Last weekend’s trip to Wales was the perfect opportunity to borrow their Giant TranceX 29er demo bike from Giant Radlett to see what all the fuss was about. I
should start by saying I’m not known for my descending prowess, and certainly after
my last run-in with the ground from the top of a 14ft drop-in, I just wanted to
enjoy myself and try to bring back some confidence. This should have been the
perfect bike for those aims!
There is no way of getting around the fact that the Trance
is not an XC bike. This might sound like an obvious thing to say but it ‘only’
has 120mm of suspension at each end, only 20mm more than the majority of XC
full sussers so it could cause confusion. It has a fairly relaxed head angle
and a very wide (as far as I was concerned at least) riser bar which signal its
all-mountain intentions. It’s also no feather weight. That being said, as we
rolled out of the car park up the hill and onto the first flat section of
singletrack, I was impressed by how it climbed and picked up speed. Staying
seated and trying to pedal smoothly removed almost all bob and gave me a lot of
rear wheel grip when clawing my way up steep loose sections.
After about 15 minutes of climbing it was time to see how
the trance handled what it was really designed for. The first descent was very tight with lots of
sharp angular rocks and the trance destroyed it. I forgot the bike came equipped
with a dropper post as standard but in truth I didn’t feel like I needed it
anyway. As soon as you let go of the brakes and commit to a section the Trance
rewards you with crazy levels of grip and a confidence inspiring ability to
roll over everything. Unless you are
tackling super steep alpine descents or big drops I really don’t think you
would need to lower your seat.
The more I rode the bike, the more I had the confidence to
just let go of the brakes and hit any rocks gardens and drops I came across.
The relaxed head angle and big wheels meant my front wheel never came to a stop
on rocks or roots and the high grip levels mean you can really push it into
corners, maintain momentum and come out the other side in one piece. Anyone that knows my riding will know I don’t
do ‘airtime’ but every time I left the ground on this bike I felt in complete
control.
Giant makes a big point of this bike having a short back end
making it feel more flickable and playful. While ‘flickable’ implies being in
the air, and I have already said I don’t do that, the bike does feel incredibly
sharp handling for something with such big-mountain potential. It certainly doesn’t
have that ‘school bus’ style steering that 29er nay-sayers would have you
believe.
In summary, this bike is ability flattering and great fun to ride. It’s confidence
inspiring and makes you want to push harder and faster on descents, and even
ride things you might previously think twice about. According to Strava I even
got a KOM on a singletrack descent on this bike and I didn’t fall off once! I
spent the last day trying to justify buying one. In the end, I couldn’t. I personally would not use it enough seen as 90% of my riding is around thetford where I'd pick the fully rigid Giant XTC 29er singlespeed instead. If I lived anywhere near Wales I'd have one in a heartbeat though. Finally, don’t be put off by the weight. It feels like a much lighter
bike on the trail and could easily handle big days out in the hills without
slowing you down. Thanks to GiantRadlett for letting me borrow it for the weekend, hopefully it won’t be too
long before I’m allowed to steal it for another dirty weekend.
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