GIANT DEFY ADVANCED PRO2
With three goals in mind, here’s how Giant set out to improve on one of the world’s best-selling bikes
Giant’s Defy is an important bike for the Taiwanese bike brand. The TCR, which you can read all about in the main issue of the magazine this month, sweeps up accolades in the racing world, but no Giant road bike, across the globe, sells better than the Defy. Giant is serious about making it a proper performance bike, too, and not just a daily runabout. The new Defy, then, has much to live up to and Nixon Huang, the principal engineer of the Defy, and his team set themselves three goals: engineered compliance, total control and versatility.
Staying flexible
In its attempts to improve ride quality, Giant has kept the D-Fuse seatpost (which was designed with comfort in mind) from the previous model and adapted the design to create a new handlebar. This is a tricky operation as you don’t want bars that are overly ‘flexy’, as it would be detrimental to handling, but you want to have enough to smooth the vibrations.
The new Contact SLR (carbon) and SL (aluminium) D-Fuse handlebars have a similar D-shaped profile (the carbon cross section is 19mm x 35mm and the alloy is 17mm x 30mm). The shape is orientated so it complies when being ‘pushed’ (from above when you hit a rut or pothole). Giant claims 10 per cent more compliance than
the standard Contact SLR bar and says that it stays stiff when you ‘pull’, such as when sprinting or climbing hard out of the saddle. Here it claims an increase in stiffness of a huge 30 per cent. Giant also says that the bar, when working in conjunction with the seatpost, provides more than enough comfort without having to resort to complex pivots, inserts or suspension systems found in other endurance bikes, which lead to a higher price tag.
With the frame’s shape and the fork profile, Giant has also given room for bigger tyres, with the new Defy able to carry large, 32c tubeless tyres with ease.
Control freak
As you’d expect, the new Defy features 12mm thru-axles (100mm x 12 front, 142mm x 12 rear) and flat-mount disc mounts. The advantages of disc brakes over rim brakes in all conditions is well established now, offering confidence-inspiring brake feel whatever the weather, better control and regulation of speed when descending, plus you won’t wear out the expensive carbon rims from braking as you would on a rim-brake equipped machine.
Variety performance
“We see the Defy being used for such a wide range of uses,” says Huang. “Some race it (it has UCI frame approval), some use it to commute on during the week and compete in sportives at the weekend, we’ve even seen it used for gravel.”
Tyre clearance is key to its adaptability. Racers can slip on slim 25mm tyres, or 28s. But it comes fitted with 32mm, which we prefer as they are silky smooth on the road but ready for a bit of off-road work too. Given the bike comes with the tubeless tyres fully loaded with sealant, pinch flats are a thing of the past.
The geometry has been tweaked to retain the same excellent Defy handling with this bigger rubber and
Giant has even provided mudguard mounts (and will make dedicated mudguards too) so you can protect yourself from the elements.
Much of what Giant set out to achieve with the new Defy can be achieved by changing its fixtures and fittings, but they went further. “We’ve also looked at the composites make-up [of the carbon frame] and revised the lay-up schedule [the way in which the carbon plies are orientated in the mould] to decrease weight and increase vital areas of stiffness at the head tube and bottom bracket shell,” says Huang.
“We’re able to make improvements and changes like this more efficiently than most as we own and completely control all of our manufacturing.”
Giant has become its own carbon fibre supplier as it weaves its own carbon cloth for frame and component manufacture. It is rightfully proud of the advancements it’s made thanks to its investment in its own carbon fibre manufacturing, and you can read more about that in our exclusive Giant TCR feature in the main issue of Cycling Plus on p34.
When a brand devotes this much engineering, design, research and development to a bike that’s not intended for the super ‘serious’, niche world of professional racing, then you know it has got its priorities right. With the allnew Defy, Giant is well on course to keep itself at the top of the tree.
WHEN A BRAND DE VOTES THIS MUCH ENGINEERING, DESIGN AND RESEARCH TO A BIKE NOT INTENDED FOR PRO RACING, YOU KNOW IT’ S GOT ITS PRIORITIES RIGHT