Ridernthestorm

Looking at a 09 giant defy 3, what's your opinion of it and whats it worth, in good shape and the right size. Thanks

MegaTom

My first new road bike was an '08 Defy 3. I can't really speculate on current value, but, FWIW, I sold it back to the LBS for $400 when it was about 15 months old. For what it was (a sub-$800 entry level bike), I thought it was great and certainly helped me catch the bug..

Ridernthestorm

How did you like it, did you upgrade or didn't like it thanks

MegaTom

Caught the cycling bug and decided to trade that in and drop 5 large on my current Roubaix and wheels.

denvertrout

I rented a fairly new one 11' or 12' this summer and here is my take on it. Bars were wider than what I was used, shifting was SORA? I think, and did not care for the placement of the shifters. Could not stay on the drops and shift to a higher gear. Heavy/heavier than what I ride. My bike is a 58cm and fits me perfectly, the same size for the Defy 3 was huge and dropped to a smaller size that fit me well. Put me in an upright position, that no amount of fiddling with could change due to the frame configuration. Did not have the snappiness that my bike does in acceleration of climbing. As a one week rental it did what I wanted, but would never buy that particular bike. This is all in comparison to an 05' Madone. Hope that helps. I would say ride and get a feel for it.

lungimsam

I have an 09 Defy 3.
I love it. But then I have nothing to compare it to as far as other racing geometry road bikes go.

Pros:
Fast, comfortable, reliable, smooth, responsive, light-ish (19-20 lbs for M size frame - stock), sturdy ride. Eyelets on stays and drop outs for rear rack mounting, if desired. I used mine for commuting and recreational road riding. Looks great. Pretty paint. Triple chainrings. Wheels have stayed pretty true and sturdy, even after crashing and hitting pothole/ruts hard. No spoke problems. Nice, breezy ride. I love it.

Cons:
Both my stock and warrantly replacement composite seatposts developed cracks. I replaced it with an aluminum Giant Connect SL seatpost.
Low end components. Though my rear derailer works flawlessly, the front one is tricky when shifting into the bigger rings.
Has one lever for braking/shifting. Cannot shift from the hooks, even when I adjusted the levers for reach- can't rotate lever for shifting in hooks. Only can shift when hands are on hoods.

350-400$ US tops for used in great shape. Just what I think it is worth.
I would replace composite seatpost when I bought it with aluminum seatpost.
Inspect those composite front forks and get some assurance it has never been crashed hard up front.
I would not buy if any visible damage was on forks. But that is just me.

It is a great ride. Hope it works out for you. Here's mine. Only upgrades were:
Changed bars, but went back to original.
Shorter stem for my short reach.
Changed to locking skewers by Zefal.
Changed middle chainring to 39 tooth after the original (40 or 42t?) became warped/bent.
Changed stock saddle to Specialized Avatar Gel saddle.
Changed stock brake pads to ones with metal mounts.


I have some clamp hardware from the original seatposts if you want them as spares. Let me know. But I would recommend aluminum seatpost, or at least monthly inspection of the composite post for safety.

timmy29er

Somewhat of an "apples n oranges" comparison dontcha think?

OP. How much are they asking? Any upgrades?

hhnngg1

I too have a Defy3 2009. Have posted about it ad nauseum in the past. Can say that for me it compares extremely favorably to my 2008 Cervelo DA and the aluminum frame actually absorbs shock better than the Cervelo which is as expected, a super stiff racing ride.

The frame on the Defy3 is excellent. I've had zero problems with fit and comfort on it, and it's my primary long-distance training bike. (I ride 60+ miles pretty much every weekend, and have a 20 week unbroken stretch thus far including today.) If you're going to compare it to another bike that you spent a lot of time on, of course you'll find fit differences to criticize, but I think that's a function of the Defy than the reality of the small differences in bike fit. You an absolutely set up the Defy3 so it's pretty aggressive - I'm lower than most of the roadies in the drops who ride the $5k bikes.

It uses pretty basic minimum type parts, but they work so well that I really have had almost nothing to complain about. The only thing that I do notice is not the fault of the bike, but is the Sora-2200 groupset that the bike came with, and which I still ride the original cassette (I only ride this bike on weekends since I'm on a trainer the weekedays) which is obvously inferior to DA, but still works so well (near flawlessly actually) that I can't justify replacing it.

I bought my Defy3 new from the LBS for $650 on a holiday sale. (Normally priced at $750.) My bike has small amounts of wear and tear but is still a great ride; I'd say it's worth at least $350, or roughly half off its new price on the open market. (Which means that for $350, you get a bike that's pretty much as fast as a $10k road bike, which is a pretty dang good deal if you can score it.) I suspect that if someone else was selling my bike at the insane Craigslist prices I see nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone try to unload one at $500+ (I wouldn't buy it at that price.)

Ridernthestorm

Well, I passed on the 09, there's a 2010 for sale, says like new asking 575, 2010 they went from Dora to 2300 and msrp was 750, anyhow long story short I offered 400 got accused of low balling and he got sore over it, essentially it's now a 4 year old bike and I offered about 60% original retail, maybe I'm wrong thought it was about right.