Default implementations are only reached in the absence of method tables.

collects/racket/private/generic.rkt

@@ -127,7 +127,8 @@
                           (generate-temporary 'get-generics))]
                      ;; for each generic method, builds a cond clause to do the
                      ;; predicate dispatch found in method-impl-list
-                     [((cond-impl ...) ...) marked-generics])
+                     [((cond-impl ...) ...) marked-generics]
+                     [(-name?) (generate-temporaries #'(name?))])
          #`(begin
              (define-syntax name (list #'prop:name #'generic ...))
              ; XXX optimize no kws or opts
@@ -197,15 +198,16 @@
                  (lambda given-args
                    (define this (list-ref given-args generic-this-idx))
                    (cond
-                    ;; default cases
-                    [(pred? this) (apply cond-impl given-args)]
-                    ...
-                    ;; Fallthrough
-                    [(name? this)
+                    [#,(if prop-defined-already?
+                           #'(name? this)
+                           #'(-name? this))
                      (let ([m (vector-ref (get-generics this) generic-idx)])
                        (if m
                            (apply m given-args)
                            (error 'generic "not implemented for ~e" this)))]
+                    ;; default cases
+                    [(pred? this) (apply cond-impl given-args)]
+                    ...
                     [else (raise-argument-error 'generic name-str this)])))))
              ...)))]))
 

collects/scribblings/reference/generic.scrbl

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ availability.
 
 When @racket[maybe-defaults] is provided, each generic function
 uses @racket[pred?]s to dispatch to the given default implementations,
-@racket[method-impl]s, before dispatching to the generic method table.
+@racket[method-impl]s, if dispatching to the generic method table fails.
 The syntax of the @racket[method-impl]s is the same as the methods
 provided for the @racket[#:methods] keyword for @racket[struct].}
 

collects/tests/generic/defaults.rkt

@@ -41,3 +41,24 @@
   (check-false (stream-empty? l4))
   (check-equal? (stream-first l4) 1)
   (check-equal? (stream-first (stream-rest l4)) 2))
+
+(struct a ())
+
+(define-generics bool-able
+  (to-bool bool-able)
+  #:defaults
+  ([a? (define (to-bool a) #t)]))
+
+(struct b a ()
+  #:methods gen:bool-able
+  [(define (to-bool b) #f)])
+
+(module+ test
+  (define my-a (a))
+  (define my-b (b))
+
+  (check-true (bool-able? my-a))
+  (check-true (bool-able? my-b))
+
+  (check-true (to-bool my-a))
+  (check-false (to-bool my-b)))