Giant anthem 27.5 vs giant trance 27.5

tigertang0

Hey guys! Firstly let me have an intro. I am about 176cm and weigh about 65kg if it will matter, I like to ride xc and all mountain trails. We don't have bike testing avaliable here but I managed to have a short ride of someone's giant trance 27.5. I liked it a lot, everything was really nice, the suspension, the dropper post. But I do a lot of riding to the trails and ride with my leisure mtb group on the road. I would say 60% of my riding distance will be on Tarmac. So I am wondering if the anthem would suit be more. I am coming from an xc 29er, I would say I am more xc orientated. I am well, quite fit because I have been a roadie for a long time. Enough with the boredom, I'll just shoot my question. Would the trance be ideal for my riding style? I heard the anthem is a very capable bike despite only 100mm travel, if I ride off road all the time I would pick the trance. Sorry about my English, it's not so good. You can ask me more questions paid you need. Thanks again.

Long_Time_Lurker

tigertang0 wrote:

Sorry about my English, it's not so good...

It's better than most of the people on this forum.
Welcome to the forum btw.

My friend is a very experienced rider and this year he has gone for an Anthem (after selling his old 150mm Santa Cruz Blur). The shorter travel hasn't hindered him one bit.
I was suprised about how well it rode. Unless your riding involves rocks and drops, I wouldn't discount the Anthem.

tigertang0

Thank you! Going from that burly beast to the anthem? Sounds promising! Problably could handle some small sections of rock gardens and twisty single track you reckon? I would say I am pretty skillful, just sometimes not so gutsy on the descends. It should problably let me do a bunny hop to to when it's time to pump around. Maybe I might even put a dropper on it. But best if I try to find one or convince the petty dealer here to at least let me have a go in the parking lot.

t0pc4t

I have a 26" anthem, you'd be surprised what it will cope with.
pedals really really well.

rockmonkeysc

I have had a 26" Anthem and Trance. There wasn't a huge difference between them. I would probably suggest the Anthem would be better as long as you are a confident rider, it can feel a little twitchy when pushed hard but it will take you down any trail.
I was going to buy a 2014 Trance but all versions available in the uk come with quite bad forks and to make it worse they have an odd size steerer.