advice. Rear end flex on 2015 giant anthem?

Hi all.

Recently got a little used 2nd hand bike. Not ridden mountainn bikes for years so a little unsure of what I should consider normal.

Giant anthem 2015. All pivots tight and no cracks or weirdness that I can see.

On rolling single track, the type of stuff that sends you down then right up again at the same time as turning slightly, it feels like my tyre is going to roll off the rim. Its a stock 27.5in racing ralph (which is awful) and pumped up pretty firm (any harder and it doesn’t grip), so I’m not convinced its the problem. Wheels are a little untrue but fairly tight all round, so not sure its wheel flex either.

Any other anthem owners out there with any thoughts or do I just head to the lbs? Its supposed to be a fairly stiff rear end from what I understand, but its killing the fun of riding everytime.

Cheers.

What pressure is ‘pretty firm’? Do you have a pressure gauge on your pump? If so perhaps check it against another one. In the region of 30psi for tubeless and 35 for tubes, (though others may disagree).

2015 Anthem SX here and it’s quite stiff. All standard components. The stock racing Ralph I found great – fast and good in dryish conditions. I have changed it for a slightly heavier snakeskin version for some more puncture protection. Sounds like something amiss on your setup – is shock pressure ok ?

Edit – 12.5 Stine rider and tyres at 36/38 with tubes

“stiff” and “Anthem” are not two words I’ve ever heard in the same sentence. The walls on the downtube are so thin that you can flex them just my pinching it in your hand.

Mine was flexy as hell, they don’t tend to die easily at all though. iirc there’s an elastane addition to the alloy.

“stiff” and “Anthem” are not two words I’ve ever heard in the same sentence. The walls on the downtube are so thin that you can flex them just my pinching it in your hand.

I don’t even want to try that with mine…

^^^^ I just tried…mine doesn’t 😀

It is possible for the pivot bolts to be tight but if the bearings are worn / have play in them then the lever effect can make the play at the axle quite pronounced. Can you waggle the axle when the down tube is held? If not sure, get the lbs to check and show you.

Could be poor shock setup too. Wallowing in the travel will feel like your tyres are flat.

You may well need to up your shock pressure, it needs to be set for your riding Weight.

I had this on my trance a little bit to be honest.

The rear tyre was very wallowy if it wasn’t pumped up enough but then that makes the rear end a bit skittish.

I read a load of reviews of the Anthem before buying mine a few months ago and can’t recall anyone with this issue. I suspect its something specific to your bike setup.

Rickon raises a good point about the shock, when my monarch was **** it would feel like my rear tyre had got a flat halfway down a descent.

I’m about 75kg geared up if I was riding trails with no proper rocks and no proper jumps or drops then I could run 20 PSI at the rear, I normally run 30.

sit on the bike, hold the brakes on and push hard on the pedal whilst looking down at the rear triangle, if it moves to the right as you push the pedal your frame bearings are worn and need replacing. I had a Trance and when the bearings went the rear really moved around quite a bit.

Hi folks thanks for all the replies and thoughts.

Pretty firm means (according to my highly inaccurate mini pump gauge) less than 20 psi. I’ve played with pressure from the start, trying to find a balance of a bit of grip and a nice feel. i confess I settled on the above pressure due to grip more side of things but the wallowy feeling is awful. Maybe i just need better tyres that actually grip. These ones wash out all over the place. Front is pretty soft too otherwise It’ll be skinned elbows and knees. Its now up to somewhere between 25 and 30 and I’ll see what the next ride brings.

I’m guessing that I’ve got tubes, not tubeless.

My downtube doesn’t flex as mentioned above. I’m pretty sure I’ve got manly hands. Well, manly enough.

In terms of frame/bearing wiggle, I’ve held the bike and push/pulled the rear wheel sideways and no loose bearing movement can be felt or heard. There is flex in the frame (deflection at the bb) when I sit down and push on the pedal but no more really than on my rigid low grade road bike.

