BIKE REVIEW

GIANT ANTHEM X 29ER VERSUS TRANCE X 29ER

PHOTOGRApHY BY CRAIg MADSEN

Giant have jumped into the 29er market full-bore, with neither their venerable Anthem X nor Trance X models now available in 26er. Nope, its 29er only now, until you get to the 150mm travel, 26er-only Reign X. Alright, so if youre considering a Giant in the 100-120 travel range, wheel size wont enter into the decision, but should you get the Anthem X or the Trance X? Is it a choice between a twitchy, racehead XC speedster, and a lazy, burly, trail-eating huck-meister? We got hold of one of each to find out: the Anthem X Advanced 29er 1 ($5399) and the Trance X 29er 0 ($5199).

AntHEm X - FrAmE We tested the Anthem X Advanced 29er 1, which features a carbon front end mated to an aluminium back end. Like the 26er of old, the 29er Anthem features 100mm of Maestro virtual pivot suspension via a Rock Shox Monarch RL out back, and a 100mm Rock Shox Sid fork up front. With a 71 degree head angle (its bang on, whereas weve measured the alloy Anthem at 70 degrees in the past) and a 73 degree seat angle, the Anthem has classic race bike geometry, albeit in a 29er package. Tyre clearance out back is not huge, but sufficient for the 2.25 Racing Ralphs fitted, and just enough for 2.25 Nobby Nics. There was
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no dropper-post fitted, but we noted the guides present under the top tube - tidy. AntHEm X - bItS All the running gear is Shimano XT 10 speed (save for the SLX cassette and a KMC chain - sneaky cost saving measures right there). The dual ring 26/38 crankset is well suited to the bikes XC intentions, though we have to admit we didnt use the biggest gear available once and riders without legs of steel might find the 26/36 combo insufficiently low, depending on the steepest, longest climbs they do regularly. The XT brakes were strong and flawless nuff said. Wheels were Giants own P XCR 29er 1 with eyelets for longevity, fitted with

Schwalbes Racing Ralphs, Tubeless Ready. The Sid fork features a 15mm thru axle, rebound adjust and a lock out - just what any aspiring XC racer is looking for. The rear shock was an odd one in this present age, with no adjustable compression damping, but a full lock-out. AntHEm X - rIdE The Anthem X is fast right from the first pedal stroke. Thats partly due to the fast rolling Racing Ralph tyres - if making ground is your aim, these tyres are on your side. Giants Maestro suspension also helps, remaining neutral under pedal tension in either chainring, albeit with slightly more softness underfoot in the big ring. The rear

THE ANTHEMS REPlACEMENT ROCK SHOX RT IN PlACE WE PREFERRED THE STOCK RL

SHIMANO XT bRAKES ON bOTH ANTHEM AND TRANCE WERE SUPERb, AS AlWAYS

suspension is active and tends to use 90% if its travel on most rides, which is what were looking for in a short travel XC set-up. Unfortunately, we soon had a problem with the rear shock leaking air. Tightening the air valve did not yield a solution, so it went back to Giant who replaced it with a Rock Shox Monarch RT from the next model up in the range. The RT shock has a dial to adjust the level of compression damping and felt very different to the RL. We ran the RT in its softest compression and rebound settings, otherwise it felt like it stifled the Anthems travel and bounce. So while the RT was set and forget, it was biased very much towards removing any unwanted suspension

movement at the cost of some wanted suspension movement, though it felt better the harder and fast we went. In fairness to Giant, speccing a more XC oriented shock on the next model up makes some sense those looking to spend more on the models higher in the range of XC bikes are going to be more focussed on speed than comfort. Either way, for general riding, we preferred the Monarch RL, which the bike comes stock with. Up front, we found the Sid did its job very nicely indeed. With a 15mm thru-axle and a tapered steerer, its plenty stiff for its job, though it quickly runs out of travel if you try whacking into big things at speed. However,
SCHWAlbE NObbY NICS WERE PERFECT FOR THE TRANCE

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GIANTS DROPPER-POST PERFORMED WEll

