First Ride: The Giant Defy E+ Road Bike Adds a Whole Lot of Pace

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Giant has been at this bike thing for quite some time. The bicycle brand, as we know it, started in 1972, and its first e-bike was made as early as 1986. But while there’s an ever-growing list of e-road bikes out there, it took until 2024 for Giant to release a Defy E+.

Sure, it might be surprising to see certain bike brands offer up their own road bikes with electric assist, but Giant? I would’ve thought the brand have something on the market already. That’s not the case here, however. If anything it feels like Giant is trying to compensate with the sheer size of this new bike’s name: the Giant Defy Advanced E+ Elite.

But with that name comes an all-out effort. Geometry largely mirrors the Defy all-road bike. There’s some neat integration with SRAM AXS wireless drivetrains, and Giant developed the drive system itself specifically in-house for this bike. The new Giant Defy E+ (as we’ll call it here) isn’t a cynical adaptation of a popular bike for e-assist. It’s quite a bit better than that.

Quick hits: Seven things to know about the Giant Defy E+

• The Giant Defy E+ is the brand’s first ‘e-performance road bike’
• Giant’s women’s-specific counterpart, also gets its own Avail E+ e-road bike to match
• New Giant-designed hub-driven motor with a max 30 Nm torque (which Giants says feels like 75 Nm) and Class 3 assist up to 28 miles per hour (45 kmh)
• Claimed range: 24 to 62 miles (39 to 100 km) without the optional range extender
• Sizes: 5 sizes (XS – XL)
• Weight: 12.5 kg (27.5 pounds), claimed, size M
• For more: giant-bicycles.com

Build details

Before we dig in, is worth mentioning that nearly everything you’ll see here is largely the same between the Giant Defy E+ and the Liv Avail E+, at least as far as frame features are concerned. However, the two bikes differ in paint schemes, touchpoints, and geometries.

There are three things that give away that this is an e-road bike: the small display up top, the larger-than-average downtube to fit the bike’s battery, and a rear hub motor peeking out between the rear brake rotor and cassette.

Take a look at the top tube, however, and you’ll find a small dual light bar placed on the top tube by the stem that controls everything. Here, you’ll find two light bars in parallel. Each of the two bars features five LEDs; the left side shows the assist level, while the right side shows the bike’s battery charge in 20 percent increments. Those left-side LEDs change based on assist level between the five assist settings and a sixth Smart Assist setting.

Notably, there’s no other display here. Riders will want to pair their existing bike computer or smartphone to the bike to control assist levels and view how much battery is left. Further, Giant has no additional controls. Here, Giant has partnered with SRAM to integrate into the AXS system.

What does that AXS integration look like? Just about every Defy E+ bike will include a duo of wireless blips placed just below the brake levers. These blips control SRAM shifting in most situations, but here they’re set to raise and lower the assist levels without moving your hands from the handlebars. In the case of a SRAM Red-equipped bike, the Bonus Buttons integrated into the levers raise and lower assist.

That light bar belongs to the Syncdrive Move Plus, a lightweight e-bike system developed in-house by Giant. The system is fairly light, at a claimed 1.7 kg (3.7 pounds) for the motor alone and 2.3 kg (4.9 pounds) for its 400 Wh battery. All in, the rear hub motor offers 30 Nm of torque, which Giant claims is the equivalent of 75 Nm from a bike with a mid-drive motor.

While we’re on it, how does Giant get away with claiming the motor ‘feels like 75 Nm’ of torque? Giant quotes it from its tests, saying the radius of the wheel paired with optimum gearing, helps that 30 Nm feel like 75 Nm one would expect from a mid-drive motor. Giant isn’t the first company to make a claim like this, as Mahle says its X20 motor with 23 Nm torque is equivalent to a 55 Nm mid-drive motor.

The aforementioned battery is housed in a carbon frame that Giant worked hard to look and feel a whole lot like its all-road/endurance road bike, the Giant Defy. In reality, however, this Defy E+ looks a whole lot beefier. While the Defy E+ could’ve used a mid-drive motor, a hub-drive motor allows for a slightly longer battery in the down tube.

The down tube in particular looks a whole lot more slab-sided: wide and squared-off, without the slightly more truncated foil shape that the Defy has. The top tube is far larger too, likely due to needing space to house that new controller. Short of the seat stays, just about every tube on this Defy E+ is larger than the comparable Defy.

Max tire clearance is set at 700c x 38 mm, though there looked to be enough space for a 40 mm wide tire.

Why did Giant make its own e-bike system?

Take a look at the competition, and you’ll see that just about every bike brand will use an off-the-shelf e-bike motor. In the e-road bike space, you’re looking at the likes of Bosch, Shimano, Mahle, Fazua, and TQ. So why would Giant decide to make its own e-bike system?

According to Giant, it’s because the brand is full of makers. And thus comes Giant’s SyncDrive Move Plus e-bike system.

Giant went on to explain that one major benefit of its motor partnership with Yamaha is its ability to control the motor’s packaging. Using any other brand meant it wouldn’t be able to use its Maestro suspension layout, nor maintain the performance and fit the team design wanted. In the case of the road bike system, it’s because Giant wanted greater control over the system.

That meant controlling more than just the battery layout. Giant opted for 22700 cells, which it says are more energy-dense than the 18600 cells usually used in the competition. These cells are managed in a way that promises twice as much capacity over the lifespan of its battery; Giant claims the battery will maintain 60 percent of its capacity over 1000 charges, compared to just 500 charges of a competitor’s battery.

