Which brand bike is better

The one that fits you best in the better bike for you.

If both fit you exactly the same I'd look at components vs cost.

What kind of bike?  What are the components on the bike?  The bike companies use third party components, Shimano is most common.  There are different level of components.  That is what I would compare.  Bike quality is really around the frame and in my opiniion is not much difference.  

My first road bike in a long time was a Motobecane from bikesdirect.com.  Cheap price ($1100) and came with FSA carbon crank, AC  420 (incredible wheels) and Ultegra components.  It was a aluminum frame.  Right now they basically have the same bike but with Mavic Aksium wheels in Carbon for $1400.  

The difference in the bikes is the frame.  I personally don't believe there is any difference in quality with the bike frame.  Others will probably argue.

The biggest issue in purchasing online is bike fit.  I now have several bikes (5) and have been fitted several times.  Whatever bike I purchase I work with the same certified fit expert.  But I also do a lot of my own tweaking. 

I also have two Cervelo P2C.  They are durace and love them.  I mean love the bike.  

So basically I would narrow my purchase down by components on bike versus price versus fit.  Personally I probably would not buy my first bike online (I did).  Instead I would buy from a bike store that had a very good fit person.  I would make sure a fitting, a real fitting, is included.  I would spend time with the fit person before purchasing.  There is a huge, huge! difference in the quality of the fitting.  Most places, IMHO, it is a joke.  My first fitting took almost 2 hours and I asked a ton of question and wanted to understand every aspect.  I also wanted to be given all measurements taken.  I would learn a little bit about the fit process.  I have all aspects done including configuring my cleats to fit my natural form.  I also tweak mine often.  It will change as you improve and better understand your body.  Also based on different pains.  For me it is between knee pain versus problems with my sciatic nerve.  I also adjust for type of race I will be doing.

Good luck!

Edited by bartturner 2009-06-27 9:54 AM

I'll answer the question.  To me, the Giant.

But I also owned a TCR C Zero and sold Giants for a few years, so I'm biased.

Exactly.  I tried a Giant and Jamis (among many others) during the search for my bike.  Giant bikes simply did not fit me and there wasn't a lot that could be changed to make it comfortable.  Jamis, on the other hand, fit me very well and only a bit of tweaking was need to get a great fit.

Wow ..... you don't know much about bike manufacturing, do you ......... Manufacturing location doesn't mean anything.  And to discredit Giant like that shows an obvious (to me) lack of understanding about their product.  Just because someone else pays you to build their product (which says something in itself for the other manufacturer farming out their stuff) does not mean they put out a mediocre product.  And Huffydale is not even owned by an independent group anymore.

Yeah, fit is king.  But the question was about these two bikes, and the TCR will hands down blow the Jamis out of the water for value and design.  Don't believe me, go read all the magazines - and talk to Rabobank while you're at it.

go to this link, has some good info on where and who makes most of the carbon MFG's out there

http://allanti.com/page.cfm?PageID=328