Shock is set at 150psi, I weigh about 11 stone at a wild guess, maybe a touch more. The sag looks to be about a quarter of the stroke length. I understand that this is not the recommended amount, apparently a third is better? I tweaked this on another occasion to make it firmer, felt like it was bottoming out at times when it shouldn’t. Maybe slow rebound compounding an issue.

Dam I sort of wish I never sold my old bike all those years ago.

I’ll pop to the lbs and get the guy to have a look over it.

Renton, what tyres were you running that were skittish and what did you change them to? These Racing Ralphs are 2.25 wide which in my (possibly old fashioned) opinion is unnecessary for a full sus bike. Wish I could remember the name of the 1.95 tyres I used to run year round and grip like a mother hubbard.

I’ll ride it with the new tyre pressure and put shock pressure so that sag is a third and hope I don’t come back injured from tyre wash out. I’ll check with the shop guys about the pivots and bearings and probably end up with new tyres….

to be continued…

Yeah, less than 20 is way to low unless you are running wide rims and dual plies.

Occasionally get a flat tyre feeling on my anthem, but that IMO means the shock is doing its job well because bumps don’t feel like bumps

IMO tyre pressure too low. If I ran 20 psi where I live I would constantly be getting pinch flats, and the would feel awful too.

Anthem’s flexi? Really ?

Try tyre pressures at (an accurate) 30psi before you do anything else. 20psi would be too squirmy for me.

My trance had a 2.25 nobby nic performance on the bike.

From 30-35 psi it was a wobbly mess and always felt as though it was going to roll off the rim.

40+ psi was to hard and it became a bit skittish.

Also, have you ridden a full sus before?

It could be as simple as you’re riding with your weight too far back, and not centred, which will make the back end feel a bit odd and the bike will try to pivot, which will have the affect you’re describing.

I’d get an lbs to ride it around and see what they think.

If the frame feels taut then start with the tyres.

Get some cheap Maxxis High Rollers in single ply 60a compound from CRC for about £20 each (2.35 is fine, don’t be scared of big tyres!)

Inflate to 25psi.

Set your sag on the shock again, 25-30% travel is fine.

Try again, as Rickon says this could be how full suspension feels to you and may take some getting used to…but the tyres are crap so change those first. High Rollers are great and grip at all pressures!
If the shock isn’t blowing through its travel then all should be good.

I have owned and ridden full sus before but not for about ten years. To be honest, if this is how modern bikes are suposed to feel then I don’t think technology changed for the better. I have to believe its not designed to feel like this. I can’t see how I can be too far back on the bike. I mean, modern bikes put the rider way back to start with so I don’t have much choice. I’d like to be further forward with a shorter stem but hey ho. To me, it shouldnt be a struggle to lift the front wheel at short notice, hence my desire for shorter stem. But one step at a time…

I’ll check the pressure on the shops track pump and start there. I know that if I pump it to 30 then I’ll lose grip completely ( I live in Bristol and the ashton court/leigh woods groomed trails are hard pack gravelly stoney and dusty), but at least it’ll be a place to start. Pretty sure new tyres are the way forward. I’ll check what other locals are using and get recommendations but I like the sound of £20 ones…

I found my old 26 anthem quite noodley on twisty singletrack. Very rapid but you could feel the linkages between front and rear ends twisting/flexing

35psi in high rollers around ashton court and leigh woods with no
real grip issues … ok so its a ti hardtail but … 😉

my Titus carbon x would feel all flexy at 20psi so my guess would be
tyre pressure as well.

I’m about the same weight as you, and with tubes I run about 35psi, 28 or so tubeless. At 20 my Anthem feels like it’s broken. Put some air in there!

couple of points. The Anthem sag should be 8-11mm, so try some shock pressures to get you in that range, fully kitted in your riding gear. I am 12.5 stone and have 175 psi in mine. Tyres – as above, Racing Ralphs with tubes in 2.25 guise really need to be around 35 psi for your weight – I am a bit heavier and 36/38 is right balance of grip and pinch protection. If I had mine at 30 they would roll off the rims too..

for the trails as you describe them :

trails are hard pack gravelly stoney and dusty

the Racing Ralph is spot on and should be an excellent tyre. It only loses out when going gets wet and muddy

OK ok so my tyres are too soft. I guess the thumb squeeze test doesn’t cut it anymore. Honestly I’ll try them out at 30psi or so next time I’m out.