The system records torque and cadence in 10-degree increments across a pedal rotation through the bottom bracket. It then takes those 10-degree increments and smooths out power delivery in its ‘Dual Sampling’ system, which Giant believes is the best in the business.

Giant’s Ride Control app allows users slight diagnostic analysis, assist adjustments, and more. In the app, users can adjust the support ratio–how much the motor amplifies a rider’s power output. Users can also adjust max torque, and how quickly that assist comes on.

To be clear, Giant isn’t the one making this motor. It isn’t Yamaha either, with whom Giant partners for its mid-drive e-bike motors. Rather, it’s through a company called HPB.

Geometry

The Defy road bike is the Taiwanese company’s endurance/all-road bike with shorter reach, longer stack, and more relaxed handling characteristics overall. Neither the Defy E+ nor the Liv Avail E+ are a perfect analog to the non-electric road bikes, but Defy fans should be able to move their fit to this new e-bike without much issue

Key changes here include a lower bottom bracket and slightly longer chainstays, which Giant says are largely to counteract the added weight that comes from the e-bike system and battery. Otherwise, handling geometry is largely the same, geared toward straight-line stability rather than cornering prowess.

While the geometry overall here isn’t a perfect match for the existing Defy and Avail road bikes, Giant promises its handling and feel should embody that of a Defy road bike.

Builds, specs, and pricing

Both the Giant Defy E+ and the Liv Avail E+ are available in three models. Two of them are road-centric and come spec’d with 28 mm tires and 2x front derailleur shifting. There’s also an AR version which get a 1x drivetrain and 35 mm wide tires.

The pick of the bunch looks to be the entry-level Defy Advanced E+ Elite AR. It might be the least expensive bike of the bunch, but it still gets SRAM Rival AXS electronic shifting and smooth-rolling 35 mm Schwalbe G-One tires. The 1x drivetrain won’t be for everyone–particularly if you’re riding mostly on the road–but its the one I would likely pick if it was my own money.

Riding the Giant Defy E+

In for review was the… drum roll please… Giant Defy Advanced E+ Elite 0. It features a SRAM Red AXS 2x drivetrain, Giant carbon wheels, and Giant’s D-Fuse carbon seat post and handlebar. Claimed weight for this bike in a size M is 27.5 pounds (12.5 kg).

Giant quotes range about as broadly as it could, saying a rider can expect anything from 24 to 62 miles (39 to 100 km) from stock. After about 90 minutes of riding in Giant’s SmartSense mode, I found I had about 45 percent battery life remaining. I reckon I could get about three hours’ worth of riding (~55 to 60 miles) from the battery without any range anxiety.

None of these e-road bikes are designed to have motors that dominate the entire experience, and that remains the case with the Defy E+. This isn’t a bike that lets you lean on the motor, as even its most aggressive tuning will require the rider to really push themselves to have the motor put out the maximum amount of torque.

The Syncdrive Move Plus system is among the smoothest e-bike systems I’ve used across all e-bikes. Power comes on smoothly, without much drama, and it feels well-tuned overall. Loafing around results in minimal assist. Further, putting down the power and spinning at a high RPM results in the motor being more eager to use all of its possible assist.

Giant made a big deal of the bike offering ‘seamless power’. While I don’t think anyone has gotten there quite yet, this bike comes awfully close. Coasting after a high-power effort features a smooth run-off from the hub motor, even riding at a high assist. It does a great job of ensuring the bike feels steady and smooth over long efforts, with basically none of the push and pull or on-off switch feel many motors still have.

In fact, I think this might be the best e-road bike motor I’ve used if you’re a high RPM spinner. Some motors start to have a bit of an on-off switch feel as you get over about 110 RPM, where the system doesn’t really know how to dole out the assist at such a high cadence. That wasn’t the case here, where the motor felt smooth across a range of cadences.

Giant claims its motor offers an effective peak torque of 75 Nm (30 Nm actual). The truth of how much torque it puts out is somewhere in between those two numbers, however. There was more than enough power for my lightweight 132-pound (60 kg) self. Further, the power felt comparable to what I’ve experienced with the TQ and Fazua mid-drive motors.

It’s perhaps slightly less powerful than motors from Bosch and Shimano, but it feels a whole lot punchier than what you’d find from the Mahle X35, much less the X20.

As for downsides? Hard to tell from a first ride. The only thing I really came to notice is the noise coming from the hub drive motor. It doesn’t come off as unrefined, but it is louder than what you’d get from the latest TQ, Fazua, or Mahle systems.

The Defy E+ road bikes come spec’d with 28 mm wide tires, which feel entirely too narrow for an e-road bike in 2024. A 30 mm or even 32 mm wide road tire is much better suited to the comfortable intentions of the Defy E+.

This bike isn’t necessarily heavy, but the extra battery size simply can’t compare to the lighter bikes equipped with the Mahle X20 system. A powerful drive motor will overcome most weight concerns, but a lighter bike would be nice to see, too.

That’s about it honestly. The frame itself has the same finishing you’d expect from a high-end Giant; that is to say, Tim Duncan-like in how it deals with the fundamentals, but not particularly flashy. The same goes for the Giant-branded wheels, bars, seat post, and saddle. And as for the SRAM Red AXS drivetrain? It has the best brakes in the business, as we covered in our reviews here and here.

It’s an excellent first effort overall from Giant. Based on the brand’s experience building both electric and non-electric road bikes, however, I wouldn’t expect much less. I don’t think it’s quite the best e-road bike you can buy, but it is one that checks just about every box one could want.

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