Giant Trance X 29er

Long predicted and highly anticipated, for 2013 Giant has transformed their best-selling 120mm travel Trance X platform into a 29er. So confident are they in its performance that they’ve dropped the 26-inch wheeled Trance X completely; a brave move considering how many people have owned and loved the Trance X 26er. How entranced is the Aussie market? Well for our country only, there’s an extra model above the Trance X 0, aptly called the 00. In James Bond world that means it’s licensed to kill; singletrack we assume, rather than other riders or foreign intelligence agents.

For $4,699 the alloy framed 00 comes with a full SRAM X.0 2x10 drivetrain, the new X.0 Trail four-piston brakes, top flight RockShox suspension, DT Swiss-built (Giant branded) tubeless ready wheels, as well as Giant’s own carbon handlebar, stem and ‘Switch’ dropper seatpost—not much else you could ask for really. If your budget doesn’t stretch quite that far, the regular Trance X 0 will save you $900 and uses mostly XT components and Fox suspension. Below that the Trance X 2 and Trance X 1 still offer the same frame and completely trail-worthy parts for $1,900 and $2,600 respectively. Giant have always offered fantastic value in their bikes, and the Trance X 29er clearly maintains that trend.

The Trance X 29er 00 was first sighted under the skilled hands and feet of Adam Craig (long-lost brother of Daniel Craig, perhaps?) killing it at the 2012 US Super-D national champs—a win here proved that it’s a capable descender. However, the 26-inch Trance X it replaces was lauded as a great all-rounder; it could climb, descend and slice-up singletrack ‘til the cows came home without breaking a sweat. That’s a tall order even for big wheels to live up to, so it’s been getting a thorough flogging on a variety of trails to really test its mettle.

Whilst still gaining 120mm of travel via Giant’s long established and highly regarded ‘Maestro’ dual-link design, the frame itself is a completely new affair (something of which JB was always fond). The stubby head tube uses Giant’s proprietary Overdrive 2 system; it employs a tapered 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 steerer as opposed to the commonly used and slightly smaller 1 1/2 to 1 1/8 system. The down tube is shaped and radically curved to accommodate the large front wheel in this longer-travel format; cosmetically, this and the also curved top tube seem to be a bit of a love or hate thing.

There’s internal routing for all the cables including the rear brake, a direct mount front derailleur, press-fit bottom bracket and 160mm post mounts for the rear brake. The entry and exit ports for the internal cables are quite small, so a cable change requires a good deal of fishing around—although you shouldn’t need to change them very often as it employs full length outer housing for the gears. About the only mod-con missing is a through axle rear end; Giant maintains that the newly designed and one-piece rear triangle is stiff enough that it doesn’t need one. Be that as it may, we think that any bike is made stiffer with a thru-axle, and besides, the wheel and brake alignment always tends to be more consistent than with open dropouts—the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

There is plenty of tyre clearance and even 2.4-inch tyres should fit with room to spare. The seat tube has been radically raked back to prevent the rear tyre meeting it at full travel, so while the effective seat angle is meant to be 73 degrees, the actual angle is around 65 degrees. Our large frame and shock weighed only 2,762g, which is very light for a mid-travel 29er—especially an alloy one. As expected from Giant, the manufacturing quality is excellent; you don’t get to be one of the world’s biggest bike makers by doing shoddy work.

A Golden Touch

There are some standout pieces bolted to the 00, but they’re not necessarily the ones you might expect. Sure the X.0 stuff is great, and the brakes in particular are a serious contender for the best brake on the market, but given X.0’s reputation there are no surprises here. The Giant branded 730mm wide carbon handlebar is perfect for a modern 29er trail bike and there’s plenty of room for trimming if you prefer—it was comfortable and felt sturdy and reliable whatever we put it through. We think it’s a keeper, and it wouldn’t be out of place on a non-Giant bike as an aftermarket purchase. Likewise with the wheels; whilst branded as a Giant product, they are made entirely by DT Swiss. They even use DT hex nipples, a 36-tooth star ratchet and a completely sealed rim bed for super-easy tubeless conversion (the tyres on the 00 are tubeless ready too). The wheels were relatively stiff, rolled nicely and stayed true, and given the components used we think they’d be a worthy upgrade to many a 29er—after all, with the greater inertia of the larger diameter, saving wheel weight on a 29er makes even more of a difference to the handling than with smaller wheels. With all of this fancy gear and a lightweight frame, the 00 tipped the scales at 12.5kg without pedals—an impressive figure given the asking price.

