Exclusive company visit to Giant: How frames are made at the world's largest bicycle manufacturer
Peter Nilges
· 27.02.2026
Hundreds of spindles whirr in unison and feed the voracious weaving machine without ceasing. At the other end, a metre-wide, black carpet of wafer-thin carbon filaments is pushed out. Fast, precise, metre after metre without stopping. I am standing in the middle of one of the countless factory halls on the site, which is over 9,000 football pitches in size, and am experiencing live how a bicycle is made.
Anyone landing in Taiwan encounters a country between high-tech and craftsmanship, densely populated, full of energy - and deeply characterised by the bicycle. The island with its 23 million inhabitants is not only one of the most important production centres in the world, it is also home to a company that has established itself at the forefront of the global bicycle industry: Giant.
Giant is not only the largest bicycle manufacturer in Taiwan, but has also become number one on the international stage. In the crisis-hit 2025 financial year alone, the listed company achieved a turnover of 1.34 billion euros. To achieve this, new complete bikes come off the production line every two minutes and disappear efficiently and well-padded in boxes. Other brands are now being created under the Giant umbrella: The Liv brand of bikes specially tailored to women, Momentum for the urban sector and the Cadex brand, which specialises in high-quality carbon wheelsets and cockpits for the road and gravel sector. Within the brands, there is hardly a part that is not manufactured in one of the many production halls. Giant has perfected its vertical integration and prefers to manufacture in-house rather than buying from suppliers. Handlebars, stems, rims, hubs, saddles, dropper posts and even suspension forks and shocks are now part of the portfolio. There is probably no other manufacturer in the world that can produce more parts for a bicycle in-house.
How a carbon frame is made at Giant
To understand why this manufacturer can now call itself a "giant", you have to go to where it all began in 1972 - to Dajia, a district of Taichung. Here, where the air smells of the sea, metal and warm resin, is the powerful heart of the Group: Giant Taiwan Manufacture, or GTM for short. Only around 30 kilometres away is the head, the company headquarters of Giant.
The headquarters as a manifesto
Since 2019, Giant's new company headquarters has stood out as an architectural statement. The twisted aluminium façade is reminiscent of the curved contours of Taiwan, the gigantic entrance hall of a modern museum, which was added a year later in a no less imposing building next to it. In fact, the headquarters is more than just a company building - it symbolises the transformation that Giant has undergone since the 1970s.
On the occasion of the product presentation of the new Giant Anthemthe bike of the newly crowned MTB XC world champion, I was able to take an exclusive look behind the scenes and witness the creation of a carbon frame. While the filaments that have just been woven into carbon mats are soaked in resin and then sent to the -12 degree cold warehouse, the discovery tour continues in one of the other halls.
Back then, in 1972, King Liu founded a small production facility in Dajia, which initially focussed on the production of steel bicycle frames. Even though carbon was not yet an issue, quality always took centre stage, which is why Giant produced frames for well-known US brands early on as an original equipment manufacturer. Schwinn started manufacturing here in 1977, followed later by other companies such as Scott, Trek and Colnago. Only a few years later, Giant finally decided to become a brand itself. In 1981, the Taiwanese took this step and launched bicycles with their own Giant label on the market. First in Taiwan, then in Europe and North America. Less than six years later, Giant presented the Cadex 980 C, the first affordable carbon racing bike for the masses. A construction made of aluminium lugs and glued-in carbon tubes that is currently experiencing a small revival almost 40 years later.
Manual labour and automation
Over the last five decades, the handful of factory workers from back then has grown into a force of 2,000 men and women. The proportion of women at the main production site GTM is 30 per cent. Today, Giant operates nine production sites worldwide, two of which are in Europe. However, it is not just manpower that is now required for carbon frame production. The next building in cleanroom quality appears sterile and is a prime example of automation. The cutting tables divide the carbon mats into many small puzzle pieces with sharp blades. Even during the lay-up process, robotic arms come to the aid of the many human hands and place the moulded parts on top of each other with extreme precision and strictly according to the construction plan. With repeat accuracy and a 100 per cent success rate. A special treatment that has so far only been given to the top frames in production. In the subsequent moulding process, the carbon blanks are then hardened in a steel mould under heat and pressure to form the finished frame.
In order to be ready for the big world stage, Giant went public in 1994 and sponsored its first MTB World Cup team in 1995 with legendary racers such as John Tomac and the Norwegian cross-country star Rune Hoydahl. A short time later, Giant continued its involvement in road cycling and made its mark with the TCR frame, not only at the Tour de France but also from a technical point of view. Just like the compact frame with sloping top tube, which was introduced for the first time, the four-bar Maestro rear triangle, which was introduced in 2004, still characterises the image of the Giant MTB fleet today.
In Giant's immediate neighbourhood, you can see the huge TSMC logo that stretches across the semiconductor manufacturer's factories. Another example of the market leadership of a Taiwanese manufacturer. Dajia's entire neighbourhood is an ecosystem: for the bicycle sector alone, there are around 900 suppliers in the immediate vicinity, including industry giants such as Sram, Fox and Merida. Taiwan is not just a location, but the Silicon Valley of bicycle manufacturing. And in the centre of it all is a giant. Huge and quite complete.
Fact check: Giant Bicycles
- 1972 Giant starts production of steel frames in Dajia, Taichung.
- 67.000 m2 the production facility currently comprises.
- 1.000.000 bikes per year, making Giant the world's largest manufacturer.
- 70 % of the bikes produced run under the Giant and Liv own brand, the remaining capacity is used for the production of third-party brands.
- 2.000 Giant employs people in the Giant Taiwan Manufacture
- 3:1 the ratio of aluminium to carbon frame is
