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The new Liv Langma women's race bike (Image credit: Aoife Glass / Immediate Media)

This article originally appeared on BikeRadar

Interestingly, while some brands are now moving towards this perspective on bike design — most notably Canyon, which unveiled bikes with women's specific geometry for the first time early in 2017 — others are shifting more toward unisex design, such as Specialized. In Specialized's case, it's a new approach to unisex design that actively incorporates female body dimension data, which rather suggests that bikes labelled 'unisex' prior to this were no such thing. And there is of course ongoing debate as to whether or not the differences between the average man and women are enough to mean that different geometry is necessary.

Liv use the expertise and engineering capabilities of Giant Bicycles for the creation of their frames, and the Langma has such cutting edge engineering that we were't allowed to photograph the model bottom bracket area and seat tube/post that Liv engineer Sophia Shih brought along. Suffice it to say that it's all about the orientation of the carbon fibres, and size specific layups that determine, using computer simulations, the exact optimum amount to use to achieve the correct stiffness to weight ratio.

There are a number of interesting design elements on the frame. The frame has been developed to be more aerodynamic, in addition to its light weight, so although the majority of the tubing is rounded, in certain key areas such as the seat tube and post, and the downtime, it forms a d-shape in cross section. This d-shaped downtime flares to a square shape at the bottom bracket - the PowerCore bottom bracket - to increase the stiffness of this area for more efficient power transfer from the pedal stroke.

The smaller frame sizes of women's bikes also meant that Liv and Giant were free to develop a different manufacturing technique that allowed frame construction in bigger sections, reducing the need for filler material that is used on other bikes, giving a significant weight saving. 'The frame is almost completely hollow!' Shih smiles. Fewer sections also mean fewer joins, often a point of weakness, so also means a stronger frame.

Also new on the Langma is the Contact SLR Flux stem. Reminiscent of a BMX stem, it's chunky looks belie its light weight as it too is hollow, and gives claimed aerodynamic advantages. It comes with unusually shaped spacers that match the D-shape profile of much of the tubing, and stack neatly on top of each other. Shih was also keen to point out that although the bike is easy to set up to give a race-ready aggressive position, moving the spacers about and flipping the stem can also give a more upright ride position that some riders may find more comfortable.

The Langma is built for climbing and it shows. That light weight is most certainly a boon when it comes to tackling climbs like the Passo San Boldo, with 18 switchbacks including 6 hair pins carved into tunnels in the cliff-face itself which the group tackled on the first day of riding, or the Via Bosco del Madean, a 10km climb with an average gradient of 8 degrees, pitching to 11 degrees on some corners.

I say I was surprised, because unlike some other compliance systems seen on bikes from other brands, the work here is subtle and hidden. Some systems almost overcompensate and you start to notice the shock-absorbing system working. On the Langma, it seems to do its work quietly and without shouting about it. It's only several hours into the ride you notice that the usual feelings of fatigue are absent.

That said, over the course of the initial rides I didn't get a sense of that lively acceleration that some race-focused bikes have, where the bike has begun accelerating almost before you've put the pedal stroke in. While the comfort was exceptional, the price for that seems to be a little of that glinting edge of aggression, and the bike never felt like it really wanted to go. It'll be interesting to see if this view changes after further testing, and also to see how the bike performs under the professionals at the Giro Rosa.

Disc brakes first make an appearance in the rage at the Langma Advanced Pro level. There are two bikes here: the Langma Advanced Pro built with rim brakes and the Pro Disc version with flat-mounted disc brakes and thru-axles. Again, the build is similar to the Advanced SL with carbon composite frame but it features SLR wheel system and tubeless tyres and a more traditional seat-post arrangement as seen on the Avail or Envie, and the composite system is of a lesser grade than the top of the range Advanced SL 0.