ROCK SHOX SID ON THE ANTHEM WAS STRUCTURAllY STIFF AND FUNCTIONAllY PlUSH IDEAl

we didnt have much motivation to ride like that, because the Racing Ralphs just werent our friends when taken off groomed surfaces. Running tubes, we had to run quite high pressures to avoid pinch-flatting the thin sidewalls and pumped up hard they tended to bounce off things and skitter across the top of loose ground. Colour us cautious when it got fast or steep! Just for fun, we swapped to 2.25 Nobby Nicks with tougher sidewalls, ran them around 28 psi and enjoyed the ride substantially more,

albeit with a slight loss of pedalling speed on groomed XC trails - horses for courses. The bolt-up seat-post was a bit of a kick in the teeth to riders used to dropping their seats, but hey, we used to ride everything with our seats up and it is an XC race bike (and routing for a dropper is included if you decide to fit one). One thing worth noting: the steeper than weve ridden in a while head angle did mean we had to pay attention more on steep descents, but it also meant we whipped

around uphill corners with an inside line we hadnt realised wed been missing until the Anthem showed us how an XC bike is meant to corner. It wasnt just that it was quicker, it was easier with no need to think about how to negotiate the uphill corners - though that did leave us with only a focus on the burning sensation in our legs (shut-up legs!). Overall, the Anthem X is a great XC racer: it pedals well, takes out moderately rough ground well, steers rapidly and is generally pretty darned fast. It was out of its depth on

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SHIMANO XT ClUTCH REAR DERAIllEUR A TICK FOR THE TRANCE

FOXS CTD SHOCK ON THE TRANCE COMPlEMENTED GIANTS MAESTRO SUSPENSION

rougher riding, though we found this can be partly remedied with a tyre swap, before the next bottleneck for reckless riding kicks in, which would be the steep head angle and limited travel. Lastly, in case you didnt notice, the Anthem looks good, with straight lines and a classic double-diamond shape. Which leads us to the bigger (uglier?) cousin, the Trance X TrAnCE X - FrAmE The Trance X 0 29er frame is all aluminium,

or ALUXX SL as Giant calls the particular type employed here, and youd be hard pressed to find a straight tube, with all manner of shaping and manipulating present and accounted for. The 120mm (5 inches) of Maestro virtual pivot point suspension is fed into a Fox CTD Boost Valve shock. Like the Anthem, a tapered headtube keeps things modern up front and like the Anthem, Giants own 1.25 Overdrive 2 standard is used on the steerer and stem. Sorry Giant, but weve got to call this standard out as

meaningless in terms of there being no noticeable increase in stiffness and a right pain when it comes to switching stems as standard 1.125 stems will not fit and at this stage Giant are the only producers of their stem size. Our test bike came with a 90mm stem, wed have preferred a 70mm but had to make do with an 80mm as this was the shortest in stock. . The Trance employed some internal cable routing, which looks tidy, but the rear derailleur inner cable was exposed along the seatstay, which is where

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the worst of winters gunge tends to get in, so that seemed like a missed opportunity. A 69.5 head angle is on the steep end of things for a trail-oriented 29er these days. Dont be fooled by looking at the Trance online though - weve had several people comment that it looks like the front end of the Anthem X 29er has been rammed by something - the headtube looks oddly steep, perhaps exacerbated by visual contrast to the slack seat angle. We actually measured the bike online and have come to the conclusion that the Trance X on screen must be a pre-production model because the online picture is two degrees steeper than the bike is in real life. Just as notable in the angles and fit department is the seat angle, which comes forward then arcs back very slackly, meaning youll need to run the seat a long way forward the further up you put the seat. Giants own dropper-post worked well, but its layback only exacerbated this slackseating fit-feature of the Trance X. TrAnCE X - BItS A Fox Float 32 CTD with 120mm of travel
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graced the front end. Shimano comes to the party with a 10 speed drivetrain, this time with the welcome addition of a clutch rear derailleur to lessen chain slap, though we found there was still quite a bit of chainslap to be had. Were not sure if this is due to the low chainstay, or if the clutch would have benefited from being tightened up a bit. A double ring crankset was again fitted, this time with a 24 tooth small ring, the lower gear making more sense for the trail bike intentions of the Trance, though it was a big jump up to the 38 (34 or 36 might have been ideal). Giants P-TRX 29er 1 wheelset shod with Schwalbe 2.25 Nobby Nics kept things spinning along. TrAnCE X - RIdE First off, on the first hill, one of our testers struggled noticeably on the Trance, versus the Anthem. He commented that the shock seemed soft, despite having the recommended 25% sag, and that uphill efforts were much harder than on the Anthem. After some adjustments, he found that the slack seat angle was loading up the

