Giant Bicycles

Giant Bicycles is by far today's largest bicycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1972 in Dajia, Taiwan by King Liu, a former eel farmer. In 1977 Giant began making bikes for Schwinn, soon making more than two-thirds of all Schwinn bikes by the mid-1980s. Giant didn't start to brand its own bikes until 1981, in addition to making bikes for most major brands. The first Giant MTB showed up in Europe and Asia in 1984 and later sold Giant branded in US by 1987 when their Schwinn relationship ended. Giant first made MTBs for Schwinn by at least by 1983 for their Sierra model. In 2021, Giant's revenue topped $2.9B.

Sources: Giant, wikipedia, proteanpaper, bikebiz, cyclist.co.uk, klassiekeracefiets, bicycleretailer

The King, showing them how its done at age 79.
King Liui, 2013 nytimes

1984 Escaper

Shimano XT M700 rear derailleur (1982-84), unusual cable stop bridge and fastback seat stays.
1984 sales receipt along with 83/84 date codes.

1984 Escaper bikeboosting

1985 High Sierra

Identical to Schwinn's 1984 High Sierra except for slightly newer components. Same odd rear brake bridge and pine trees on the top tube. SunTour MounTech 4900 (1982-1984), Dia Compe 980 brakes, Sugino GT crankset, bullmoose handlebars.

1985 High Sierra bicycleczar

1986 Mesa Runner

SunTour AG Tech GTL (1985-87), bullmoose handlebars, no rear cable stop.

1986 Mesa Runner bikeforums

1987 Super Sierra

SunTour XC 9000 (1987-88).

1987 Super Sierra flickr

1988 Super Sierra

XT M730 (1987-88). Same frame as the 1987 Super Sierra?

1988 Super Sierra marktplaasts.nl

1989 Escaper

RD-MT62 rear (1989-90), FD-MT62 (1989) front.

1989 Escaper mtbminded

1990 Hurricane

Unknown derailleur - but all sources show 1990 as the only date for the Hurricane.

1990 Hurricane shpock

1991 Terrago

Full Shimano Deore DX gruppo (1991-1993)

1991 Terrago bikejan

1992 CFM-1

Carbon fiber bonded with aluminum lugs. Full XTR gruppo - the first year where XTR was available and one of the only large brands to use XTR. ¹⁾ Obviously incorrect tires. The rigid fork is original - and it also came with an optional RockShox Mag-20 fork. ²⁾

1992 CFM-1 retrobike

1993 ALM-1

1993 ALM-1 All aluminum, reusing the CFM lugs with aluminum tubing. SunTour XC Expert group. This example looks like it still has an original Giant Zorbers elastomer front fork - and if so, they were all recalled in 1996 due to the legs separating from the crown.

1993 ALM-1 bicyclecollective