Yesterday we covered the launch of the Liv Avail Advanced and Advanced Pro endurance bikes from Giant’s sister bike brand Liv. Today it’s the turn of the men, with the new fifth-generation Giant Defy Advanced range.
A previous generation of the Defy Advanced was ridden to victory in Paris-Roubaix by John Degenkolb in 2015 and Greg van Avermaet rode a gold Giant Defy at the same race in 2019.
Giant says that the blueprint for the new Defy is less weight, better ride quality, no gimmicks. A smoother bike is a faster bike, it asserts, especially on less than perfect roads.
As you’d expect, the men’s Defy Advanced endurance bike and the Liv Avail Advanced share much in common, but whereas the Avail is available with Advanced and Advanced Pro framesets, the Defy adds an Advanced SL tier above these.
Naturally, Giant says that the Advanced SL level - rather than the Pro frameset - is used across its range of bikes by its pro cyclists.
New premium frameset tier
The new Defy Advanced SL 0 bike is kitted out with a premium spec including SRAM Red AXS and Cadex wheels (Image credit: Giant)
The Defy Advanced SL frameset weighs a claimed 785g. As you’d expect, this takes a chunk of weight off the previous generation top spec frame: 293g to be precise, or fully 19.9 percent, but even the Defy Advanced Pro is claimed to be 153g lighter than its predecessor. There’s a 15 percent decrease in the fork’s weight to 350g and an eight percent decrease in handlebar weight.
Giant also claims that the new SL tier bike ups pedalling efficiency (which it defines as the bike’s stiffness-to-weight) by 28 percent over the previous generation Pro, while the new Pro model is 11 percent more efficient than its predecessor. The corresponding figure for the base model Advanced frameset is 4.3 percent relative to the previous generation Defy Advanced.
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As with the Liv Avail, there's clearance for 38mm tyres and, except for the top spec bike, which gets Cadex wheels and tyres, the bikes are specced with Giant 32mm tyres on Giant’s own wheels.
The Defy Advanced frames all allow you to fit mudguards and include a removable rear triangle bridge. They include bottle cages and an out-front computer mount.
New D-Fuse components and aero stem
Again, following on from the Liv Avail Advanced, the 2024 Giant Defy Advanced range uses a new array of D-Fuse components. For each, there are either two or three spec levels: the SLR is fitted to higher spec bikes, the SL to mid-spec and the standard model to the least expensive bikes.
Giant says that its D-Fuse seatpost adds up to 7mm of compliance to the Defy Advanced (Image credit: Giant)
The new D-Fuse composite seatpost’s D-shape is designed to flex under load by as much as 7mm to add extra compliance. Giant says that, along with the new frameset, the seatpost’s in-built flex provides a 42 percent increase in compliance over the previous generation D-Fuse seatpost and Defy frameset.
The D-Fuse bars are designed to increase comfort (Image credit: Giant)
There’s been an upgrade to the D-Fuse handlebars too, which Giant says adds 40 percent to the bars’ compliance in the downward direction for better road comfort, without affecting upward stiffness when sprinting or climbing.
Weights are 185g for the carbon SLR or 264g for the alloy SL in a 420mm width. Giant offers four widths: 380mm, 400mm, 420mm and 440mm, all with an 8-degree flare to the drops.
They sit on a new Contact AeroLight stem, which comes in three ranges. The top-spec SLR is carbon, while the SL and standard grade stems are alloy. All offer an aero profile and internal cable and brake hose routing, along with a conventional faceplate. Weights vary from 123g to 190g for a 100mm stem, with lengths from 70mm to 140mm available.
The Giant Contact Aerolight stem has internal cable routing (Image credit: Giant)
Giant supplies the wheels and tyres for the new Defy Advanced bikes as well, calling them a wheelsystem, as they’re designed to operate together. Higher spec models get hookless rim carbon wheels, with Cadex wheels on the top spec bike, while the Advanced bikes run on alloys. Giant sets all the bikes’ 32mm tyres up tubeless.
New Giant Defy Advanced: Specs and prices
There are a total of nine different Defy Advanced models across the three different grades of frameset and Giant sells the bike in six sizes from XS to XL. Euro prices vary by territory; we’ve quoted German prices except where noted.
Defy Advanced SL range
(Image credit: Giant)
Top dog in the Defy Advanced range is the SL 0. It’s made of Advanced SL grade carbon composite, has an Advanced SL grade fork and is equipped with a SRAM Red AXS groupset with a 46/33t power meter chainset and 10-36t cassette. Wheels are Cadex 36 Disc from Giant’s performance component brand and are equipped with Cadex Classic 32mm tyres. It’s priced at £11,999 / $12,000 / AU$13,999 / €11,999, comparable to the top spec Giant Propel.
The Defy Advanced SL 1 has a Shimano Ultegra 12-speed groupset with a Giant Power Pro power meter, 50/34t chainrings and an 11-34t cassette. The Giant SLR 1 36 Carbon Disc WheelSystem includes 32mm Giant Gavia Fondo 0 tyres. Price is £8.499 / $N/A / AU$9,499 / €N/A.
Defy Advanced Pro range
(Image credit: Giant)
The Advanced Pro range has a frame made of Advanced grade composite, but retains the same Advanced SL grade carbon fork.
The Giant Defy Advanced Pro 0 has an Ultegra compact groupset with a Giant Power Pro power meter, It shares the Giant SLR 1 36 Carbon Disc WheelSystem of the Advanced SL 1 but with Giant Gavia Fondo 1 tyres. It also shares the same bars and seatpost as the Advanced SL bikes, but swaps the stem from the SLR to the SL model. It costs £5,999 / $6,500 / AU$7,999 / €6,499.
The Defy Advanced Pro 1 has Shimano 105 Di2 in place of Ultegra, but runs on the same Giant SLR 1 36 Carbon Disc WheelSystem and is priced at £4,599 / $5,000 / AU$6,499 / €4,999.
There’s a further downspec of components to the Defy Advanced Pro 2, which has a Shimano 105 12-speed mechanical groupset and Giant SLR 2 36 Carbon Disc WheelSystem. The bike costs £3,499 / $N/A / AU$N/A / €3,999 (in France; Germany N/A).
Defy Advanced range
(Image credit: Giant)
The meat of the new Defy range is in the Advanced bikes, with four specs available.
The Advanced 0 is equipped with an Advanced grade fork, rather than Advanced SL and other components get a downspec. It’s equipped with SRAM Rival AXS and Giant P-R2 Disc alloy wheels. It’s priced at £3,299 / $N/A / AU$N/A / €N/A.
The Defy Advanced 1 swaps the groupset for Shimano 105 Di2 12-speed. There’s a £100 price decrease in the UK to £3,199 ($4,000 / AU$4,999 / €3,999).
On the Defy Advanced 2, the groupset is Shimano 105 12-speed mechanical. Price is £2,699 / $3,000 / AU$3,799 / €2,899.
Finally, the Defy Advanced 3 has a Shimano Tiagra groupset and Giant S-R2 wheels. It costs £2,299 / $N/A / AU$N/A / €2,400 (in France; Germany N/A).
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Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
