Reviewed: EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0 Disc

A subsidiary of Giant, Liv is one of the few major brands still making women’s-specific bikes, with proportions and stiffness they say are crafted ideally for women’s bodies. This means an XS comes stocked with far narrower handlebars and shorter cranks than most bikes. It also means the bike is designed specifically for small women—a rarity for a very high-end bike. And this is a very high-end bike. The $7,000 version of this EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0 Disc comes race-ready, with Giant’s proprietary SLR carbon wheels (and proprietary tubeless tires), SRAM Force eTap, a Quarq powermeter, and even a RideSense bluetooth emergency alert system. 

Related: Triathlete’s 2020 Road Bike Buyer’s Guide

EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0 Disc: The Ride

This is one of our favorite bikes we’ve tested and it’s held up across multiple 100-mile long rides, max sprint workouts, dirt roads (though we didn’t test it on extreme gravel), and mountain climbs. The ride is smooth and comfortable, leaving you feeling surprisingly fresh after multiple hours. This is particularly notable given that the EnviLiv Advanced Pro is designed first and foremost for stiffness and sprinting—something that doesn’t come up a lot for most triathletes. The composite frame is really all about power transfer and stability. And while that held true in our sprint workouts, it should be noted: I’m not a huge sprinter and an XS frame (in general) isn’t typically where stiffness is an issue anyway. What is an issue for triathletes is aerodynamics and that’s where they’ll be happiest with this bike. The aerodynamic frame and integrated stem and handlebars are all designed for one thing: to go fast. If you don’t go fast on this bike it just feels like a waste.

EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0 Disc: The Bad

That would be the biggest downside to this bike: Whether or not it’s an unnecessary extravagance for most triathletes—but more on that in a second. What surprised me most was, for a women’s XS bike, I still was unable to reach the brakes when in the drops without adjusting the levers—something everyone with small hands has struggled with. (It also can be frustrating to have to commit to cutting a carbon seat post on a small bike, since it limits the options for potential resell.) The proprietary handlebars and stem could also make it challenging to easily put on some clip-on aerobars if you want to go that route, but a standard steerer tube means you could potentially change out both. Most of my complaints, though, had nothing to do with the ride or how the bike handled and everything to do with the finicky-ness of high-end bikes: disc brakes and derailleur batteries and sealant and emergency alert systems and power meter batteries. It’s a lot. This not a beginner bike. For instance, the EnviLiv Adv Pro comes stocked with Giant’s proprietary tubeless tires, so if you’re not ready to deal with sealant and compressors and tubeless tires yet, you might want to change them out.

EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0 Disc: Conclusions

If you’re looking for a beginner bike, this probably isn’t it. Some of the bells and whistles that come stocked probably are unnecessary for a beginner—and arguably unnecessary for many non-beginner triathletes too. But, if you want to go fast and you’re looking for the rare high-end power aero road bike built for women, then this is the versatile ride for you. It offers both a snap when standing and a smooth dampening feel over Ironman distance. Also it looks really pretty.