New Giant Trance X snubs its nose at Downcountry bandwagon

Benjamin Haworth

Trance X is here to remind us that modern trail bikes are pretty perfect tools for the job

giant trance x

Adding 20mm of travel to standard Trance, new Giant Trance X range of trail bikes rock 135mm travel out back and 150mm forks up front.

>>> MBR Trail Bike of the Year 2020

Giant Trance X need to know

  • 135mm rear travel 29er
  • 150mm fork
  • 6011 Aluxx aluminium
  • Carbon fibre rocker
  • 55mm stroke shock with trunnion mount
  • The first Giant with flipchip adjustable geometry since… who knows when
  • Three models listed: Trance X 29 1, Trance X 29 2, Trance X 29 3)
  • Pricing from $2300 (UK pricing unavailable at time of writing, we’ll update when we get it!)

giant anthem x

Short travel ‘downcountry’ bikes with relatively progressive geometry are getting all the hype and headlines lately but here’s a new bike from the venerable behemoth Giant that’s here to remind us of what we already know: mid-travel trail bikes are brilliant things.

This is already a classic Giant. Classic in the sense that it feels a bit late to the party (by a year or so) but arrives immaculately turned out and ready to rock.

It reads like a checklist of everything that’s good about mountain bikes in 2020AD. Impressive aluminium frame, refined short/dual-link suspension, useful amounts of suspension travel (135/150mm), slack enough head angle (65.5°/66.2°), steep seat angle (77.2°/77.9°), well executed internal cable routing, long reach (486/494mm on Large), trunnion shock mount, short fork offset (44mm), water bottle mounts and good finishing kit.

If we have to nitpick – and we do because it’s our job – we’d say that the flipchip is fairly redundant as we can’t imagine anyone running it in High mode (unless as a DIY mullet project maybe). And we’d like to see longer travel dropper posts than those specced. And (sorry!) the tyre clearance of 2.5in is a bit tight in this day and age, and presumably a result of Giant trying to keep the chainstays below 440mm whilst packaging in the Maestro suspension array.

Perhaps the best thing is the pricing. Even without exact figure for UK pricing yet (expected by end of month), by extrapolating from the US pricing, the Giant Trance X range is going to be in the £2500-£3500 spectrum.