Having got back into mountain bikes 3 years ago at 50, I bought meself a 2008 Giant Trance and am out two or three times a week, ususally 2 or 3 hours at a time in the local forest with a longer ride either local or further afield on one day.
It has a 100mm fork with about 106mm at the back. As the heavy but surprisingly efficient Tora fork will need a service again soon, I’m toying with sticking 120 or 130mm of travel up front and hopefully something lighter.
I really like the bike in general and rate the frame. I also though a bit more travel would slacken the h/a, which is a tad steep as standard.
Will the slight change in geometry have any great downsides ?
What fork would I use ?

I ran mine witha 140mm pike, was lamenting its loss last night, awesome bike. Better than the trance X.

Worked well with 130mm revs also

uturn pikes – coil btw!!

Old trances are great with anything up to about 140mm in my opinion, and they are tough as old boots. Technically you’ll probably invalidate the warranty but you’ll not rip the head tube off. The seat angle and head angle slacken off, and the BB comes up a tiny bit, but not enough to cause problems.

I run mine with pikes, normally around 125mm. Get a u-turn fork and experiment – a pike, revelation, or sektor or something. I think the bike deserves a 20mm axle fork but you may not think that necessary. If you’re still running the original stem swap it for something shorter, especially if you increase the travel on the front.

oh yeah 70mm stem

Recently put 120mm rebas on mine, up from F100RLs. Handles ok, but I had to flip the stem to get the bars in the right position for me (it’s already slammed, and low rise eastons. Flipping cheaper than new bars). Trances have loooong headtube. Bar height’s basically the same as my DH bike!

You need to up the pressure in the rear shock a bit to adjust for the slight redistribution in rider weight too I found.

(XL with 110mm stem here)

If you just want to test your plan before splashing the cash on new fork – I believe your Tora’s should be convertable to 130mm (or 115mm), by removeing/adding some all travel spacers. Either investigate it when you do a home service, or ask the suspension servicing company to do it for you (as they will have them in bits anyway)…

I had to flip the stem to get the bars in the right position for me

yep, me too, also with low rise eastons, on a medium, and now the writing on it is upside down :(. worth it though.

The XL head tube is nearly 2″ longer, which seems a bit excessive.

The XL head tube is nearly 2″ longer, which seems a bit excessive.

I presume you can measure that, cos you can see it from where ever you are 😉

I’m pretty sure astronauts on the ISS can see it too…. it’s 8″ long.

I run 120mm Fox RLCs in mine, and it works a treat.

Thanks guys !

I’ve been running a 70mm stem for a while now which helps “speed up” the steering. May also go to wider bars yet too.

Lurked for a while, but only registered on here today. Great site, love the humour level, both here and in the mag too, cheers.

Used to sell these and upgraded the forks to 120mm plenty times.

IIRC Giant cover the warranty up to 120 on that frame.

ideal bike with 120mm fork..

here’s my trance http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/5512845/

was great and pedalled really well.

sold (reduced price) due to linkage bearings wore out after 14months and Giant not cover under warranty 🙁

I also had Pikes on a Trance. Was great.