Liv merkwinkel

Things to know about Liv

Giant’s story is a long and successful one, the company was founded in 1972 in Taiwan. Almost 50 years later, Giant is one of the global players in the cycling world and provides cyclists around the world with millions of high-quality bikes.

Liv was founded in 2008 by Bonnie Tu as a sub-brand of Giant. Initially, the name Liv/Giant was used to test whether a bicycle manufacturer exclusively for women would generate enough demand. Already in 2014 Liv/Giant became the new Liv brand.

The relatively young women's brand Liv consequently benefits from Giant’s enormous expertise and numerous patented technologies and uses them to develop bikes that are specifically tailored to the needs and desires of women. The clear goal of Liv is to provide a suitable Liv bike for female riders of every type, every performance level and every fitness level. Therefore, Liv offers both, performance bikes such as road bikes or mountain bikes, but also leisure bikes, city bikes and trekking bikes.

Liv is proud not only to make a purely female target group happy with excellent bikes, but also the company's staff is mostly female, all important positions are preferably filled by women. Therefore, Liv's motto is to be taken absolutely literally:

For women. By women. With women.

How to build a bicycle for women

Today, many bicycle manufacturers no longer differentiate at all between bicycles for women and bicycles for men. Others paint a few small frames in typical "women's colors" or exchange one or two components and then have a few women's bikes in their portfolio.

With Liv, the development of women's bikes starts a lot earlier. The bikes are not based on men's bikes, they are designed from scratch for women. Instead of relying on existing basic research - which usually relies on studies with male test subjects - the company first collected its own data, focusing on female body proportions, muscle strength and performance. It quickly became apparent that a female body and a male body despite the same body size usually have completely different proportions. While a woman's torso is shorter, her arms and legs are longer, the result being that a woman hardly sits comfortably in a men's bike frame nor can she pedal efficiently.

The frames Liv develops based on this research are therefore not only more comfortable, they allow female cyclists to make the best use of their muscle power and have good control of their bike at all times.

You can of course additionally buy Liv's bikes in different frame sizes.

Liv Mountain Bikes

For you as a mountain biker, there are two reasons to buy a Liv MTB.

Firstly, the geometry specifically designed for women ensures that you can control your bike better than you could handle a men's bike. Especially when going off-road, this is a priceless advantage and important for safe biking. Reason number two is the equipment, which is of course also optimized for women. You get, for example, shocks that respond perfectly even to the lower body weight of a woman.

Liv's Tempt hardtails are lightweight aluminum hardtails that will impress you with their versatility. Unlike a Fully, they're not only huge fun off-road, but also efficient enough for your everyday life and longer bike rides. They ride on smooth-running 29-inch tires (27.5" in size X and XS), have 100mm of suspension travel to offer and, depending on the version, solid to top Shimano groupsets.

With Bliss, Liv presents a particularly affordable entry-level hardtail that also works as a youth bike for girls.

If you want to go real off-road, a fully suspended bike is of course the bike to choose. With Intrigue, Liv offers an agile and versatile trail/AM bike. There is even the perfect bike for smaller ladies, since Intrigue is also available in the extra-small frame sizes XS and S, that come with 27.5-inch tires.

Top model Intrigue Advanced Pro will spoil you with some exclusive components. It features a 1x12 SRAM GX Eagle, a Fox Factory 36 fork with 140mm travel and a remote controlled dropper post.

If you like to go rather fast, Pique is the bike for competing in XC races. The flagship Pique Advanced Pro is lightweight thanks to its carbon frame (13.2kg in size M), brings a SRAM GX Eagle groupset and 29-inch tires from Maxxis, it offers a great mix between speed and smooth rides. The Liv Racing Team ride Pique Advanced Pro Bikes, by the way.

> Liv’s mountain bikes, hardtails and full-suspension bikes

Liv road bikes for women

These days, racing bikes specialize more and more, road bikes for women making no exception.

On Liv's road bikes and aeros you hunt seconds in any asphalt competition. Langma are first-class road bikes, top model Advanced Pro proudly wears its Shimano Ultegra groupset on its carbon frame. Super sprinter Enviliv Advanced Pro brings everything you'd expect from a thoroughbred aero, a carbon frame with excellent stiffness, a geometry that still makes the bike sufficiently comfortable for women, and a wireless SRAM Force eTap groupset. Avow is Liv's triathlon racer for women, Brava are cyclocrossers ready for messy business.

If you prefer to sit in the saddle for a long time rather than for top speed, you'll find the right partner in the endurance bike Avail. The geo here is much more relaxed, the top class model still brings a carbon frame and also has a Shimano Ultegra in the electronic Di2 version on board.

Whether you want to buy a Road bike or a MTB, each bike comes in different versions: Advanced Pro is a real cream of the crop, it comes with only the very best of bicycle components, but also with the corresponding price tag. However, there are also inexpensive Advanced or Basic versions, where the prices are significantly lower thanks to a slimmed-down equipment.

> Discover Liv’s road bikes, you can also find road racing bikes here.

Women's leisure bikes from Liv

If you like to enjoy extended cycling adventures in your spare time, you can do it either on a touring bike or on a gravel bike. For long rides, a bike built for women is especially comfortable, the adapted geometry prevents soreness or pain. For your bikepacking tours, Liv has a great Gravel Bike on offer, in the Advanced Pro Edition Devote has a full carbon frame, clearance for 45c tires, internal cable routing with an integrated cockpit; Shimano's Gravel group GRX is installed.

For the city, Liv offers the Alight, a nice everyday bike, while Lisom and Allure are well-equipped trekking bikes for long tours.

> This way to gravel bikes, city bikes and touring bikes for women

For girls, Liv makes children's bikes in 20 inches and 24 inches, starting at 26 inches most kids can ride women's bikes.

E-bikes made by Liv

Of some of the bikes mentioned, there are versions that have an electric drive unit. You can buy, for example, the fully suspended MTB Intrigue or Tempt hardtails with electric engines. But there are also models that are only available as an e-bike, such as the touring hardtail Vall E+ or the fully suspended Embolden E+ Mountainibike. Women's trekking bikes Amiti E + not only sports a syncDrive Sport motor that easily masters steep climbs with its 70 Nm, the 625Wh battery provides enough range for great outdoor adventures.

For the city and shorter trips into the countryside, there are two different e-bikes, the comfy easy entry bike Allure and a sporty all-rounder called Thrive E+. Both come with all the equipment you might need, they have a lighting system, mudguards and luggage racks, comfortable saddles and ergonomic handlebars.