I have a giant anthem 2 that I bought second hand for a really good price but I am now finding for the riding I do that I am regularly pushing it to its limits. I guess to be 100% honest I should have bought a trance as it is designed for more than just XC racing.
So my question is do I sell this bike and try and find a second hand bike thats more of an all mountain setup, or can this frame be modified to make it far more capable a descender.
I found a link to [url= http://www.peterverdone.com/?p=4663 ]this guy[/url] who has done exactly that. I know also out of the factory Giant are also fitting longer forks, dropper seatpost etc. He has also fitted an angleset headset that I dont really understand the purpose of. Surely fitting 160mm forks would slacken the headtube angle out a lot anyway?
Try some 120mm forks first?
With my 26" Anthem I fitted 120mm forks, short stem, wide bars and it made a big difference to the character of the bike, still fast but less nervous. I'm going to try an offset bushing next. There's quite a lot of potential in the frame beyond just XC racing.
I have just built one up with 2015 frame, 120mm sid forks, 60mm stem Thomson carbon 730mm bars, American classic wide lightening wheels, 1x10 and its an absolute blast, only weigh's 24lbs climbs great and descends great too, really happy.