Giant Defy Advanced Pro 3 2021

The Giant Defy Advanced Pro 3 is an endurance-based road bike that delivers loads of comfort, and a geometry table that'll keep you feeling fresher on those epic rides. It's still sporty enough that you can ramp the speed up though and have some fun in the hills, just change the tyres for something a little livelier.

Surprisingly, in 12 years of reviewing bikes for road.cc I have never ridden a Giant Defy, and after spending around six weeks on this one it's obvious that I've been missing out. It's a cracker!

> Buy now: Giant Defy Advanced Pro 3 2021 from All TerrainCycles for £3299.00

I only really have one small issue with it, so I'm going to get that one out of the way first.

This Defy comes with a set of Giant's Gavia Fondo tyres (I tested a set of Gavia Fondo 0s last year), and while they are durable and robust, they are far from the most supple or exciting. Rolling resistance isn't too bad considering it is essentially a winter training/mixed terrain tyre, but the Defy deserves something so much better, especially in the drier months.

I swapped them out for a set of Michelin Power Road Tubeless in the same 32mm width, and what a transformation. The Defy might be an endurance machine with big miles in mind, you see, but it is still incredibly quick.

At 8.45kg (ML) it's not exactly superlight, but it's no slouch, even feeling quick off the line. That means it's also surprisingly nimble on the climbs too.

With quite a tall head tube, the riding position is taller than on a dedicated race machine, although stretching yourself out on the hoods or down in the drops it still feels like you are in quite an aggressive position. This is great for getting out of the wind even when you aren't in that much of a hurry.

The front-end geometry is the real masterstroke though.

With a head tube angle of 72.5 degrees and fork rake of 50mm, the steering is quick enough for some fun in the corners without the twitchiness of a race machine, which is a bonus if you are on a long ride and fatigue is kicking in and the road conditions are crap, or just that you aren't the most confident of descenders.

Even on technical downhills the Defy is a bike that anyone can ride quickly, the 1,010mm wheelbase adding to its poise and planted feel on the road.

When really ragging it through the corners, especially tight chicanes or technical stuff, the handling isn't quite as sharp as something like Giant's speed-orientated Propel model, but you'd need to be really pushing it hard to notice the difference.

Alongside all of this well-thought-out geometry, Giant's designers have included a shed-load of comfort.

Don't get me wrong, it's a stiff bike, especially through the lower half of the frame and at the front end, but along with the fork it offers a smooth ride even on the most rubbish of road surfaces.

All in all, the Defy is just a very nice place to be. I covered a few four and five-hour rides on it throughout September and found it to be a near-perfect companion.

The handling and the riding position achievable mean you can all but switch off on the long straight sections, the bike just pretty much taking care of itself. Then when you want to get a move on, a little sprint through the traffic or attacking a climb, it becomes a completely different beast and very responsive.

Frame, fork and geometry

The frame and fork of this Defy Advanced Pro is created using Giant's own High Performance Grade raw carbon in its composite factory.

It looks and feels to be a great quality frameset, and a peek inside the seat tube shows a smooth finish. The paint quality is also excellent.

Up front the head tube is tapered to accommodate the similarly shaped full-carbon fibre fork steerer, which increases stiffness for coping with heavy steering and braking loads.

In fact, it's more of a head 'block' than tube, as the top, head and down tubes all meet in one big junction.

The MegaDrive down tube is suitably chunky to cope with the pedalling forces, as is the PowerCore press-fit bottom bracket shell, which then leads to the oversized chainstays. It's no surprise that this frame delivers on the stiffness front.

In contrast to all of this are the very slender seatstays which look like toothpicks in comparison to the chainstays, with the top of the seat tube and rear end of the top tube being similarly diminutive.

The lack of any external seat clamp gives the frame a smooth look, as does the internal cable and hose routing.

Giant has also managed to achieve tyre clearances of up to 35mm, and the Defy will also take full mudguards thanks to mounts at the dropouts. A mount is available to bridge the seatstays for fitting the rear guard.

As well as that, you get two bottle mounting positions.

Unlike early compact Giant frames, the Defy comes in five sizes rather than three, ranging from small through to extra-large, with effective top tube lengths of 530mm up to 565mm.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been riding the ML, which sits bang in the middle. It has a seat tube length of 515mm sitting at an angle of 73 degrees; the top tube is 560mm long, while the head tube is 185mm.

