Giant Defy – owners comments please

I’ve been looking for a new road bike for a few weeks, and despite my insistence to myself that I would never give Giant another penny of my money as they’ve pi$$ed me off with my beloved TCR Advanced SL due to a warranty issue, Ive found a Defy Advanced SL0, full Dura Ace Di2 disc groupset, carbon Giant SLR0 wheels, the works for a ridiculously good deal. Money talks and all that. So my field has narrowed down to that or an ETap Disc/Zipp equipped Boardman. The Defy is £500 cheaper so its in first place, and I don’t hear many bad things about them looking at reviews. Any owners out there have any comments good or bad, about theirs?

Great bike, I used to have a TCR before it got nicked, replaced it with a defy and to be honest, no difference performance wise. comfy. Love it

Another Defy owner here, really nice comfortable bike.

For a bit of balance, I’ve had a few TCR’s over the years and more recently a Defy and found it to be a ‘dead’ feeling and as a result a bit boring so I sold it and have bought a second set of wheels with road tires for me TCX and makes for a great endurance road bike with great handling.

I’ve never owned a Boardman but have ridden a reasonable spec one from their aero range and compared to similar bikes from other manufacturers the ride felt a bit crashy and the handling was very middle of the road.

I’ve had 2 Defy’s and loved them both, had a go on a mates TCR and very little difference in terms of handling and comfort!

Have a Defy Advanced 2, maybe a 2017 model I think? Comfy, feels pretty fast and reliable but perhaps a bit dull? It does everything right, but in a rather dull way.

I have a 2016 Defy O and think it’s a brilliant bike, I don’t have much to compare it to mind. I’d have another one.

You are deciding between a bike that is ridden regularly and has won Paris Roubaix and one from Halfords? ;-)

I have a DA equipped Defy SL and a Ultegra alloy Defy. Both calliper brakes. They are great bikes. Since you’ve had a TCR, you won’t notice a huge difference. You should be able to replicate your position if you used spacers. Comfort bike is a lazy stereotype. It’s a race bike for longer races and rougher terrain.

I’ve raced my Defy SL instead of my Propel SL on numerous occasions. It’s a bit slower (tested this carefully on a closed circuit with a power meter), but I love it.

If I had to have just one bike though, it would be a TCR Advanced SL. But I don’t :D

I like mine, would certainly buy another one. And of course when I had a problem a whole new frameset was on it’s way in less than 24 hours. `:-)

found it to be a ‘dead’ feeling and as a result a bit boring

That’s what I thought of my old Defy Advanced. I went back to a CR1 SL.

Nothing wrong with it as such, just not got the same enthusiasm.

If you genuinely like TCRs I’m surprised you don’t find the Defy too short or too high.
Sizing is pretty erm… upright.

I’ve got a Defy Advanced and it’s fine. The bike before it was an early Spec Roubaix and it feels stiffer than the Roubaix did. I was working for a road bike shop for a little while and road various bikes and to be completely honest, couldn’t tell a lot of difference between them. Geometry is really similar (unless they’re super long and low) and the bits hung off them make far less difference than the stuff on mtbs.

Excellent bikes. I was a long term tcr man but the medium has 55.5cm top tube(tad long for me) The defy as mentioned has shorter tt 54.5cm and taller headtube. I’ve slammed mine it really is a great bike.

I’d opt for the giant every time.

I enjoyed my Defy. It’s firmer and racier than most endurance style bikes. I recently sold my frame (for next to nothing sadly) because I felt it was a bit short. Replaced it with a Supersix which surprisingly feels smoother and more compliant over bumps. No complaints with the Defy though.

COUGH May have a Large 2013 Defy 3 for sale soon, less than 500 miles COUGH

My Defys and my propels have exactly the same position. I have a 10mm longer stem on the Defy (120 vs 110 on medium frames) to account for the shorter top tube. This places a little more weight over the front wheel. Saddle over BB, reach and stack are the same. Both have longer head tubes than a TCR, which I used to have, both are slammed, which the TCR wasn’t! The Defy is not a particularly upright compared with say a Roubaix.

