going to buy a new bike and have always wanted both of these bikes, unfortunately i will only be buying one, i have a steel hardtail and after riding the red route twice at Glentress in the last 2 weeks i think my body needs another full susser as i am nearly 50 with a very arthritic ankle, can’t see me doing any black trails anymore but i love the red and blue trails and also the lakes, peaks, cheviots etc,please advise

Until recently I had a giant trance x1. My OH has an orange five pro 650b. We do GT red and black regularly. I’d pick the Orange every time. The geometry on the trance was too steep on the headset (not sure how this compares on the anthem).

The Trance climbs brilliantly and you do see many anthems at GT but to me the orange five is a lot more fun and more robust. Only downside that I can see on the five is that it can’t be converted to 2×10 due to placement of the pivot weld. OH has actually converted his to 1×10 with a 34t front ring. Looks great but you need to be pretty fit to handle it.

There is no problem running a Five 2×10. The problem is running a ring larger than 32T. So a 24-32 2×10 setup, for example, works just fine.

An Anthem is a bit steeper than a Trance.

As for which is best for you; only you can say really, but they are rather different bikes. The Anthem is an XC bike that is better than you’d expect on harder trails. The Five is a harder hitting trail bike that is better than you’d expect at XC.

I have both an Anthem & a Trance. Both are great around GT, both climb really well. The Trance is a bit more fun to ride having a little more travel, I generally use the Trance for trail centres and the Anthem for long xc rides. If you ride xc then the Anthem would be a great all rounder as it’s a very capable bike however if it’s all around comfort the 5 might be a better choice for you? Good luck. 🙂

I have a 2008 trance x and a 2012 five.Both great bikes but the five wins in a fight.
Horses for courses really.They both are really good at what there made for.
XC and i don’t know what the word is that the fives made for.Mucking about me thinks.. 😀

IMO all Giant bikes are under forked. In our household we’ve been through at least 6 different models of Giant full-sus, from NRS and VT to TranceX and Reign.

I currently have a 2005 Reign with 160mm fork and a 2010 AnthemX running a 100mm/130mm custom RS Pike. With wide bars and 2.4″ tyres, an XC race bike it isn’t, but it is really good to ride.

If you buy an off the peg Giant, consider fitting a fork with 20/25mm more travel. It will make a massive difference.

Agree there TW.My trance has modded rct3 140 pikes.Superb little machine.
Actually up at penmach today on it.

The Anthem is an XC bike that is better than you’d expect on harder trails. The Five is a harder hitting trail bike that is better than you’d expect at XC.

^ this.

The Five is a lot closer to the Trance than the Anthem.

I’ve had two Anthems, and a Reign (which is what the Trace basically is now).

The Anthem is best as a race bike, its still twitchy, and fast paced. Its unforgiving if you’re riding fast and not on the ball.

If you like both bikes, then the Trance is really the best of both worlds. Have a look at Paul’s Cycles for the 29er Trance deals, as another alternative.

In terms of riding them, the Orange has a single pivot, this means that the shock needs to stop energy sapping pedal bob – so you’ll need to flick on the propedal to stiffen it up on climbs.

The Giant bikes have a Maestro suspension, a short link mechanism. This means that the bikes engineering takes up the pedal bob, so you don’t need propedal when climbing, so you’ll actually have more grip climbing when you need it.

Short link bikes feel great when descending, single pivot bikes feel mega plush, but they do tend to suffer with brake jack.

Both bikes will ride totally differently, so test ride I’d you can. Or think very hard about your usage. If you spend 90% of your time pootling on canal paths, or flat single track, an Orange 5 will be wasted.

Conversely, of you’re riding all your time on technical descents, then the Anthem will feel out of its depth compared to the 5.

The 5 will also be hard work on the climbs compared to the anthem, in part due to spec and weight, and the suspension design.

That’s why I’d recommend the Trance, its half way between both, but the best of both really. My reign climbed as well as my anthem, but descended better than my Heckler (single pivot like the 5).

Of all the bikes I’ve had stolen, the Reign was the one I miss the most.