shock once the bike was pointing uphill, making for a harder ride than it should have been. Sliding the seat forward helped a lot. Still, some of our testers thought the Fox shock needed to be run in at least Trail mode to get effective climbing out of the Trance, while others who like a bikes suspension to be active over bumps while climbing thought it was just fine in Descend mode and found Climb mode to be very overly stiff. Either way, the CTD shock has three effective options to choose from, regardless of your preferences. Ripping along undulating singletrack, the Trance X is noticeably plusher than the Anthem, which translates into more fun and more speed the rougher it gets. More than anything though, the sturdier larger knobbed tyres could be run a bit softer, which provided more comfort, speed and grip in these same situations - and there was more clearance for those big tyres. Down steep descents the Trance X was noticeably more comfortable than the Anthem, with the slacker head angle and an extra inch of suspension in reserve. However, it wasnt as

confidence-inspiring as some of the newer breed of trail 29ers - the Trance X is still erring on the side of XC-trail, rather than gnarly all-mountain. Lets not undersell the Trance X though, because under the right rider, the Trance X is certainly not going to hold you back at a gnarly Enduro event, as evidenced by U.S pro Adam Craigs tendency to get on the podium aboard one. The Giant dropper-post was a welcome inclusion on the Trance X and one we employed often. It was our first time using Giants version of this new must-have item and we came away pleased with it, especially the tidy remote, though due to the Trance Xs slack seat angle we wonder if some might need to swap it out for something with an inline head. WHICH OnE?! At the end of our test period the differences were clear to us, but those differences are not huge. The Anthem X is noticeably a bit more capable than the old 26er, which weve commented on in a previous review, so its not a total race-head bike, and the Trance X is still capable of ripping along under pedal

power and isnt one of the slacker/slower 29ers were seeing more of this year. The Anthem weighed in at 12kg (26.5lbs) while the Trance was 13.1 (29 lbs) including the dropper-post, so despite the carbon and less travel, there arent huge amounts at stake here on the weight front. Most riders could

be very happy on either bike and a tyre change could go a long way to evening up the differences. Wed say if your aim is to go fast most of the time, with a fair bit of racing, then go the Anthem. And if your aim is to ride trails with maybe an occasional event, the Trance X is your better bet.

GIANT TRANCE X 29ER 0

FRAME REAR TRAVEl FRONT TRAVEl FORK REAR sHOcK WHEElsET sHiFTERs ALUXX SL-Grade Aluminium 120mm 120mm Fox 32 Float 29 FIT CTD w/ 15QR thru-axle Fox Float CTD Boostvalve Giant P-TRX 29er 1 WheelSystem Shimano Deore XT, 2x10 Speed FRAME

GIANT ANTHEM X ADVANCED 29ER 1

Composite front triangle, ALUXX SL-Grade Aluminium rear 100mm 100mm RockShox SID RL w/15QR thru-axle RockShox Monarch RL Giant P-XCR 29er 1 WheelSystem Shimano Deore XT, 2x10 Speed

REAR TRAVEl FRONT TRAVEl FORK REAR sHOcK WHEElsET sHiFTERs

FRONT dERAillEuR Shimano Deore XT REAR dERAillEuR cAssETTE cHAiN cRANKsET BRAKEs TYREs SiZEs COlOuR Shimano Deore XT Shadow Shimano HG81 11x36, 10-Speed KMC X10 Shimano Deore XT, 24/38 Shimano Deore XT hydraulic Schwalbe Nobby Nic, 29x2.25 TL Ready XS,S,M,L,XL Polished/white/blue

FRONT dERAillEuR Shimano Deore XT REAR dERAillEuR cAssETTE cHAiN cRANKsET BRAKEs TYREs SiZEs COlOuR Shimano Deore XT Shimano SLX 11x36, 10-Speed KMC X10SL Shimano Deore XT, 26/38 Shimano Deore XT hydraulic, 160mm Schwalbe Racing Ralph, 29x2.25 Evolution TL Ready XS,S,M,L,XL Composite/White/Red

WEigHT As TEsTEd 13.1 Kg PRicE biKE suppliEd bY $5199 Giant Bikes NZ. www.giant-bicycles.com

WEigHT As TEsTEd 12.0kg PRicE biKE suppliEd bY $5399 Giant Bikes NZ. www.giant-bicycles.com

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