Anthem & Trance - tried but undecided

simonp123

Well, I got to try both the Anthem X and Trance X this afternoon/evening. Only a 5 minute spin each round a car park, over some kerbs etc as it was getting dark, but got a feel for them. Firstly I was surprised when the chap in the shop suggested that I would need the large size frame as the Giant size chart definitely comes up with medium for my height (6ft) and inside leg (31").
The Anthem felt pretty good in this size, if a little stretched due to the 100mm stem. It is certainly a quick machine to accelerate and turn, very nimble, I had real fun riding it. There seemed to be quite a forward weight bias so it was quite hard to pop the front up over a kerb. The suspension seemed set up quite well for my weight, surprisingly.
The Trance was a surprise, it felt somewhat large and ungainly after the Anthem and seemed reluctant to turn, slalom etc. Much more so than the degree and a half of head angle would account for. It was however much easier to pop up onto kerbs and lift the front. Partly due to the increased travel and partly the weight distribution seemed more rearwards. The suspension was also very soft by comparison to the Anthem, but it was running way more sag, so not really setup for my weight. Won't have helped the turn, the front fork seemed very squashy. Long stem and narrow bars won't have helped either.
To confuse things further, the Trance was an X3 and the Anthem an X2, and the spec for the Anthem was much higher so probably accounts for quite a weight saving. The Trance was heavy compared to my Stumpjumper, but I don't know how much was the components.

So, all in all I am still rather undecided between these 2 and the sizing, the Anthem in large felt OK, but the Trance felt quite big and high. The Trance looked the preferred choice on paper, but was a little disappointed to be honest, would bad suspension setup make such a big difference? Having never had air shocks set up that soft it is hard to know.

I thought trying bikes was supposed to make things clearer! :roll:

cycle monster

Size wise, I am 5'10" and always prefer large in Giants. I have a Talon at present and test rode an Anthem 29er X1 on Sunday and both feel comfortable. Mediums feel like boy's bikes to me. The bikes you mention here are designed for different types of riding, so it depends on what you are going to ride it on really. Riding in car parks is a fairly low level of suitability testing to be honest.

andy_welch

What did you think of the Anthem 29er cycle monster? Would it be a good compromise for the OP i.e. the feel of an Anthem but a bit softer and less aggressive than the Anthem 26er?

Can't help with the original question I'm afraid as I've only sat on these in shops so far. I was offered the chance to go round the block on them, but couldn't really see the point. I should be getting a Trance X2 to demo for a few days next week though. At 6' the LBS thought I should be on a large too, but the demo Trance is a medium, so I said I'd give that a shot first.

Cheers,

Andy

simonp123

cycle monster wrote:

Riding in car parks is a fairly low level of suitability testing to be honest.

Yes I know, but it was all that was possible at the time. The only other option I was offered was a day's demo on an Anthem, but that seemed to have a cost of £20 and I wasn't clear if that was a hire charge or a deposit, presumably the former
I had enough trouble trying to find somewhere that had the bikes to even look at let alone ride!

TommyEss

Well I'm only 5'8" on a good day, and ride a medium Trance, so I'd be surprised if the large wasn't better for you. I, like you, tried an Anthem and a Trance back to back, round side streets and jumping kerbs and the like as that was all that was available. I went for the Trance mainly on the advice of the guy in the shop - I described the riding I was going to be doing - hooning round trails with my mate who has a Trek Fuel - the guy said, well, the Trance is the equivalent to the Trek, so should suit you better for that kind of riding. He also said the geometry and greater travel would be a bit more forgiving if you cocked it up - something I tested on a jump I landed horribly and got away with!

Picking them up in the shop, I really couldn't discern much of a weight difference - sure, there's some, but it felt a lot less than it looks like it should be.

So I guess a lot comes down to what kind of riding are you going to be doing?

I don't think you'll be disappointed with either to be honest!

cycle monster

Re: Anybody ridden a Giant X 29er 2 ?

Postby cycle monster » Tue Mar 6, 2012 11:44 pm
Hired a Giant Anthem 29er X1 on Sunday. All the myths about slow starting and difficult to manouevre appear to be myths and nothing more. Normally my wife would be comfortably ahead of my hardtail on her Anthem W2 but on Sunday on the 29er I was out of sight in no time with very little effort. The instant confidence that it gave me was another surprise - cornering much easier than anticipated. Glad I ordered one last month given the fifteen week waiting list! My only concern is that riding is about to become too easy shortly.

1mancity2

I'm 5ft 11 and I ride a medium Reign but I like to chuck it around, yes wrong suspension setup will make the bike feel wrong, Anthem is a race bike so it will feel nimble compared to the trance.