I’ve just ordered a banshee rune, my list was a five, alpine, Bronson and heckler. I looked at the giant but I’m not keen on all the new standards they push. The five and alpine were top of my list but I felt I had to compromise. In the end I stumbled across the rune, brilliant reviews and the spec I wanted for the money. Don’t pigeon hole yourself to just 2 bikes look around as there is a lot of good new bikes.

Roverpig, sorry didn’t explain that properly. You’re right that it can run a 32t second ring but that seems too small for a main ring, most conventional 2×10 systems run more teeth on the main ring, e.g XT is 38.

Trance X1 is a fox 32 TALAS 150mm fork, never had any probs with the travel on it. one of the monthly mags has a long term test on the trance 650b and it’s looking good so far. My new bike has 150mm pikes on 650b and is truly excellent around GT now, massive difference from the trance which was a decent spec bike but I just couldn’t get on with the steep head angle. New 2014 version is back to a 67deg I think. (2013 is 69deg). Conversely the orange five never has any issues with any of the trails, drop offs, etc, it just takes everything in its stride.

Alpine bikes at GT might be able to get you a demo on an orange five and I think dales in Glasgow have demos on the giants fairly regularly. Alternatively contact Sam at The Breakpad at kirroughtree as she has orange fives on hire and also very competitive price wise too if you decide to buy.

I had a 2012 (26″) Trance and now have a 2013 (26″) Five. The funny thing is that the Five is consistently faster up every single climb on my regular circuits. Not really sure why. I wasn’t expecting it and it doesn’t really make much sense, but it seems to be a fact. At first I just put it down to a new bike phenomenon, but six months in, the Five is still killing my Trance’s times and I don’t seem to be any fitter either.

It could just be psychological (you never can tell with bikes) but I wonder whether the factory CTD shock with its 5 different levels of damping is having an effect. With the Trance I just tended to leave it open. As has been said, the suspension does a pretty good job of minimising pedal induced bob and the shock is not in a very easy place to reach anyway. With the Five, the shock is right in front of you, so (if you are that way inclined) it is easy to fiddle with it and get just the fight level of damping for any climb.

Having said all that, if I never intended to venture beyond a red run I would seriously consider a Trance. It’s a better bike for just bimbling* along on (at least until you have to change all those pivot bearings).

EDIT: * I don’t mean this to sound derogatory. I love a good bimble. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the latest Trance is a fair bit slacker and longer travel than my 2012 model. A lot closer to the geometry of a Five in fact.

Roverpig, sorry didn’t explain that properly. You’re right that it can run a 32t second ring but that seems too small for a main ring, most conventional 2×10 systems run more teeth on the main ring, e.g XT is 38

Yes, fair point. if you want a 2×10 to get close to the range of a 3×10 setup then you will want a larger outer ring, which is a problem on the Five. Personally, I never used the outer ring, so it made sense to replace it with a bash ring. Each to their own and all that.

I just got an Anthem 650b frame. As mentioned above they work better on the trail with bigger forks. I fitted 120mm SID’s when I built it up.

Giant Anthem 27.5 1

I’ve never ridden an Orange 5 but the Anthem is a fantastic trail bike.

I had a 2011 anthem x4 which had a basic fox float rear shock.once I’d set the sag I had virtually no bobbing on any trail.a mate of mine had an x3 with a better shock (rp2)and he was bobbing like a good n.he had it tuned at mojo and it was miles better,he’s since swapped to a trance x1 and sure enough there was more pedal bob,once again he sent it to mojo for a tune and they sorted it.the difference between us is around 5 stone so I’d say if your 15 stone ish you might need to get your shock tuned to get the most out of the suspension design.

I’ve been running a 24/36 double and bash on my five for the last two years with no pivot clearance issues.

Run the same as Dirty dog with no problems.

isn’t the problem that some are not compatible with certain ring sizes? ie they are not all the same.

Running 39/24 these days and I know it wouldn’t have worked on my old heckler – same clearance problem 36t worked with some filing.

In reality go try them, and then try a load of other bikes – one it’s fun, two it’s always better riding other peoples bikes and three you might find out that the 2 bikes you have wanted for ever are not the best bike for you.