We Tested Giant's Reinvented Trance, and It’s Bigger, Badder, and Bolder
The Takeaway: Giant reinvents the Trance as a do-it-all short-travel 29er, but it’s high weight and moderate geometry may hold it back.
Advanced Pro 29 1 comes with Fox Live Valve
New Flip Chip allows riders to make trailside geometry changes
Integrated storage in downtube is a nice bonus
Price: $7,000 (Giant Trance Advanced Pro 29 1)
Weight: 29.7 lb (medium)
Giant Trance Advanced Pro 29 1 Build Details
Style: Trail Mountain Bike
Frame: Full Carbon, 120mm travel, with Maestro suspension system
Wheel Size: 29”
Fork: Fox 34 Performance Elite Live Valve, 130mm
Rear Shock: Fox Performance Elite Live Valve
Drivetrain: Shimano Deore XT, 12-speed
Crank: Praxis Girder Carbon
Chainring: 30T
Cassette: Shimano XT, 10-51T, 12-speed
Brakes: Shimano XT, 180mm rotors
Wheels: Giant TRX Carbon 29 tubeless rims and Giant hubs
Tires: Front: Maxxis Minion DHF 29"x2.5" WT, 3C MaxxTerra, EXO, TR; Rear: Maxxis Aggressor 29"x2.5", EXO, TR, tubeless
Seatpost: TranzX Adjustable Dropper, 140-170mm
Saddle: Giant Romero
Handlebar: Giant Contact SLR TR35 carbon, 780mm
Stem: Giant Contact SL 35, 40mm
Back in 2018, when we tested the previous version of Giant’s Trance, it felt revolutionary. With that version of this bike, Giant changed everything: decreasing rear-wheel travel to 115mm, swapping the 27.5-inch wheels on earlier versions for 29ers, and adopting what (at the time) was radically relaxed geometry for a short-travel bike (at least from a mainstream bike maker). The bike impressed us so much that we gave it our Gear of the Year award.
Three years later, Giant has made some significant changes to the bike. The 2022 model retains the 29-inch wheels, but Giant bumped rear travel back up to 120mm. The company also tweaked the geometry, making the chainstays slightly longer, steepening the headtube angle, extending reach, and lowering the bottom bracket among other changes. Then, it added a flip chip at the top of the chainstays that allows riders to make small changes to the geometry.
Additionally, Giant added a sizable internal storage compartment into the downtube to the Advanced carbon models (aluminum versions get external storage) and redesigned the internal hose and cable routing to make fishing wires through easier and reducing rattles; the latter was evident on the trails where I heard very little noise from cables bouncing in the downtube.
Long and slack short-travel bikes took off shortly after Giant released that earlier version of the bike. What was then groundbreaking has become commonplace. Trek’s latest Top Fuel, for example, shares similar travel and geometry, as well as that brand’s own version of adjustable geometry and internal storage. This latest Trance Advanced gives riders everything they may seemingly want at a very competitive price—especially considering the Pro 29 1 reviewed here also comes with Fox’s latest Live Valve system. This is a really good trail bike. But after riding it for a month on some of the best trail systems in Pennsylvania, I’m wondering whether it’s as impressive as its predecessor.
Giant Trance Advanced Line
Giant offers three versions of the Trance Advanced (Advanced is Giant's terminology that refers to bikes with carbon frames). There will also be aluminum models, but the company has not released details on those yet.
The Trance Advanced Pro 29 0 costs $10,500; the 29 1, which we tested, comes in at $7000 and the Pro 29 2 is priced at $6,000. All three models come in four sizes, have full carbon frames using Giant’s Maestro suspension that has 120mm of rear wheel travel, and are paired with 130mm Fox forks.
The Trance Advanced Pro 29 0 uses Fox Factory suspension, SRAM XX1 components drivetrain, Shimano XTR brakes and Zipp 3Zero Moto carbon wheels.
The Pro 29 1 gets Fox Performance suspension with Fox’s updated Live Valve, Shimano XT brakes and drivetrain, and Giant’s TRX 2 Carbon 29 wheels.
The 29 2 gets Fox Float suspension, Shimano SLX drivetrain and XT brakes and the same Giant TRX wheels as on the Pro 29 1.
All three come with the same tire combination: Maxxis Minion DHF 2.5 up front with Maxxis Aggressor 2.5 rears. Each model also gets a TranzX travel adjustable dropper that lets you reduce the travel (and seat height when fully extended) by 30mm to allow riders to better dial in their fit without compromising travel.
Giant Trance Advanced Pro 29 Geometry
Aside from the increased travel, Giant made the most significant changes to this bike’s geometry. The company said their goal was to make the Trance Advanced more versatile and capable. This makes sense given the rush of competitors to the space, with bikes that were more versatile and capable than the outgoing Trance. Giant also completely overhauled its Trance X, which previously was a slightly more aggressive version of the Trance with a bit more travel and slacker geometry. The new Trance X has even more travel, 27.5 wheels, and slacker geometry; it’s for a completely different type of rider, one who would be happier on steeper, faster, jumpier bike-park like trails. With those changes to the Trance X, the Trance has become Giant’s primary trail bike, so adding making it behave better on faster descents makes sense.
To do that, Giant did what used to be known as giving it “progressive” geometry. Today, every bike in the category has similar frame angles, which are typically longer reaches, lower bottom brackets and slacker head tubes than their predecessors. So while while the previous version’s geometry really was progressive for the time, this one has pretty expected numbers.
