Liv Avail 4

The Liv Avail 4 is a decent entry-level road bike, with its aluminium frame and carbon fork delivering a fun and nippy ride. It can be quite harsh over rough surfaces, though, and the Shimano Claris groupset is frustrating at times.

Liv is Giant's women-specific brand, and this is the entry-level model in its Avail range. This tops out at the Avail 1, with an £899 price tag and Shimano 105 groupset, although the Avail Advanced SL will set you back £4,000...

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Liv has taken a belt-and-braces approach to stiffness on this Aluxx grade aluminium frame, from the chunky PowerCore oversized bottom bracket and hefty chainstays, to the 30.9mm oversized seatpost. The result is a nippy and responsive bike – a fun ride if you're on smooth roads.

Unfortunately, on less salubrious blacktop, the lack of flex makes for an at times harsh and buzzy ride, as can be the case with some aluminium frames, and on really rough road surfaces (we're talking properly decayed here) that stiffness transfers vibrations and jolts to you, the rider, to an uncomfortable degree.

The steering is on the twitchy side – not a problem for me, but not everyone may want or enjoy this level of responsiveness on a beginner's bike.

Many beginners will appreciate the wide-range gearing, though, courtesy of an 8-speed 11-32 cassette and FSA Tempo 50/34 compact chainset. It's a decent enough bike on the climbs anyway, but the low gearing helps to negate any extra weight that comes with cheaper components – and it's not the lightest bike.

Saying that, in my experience Claris can be a bit frustrating – and its performance on the Liv was no exception. The front derailleur could be hard to shift, and had a tendency of getting stuck in either the big or small ring. It may be a case of fine-tuning, but once you move up Shimano's range into Sora territory and beyond, this tends to be less of a problem.

Finish lines

In terms of finish, I like the graphics – as you can see from the photos, white with aqua blue and dark blue highlights, and an attractive star pattern repeated on the down tube and fork, the seatstays and the inside of the chainstays. On the downside the welds are a bit knobbly-looking, and the externally routed cables stick out quite a way from the frame, thanks to the positioning of the cable mount on the head tube rather than the down tube. So long as you don't plan on riding through bramble thickets this shouldn't be too much of a problem...

There are no pannier rack mounts on the frame, so if you're looking for a commuter bike and aren't into cycling with a rucksack, this is something to bear in mind. On the other hand, Giant says the chunky seatpost can handle a collar-mounted rack.

I was in between sizes and opted for the small model, which had some not insignificant toe overlap. This became an issue in tight manoeuvres, or when setting off when the front wheel wasn't entirely straight, so something to bear in mind when choosing your frame size.

Wheels, tyres, brakes…

The Avail 4 uses the same own-brand SR-2 wheels as specified on the Avail 3 and 2 (the Avail 1 has PR-2s), but other components change as you progress through the models: the Avail 3 has Shimano Sora gears, the Avail 2 moves up to Tiagra, and the Avail 1 has the excellent 105. Wheels and tyres performed well on a variety of surfaces, and there were no complaints, grip-wise.

In terms of stopping power, the made-for-Giant Tektro brakes offer nothing to complain about. The Avail 4 also has cross-top brakes – secondary levers mounted on the bar top. Love them or hate them, Giant's reasoning is that some women new to road biking feel uncomfortable about riding in the drops, and if this is the case, and it's helping people get into road biking, this can be no bad thing.

Another benefit of these levers could be for riders with flexibility issues, or back problems, that means riding with their hands on the hoods is uncomfortable. I didn't use them at all, and found they got in the way when it came to mounting a phone on the bar; I had to resort to mounting it sideways on the stem, which made map reading interesting...

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The Liv Connect Forward saddle was acceptable. The surface felt a little cheap and plasticky but I had no complaints in terms of comfort, even on longer rides. As always, though, saddles are a matter of personal choice.

I found the shallow-drop Giant Connect handlebar comfortable, too, and I particularly liked the soft finish of the bar tape, which was also well-padded, helping to reduce buzz on rough surfaces.

Overall, the Avail 4 is a fun, nippy, entry-level bike designed to get you from A to B quickly. However, if the roads near you are poorly maintained, this bike has less to recommend it than models with a bit more flex in the frame.

Verdict

A fun, nippy entry-level offering, although if the roads near you are poorly maintained then it has less to recommend it