When I had my trance it was pretty light, but riding it around the car park won't give you a real idea of how it rides only how the size is, they are both good bikes and once setup right I doubt you would be disappointed.

bails87

It's probably worth the £20 to be sure you like it on the trails.

nferrar

Yeah you def need to get the suspension on both set up for your weight and take them out onto the trails. I'd imagine the Anthem feels faster on XC/singletrack but the Trance will like going downhill more so depends what you want most out of the bike.
The £20 will be a hire charge but should be refundable against the purchase of the bike, it's a reasonable charge though IMO, you're depreciating the bike by riding it and there's the general wear and tear (inc. brake pads) to consider.

Stevo_666

Like has been said, choose the bike depending on the type of riding you're likely to be doing.

Size-wise it sounds like you're quite short in the leg for your height - 31" sounds like a medium but 6ft tall is more into larrge territory (I'm 5'10" with a 32" inside leg and have a medium Anthem - fits me fine with a 70mm stem).

simonp123

nferrar wrote:

The £20 will be a hire charge but should be refundable against the purchase of the bike, it's a reasonable charge though IMO, you're depreciating the bike by riding it and there's the general wear and tear (inc. brake pads) to consider.

Yeah fair points, though Giant don't mention a charge in their big "Test Ride" campaign though do they?!

I agree with all the comments regarding test riding, however I am a bit stuck as the only shop that has these bikes in is not very convenient for me and not near trails which I know well. Also only the Anthem is available for a day’s hire.

I am still a bit confused by the Trance as looking at the geometry (which should have more on an impact on the feel and steering speed than the travel) compared to my Stumpjumper there is only 1 degree of difference in the head angle. Once you take into account the extra 20mm I am running in the fork length and I would imagine that this difference comes down to more like 0.5 degrees. You would then expect a smaller difference in the steering feel than I felt. The bloody awful feeling Fox fork didn’t help, I ended up locking it out…
The other thing is of course that the Anthem felt quick and nimble with a 100mm stem and narrow bars, with my 70mm stem and 720 wide bars this may make it way too twitchy.

It is almost impossible to get an idea of how a bike will be as all of the things I try will end up being quite different once I swap my kit on.

simonp123

Stevo 666 wrote:

Like has been said, choose the bike depending on the type of riding you're likely to be doing.

Size-wise it sounds like you're quite short in the leg for your height - 31" sounds like a medium but 6ft tall is more into larrge territory.

Yes, most of my height is in my body, which makes sizing difficult as ideally I need a long top tube but short frame.

Regarding what I ride, this is also tricky. Most of what I ride is fairly flat and smooth. My midweek evening rides are about 10% tarmac, 50% towpath (some gravel some un-surfaced) 40% bridleway. However, when I’m riding more trail stuff I tend to look for the more challenging bits rather than the smooth fast line. I’m also quite clumsy!
When I had my hardtail the thing I hated was pedalling over lumpy or rooty ground, with the shock going up my (ageing) spine, whereas the Stumpjumper makes this much better and faster. I went full suspension to help my spine and hands, but stay riding.

I also want to start doing some longer rides now (hopefully) my carpal tunnel syndrome has been sorted.

So do you go for what suits the majority of your riding, or what suits the most adventurous of your riding?

I certainly used all the rear travel on the Anthem riding (not that fast) over one of the kerby bits in the car park, whereas the Trance popped over it with ease.
My head says the Trance is the more sensible option, but I can’t deny the Anthem is fun.

The Spiderman

I have a medium XTC and large Anthem,which share the same geo.I`m 6ft with a 33" leg.Having ridden both considerably I find the Large preferable(though I swapped to a 90mm stem),but its a shame Giant don`t do a M/L as they do in their road bikes.

andy_welch

Interesting comments and apologies to cycle monkey (and the OP) for the thread crossover.

Not that I know much about these things, but if the Anthem is designed for pure XC (racing) and the Trance is more suited to going down doesn't it make sense that the Anthem would feel better riding round a car park. In order to give the Trance a chance to impress you'd need to point them both down the steepest most technical thing you want to ride as well.

A fee of £20 (even if it's a rental charge) seems a small amount to pay to avoid making the wrong choice. My LBS charges £50 for a demo, which you get back if you buy a bike from them. I think that you can demo a number of bikes for the same £50, but they weren't too sure about that. Either way, since the idea is to stop you using them for a test ride then going and buying the bike on-line for less, I'd say that £50 is really too low.

Cheers,

Andy

simonp123

I guess I can understand the charge points, though surely I Gaint owned shop doesn't car where you buy it as long as you buy a Giant. Maybe the shops are just franchises.
Like I said though only the Anthem was offered on this basis, so not really helping matters.

Maybe the issue was related to frame sizing, the Trance certainly felt large, where the Anthem didn't despite both being "large" frames. Maybe due to the differenmt geometry the medium Trance would suite better.