In its stock tune, the RockShox Monarch RT3 rear shock isn’t something we got along with. For our 70kg riders it felt stifled and overdamped; even with 30% sag it was seemed wooden and unresponsive on small bumps and trail chatter. We’ve ridden enough other Maestro-suspended bikes to know that the lacklustre feel was a function of the shock, not the suspension system itself. The shock does use a mid-level compression tune, so there’s an option to have it re-valved at some point (or if you’re a ‘Clyde’ it might feel spot-on as is), but it certainly made the bike feel harsher and less fun than something with a more supple initial stroke.

The Contact Switch dropper seatpost remained smooth and consistent throughout the test period, despite some heavy mud-sessions. The remote was both relatively ergonomic and easy to fit; it’s compact enough to sneak between the other controls and can go on either the left or right hand side. On the other hand, we’re not huge fans of the one-bolt clamping mechanism; it requires a massive 15Nm of torque to securely clamp the saddle. The 12mm setback on the head can also present issues for some riders, but more on that later…

Geometry is Forever

Frame geometry is evolving at a very rapid rate on 29ers as designers gain a better understanding of what works with bigger wheels. Not that long ago it was common to run a super-steep 72-degree head tube angle in a vain attempt to make the big wheels turn as quickly as their smaller cousins. Within the last year or two, this approach has all but disappeared and head tube angles have become more relaxed, warding off that nervous ‘sitting over the front wheel’ sensation. Giant’s XC race oriented 29ers remain at the steeper end of the market, with 71-degrees on the 100mm travel Anthem dually and 71.5 on their XTC hardtail. The all-new Trance X runs the 69.5-degree head angle, and while that is more relaxed than their racy models, it’s still at the steeper end when compared to many new-school ‘fun oriented’ 29er trail bikes. These days, a good number of mid-travel big wheelers feature a 68-68.5 head angle with some going as slack as 67.5. Now there’s no right and wrong when it comes to frame geometry but it does play a vital role in determining the character of the bike.

The other current trend is towards shorter chainstays—it’s almost an obsession for some. Short stays reduce the wheelbase length without placing you further over the front-end, so you gain a degree of nimbleness without the nervousness. On this front, Giant has also taken the opportunity to tighten things up compared with their previous offerings. Where the Anthem 29er had long 462mm stays, the redesigned Trance X swing-arm gets this figure down to 452mm. Whilst this is an admirable move, they have really just ‘normalised’ the chainstay length and made it comparable to most of the competition—currently the tightest mid-travel 29er stays are around the 430mm mark, so we can’t really call the Trance X super-short in this regard.

So, while Giant is playing the slacker/tighter card, it doesn’t vary too radically from their other models and it certainly won’t alienate longstanding Giant customers. The wheelbase on our test bike measured 1,155mm which is pretty short for a 120mm travel 29er in a large frame-size. Combine this with a head angle that is a little steeper than some and longish 90mm stem and you’ll find the bike has more of an XC/marathon flavour. While it has a reasonable amount of travel for a 29er, it’s certainly not a long and slack, rough and rumble all-mountain 29er. It makes sense this way, as the ALUXX alloy frame, while offering ample stiffness, is clearly at the lighter end of the longer-travel 29er market.

We measured the effective top tube length of our large framed Trance at 615mm. That isn’t all that long for a 20-inch frame, but as you raise the saddle, the 65-degree slope of the seat tube makes the saddle position shift rearward quite rapidly. While this increases the reach and makes the bike feel longer, it can combine with the 12mm seatpost offset to push the saddle too far back if you run a small frame relative to your height with a lot of exposed seatpost. In these situations a zero-offset post would be a better choice. Alternately, you could do what we did and rotate the post 180-degrees, swap the pieces of the clamping mechanism from left to right, and run the post as a time-trial-tastic 12mm set forward design! With a moderate amount of seatpost out of the frame, the forward-placed seat tube and the radical 65-degree layback cancel each other out, placing the saddle a completely normal position.

Agent X on the Trail

Out on assignment, the Trance X 00 proved to be a very competent trail bike. It pedals well in both chainrings, even with the shock in the fully-open setting. In fact we found it unnecessary to use any other setting regardless of the terrain. The long stem, wide bars and big wheels mean it isn’t the zippiest in tight singletrack, but with a bit of body language it’ll cruise through pretty much anything. It was reasonably easy to loft the front wheel when required and a lot of fun to ride on smooth, undulating trails where it was happy to be pumped through dips and around berms whilst gathering speed the whole time.

