FIRST RIDES
For 2022, Giant have treated the Trance to a new frame, updated geometry and a little more travel. Despite it still only having 120mm of rear suspension, they refer to it as a trail bike – and one that’ll now tackle tough terrain faster.
THE FRAME
The Taiwanese brand have stuck with their tried-and-trusted Maestro layout, which uses two co-rotating links to connect the rear triangle to the mainframe, the upper one – made from forged composite material, rather than aluminium – driving the vertically-mounted shock. Rear-wheel travel has been upped from 115mm to 120mm. There’s now internal storage in the down tube of the carbon fibre frame (there’s an alloy version, too), beneath the bottle cage, with a padded sheath for stowing snacks and essentials. Giant’s new integrated cable ports look neat and are claimed to reduce rattle. There’s a decent amount of chainstay protection to quieten chainslap, too. Other details include ISCG-05 chain guide mounts and clearance for a 2.5in rear tyre.
Giant have modified the Trance’s geometry, as well. Like the longertravel Trance X, it now has a flip-chip at the seatstay/rocker-link pivot, which allows you to switch between ‘high’ and ‘low’ settings. This adjusts the head and seat tube angles by 0.7 degrees on most sizes and the bottom bracket (BB) height by 10mm. In the low setting, on the medium and larger frames, the head angle sits at 64.8 degrees while the effective seat tube angle measures 76.6 degrees. There’s a healthy 45mm of BB drop, putting it 326mm off the floor. The frame has been stretched out, too, with the medium bike sporting a reasonable 447mm reach, and a 439mm effective chainstay length on all sizes (both in the low setting).
THE KIT
There are three Advanced Pro carbon builds to choose from, plus two in aluminium. The Pro 1 is the mid-priced option and the only one to come with Fox’s Live Valve suspension system.
Essentially, Live Valve automatically opens and closes the low-speed compression damping circuit of the fork and shock to suit the terrain and gradient. Fox have updated the system significantly, with the goal of improving descending performance without compromising how well the bike pedals. They’ve also added Bluetooth connectivity, so you can use the Live Valve app to tune how much damping is used in each of the five settings (or download even more).
Up front sits a 130mm-travel Fox 34 Performance Elite fork, fitted with the brand’s FIT4 damper. You get external rebound adjustment and can tune
the low-speed compression using a small Allen key, although we ended up running it fully open. A custom-tuned Fox Live Valve shock takes care of the 120mm of rear travel.
Shimano supply their impressive XT brakes and gearing, with a Praxis Girder carbon crankset upgrade. Giant cover almost everything else themselves, including the TRX 2 carbon wheels. The TranzX dropper post offers between 140 and 170mm of travel (and adjusting this is a doddle).
THE RIDE
We had to get to grips with Live Valve before we could really put the Trance Advanced Pro 1 to the test. Despite a slightly awkward calibration process, the app is easy to use, which makes things far smoother than with the previous version. We found the ‘sport’ mode (the third of five settings that determine system sensitivity) a great compromise for beaten-up trail centre riding, and the ‘climb’ mode (the least sensitive, meaning it takes a bigger bump or landing to open up the damping) better for smoother climbs and singletrack. While the extra cabling does add a bit of clutter and rattle, this is easy enough to block out when riding.
The Trance is a really capable bike. It climbs well – in fact, arguably a little better than similar-travel equivalents
A capable bike on the descents and the Live Valve systems helps boost efficiency uphill and on the flat
such as the Nukeproof Reactor ST – thanks in part to Live Valve, but also its comfortable seated position. The geometry is well-proportioned and easy to get along with from the outset. You feel well-positioned between the wheels when up and out of the saddle, and the hefty BB drop leaves you hunkered down low, not precariously perched.
When the gradient steepens, the Trance shows its ‘trail bike’ pedigree, feeling far more capable than a more XC-biased ‘downcountry’ machine. Despite its limited travel, it’s stable enough to be ridden fast, but agile enough to flick about. It’s not the most comfortable ride, though – and not just because of its limited travel. Even with a drop in spring pressure and all the low-speed damping backed off, the Fox fork didn’t feel particularly forgiving over repetitive hits. The back end is far smoother in comparison, although you may want to play with your sag settings to avoid using too much travel too easily. We found that 25 to 27 per cent felt about right.
Overall, the Trance Advanced Pro 29 1 is a solidly-built bike with good geometry, a comfortable ride position and decent kit bolted to it. Having Live Valve may help boost efficiency, but it does add cost, complication and extra wiring.
www.giant-bicycles.com