Designed for Liv-sponsored athletes, such as Team Sunweb Women, the Langma is designed to fill the niche between the more endurance-focused Avail and the purely aero Envie — it’s a race bike that can handle the climbs.
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In line with its philosophy on women’s specific design, the Liv Langma has been designed for female riders and has a bespoke geometry distinct from the TCR, the equivalent bike in the men’s/unisex Giant lineup.
This Advanced Pro version of the bike certainly has a race-oriented feel to its riding style, with responsive steering and aerodynamic features. All this with a weight that’ll have you thinking you’ve picked up the non-disc version by mistake — but strangely enough, this bike seemed to excel everywhere except on the climbs.
Liv Langma Advanced Pro Disc frame
The Langma frame is constructed from carbon with a size-specific layup designed to shave weight where it’s not required. Innovative construction techniques, such as the use of larger segments requiring fewer joins (and therefore less reinforcement) also help keep the weight down.
This is noticeable in the almost impossibly narrow top tube and seatstays, while the strength around the seat tube/top tube interface comes from a one-piece construction. A chunkier down tube widens to accommodate the PowerCore bottom bracket, designed to add stiffness where it’s required for efficient power transfer.
Aero elements are present throughout, such as the bladed seat tube (which can be annoying when it comes to fitting rear lights) and a down tube shaped to a truncated aerofoil design.
Liv Langma spec
On paper, this bike is pretty light for a disc-brake road bike, with my Medium coming in at 7.84kg without pedals. It’s also fairly well-equipped for the money, receiving a full Shimano Ultegra build, including Ultegra hydraulic brakes.
The brakes provide precise, modulated braking that’s a boon on longer descents but is tempered by relatively chunky hoods. This can make holding the brakes over a prolonged period of time uncomfortable for riders with smaller hands.
The alloy Giant Contact SL handlebars are size specific, coming in widths of 380mm for the XS and S size, and 400mm for the size M.
You also get a set of Giant SLR-1 Disc carbon-composite wheels, which are set up with tubeless sealant from the factory as standard. The Langma will take 28mm tyres should you want for something bigger than the 25mm Giant Gavia AC 1 Tubeless rubber it comes with.
A RideSense sensor is integrated into the frame’s chainstay for wireless transmission of speed and cadence to any ANT+ compatible computer. Meanwhile, the Langma's gloss paint job was much appreciated after splashing through some puddles on country roads, as was the grippy-yet-gentle suede-like bar tape.
Liv Langma Advanced Pro Disc impressions
Ignoring the marketing, it would be easy to mistake the Langma for Liv’s endurance road bike, with its pleasant riding position, disc brakes and its ability to bound over bumps in the road without a care in the world.
While the bike is lighter than most other Ultegra-equipped disc bikes in its category, my efforts climbing up the hills seemed to be lost somewhere.
The Langma’s flyweight approach to carbon construction has inadvertently added a fair amount of flex to the frame, which explains the compliance out on rough roads, but also suggests that much of my energy is going into flexing the frame instead of propelling me up the climbs.
Though the handling on this bike is exceptional, it does require a bit of skill and confidence to push it to its limits, and it often felt a little skittish on the descents.
It's the confident rider who will get the best out of this bike — they’ll also get a well-balanced, well-equipped and light bike for a good price, but I personally found its flex and nervousness to be a tad tiresome over the testing period.
Liv Langma Advanced Pro Disc price, size and availability
The Langma Advanced Pro Disc is available for £2,999 / $3,315 / AU$4,699 in three sizes: XS, S and M covering a rider height range from 160cm to 180cm or approximately 5ft2in to 5ft9in according to the Liv sizing chart.
Also consider...
If you're in the market for a bike and want to know what else is on offer, have a look at the following list of tried, tested and reviewed options.
- Trek Domane SL 6 Disc Women's
- Specialized Tarmac S-Works SL6 Women's
- Endurace WMN CF SL Disc 8.0 SL
- Trek Emonda SL5 Women's
- Liv Avail Advanced 1
- Specialized Ruby Elite
Want more? BikeRadar Women has loads of women's cycling news, reviews, interviews and advice and more.