Hot on the heels of the latest iteration of Giant’s incredibly popular Trance X trail mountain bike platform, the world’s largest bike manufacturer added carbon variants of the best road bike deals Trance Advanced X to the product lineup. Featuring a host of flagship features such as Fox’s intelligent Live Valve suspension system combined with a smattering of high-end carbon componentry, we’ve spent the last month putting the top dog Trance x Advanced Pro 29 0 through its paces. Read on for an overview of the bike and our ride impressions of this impressive trail shredder.
Who’s It For?: Riders are in the market for a versatile offroad ride that is a blast on descents and offers superb climbing efficiency.
What’s It Cost?: AU$11,499
What We Liked: High-end XT/XTR matched with carbon components made for a smooth ride, adjustable geometry is a welcome addition and expands the bike’s scope.
What We Didn’t: Miscellaneous rattles from the many wires that make up the LiveValve suspension system while descending isn’t something you’d expect on a bike at this price level.
What We’d Change: While LiveValve is likely an excellent option for some riders, we feel a standard suspension set-up would suit our local trails better.
A Versatile Heart
While the Trance Advanced X was offered exclusively in an aluminium frameset at launch, it didn’t take long for the Taiwanese titans to add a carbon fibre framed range to its versatile trail platform.
The change or upgrade in frame material has substantially affected the frame’s weight, with the carbon frame claimed to be a whopping 682g lighter than the standard Trance X alloy range. All told our size Medium test bike tips the scales at an impressive 13.5kg. Other upgrades to the frame over the aluminium variant include titanium hardware at the rocker link, which is said to boost stiffness at the rear swingarm.
The geometry remains unchanged from the aluminium model, with the flagship variants scoring the same 65.5º head angle and 77.2º seat angle. The flip chip also carries over, which when, uhh… flipped, increases the bottom bracket height by 10mm and steepens the head and seat tube angles by 0.7º, perfect for those who’d rather focus on pedalling efficiency and technical climbs.
Protecting the frame is a generous helping of transparent plastic 3M vinyl on the upper section of the downtube and a mix of moulded rubber at the base of the downtube and bottom bracket area. A ribbed rubber chainstay protector is also in use to protect against chain slap on technical terrain.
The Trance X Advanced Pro series utilises the same carbon frame across the product line-up and starts at AU$6,599 for the Advanced Pro 29 2. Stepping up the Advanced Pro 1 will set riders back AU$7,699 and looks to offer the best balance of cost and performance while the flagship Advanced Pro 0 tested here retails for AU$11,499.
Smart Suspension
Topping the Trance X hierarchy means this steed scores an impressive specification from the factory; we’ll cover the mechanical components below. Still, arguably the show stopper and most significant talking point about this bike is the use of Fox’s LiveValve electronic suspension system.
The LiveValve system utilises accelerometers at the front fork and rear suspension to automatically adjust the fork and shock between open and locked out or firm settings. It is said to do this up to 1,000 times a second with a reaction time in three milliseconds. We’ll get into how this tech translates to the real world in our riding impressions below. Still, on paper, this smart suspension tech looks to take the guesswork out of the riding experience and depending on the trails you’re likely to ride, this could be either a boon or a bane.
The LiveValve system is paired with a Fox Factory 36 fork up front with a FIT4 Damper and 150mm of travel. At the frame, the system is mated to a Fox Float DPX2 Factory series that’s been fettled with by Fox to accept the new tech.
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