Having a fettle with new Anthem SX, the stem has a shim inside it to fit the fork steerer (Fox 32 CTD 120). Hard to see what benefits this will actually bring ?

It was supposed to offer even more front end stiffness and weight saving, in essence another standard that no one else adopted and is now being dropped.

The overdrive system was based on a slightly wider top part of the steerer and was meant to be a stiffer design.

My trance stem came the like yours has with a shim. I think that it’s slightly more flexy this way.

Hmmm, I guess I could pop a normal stem on then, as steerer is standard diameter. Will see how it is, doubt I’ll notice !

Has yours got the giant dropper post. ??

If so how are you finding it.

Isn’t it the overdrive 2 system that’s dropped for this year? I thought Overdrive was now just Giants marketing hype for a tapered head tube. Only asking as I’m about to get a 2015 giant and don’t want another non standard part!

Renton, yes, but not tried it out yet other than up and down the road at home. Seems to work fine but not a patch on Reverb on other bike.

Eat more cheese – mine is the standard 2015 Anthem SX, collected on Sat and was ordered in for me. It has overdrive2 and thats whats online on the Giant site here

It’s just overdrive now. Overdrive 2 was on 2014 models.

Ah, I thought from the website that overdrive 2 was a newer version

Yep so definitely reverted back to the Overdrive from OD2 of 2014, which begs the question, why didn’t they supply a stem that didn’t need a shim? Are they trying to get rid of the 2014 stock of stems? I don’t get it!?!

Weird indeed ! Thankfully the stem is a perfect size for me, so will live with it for now.

I’m guessing that’s correct eat more cheese.

It’s a bit of a pain but no biggy if you are changing the stem anyway.

OD2 still featured on Giant’s road bikes

but dropped on mountain bikes for 2015 onwards

on the road bikes, it definitely makes a difference in feel to the overall frame as you’ve got a 1.5″ fork steerer and oversized head tube with OD2 stem

Canyon use the same 1.5″ on some of their bikes, which is not surprising as Giant make their carbon fibre frames.

If you ride the Propel Advanced (1.125″) and Propel Advanced Pro (OD2 1.5″) bikes back to back, you notice this straight away when really cranking it hard or dropping into corners.

Also allows them to build a lighter weight frame and fork