Giant Defy Advanced 2 + Upgrades!

miker

Bought this late last year and love it, it's a great all round bike.

Made a couple of upgrades, changed the saddle to a Prologo scratch ti, put black bar tape on and just bought these..

dwanes

Nice bike, Would love to see a pic with the Enve wheels on please, they look the dogs...

Even though it is a great frame, one thing that I don't get is the cut-out in the seat tube toward the bottom bracket. It looks like the back wheel should be tighter up against it, but there is a Massive gap, I dont see why Giant has the cut-out on this model. On the TCR the back wheel tucks nicely into the cut-out with very little gap and looks much better.

alihisgreat

Looks good -> bars look like they're at a funny angle.. and I hope you didn't put a dork disk on the new wells.

dwanes wrote:

Nice bike, Would love to see a pic with the Enve wheels on please, they look the dogs...

Even though it is a great frame, one thing that I don't get is the cut-out in the seat tube toward the bottom bracket. It looks like the back wheel should be tighter up against it, but there is a Massive gap, I dont see why Giant has the cut-out on this model. On the TCR the back wheel tucks nicely into the cut-out with very little gap and looks much better.

maybe that section of tubing is common between the two models?

elderone

very nice,plus one on seeing pic with the new wheels on.

miker

TakeTurns

TBF, the Defy is a decent bike, but the Enve wheelset is an overkill for me since they're essentially worth more than the bike. Okay, it's not as bad as putting them on a Carrera TDF, but you get my point.

Bars do need rotating btw, must be odd climbing out the saddle with them like that

Gonna update on how the transition felt from the old wheels to the new ones?

miker

It's an advanced 2 so was 2.5k, I would never have got the wheels at full price and I got them for a bargain, I was looking at getting some new wheels for it, kings on ZTR rims, and these were only £150 more so was well worth it for an epic set of wheels IMHO

the_fuggler

Nice - but I'm biased - have the same bike and love it.

miker

So this morning I popped in to AW cycles in Reading who did my original sizing before I bought the bike, I wanted to get it set up exactly for me, so with a bit of tweaking it seems to have made a big difference. Well worth the small outlay, I highly recommend it, and Chris there is a top bloke who really knows his stuff. I went it to look at getting new bats and stem, and it turns out what's already fitted is pretty damn light and I was advised to wait and maybe upgrade to carbon in the future, always handy when your LBS advises against spending money!
Back to the wheels, I did 30 miles this afternoon and it is noticeably faster accelerating and once you are up at speed it really holds it well, the first 10 miles I managed a 20.7 mph average and it wasn't totally flat. Overall I am very very happy with the wheels and can't wait to get some more miles in.

the_fuggler

miker wrote:

So this morning I popped in to AW cycles in Reading who did my original sizing before I bought the bike, I wanted to get it set up exactly for me, so with a bit of tweaking it seems to have made a big difference. Well worth the small outlay, I highly recommend it, and Chris there is a top bloke who really knows his stuff. I went it to look at getting new bats and stem, and it turns out what's already fitted is pretty damn light and I was advised to wait and maybe upgrade to carbon in the future, always handy when your LBS advises against spending money!
Back to the wheels, I did 30 miles this afternoon and it is noticeably faster accelerating and once you are up at speed it really holds it well, the first 10 miles I managed a 20.7 mph average and it wasn't totally flat. Overall I am very very happy with the wheels and can't wait to get some more miles in.

Good to hear about AW - my experience with them has been hit and miss, but I could do with a service for my Giant, so I'll probably take it in.

miker

Oops, popped into AW cycles in Reading again to chat to Chris about saddles, I currently have a Prologo scratch Ti but wasn't getting on with it. I obviously don't want to keep buying saddles but it turns out they have demo saddles of all the Fizik, Prologo and Selle Italia....

Soooo I ended up with the Fizik Kurve Snake to borrow for a week or so, first impressions on a quick 15 miler were its really comfortable and a nice place to be, will see how it goes on a few longer rides....
Only issue is its £189.99!!!!

miker

ednino

sexy wheelset :P

Vandiesel

That does look sweet mate..

snowley

Sexual. Love these.

Is it quite a comfortable frame on long rides or do you find yourself uncomfortable after 50-60 odd miles?

miker

snowley wrote:

Sexual. Love these.

Is it quite a comfortable frame on long rides or do you find yourself uncomfortable after 50-60 odd miles?

It's very comfortable, the reason I went for this over the TCR is that it's a bit more relaxed, I've literally just got back from. 30 miler no probs and regularly do 60-70 on it without any issues, got my first century next Saturday so will report back after that!

the_fuggler

snowley wrote:

Sexual. Love these.

Is it quite a comfortable frame on long rides or do you find yourself uncomfortable after 50-60 odd miles?

Completed the Land's End 100 on mine last year with no issues at all. Just munched the miles and the hills. Was really noticeable towards the end of the ride that I was by far the most comfortable of our trio.

canny_lad

Those wheels are the dog's b0ll0cks.

Nice bike too

James Q

Really liking this, and those wheels look so right on it! Did you decide on the new saddle yet?

miker

Thanks for the nice comments guys, I did 15 miles yesterday and 30 mies today on the Kurve Snake, I'm not sure if its quite right, I felt a bit sore afterwards, not sure if that's because it's a new saddle or just not right for me, will pop in to AW tomorrow and see what else I can borrow for the weekend.