Helping to create the 1,010mm wheelbase are chainstays of 420mm, and the standover height is 816mm, with a bottom bracket drop of 70mm.

All of this adds up to a stack and reach of 586mm and 381mm respectively, nothing massively out of ordinary there. Full geometry specs are on Giant's website for all sizes.

Groupset

This model, the 3, comes with a Shimano 105 groupset which is a little lower down the food chain than I would normally be expecting for this kind of money.

Saying that, though, it can't really be faulted for performance and durability, as you can see from our review of the drivetrain and hydraulic brakes.

It is now Shimano's only 11-speed road groupset, but in the spec chosen by Giant still achieves a decent spread of gears using a 50/34T chainset and an 11-34T cassette.

The shifting is precise, even under load or with a dirty chain, and the braking from the hydraulic flat-mount callipers and rotors is powerful and easy to modulate in the dry or wet.

Giant has specced a 160mm rotor on the front and 140mm on the rear.

Finishing kit

Everything else is pretty much own-brand.

Starting at the front, an aluminium alloy aero styled Contact SL handlebar is paired with a stem of the same name. The stem comes with a neat out-front mounting system for your GPS and includes the various fittings required to suit different brands of computer.

The carbon fibre seatpost uses Giant's D-Fuse technology, as does the handlebar. They are designed to flex in a way that takes out road vibration and it works in a very subtle way, which I was pleased about. I really don't want any part of a road bike to feel 'floppy'.

The comfort and shape of the Contact Fleet SL saddle worked for me even on longer rides. Basically, I didn't notice it, which is good.

One neat little bonus is the RideSense Bluetooth sensor found integrated into the chainstay. Giant supplies the cadence and speed magnets with the bike for the rear wheel and crank, and once you have the RideSense connected to your Bluetooth-enabled computer it will receive the data. Handy for when you are riding through tunnels or heavy tree cover with limited GPS signal for speed data.

Wheels and tyres

I won't go on about the tyres too much, as I've already made my point on these. If you are going to be riding in rubbish conditions, though, or using the Defy on hard-packed surfaces like canal paths then their robustness is a bonus, if you are happy to sacrifice some road feel and feedback.

Put something zippier on for the spring and summer, but keep these in the shed for winter.

Wheel-wise you are getting a set of Giant's SLR-2 42 Carbon Discs, which retail for £830 on Giant's website.

As the name suggests, they have a 42mm-deep carbon fibre rim, with a 19.4mm inner width and 23mm external, suiting the size of tyres the Defy can cope with.

The hookless rim design works with tubeless tyres, and everything you need bar sealant is supplied, although if you don't want to run them tubeless there is a bit of a grey area over whether you can use standard clincher tyres without a hooked rim.

It's a good set of wheels. They use Giant alloy hubs and 24 Sapim Sprint spokes front and rear, and with a claimed weight of 1,545g they feel sprightly and have coped with the weather and terrain fine as we have entered the colder, wetter months.

Value

For this sort of money, I'd normally be expecting to see a bit of an uplift in the spec list to at least Ultegra – well, before it all went 12-speed and electronic only.

> 17 of the best Shimano Ultegra-equipped road bikes for 2021

Last year, for example, I rode the Merida Scultura Endurance 7000-E which was equipped with Ultegra Di2 for £3,500.

The line-up has been tweaked for this year, but it is still based around the same carbon frameset that will take 35mm tyres and mudguards, and has similar riding characteristics to the Defy. For £3,350 you can get a Scultura Endurance Rival Edition which comes with a SRAM Rival eTap aXS wireless groupset and a full-carbon fibre cockpit. You don't get the carbon wheels of the Giant, though, you have to settle for alloy Fulcrum Racing 800 DBs instead.

> Buyer’s Guide: 19 of the best 2021 sportive bikes

Ribble's Endurance SL Disc is available in a range of builds, with the closest in spec to the Giant being the Sport model. It comes with a 105 hydraulic/mechanical groupset and 40mm-deep own-brand carbon wheels, and is just £2,599.

You can see how much Liam liked it when he tested it last year, albeit with Ultegra.

Conclusion

So, the Giant is pricier than most, looking at the spec, but the quality of the frameset is excellent, as are the ride manners and comfort. With that in mind I'd say it is worth the extra investment – just change those tyres to get the best out of it.

Verdict

Ditch the tyres and you have a fast, sweet-handling endurance machine that doesn't panic at speed