I’ve got an Advanced Pro 0 and my riding buddy has an Advanced SL 1. Both great bikes. I hired a TCR Advanced in Mallorca and tbh I couldn’t really tell the difference.

Giant make them in dozens of sizes so you can buy your preferred frame length anyway.

It wouldn’t be a Defy thread without you popping up to tell us that someone won P-R on one, eh TiRed? Degenkolb wasn’t it? I’d have thought it’d be a bit soft for him. Do you know if the SL models are stiffer than the lower Advanced ones?

Giant make them in dozens of sizes so you can buy your preferred frame length anyway.

Yes. Of course you can buy your preferred length TT/reach but in doing so the headtube will be too tall for many. (Me for one, and I size down rather than up in reach/TT and run shorter stems). I’ve riden various sized Defy’s. None fitted me. the ones with short enough headtubes were far too short in reach and the ones with enough reach all had bars too high.
Alright it’s nothing a really ugly super negative rise stem on the really ugly tall head tube wouldn’t sort but still worth considering before blindly ordering one.
Everything Tired has ever stated on every Defy thread in existance is true but he continually fails to take into account that his personal riding position is not relevant to everyone.

Everything geex has ever stated is true but he continually fails to take into account that his personal riding position is not relevant to everyone.

it’s an endurance bike. The headtube will be longer, and riding position higher than a ‘race’ bike but for most of us that means we get a comfortable position with a slammed stem rather than a few spacers. Just aesthetics.

Giant make them in dozens of sizes so you can buy your preferred frame length anyway.

S, M, ML, L and XL when I was buying…

Only real drawback I can see with them is a few bits of Giant specific tech. The ‘overdrive’ steering tube is not a standard tapered (so can’t use a regular stem) and the D-Fuse seatpost has a flat back.

Dull and boring, however in its defence i had a Supersix Hi-Mod prior and Allez Sprint after, which is a hooligan of a bike

it’s an endurance bike.

Wake up son. there’s no such thing.
it’s a creaky old man’s TCR ;)

Unlike most folk here Geex never fails to take into account that we’re all different.

There’s no difference between advanced and SL other than half a water bottle in weight. Ride my Propel Advanced. Then ride my Propel Advanced SL with the same wheels. You won’t spot the difference. They have the same contact points, bars saddle and pedals, same stem, same set up. Worse than that, there is hardly any difference between the alloy Defy I put together from old bits, and the super duper lightweight 7 kilo dead Defy SL that cost 10x more!

And yes it was John Degenkolb. After big Sep VM, always the nearly man, was runner up a few years earlier. Sadly you can’t buy that winning frame anymore because Deg won it on the previous year’s non disk version, just after they’d replaced it with the newer D-fuse seat tube disk model. I’ll never sell mine.

Geez why would you size down and then run a shorter stem? A longer stem yes, but why shorter. For a winter, I rode a Small alloy Defy with a 130 mm slammed stem, just to see if I could. Low front end and again almost replicated my race position, a 140 would have been better, but too expensive for a hack bike. Degenkolb races on a 120 mm -17 degree stem. Finding the overdrive 1.25” versions in the right length can be both frustrating and expensive.

Do you have spacers on your normal set up on a. On-Defy?

I’ve had a Defy Advanced 3 for a few years and I’ve done around 30,000km on it. It’s the lower spec with Tiagra 10speed and TRP cable disks and it has been fabulous. I’ve ‘raced’ the Revolve24 on it, I’ve commuted on it all seasons and I’ve done some 300+km rides on it. It’s an excellent bike and I thoroughly recommend it. I’m 6′ and I ride a ML with a 120mm -10° with no spacers. It’s still not overly racey but it is very comfortable and obviously depending on your engine, it’s not slow.

Just upgraded/replaced the stock Giant tyres, really transformed the bike, contemplating changing the wheels maybe, anyone got any experience of doing this?

I have a Defy Advanced and a Supersix Evo. The Supersix is much more engaging to ride and is actually as smooth as the Defy . The Defy is kinder on my back but I do prefer the Supersix.

road various bikes and to be completely honest, couldn’t tell a lot of difference between them. Geometry is really similar

This.

But Giant put journalists on the best holidays.

Then everyone buys them and says how awesome they are to justify their purchase.