Giant Trance Review

The Trance features Giant’s Maestro Suspension, which uses two rotating links that work in unison to deliver a fully active, floating suspension system. The Trance 29 has 115mm of rear-wheel travel while the 27.5 bikes frame boast 140mm travel. This puts them perfectly in line to balance climbing efficiency and descending prowess. Up front, a 130mm (29) or 150mm (27.5) travel fork is fitted. Boost spacing makes the wheels a little stiffer, giving you a bit more capability when descending. All the rear shocks are trunnion mounted, meaning they are bolted lower down in the shock, allowing a longer stroke shock to be used in a smaller area. As well as offering a smoother action this leaves plenty of room in the front triangle for a bottle cage.

Fox forks and shocks are fitted to most of the bikes, but there are a couple of notable exceptions at both ends of the range. The Trance 3 29 has a Marzocchi Z2 fork. This features a Fox GRIP damper and offers exceptional performance at this price point. The 27.5” wheeled Trance 3 has a RockShox 35 Gold fork which uses technology trickled down from the Pike making is a fantastic performer for the money. Taking performance a step further most of the other bikes get a Fox 34 fork combined with a Fox DPS shock. With the Trance Advanced Pro 0 29 you get the top-of-the-range RockShox Pike fork and Super Deluxe shock to give you the ultimate off-the-shelf suspension performance.

For 2020 every Giant Trance has a 12 speed one-by drivetrain, so you get a very wide range of gears with easy, intuitive shifting on every model. The Trance 3 gets SRAMs entry-level SX Eagle 12 speed drivetrain while the other alloy framed bikes have Shimano SLX of XT 12 speed. The carbon-framed Trance Advanced bikes all have SRAM Eagle gearing, starting with NX on the 2 moving up through GX to X01 on the Advanced Pro 0. All the SRAM equipped bikes have matching SRAM hydraulic disc brakes. The other bikes get Shimano stoppers to match the groupset.

Most of the Trance range has Giant Contact components and a short stem/wide handlebar cockpit. Giant Contact Switch dropper posts make sure that every Trance rider can climb and descend with their saddle in the right place. The Trance Advanced Pro 0 is the exception and is fitted with TruVativ Descendant carbon bars and a RockShox Reverb Stealth AXS wireless dropper post to give you the very best performance.

As well as making the frames, Giant also make the wheels for the Trance. This is how they can offer these bikes at such competitive prices, without compromising performance. All the carbon-framed Trance Advanced bikes get Giant TRX-1 or TRX-0 carbon wheels. These lightweight trail-specific wheels feature wide rims and are built tough enough for the very roughest terrain. The other bikes in the range all get high-quality Giant alloy wheels. The Trance 29 1 gets Giant’s TR-1 Wheels with features similar to the TRX with an alloy rim instead of carbon.

Tyres are often the first thing people change on their mountain bikes, but not on the Trance as these bikes come with high-quality rubber ready fitted. Maxxis High Roller II and Minion tubeless tyres with tough EXO casing and dual-compound rubber come on every model, giving you excellent traction from the very start. Every Trance is set up ready for tubeless running, so you don’t need to do anything to take advantage of this puncture reducing technology.