But the racing ralph spot on for my local trails? funny how people can have such different experiences.

I’ll report back when I get to ride and make changes.

Thanks for all the posts folks.

But the racing ralph spot on for my local trails? funny how people can have such different experiences.

I was basing it on your description of the trails as ‘hard pack gravelly stoney dusty’ 🙂 I’ve never ridden there !

A racing ralph is perfect round bristol on a 100mm XC bike, on and off piste, at this time of year.

I know, cos that’s what I run round here (Rose Dr. Z. though). I do have the nice versions though, whatever they’re called – they might make a worse rubber version too?

Somewhere about 25psi, tubeless 29er and I’m 90kg.

They’re definitely on the fast side rather than grippy, but I like that. I can see how someone might not get on with them though.

I used to ride an XL trance, wasn’t flexy, I can’t imagine an anthem to be that flexy either and haven’t heard that complaint.

Suspect there’s something odd/wrong with your setup, or you just need/want a grippier tyre. You really need someone to have a look at it.

My trance had a 2.25 nobby nic performance on the bike.

From 30-35 psi it was a wobbly mess and always felt as though it was going to roll off the rim.

40+ psi was to hard and it became a bit skittish.

I race my Anthem with performance ralphs – the DC one – 30psi rear 28 front. No issues here.

To be honest, if this is how modern bikes are suposed to feel then I don’t think technology changed for the better

tbh You need to get the bike setup properly first.

Also the tyres could easily be crap OEM one’s.

If I had 20 psi in a tyre like a racing ralph on the back, I’m pretty sure the tyre would feel like it was about to roll off the rim hitting a berm fast or landing sideways on a jump.

Add a wallowy shock into the mix and it might feel like the back of the bike was not connected to the front at certain times………..

Just got in from a short jaunt, and to my shame and embarrassment, it was clearly much better in terms of squash with the rear up at 30psi. The front started at 30 but when it started washing out I had to let some out to get some grip back. Rear went out on me a couple of times but not uncontrollably so.

Also, I found that the rebound was 3 clicks from slowest, so I whacked it to fastest setting and whilst it was a bit too bouncy (I’ll play when I’m out with more time), it was much better.

Bike shop says no bearing/pivot wear, as I thought, and rear wheel has enough tension so nice to rule those two out.

So I guess a combo of air pressure and slow rebound helped a great deal. Grip is still a concern but that’s to be remedied by pay day if it ever comes.

Much appreciate all the input folks. Funny how incremental changes over time turn into a right confusing mess for the “back to riding after a ten year break” experienced rider. It felt like I was on an old folding bike and forgot to do the locknut up. Baby steps I guess.

Enjoy the bank holiday one and all.

Glad you’re getting there. Watch the rebound though, 3 or 4 clicks from slowest is where its meant not be according to the experts !

I’ll check the pressure on the shops track pump and start there. I know that if I pump it to 30 then I’ll lose grip completely ( I live in Bristol and the ashton court/leigh woods groomed trails are hard pack gravelly stoney and dusty), but at least it’ll be a place to start. Pretty

You are only going to get away with 20 psi, with either 2 of the following

A) 30mm internal diameter rims
B) Dual Plies/Maybe 1.5 plies
C) Schwalbe Procore

It really is that simple.

Also, I found that the rebound was 3 clicks from slowest, so I whacked it to fastest setting and whilst it was a bit too bouncy (I’ll play when I’m out with more time), it was much better.

It certainly shouldn’t be at its fastest, considering that you are probably fairly light (considering your PSI preferences). You will want to start lowering the rebound to the point that it doesn’t pack down.

3 or 4 clicks from slowest is where its meant to be according to the experts !

😀

Although to be fair, rebound should be set depending on your riding style, weight and leverage ratio. If it were as simple as setting your rebound to either one of two settings there wouldn’t be a need for 20-odd clicks.