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I am looking at winter road bikes, and will be buying from LBS, so it’s Giant, Spesh, Scott, Cube or Genesis.
I have a nice road ebike, a Vagabond and a Fugio, so after something that will be setup with full mudguards, a little comfort from tyre volume, and will be used on regular winter and poor weather road rides from home, with a lot of c class roads and winter mess.
Max budget is £1500, and I will likely get a small discount.
So far have it down to this Giant :
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/contend-ar-1-2021
though there didn’t seem to be many reviews of this 2021 model around. I do like Giant having had a couple of carbon Defy’s over the past decade, only selling my last one in the summer to help fund my Spesh Creo.
Any experiences of the Contend AR1 and opinions. LBS will have my size in stock in about 5 weeks ?
I have a Giant Contend SL Disc... almost the same bike but with narrower tyre clearances. Mine takes 28mm tyres with room to spare - think the AR version takes up to 32mm(?)
Anyway, it’s a great budget bike. The ride quality of the frame & fork is actually Very good - much better than I expected at this price point. It’s a comfortable ride, and does everything that one would expect. I’m actually very, very pleased with it.
A couple of downsides:
1. They come with Giant’s proprietary D-shaped seatpost which is a pain, since there are no aftermarket options, only Giant and the seatpost is one of those single-bolt clamp styles ones with fairly large/wide ridges on it, meaning fine-tuning seat angle is hit and miss.., I can’t quite get it exactly at the angle I want, but it’s close enough.
2. Despite being an alu frame it’s got a press fit BB. Why? Why? Why?
Aside from those 2 points, it’s great.
Good to know, thanks. Yes, it comes with 32c tubeless tyres setup. I had the DFuse post on my last Defy so know exactly what you mean !
I think the AR is one spec level down from the SL on the frame alloy..
Was going to say i got my defy for about 100 quid more than that last year from the lbs. But then i look at the spwc on the contend and its pretty much identical, with a similar weight so I think it'll be a good bet.
Only thing I'll say, those wheels are boat anchors. I swapped out the tyres and wheels on my defy and saved 1200g!!
Mrs anagallis has a liv avail sl which is pretty much a contend, an iteration or two older. The odd seatpost has been fine. The press fit bb has been creak free for 3 years and has outlived several bb on my bikes in that time and she never cleans the bike. Oh yes and the wheels were heavy, hers is caliper brake so when they got worn out were replaced with much lighter superstar components wheels.
The AR seems to be a 'gravel-lite' version of the Contend. So if it's just a winter road bike you need you might be better off with the SL - that will still take up to 34mm tyres. And I was going to say that I couldn't see much point in paying for 105 over Tiagra, until I saw that the 105 equipped bikes have Shimano 105 hydraulic brakes whereas the Tiagra bikes have Giant Conduct hybrid brakes. On a winter bike that may have advantages - a hell of a lot cheaper to replace a mechanical lever than a hydraulic one if it's damaged in a crash. But although the Conduct brakes work perfectly well you do pay a weight penalty.
Thanks for feedback. My thinking on the AR is I can have comfy 32c tubeless tyres plus full SKS Bluemells guards. A little heavier than the SL though I guess.
I have contend sl(rim brake) version. Warranty replacement frame for my broken defy sl. Great bike comfortable ride 👍🏻