This new model also gets a flip chip (there’s technically two; one each on the top of the chainstays that look sort of like an SPD cleat and are held in place with 5mm bolts. Backing out the bolts and spinning the chips around changes the bike’s geometry in several key ways. Going from the high setting to the low setting brings the bike lower to the ground, slackens the headtube and, counter-intuitively, shortens the reach.
In the high setting on a medium-size frame, the headtube angle sits at a pretty conservative 66.2 degrees. That goes to 65.5° in low setting. Changing the headtube angle also moves the trail from 120mm in high to 126mm in low, which further slows steering down. The bottom bracket drop, already significant at 35mm in high, falls to 45mm in low—one of the lowest among similar bikes—which really makes it feel like you’re sitting in the frame and hovering closer to the ground. With flip chips, the geometry changes that lead to a lower bottom brackets and slacker head tubes actually reduce the bike’s reach. In its high setting, the Trance Advance has a pretty modest 455mm reach. In low setting, that shrinks to 447mm, which is pretty tight for the category. Evil’s The Following, another 29er with 120mm of travel has a 460mm reach, for example.
Bikes are complicated systems and no single number dictates how a bike will perform, but you can see what Giant is trying to do. With the new geometry and flip chips it hoped to create a short-travel bike that in its high setting, delivers the quick, agile, snappy handling of the previous Trance with just bit more capable on rowdier trails. Then, dropping it in low mode, which gives the bike better ability to comfortably rip bigger terrain the way a longer-travel bike might.
It mostly works.
Riding the Giant Trance Advanced
To test this Trance, I rode it on many of my local trails and test loops that include everything from from unrelentingly rocky and slow technical trails, to machine-built flow trails. I also spent a weekend riding at the Allegrippis Trails at Lake Raystown, which is one of the best riding spots in the Mid-Atlantic and includes more than 30 miles of mostly flowing, purpose-built trails. Over six weeks, I put about 80 miles on the bike.
This version comes with Fox’s updated Live Valve system, which electronically locks out suspension or opens it up depending on terrain and rider input. The new version reacts faster (in milliseconds) requires less slope to detect that you’re descending, and stays open longer than the previous version for a better, more natural ride feel that the company hopes makes it useful on trail bikes, and not just XC race bikes like the original.
I rode with the system mostly in the neutral Sport setting, or completely off, to get a better sense of how the Trance felt without it. Turning it off didn’t change much on most of the trails. The Maestro suspension is very good and on this bike, with the Fox Float Performance rear shock with external reservoir, it felt supple when I was rolling slowly and climbing hard over rocky sections, with good efficiency.
With the Live Valve, I might have gained some efficiency on the short sections of smooth climbs or the rare double track climb, but I didn’t feel much benefit elsewhere and it seemed to rob the bike of some energy. Oddly, with the Live Valve engaged, the bike felt a little dead—the rhythm was off when I pumped into flowy sections.
That energy is what I loved so much about the previous Trance. It pedaled vigorously and handling was sharp, yet playful. It was incredibly fun. This bike retains some of that, but not all. It’s more neutral, even in the high setting. The additional travel, and new geometry certainly contributes to that. This bike is also much heavier. Its 29.7 pounds are considerable for the category (curiously, that’s a solid pound more than the previous Trance X Pro Advanced 1, which cost $5,700). A lot of that comes from the components, especially the wheels and larger tires, which make the bike more capable on rougher and faster terrain than the old one, but rob the bike of some of that high-strung energy of the other model.
For many riders, that tradeoff may be a good thing. Because the bike is much better suited for burlier trails than that one was. In that way, it’s much closer to the former Trance X, which I tested a few months ago and also really liked. A close look at the geometry numbers show just how similar the two are. The bikes have the same HT angles and many others dimensions are with a degree or mm or two apart. The Trance X has about 10mm more reach, and the new Trance Advanced has about 5mm more BB drop. Those are the only two significant changes (other than the travel).
In low setting this bike hugs the ground, allowing you to rip down high-speed chunky trails and tear around corners. Its balanced ride and low center of gravity, not so common on 29ers) keep you connected. That’s a fantastic, reassuring sensation when things get hairy. But with just 120mm of travel in the back, and 130mm up front, you can certainly outrun the suspension, so the bike doesn’t encourage the sort of reckless riding that the older Trance X or other longer-travel bikes do.
Possibly because of the shorter-travel fork, and shorter reach, I never felt as comfortable hitting jump lines on this bike as the Trance X. My body weight often seemed too far forward and there was less margin for error. Something to think about if you ride a lot of flow trails with features.
I found the bike excelled best on the sort of rolling, moderately technical trails most of us ride most often. I do miss the snap and low weight of the previous model and some of the bigger-hit capability of the Trance X 29. This bike isn’t a perfect replacement for those two. But if you think of it as a very versatile trail bike that can deliver a great experience on most trails—as long as you don’t mind the extra weight—then it’s a solid option at a great price.
While I don’t think the Live Valve adds a ton of value on this model, the relatively moderate price increase of this version over the Advanced Pro 2 may still make this the better option. For $1,000 extra, you get the Live Valve plus carbon wheels, a Shimano XT drivetrain instead of SLX, and Fox Performance Elite vs Performance Suspension. That’s a pretty good deal, especially considering how hard it is to find aftermarket products (and their rising prices) if you intended to upgrade the Pro 2 later.
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