, 20 minutes down the highway. So there's no doubting that giant is a popular brand and it makes complete sense when you consider they're combining quality engineering and manufacturing at a super competitive price. It's no wonder that there's a whole bunch of cyclists out there that are super passionate about their giant bikes. Here we are at the Bass Hills. I must say this giant TCR is the best bike in the world. Integrated seatposts, skiffers are bored, lighters are feather, and when I ask it to go bang, it goes bang! Thanks to Lee Hollywood Turner for that clip and if you want more of that colourful character, I'll link to his Instagram below. So I've got the flagship road bike, the Giant TCR, from the biggest bike manufacturer in the world that seems to have a large and passionate consumer base. Piece of cake, I thought. I'll sell this bike within a week. Why did I think that? Let's have a little look and listen to this video I created when I first started the channel a couple of years ago. I bought a new bike, bought a new bike, I bought a new bike, got the snip, I bought a new bike, bought another bike. As you heard and just saw, I've got a problem. I buy way too many bikes and I probably need to see somebody about it but if you watch that video carefully, you will have noticed that the bikes were specialised bikes, notably the Tarmac S-Works. And guess what? The Tarmacs and even the Venge, they went like hotcakes all within a couple of weeks. I think my worst performing sale with the Tarmac was just under a month. So how can the Giant TCR, a direct competitor to the Tarmac, arguably a more popular bike at a much more competitive price point, take twice as long to sell than my worst performing Tarmac sale? Now I know what some of you may be thinking. It's the colour or it's the fact that it's rim brake. It's the fact that it's an older model being a 2016 or maybe it's the global COVID-19 situation. However consider this. I sold a similar colour Tarmac within weeks. I know there is a ton of people out there that still love rim brake bikes. While the Giant was a 2016 model, the frame design is the same as the current 2020 models. And according to an ABC article and speaking with local bike shops, more and more people are riding than ever. So what could it be? I'll tell you exactly what it is. I am 99.9% certain this is the case. It's the bloody ISP, which stands for Integrated Seat Post. Although my understanding is that Giant now call it a Variant Seat Post. Now when it comes to the Integrated Seat Post, let's see what Giant have to say about that. If you go to their website, there are two main benefits of the ISP. Firstly, it's lighter as there's less material. And secondly, the one piece frame construction increases stiffness and reduces flex, which improves the power transfer when pedaling. And then there was this interesting bit of copy that caught my eye. The majority of pro-level riders choose to ride ISP frames at the well tour level because of these two factors, such as the TCR Advanced SL written by the CCC team this year. Now, I don't mean to pick holes in some copy on a website, but it's not the majority of riders. I really doubt that and I'm fairly certain that there's some type of commercial relationship between Giant and team CCC or CCC. So let's finish it off. And finally, it looks great. Let's be honest. And look, I would have to agree that it does look pretty sleek. But do I prefer practical or slightly sleeker looking bikes? Practical please. Now, here's where it gets interesting because I did have a ton of inquiries over the 51 day period where I was selling the Giant and I probably had 10 quality leads that were genuinely interested in the bike. And here's the thing, despite all the required pitches being available online with written measurements available, prospective buyers still wanted validation and more measurements of where the ISP had been cut. I essentially became a tape measuring model for 51 days and it got to me. I started to get really angry. And then, a bloke who lives down the road from me just came around, didn't ask any bloody questions about the ISP. He took the bike for a spin around the block and paid me without negotiation. An epic finish to a bloody frustrating process. And it begs the question, can Giant with their TCR be more like other brands and have a seat post that you can just adjust really easily because it would take this dilemma away when you want to sell your bike and purchase something new. But judging by what's coming down the track, I think we're going to be using our tape measures for years to come. Now, speaking of bikes that I'm selling or sold, this bike behind me here is actually still for sale. It's the Chapter 2 Rare Rain. It's taken me some time, but I did expect that given the uniqueness of this brand and the fact it has a 1x drivetrain. It's a 54cm top tube and valued at over $10,000 AUD brand new. And it's had less than 12 months of use. It's in immaculate condition. So if anyone out there is interested, I'm willing to part ways with it for $5,500 AUD. So let me know below and let's get into the rest of the video. All right, before I take you through got me cranks and a few other bits and pieces here, today's a bit of a milestone day. It's happened at the front of the house, so let's go have a quick look. Okay, so this box here has been sitting at the front door for how long has it been sitting there for, mate? You would know. It's been sitting there for, it's been sitting there by the front door for five weeks and there's been a TV in there. There it is installed on the wall. Very fortunate to be able to buy a new TV and very fortunate that it's now on the wall and not at the front door, which it has been for five weeks. You know it's been there for five weeks, don't you? You agree with me? You can testify. Okay, so the cranks. This is a really long, boring crap story, so I'm not going to tell you what's been going on because you'll click off the video, but I've finally got the 165 mil cranks, my quark power meter. You can see them here. So they're going to be installed finally on the BMC next Monday and you need to give me a month really, I think, to be able to fully test what 165 is like compared to 172.5 based off my bike fit with Neil. I wanted to thank all those people out there that are supporting the channel via the memberships. We've got about 44 members right now, put everyone's names up on the screen. So thank you very much for shouting me a virtual coffee, but as always, thank you to everyone else for just giving me your time by clicking on the videos. And I'm conscious my wife hasn't been in the vlog for quite a few weeks. He just hasn't been around, but I'll see if I can get some footage of her. What are you doing? What's on your elbows? Wouldn't you like to know? Yeah, what have we been doing? Do you want to say hi to everyone? You've been on the vlog for a while. Hi everyone. And I just want to thank Joey Hutton from the Vital Greens distributor here in Australia. This is not sponsored. They just saw me using Vital Greens in my power smoothie, which is what I have after big rides, or in fact, I have it in my smoothies most mornings. And they sent me an email saying, hey, we can send you some stuff if you want. So I said, absolutely quality product. This is like a multi vitamin that you add smoothies. And I've got their hemp and pea blend protein, which has been really good digest really well, which is one of the struggles that I've had with whey protein in the past. So great products. Thanks very much. Jesse. And that's pretty much it. I'll catch everyone in the next video.