Giant Defy Advanced 0
Giant’s Defy can often be overlooked in the Taiwanese brand’s arsenal. This includes the featherweight TCR race bike; its awardwinning gravel machine, the Revolt; and its fast aero bike, the Propel. But dismiss the Defy at your peril, as you’ll be missing out on something truly special.
In the past, the Defy has been a proving ground for some of Giant’s tech ambitions. It was the first mainstream road bike to go disc brake only, it debuted the D-shaped vibration-crushing seatpost – with BMC, Cervélo, Specialized among those going down that route later – and it broadened tyre clearances for a road bike too.
The Defy may be Giant’s endurance bike but, like its competitors here, that doesn’t mean a tall, upright tourer wearing a racing disguise. The Defy’s geometry is more than sporty enough for most. Our large test bike comes with a 605mm stack and 390mm reach, and with 58mm of trail, the Defy is a very much in the ‘stunning handling’ category. Though the bike’s 32mm tyres take a little of the edge off the handling when you’re right on the limit. Handling aside, this Defy is so well equipped, it outclasses the Cube’s value for money hands down.
BUMP BANISHER
The Defy has such a beautifully composed ride: the generous 32mm tubeless tyres roll over rough tarmac and make you oblivious to vibrations. And Giant sends its bikes out tubeless, not just tubeless-ready.
The tyre, with its textured tread, may theoretically be a little slower than a lightweight slick, but on my test loop, and in a non-scientific comparison, this Defy nearly matched the average speed of my own Giant TCR running 28mm Continental 5000 tubeless tyres. Any excess rolling resistance is more than made up for in the way they cope with badly maintained road surfaces.
You could say the same for the chassis and components, too. At the back, the slender frame combines with the D-Shaped post that’s topped off with Giant’s comfortable Approach saddle. The result is a bike that glides over poor surfaces and wasn’t even fazed by short forays over Salisbury Plain’s gravel roads during our test period.
Giant has revamped its entire wheel line and done it really well. This Defy gets the mid-range PR2, which has a new rim with a big tyre-friendly 22mm inner width and tubeless compatibility. It’s also nearly half a kilo lighter than the original version.
The Defy climbs superbly: the frame is stiff and responsive when you’re powering down on the cranks but is up to the job when you give it full beans on a descent.
SUPERB SHIFTING
And now we get to the real star of the show – the SRAM Rival AXS groupset. This test’s
“The Defy is a bike that glides over poor surfaces and gravel roads”
had a lot of recent experience using it, and though it is SRAM’s most cost-effective wireless electronic groupset, we’re very pleasantly surprised to see it on a bike at this price. Especially when you consider the current price escalation on bikes and components.
The drivetrain’s shifting is so slick, outperforming the mechanical Ultegra on the Cube with ease. The clutch-equipped rear mech makes the chain smooth and silent, even when you’re shifting out of the saddle when stomping up the steepest climbs. The braking matches Ultegra in feel and power. But the tech-connected appeal of Rival edges out its rival here because, through SRAM’s connected free AXS app, you get a record of every shift, how long you spent in every gear and a data-filled breakdown of every ride. If you want to do so, of course…
We genuinely found it hard to fault this bike. The Defy has always been a great example of an endurance bike, but this model, with its combination of superb chassis and sharp, smart spec is in our opinion the best endurance bike you can buy right now under £3,000.