 I'm here in front of the all new 2019 Giant Defy. Giant's Endurance Road Performance Machine. But if you've just landed on this channel, this is where I do cycling videos, both inspirational and entertaining, and I do love a deep dive road bike review, which is what I'm gonna do today. So if that sounds up your alley, consider subscribing below. In this review, I've been challenged once again. If you saw my previous review on the Curve Cycling Belgiere, you will note that I got challenged there also, riding my first ever titanium road bike. Now, I've ridden carbon fiber endurance road bikes before. In fact, I rode the Specialized Rubé the entire length of New Zealand last year, and I'll link to that video below. But the thing is this time, I've just ridden and reviewed two back-to-back $14,000 road bikes. This, my friends, is a $3,000 road bike, so I've had to shift my paradigm, $11,000 worth of paradigm shifting, but I think I've gotten there. So this is Giant's 2019 Defy, and it's an upgraded version from its predecessor, from 2018, and the notable changes include the Giant Diffuse technology, which helps reduce road shock and vibrations that was once in the rear of the bike, now sits in the handlebar system too. Giant have improved the cable routing to make it more seamless throughout the bike. Giant have also made some advancements in the carbon fiber construction to make the frame more compliant and stiffer, and lastly, they've increased the ability to get some girthy tires, and they're now up to 32 millimeter. So I'm gonna break this review into two parts. Number one, the bike itself. Then number two, the riding experience, and then I'm gonna summarize with what type of rider I think this bike best suits. So I picked up this bike from a bike chaser dealer, Giant Hampton, a couple of weeks ago, and the very first thing that I noticed on it was it seriously had a long and girthy head tube. Now, I personally ride a more of a race performance geometry road bike, and I've been reviewing more race performance geometry road bikes in the last sort of six months or so. So I thought maybe my perceptions on head tubes was a little bit tarnished. So when I got home, I did a bit of research, and I looked up competing brands endurance road bikes, notably the Trek De Marne, and then the Cannondale Synapse. The head tube on the Giant was at least 10 mil longer than the competing brands, which is kind of interesting because when I normally make comparisons, either aero bike to aero bike, endurance bike to endurance bike, normally it's a few millimeters here and there in terms of geometry differences, but 10 mil is really quite significant. Now, normally that would impact the rider's ability to get either a little bit more high, so a bit more comfort or a little bit more aero dynamic, because it impacts the stack, which is from here to here, up to here. But what I noted when comparing the stacks is the stacks are almost identical across those three different brands. So then I'm thinking, well, how have they made the stack almost identical when the head tube significantly higher? I thought it must have been the bottom bracket, but the bottom bracket is actually lower on the Giant, which gives you a little bit more stiffness out of the saddle. What I found out is the fork is actually, there's a length taken out of the fork, which is pretty interesting. Then I also noted the wheel base on the Giant was about 10 mil longer. So clearly Giant are doing things differently with their endurance road bike, and I'll explain what impact that has on riding experience shortly. The bike itself comes with tubeless tires, that doesn't mean you can't carry a tube and use it in case of an emergency, but you'll get better rolling resistance and can run the tire pressure a little lower on these without affecting rolling resistance. The gearing is ever so reliable Shimano 105 and the braking performance on the disc brakes is really solid. And you've got plenty of gearing thanks to an 1134 cog on the rear. The wheels are some of Giant's own being PR2 discs. And last but certainly not least, you've got the diffuse technology on the rear and on the front of the bike, which is essentially engineered tube shapes to help absorb the shock from the road. So the riding experience, this was an interesting one for me and I'll start where I started and that being the road. And immediately I was going for bumps and divots in the road that I would normally stay well and truly away from on my personal road bike was a specialized LA, another $3,000 road bike, one with more of an aggressive race geometry. So clearly this bike absorbs the shocks and vibrations from the road really well. I was also sitting up a little bit higher given the head tube and the stacks, more of a relaxed geometry and it was taking pressure out of my neck and my shoulders. We then went and joined a Wednesday morning group ride that I'd normally do here in Melbourne and in that group ride, you do one minute turns up the front, rotating one minute turns and I definitely noted I was having to work a little bit harder at the front of the group on this bike, mainly because I was sitting up a bit higher and also it's a more of a relaxed geometry. It's a little bit heavier because of its durable components, notably the wheels, which I'll talk about in a second. Then we hit the hills and this is where I felt this bike sort of really feel at home again because you're on course roads and normally I would be feeling the vibrations and the shocks from the road but on this bike, I wasn't. Going down the hills on the descent, I've had a lot of control, had a longer wheelbase but then we hit a roundabout and taking a right hander. I noticed with this road bike, I needed to give it a little bit more effort to get around the corner and I think that's to be expected when you've got more of a relaxed geometry, particularly a pretty long head tube there. So going around the corner just required a little bit more effort. Then after the group ride, I decided to really test out the endurance capabilities of this bike and I went off road. I went on the bike path, I went on the gravel and I went on the grass and this bike's ability to manage the bumps on the grass, the slippery conditions of the gravel and those sort of vibrations and bumps that you get on a bike path, this bike really did an excellent job with managing the rougher terrain that you get off road. Its endurance capabilities are certainly evident. Now I don't want to take anything away from this bike's ability to go fast because professional team somewhere use this bike for a number of one day classic professional road races but they are running much lighter and more aerodynamic wheels and a lot of groupset and the carbon fiber construction is a higher grade. Now let's just say you're wanting to get a little bit more speed out of this bike like team some web but it is a lower spec version. What I would be doing, it's quite a heavy bike and I haven't weighed it because if you're worried about weights probably not the right bike for you but the wheels, I did look them up on weight weenies, they are quite a heavy proposition, durable and good for endurance going off road but if you're wanting a bit of speed let's just say all of a sudden you get in a fast bunch riding, you want to beat your mates around the block, what I would do is I would upgrade the wheels, something a little lighter and potentially a little bit more aerodynamic and you're going to get a lot more speed out of this bike. So in summary, this bike right here, I think if you are on the market and you're the kind of guy who's competitive, you want to beat your mates around the block, you want to do some fast bunch riding, you might want to go do a bit of racing, probably not the right bike for you. However, if you're looking for a bike that's comfortable, you can go for a cruise with your friends on and you're not going to get neck and shoulder complaints, you're not going to get a sore lower back, you might want to commute to work with it on the bike pass, you might want to take it away on the weekend and go on the gravel. This bike right here is going to tick a lot of boxes and for $3,000 AUD there is a lot of value to be had.