First Ride: The 2024 Giant Trance X Advanced

All the Trance X models have added rear travel compared to the outgoing model. The Trance X Advanced and Trance X models have 140mm of travel, paired with a 150mm fork. The new, longer travel “SX” models, including the Trance Advanced SX and Trance X SX, have 145 mm of rear travel and a 160mm fork. They offer this differing amount of travel by changing the stroke of the shock by 2.5mm. The longer travel SX isn't compatible with a 29" rear, and there are carbon and alloy frame options for both.


Frame Details

The Maestro 3 system used on this bike features a flip chip, but it's not there only there to tune the angles of your bike. The chip, which offers three positions, also doubles up as a way of adjusting between 29 and 27.5" wheels. As stock, the SX versions will come mixed wheeled only, whereas the other models will come stock 29" but can go to 27.5". Due to the extra travel, the SX won't be able to go to bigger wheels. Giant suggests the bike is ridden in the mid or low positions with a larger wheel and mid or high with a smaller one. Outside of the suggestion, it will work, but the geometry might get slightly wayward.


At the headtube, there are also easily removable headset cups that offer +/-5mm of reach adjustment from the center. On models that feature Giant's Contact SLR Trail one-piece bar, riders will feature more adjustment still. Common complaints of one-piece bars are that if you want to change stem length, you have to go to a different bar, and there is no way to effect the roll. This setup has a large chip under the top cap. It means riders can have a setup that offers three different lengths: 40, 45 or 50mm. But it gets better. The system also uses headset spacers to offer +/-3 degrees of handlebar roll. Admittedly, this is solving a problem that was made with the advent of one-piece carbon handlebars, but it's still good to see. The top cap also allows for GoPro, light or GPS fixings. To Giant's credit, they've offered something that undermines a lot of the criticism of the concept, all while still giving the weight saving of around 200 grams.


Other frame features include internal frame storage, near-ubiquitous Boost hub spacing, tool mounts on the underside of the top tube and an angular, asymmetric rocker.





Geometry


Stock builds will be set in the mid position. From there, the low position reduces the angle by 0.4 degrees, and the high steepens by around 0.3 degrees. The full 29" bike has a head angle of 64.8-degrees, and the Trance SX 63.6-degrees. The seat tube angles see a similar difference between the two models, at 77.5 and 76.3 respectively, and are potentially inverse of what a rider may want. Typically, longer travel bikes are ridden on steeper climbs and descents, and shorter travel, slightly less aggressive ones are slightly shallower gradients. In an ideal world, the slacker SX would have a steeper seat tube to compensate. However, that's just the limitation of making one frame do two wheel sizes, flip chips or not.

The bike's reach is quite contemporary, at 480 mm for a large size. Again, the small 27.5" rear wheel of the SX will affect reach, reducing it by around 10mm and slightly increasing the stack value.

The bikes use the same rear end length across all models and sizes.


Suspension Layout

Would it be a Giant if it didn't feature Maestro? That's one for the philosophers. The Maestro 3 system uses a swingarm and two co-rotating links to drive the shock. The bottom shock-eyelet hardware also doubles up the mount for the lower link to connect to the front triangle. Giant seems to be all-in on Trunnions, and this Trance X is no different.


The Maestro bikes tend to give a neutral and easy-to-live with predictability, and the Trance looks to be made in a similar vein. Anti-rise is relatively flat, hovering between 55-60%; anti-squat floats between 105 and 85%, giving a higher reading at the start and end of the travel, and the leverage progression is linear-progressive. This means that while it does more force to get the bike to move through its stroke at later stages, the change the leverage undergoes is relatively consistent.


Builds & Pricing


Trance X Advanced 0 - $8,000USD / $10,499 CAD Fox Factory Grip2 36 and Factory Float X, SRAM XO AXS T-Type drivetrain, Shimano XT M8120 brakes, Giant TRX carbon wheels

Trance X Advanced 1 - $7,000USD / $8,499 CAD Fox Performance Elite Grip2 36 and Factory Float X, SRAM GX AXS T-Type drivetrain, Shimano XT M8120 brakes, Giant TRX carbon wheels

Trance X Advanced 2 - Not Available in US / $5,899 CAD - Fox Rhythm Grip 36 and Performance Float, Shimano SLX drivetrain, Shimano Deore M6120 brakes, Giant TRX carbon wheels

Trance X Advanced 3 - P&A TBC Fox Rhythm Grip 36 and Performance Float, Shimano Deore drivetrain, Shimano BR-MT420 brakes, Giant TRX carbon wheels


Trance X 1 - $3,700 USD / $4,499 CAD Fox Performance Grip and Performance Float, Shimano SLX drivetrain, Shimano BR-MT420 brakes, Giant TRA alloy wheels

Trance X 2 - Not Available in US / $3,899 CAD Fox Rhythm Grip 36 and Performance Float, Shimano Deore drivetrain, Shimano BR-MT420 brakes, Giant TRA2 alloy wheels

Trance X Advanced SX - $5,600 USD / $6,499 Fox Performance Elite Grip2 36 and Performance Elite Float X, Shimano SLX drivetrain, Shimano BR-MT420 brakes, Giant TRX carbon wheels

Trance X SX - Not Available in US / $3,999 CAD Fox Rhythm Grip 36 and Marzocchi Bomber Air, Shimano Deore Drivetrain, Shimano BR-MT420 brakes, Giant TRA2 alloy wheels


Ride Impressions

Having only got the bike a few days before the busiest week in the bike industry ever I certainly haven't got as much riding in as I would like on the new Trance. That said, some things are obvious. Firstly, this is an actual 29" trail bike that weighs around thirty pounds, which is a rarer sight than it once was. On the climbs, you can definitely surge up them, with the Maestro platform granting a lot of grip. It's also neutral and predictable in just about every way, which I personally really enjoy.

That said, it perhaps doesn't feel like the burliest of bikes and can feel a little skittish when going full chat, although I put that down to the Exo tires more than anything. Overall, this offers a nice blend of radical to reasonable, and I look forward to getting many more miles in on it over the spring.

---