Bearing in mind when I put my dimensions into the (quite in depth) Canyon frame size calculator it suggested a "small" 16.5" frame :?

bails87

Giant would rather that you bought from a Giant shop, because then they get all the profit, rather than a chunk of it going to a seperate bike shop.

The Spiderman

I wouldn`t rely on the Canyon calculator.The one that suits is the one that feels right for you.
According to the Giant ize guide I`m either top end of medium or bottom end of large.Having ridden both I know I can get away with either,but the large some how feels more natural after riding both bikes back to back.
Always worth getting the shop to try some different stem lengths with you too.

simonp123

You see, this is where it gets tricky, the Large Anthem felt right, but the Large Trance felt very big and high. Shame I had no more time to try the Medium Trance

The Spiderman

Will they let you take it on an extended test?

simonp123

The Spiderman wrote:

Will they let you take it on an extended test?

Only the Anthem seemed to be available to do that.

TommyEss

Would you like to pop over to Reading and try my medium Trance? (Once I've got the rear brake sorted after shipping it back from Oz!?)

simonp123

TommyEss wrote:

Would you like to pop over to Reading and try my medium Trance? (Once I've got the rear brake sorted after shipping it back from Oz!?)

Hi, that's a very kind offer if I can't sort anything out locally I may take you up on that, thanks.

simonp123

Just to put a spanner in the works I popped my Stumpy out when I got home from work and gave it a quick run round the estate. It is in fact way sharper and more chuckable than the Anthem I tried. I guess not having ridden for weeks I had forgotten how sharo it was. Mind you it the first time I have ridden it since sticking the 720mm bars on.
I'm kinda now thinking that a medium might be better overall...

I also checked the weight by standing on scales with and without the bike, and it comes in around 24lb, what is the chance I can get a Trance down near there with my components on?

simonp123

I used the Competitive Cyclist Fit Calculator last night, and that conveniently gave me recommend figures that stuck me in the middle between what are generally medium and large frame dimensions. The "All Mountain" figures ended up much closer to "medium" dimensions, the "XC" recommendations more towards the large. I guess this ties in with the "XC" Anthem in large feeling OK, but the Trance large feeling too big. I know these calculators cannot be entirely relied on, but it does this at least.

I also appear to have shrunk! The last time I measured my height (which would have been a good few years back) I was about 1/4 inch under 6ft, but last night I struggled to be over 5ft11! I thought you started to shrink when you got over 60 not at 45

TommyEss

Well you shrink during the day too - Guiness World Records for height have the person measured morning, noon and night and an average height taken for this very reason.

Try again this morning and see what you get!

andy_welch

Looking at the numbers on the Giant web site it is hard to understand why the large Trance should feel larger than the large Anthem. The top tube of the Trance is half a cm shorter than the Anthem, the seat angle is half a degree steeper and the head angle one and a half degrees slacker, all of which should conspire to make you feel more stretched out on the Anthem (which also has a couple of cm higher stand over height) than the Trance.

I can only assume that either the Trance has: a longer stem, bigger bars, more spacers under the stem, or the suspension was set up wrong (changing the angles from those the manufacturer intended). All of which are quite easy to change of course.

Either that or I don't understand MTB geometry. Actually I'd go for that I've ignored the 2cm extra travel on the Trance for a start, but it looks as though that's taken care of at the front by the slacker head angle and you presumably run more sag at the back.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that the Trance felt bigger.

Cheers,

Andy

simonp123

TommyEss wrote:

Well you shrink during the day too - Guiness World Records for height have the person measured morning, noon and night and an average height taken for this very reason.

Try again this morning and see what you get!

Did that. Somewhere between 5ft11 1/4 and 5ft 11 1/2
Perhaps the reverse curvature and slightly damaged vertabrae in my neck have lost me a half inch or so...

simonp123

andy_welch wrote:

Looking at the numbers on the Giant web site it is hard to understand why the large Trance should feel larger than the large Anthem.

The Anthem did feel the more stretched out, the Trance just felt bigger to sit on. The height of the front would be quite a bit more than on the Anthem which may have added to this. The large Trance has quite a long head tube which would bring the bars a lot higher than on my similar fork length Stumpy. It sems like with the saddle height comfortable I was kinda reaching up to the bars.

andy_welch

simonp123 wrote:

andy_welch wrote:

Looking at the numbers on the Giant web site it is hard to understand why the large Trance should feel larger than the large Anthem.

The Anthem did feel the more stretched out, the Trance just felt bigger to sit on. The height of the front would be quite a bit more than on the Anthem which may have added to this. The large Trance has quite a long head tube which would bring the bars a lot higher than on my similar fork length Stumpy. It sems like with the saddle height comfortable I was kinda reaching up to the bars.

Ah, right, that makes sense. The head tube is 4cm longer on the Trance than on the Anthem. Presumably you could remove some spacers and flip the stem over to get it lower, but at least that explains why it felt bigger.

Cheers,

Andy