First look: 2015 Giant Defy Advanced SL 0
When Giant announced that it would be debuting its relaunched Defy line in Scotland at the beginning of July, it seemed a curious location. What connection did the Scottish Highlands have to the Defy, especially the top-of-the-line Giant Defy Advanced SL 0 that I’d be riding? Not much. Maybe the organizers knew, like the border guard, that the roads of Perthshire would put the vibration damping abilities of the new frame to the test. Also, it rains a lot in Scotland. I suspect those same organizers wanted to find an authentic riding situation in which the hydraulic disc brakes could really shine. But if rain was supposed to feature in the riding, the weather didn’t co-operate. The other testers and I had two days of sun.
“Purpose of your visit?” asked the customs officer at the Glasgow Airport.
“I’ll be test-riding a new bike,” I said. “Work then. OK, what kind of bike will you be riding?”
“A road bike, but one meant for rough roads,” I said trying to be as accurate as I could without belabouring things with terms like “endurance” or “gran fondo” bike.
“Well then,” the officer said, “Scotland has plenty of those.”
When Giant announced that it would be debuting its relaunched Defy line in Scotland at the beginning of July, it seemed a curious location. What connection did the Scottish Highlands have to the Defy, especially the top-of-the-line Giant Defy Advanced SL 0 that I’d be riding? Not much. Maybe the organizers knew, like the border guard, that the roads of Perthshire would put the vibration damping abilities of the new frame to the test. Also, it rains a lot in Scotland. I suspect those same organizers wanted to find an authentic riding situation in which the hydraulic disc brakes could really shine. But if rain was supposed to feature in the riding, the weather didn’t co-operate. The other testers and I had two days of sun.
The roads were varied—from smooth two-lane highways to single-lane country roads that would rattle your teeth. To lessen the effects of road vibrations, especially the higher-frequency ones (that is, not big bumps) that wear you down, the Defy uses a feature that first appeared on Giant’s 2014 TCX cyclocross bike. The D-Fuse seatpost, with its D-shape cross-section, appears on the Defy Advanced SL as an integrated seatpost (ISP). Its shape allows for flex fore and aft, but almost no movement side to side. At the rear triangle, the seatstays have a low angle, so they meet the seat tube below the top tube. This junction helps to dissipate road vibrations, which take the path of least resistance up a frame. On the Defy, they are diverted more to the seat and top tubes, away from the seatpost. Finally, there’s the front fork. Its beefy crown works to provide front-end stiffness, while its thinner, curved legs add compliance. These features worked together as I covered kilometres of Highland roads to manage the micro-shocks the surfaces sent through the frame.
At about 45 km into Day 1’s ride, we came to the first serious climb. We had had about 30 km of rollers over which the bike felt solid and steady. It was easy to get going at a good clip, and the Defy did so in a smooth manner. The climb was 7.7 km with an average grade of 5 per cent and an elevation gain of roughly 380 m. The bike trucked up the hill well as I settled into a rhythm. The frame is the lightest endurance frame that Giant has ever made. The company says a medium-size frame with ISP weighs 890 g. Even though the new Defy required mounting tabs for the disc brakes, which extend from the hollow carbon dropouts, Giant says it still managed to drop 50 g. The fork comes in at 370 g. Add the Zipp 202 disc wheels, at about 1,530 g for the pair, and I still didn’t have a lot of weight to move uphill. I was a bit surprised by the bike when it was time to get out of the saddle and turn things up a notch. (There was, after all, a Strava segment.) The bike, which had performed its duties without drawing much attention to itself, seemed much more lively. When I needed to bound up the hill, it was ready to go.
That day’s ride saw some feisty sprinting at the end. The Defy, once again, was game. While it has compliance engineered into some of the tubes, it has more than enough stiffness built into the bottom bracket for excellent power transfer. The endurance bike is still a performance machine.
Day 2 featured more climbing and fun, swooping descents. There were sheep by the sides of the roads. “Treat them like large, skittish squirrels,” one of our local guides said. No animals forced me to brake hard or swerve, but I found other ways to test stopping and handling. I’ll be honest: I’ve been slightly ambivalent about disc brakes on road bikes. Riding discs, however, on new descents is great. The Shimano R785 disc brakes with Giant-designed, TRP-made, 140-mm rotors had excellent modulation and stopping power. I quickly gained more confidence on the new roads as I knew I could slow to the right speed before a turn. On the one turn that I slightly misjudged, and in which I had to rely on the frame’s stiffness and ability to track well through the corner, I pulled through fine. The sheep just looked on.
Even without the rain, the Scottish Highlands was a great place to try the new Giant Defy Advanced SL 0. The next step is to try the bike on this side of the pond, on the rough roads of home.
