I've had my Giant Transend DX (2009) for a year and a half and am approaching 5000 miles on it. I commute to work daily and use it for groceries, errands and the like. Basically I ride the hell out of this thing day, night, rain, snow, whatever... My bike has been through a seriously abusive relationship with me and still lives to ride on. Overall I've been very happy with it with the exception of a few things.

Here's what I've found:

It's a very comfortable and stable ride even when pedaling uphill loaded down with 30 pounds of groceries in the panniers and my five-year-old riding tandem on the trail-a-bike. It's geared well on the high and low end with everything in between. It really feels more like riding a fast mountain bike than a road bike. I'm not afraid to take this on the occasional off road detour and try terrain I wouldn't dare try on my road bike.

I did manage to trash the crankset rings in the first month and upgraded immediately to a Shimano Tiagra crankset (the OEM crakrings could not be replaced individually).

The stock fenders have VERY delicate plastic clips that break easily. After several annoying broken clips I replaced them with a pair of SKS fenders. No problems since

One complaint about the geometry - I have a pair of toe clips on my pedals. On rare occasions the clips brush the fenders when pedaling in a turn. Not a big deal though.

The kickstand lasted about six months as I trashed it by parking her with heavy loads in the panniers. I installed a double kickstand like those used on tandems and would highly recommend it to those who constantly load and unload heavy stuff from the deck.

Other than the crankset caving in the first few weeks, the derailleur and shifters have been flawless.

The wood deck looks pretty cool. I get lots of comments on it.

The grips are comfortable but the rubbery material got sticky and gross after a year and needed replacing.

The seat is super comfortable. It got a minor tear and I replaced it with a similar Unity saddle last week.

Given the thrashing I give this bike daily: I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.