It’s a good descender, but you need to bear in mind that you’ve only got 120mm of travel on offer, so whilst it’ll roll over rough ground easily it’s no huck-to-flat monster. Big wheels are no substitute for travel when it comes to medium and large trail impacts, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The Revelation fork is very supple in its open setting, and tended to dive through the travel a little too easily. We found that running the fork in the mid-setting with the lowest amount of compression damping gave much better support without making the ride overly harsh. It also significantly reduced unwanted suspension movement when mashing the pedals.

The long stem does make you feel a bit over the front on really steep chutes and roll downs, but before you shorten it, give some thought to how it’ll affect the 00’s ability to ascend. If you’ve got the seat a fair way back due to the aforementioned saddle height and set-back issue, the addition of a short stem may make it harder to keep the front wheel grounded on really steep climbs. Also remember that you can’t fit any old stem to the Trance, it needs to suit the 1 1/4 steerer diameter (Giant offers Overdrive 2 stems from 130mm down to 70mm, in 10mm increments).

The 00 despatches moderately steep climbs like Sean Connery despatches goons in Goldfinger; quickly and effortlessly. On rough and technical climbs it’s still a mountain goat, but with a more supple suspension action it’d be even better. On properly steep hills (and we’re not talking Sparrow Hill here folks), we did find it hard to get our weight forward, even with the reverse seatpost arrangement. Probably the biggest issue here was not the saddle set-back as we initially thought; it was in fact the saddle. The Fizik Gobi has a very long but comparatively narrow tail which encourages you to assume a more rearward position to begin with. When you need to slide forward on a climb, the nose feels narrow and very uninviting, despite having ample padding. If you need to tackle steep uphills and don’t fancy a rather pointed anal probe, I’d suggest you swap the saddle for something with a broader and flatter nose profile. Once you get yourself comfortably seated on the nose, it’s easy enough to keep the front wheel grounded and tracking straight.

These days’ bikes come in all flavours and styles, and the ride characteristics vary accordingly. The expectations from an all-mountain machine differ radically from that of a cross-country specialist, and each needs to be judged on its relative merits. Trail bikes sit somewhere in the middle ground. They can hover more towards a fun-seeking, larrikin at heart all-mountain bike or fit more closely with a leg-shaving lycra wearing XC machine. For all its capabilities the Trance X 00 didn’t spark a lust for shenanigans, instead it felt very businesslike in its behaviour. It’ll certainly get the job done with a minimum of fuss, but also without encouraging flair or panache. Its drink isn’t a dry martini, but rather a glass of house red. Given the uninspired performance of the rear shock we’d have been interested to check out the Trance X 0 to see if the Fox shock would injected a little extra zing. The X 0 still comes with a great selection of gear and is substantially cheaper than the 00—it’s quite likely to be the more engaging and lively of the two bikes if you’re chasing the ‘fun factor’.

Thanks to the reasonably tight wheelbase and not-too relaxed head angle, it’s happy enough in the singletrack. Although not as agile as its now deceased 26-inch predecessor, the front end still lofts and wheelies with relative ease. And with all of its carbon encrusted running gear, bob-free suspension, fast rolling wheels, carbon cockpit and low overall weight, the Trance X 00 makes a great mile-munching and marathon racing machine. With its momentum carrying big wheels, flat-out efficiency and more travel than a short-course racer, it’s close to the ideal companion for those times when the distances are long and the terrain rough.

Thumbs Up

Fantastic value for money

Lightweight frame

Retains an XC feel despite the added travel

Thumbs Down

Lacklustre rear shock

Saddle profile made steep climbs uncomfortable

Specifications

Frame: ALUXX SL Alloy

Shock: RockShox Monarch RT3 120mm travel

Fork: RockShox Revelation RCT3 120mm travel

Headset: Overdrive 2, 1 1/4 - 1 1/2

Handlebars: Giant Contact SLR Composite riser 725mm

Stem: Giant Contact SLR Composite 90mm

Shifters: SRAM X.0

Front Derailleur: SRAM X.9

Rear Derailleur: SRAM X.0

Cassette: SRAM X.9, 11/36 10-speed

Chain: KMC X10

Cranks: SRAM X.0, 24/38

Bottom Bracket: SRAM GXP Press-Fit

Pedals: N/A

Brakes: SRAM X.0 Trail

Wheels: Giant P-TRX 1

Tyres: Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo 2.20

Saddle:  Fizik Gobi

Seatpost: Giant Contact Switch w/Remote

Weight: 12.5kg without pedals (Large frame 2,762g)

Available Sizes: S, M and L (tested)

Price: $4,699

Distributor: Giant Bicycles Australia (03) 8541 4800 / www.giant-bicycles.com