Giant Trance- 140mm to 150mm or straight to 160mm

Ive just bought a trance and it has 140mm forks.

Compared to the five spot I had before the front is quite a bit lower.

Apart from higher rise bars i ws also thinking of putting longet travel forks on it as the ttrance sx comes with 160mm forks as standard and is the same frame as this.

Should i go to 150mm forks or just bang a set of 160mm on?

cheers

Steve

Why don’t you ride it some more first? Why make it like your last bike when its not?

Alternatively perhaps go for something with travel adjust- X-fusion or Pikes?

I’m saving up for 160 pikes. Or if I sell my trek… Then that’s me sorted.

Ive rode it for a few days now and find the fornt end quite low to be honest.

Do you want the front end higher, the HA slacker, or both?

Tried a set of higher rise bars or spacers under the stem?

I will sell you my SX forks 160/140 with the new Talas.

I am wanting to raise the front end up and take some weight off my wrists. Head angle is slack enough.

Max spacers under stem already.

May try a set of higher rise bars.

Why don’t you ride it some more first?

ARGH renton, please just ride the thing, im starting to think Hora might have been right about you needing help 😕 oh god im agreeing with hora 😳

spend the saving on a nice holiday or alps trip 🙂

EDIT – Im not having a pop, i fettle with the best of them but that bikes SORTED just try and enjoy it before spending £400 on new parts!

I’ve never run it with 140’s as i bought frame only and had a set of 150mm Revs laying around to go straight on…i liked it but seeing as i had a HT for all round duties i decided to make the Trance a little more biased towards descending and have a set of 160’s on order.

Make sure you research the axle to crown length on whatever you buy as some 150mm forks are longer than a set of 160’s from a different manufacturer.

Giant state the head angle on the Trance as 67 degrees with it kicking out to 66 degrees on the SX model so be aware of that alteration if you dont want it any slacker.
If its just a more familiar riding position you’re after try riser bars, i’d remove some spacers (because they’re ugly!) and go for 30-40mm rise bars.

I think I have lost about 4 – 5 cm in height probably more compared to the front of the five spot.

Just want it to be a bit higher at the front that’s all.

Hopefully with out changing forks would be ideal but I’m not adverse to the idea.

I think you’ll find that headtubes on bikes are getting shorter to compensate for longer forks otherwise we’d have stupidly high front ends (think downhill rig height) on our trail bikes, it may just take a few rides for you to get used to it.

I’m riding around for a bit before I make any decisions on what to change but so far it feels like a very nice bike.

I’m riding around for a bit before I make any decisions on what to change but so far it feels like a very nice bike.

Are you merely ‘riding around’ or are you actually chucking it down some rough slippery trails at speed? If not then I wouldn’t change anything until you have!

Good call cheifgrooveguru, its a supremely capable bike Renton.

The Giant Factory enduro team were riding them in the EWS until the new Reign came out recently, with 160mm forks up front it was enough bike for top-10 results in an extremely competitive series in races that essentially consist of multiple downhill runs over a two day period, the bike got ridden hard and took everything in its stride.

Find the most techy stuff around your area and play there for an afternoon, you’ll be amazed at what the DW/Maestro back end can do with ‘only’ 140mm of travel….

…probably shouldnt tell you this before you’ve ridden the bike a bit in standard trim but you seem like an arch tinkerer so here goes:

The back end takes a 200 x 51 shock giving the bike 140mm of travel but…you can fit a 200 x 57 shock and have just enough clearance (about 5mm) from the rear swingarm bracing to the seat tube to make use of the 57mm stroke length to give you around 155mm of rear travel.

There is a thread on PinkBike where some owners have done this and posted photos of the results showing clearance etc…obviously you invalidate the warranty and there is a school of thought that if you land a big jump badly the 5mm of clearance between swingarm and seat tube may close up resulting in a horrible metal on metal interface which will probably break the frame….but it hasnt happened (yet) on that thread and owners seem chuffed to bits that they’ve bought a lightweight 140mm bike that can seemingly be turned into a 160/155mm travel bike without having to buy the Reign frame which is longer and heavier.

I’ll enjoy mine for a few years before i go trying this!

A little bit safer and giving more clearance is to find a shock with a stroke between the OEM 51mm and the 57mm one that gives 155mm of travel…its not easy as 51mm and 57mm seem to be popular sized for shocks, i found one which is 200 x 55 which seems perfect and would give more than just 5mm of clearance but its a Suntour Epicon item and retails for around £110 so is probably crap but when i’ve got the time and money i’ll have a play, its a great frame!

Cheers for the info buddy.

I’m not really looking to mess around with it as I can already feel it’s a great bike.

All I’m trying to do is get the front a bit higher just to take a little bit of weight off my already knackered wrists.

I’ve got a photo of both the five spot and the tranCe to compare, it’s not a lot of difference but it’s enough. …….

Saddle has been adjusted since the photo so it’s level.

I am wanting to raise the front end up and take some weight off my wrists.

sort out your riding position, don’t blame the bike… feet feet feet

renton is hora’s sockpuppet and I claim my £5.00

I can’t think of a more expensive way to raise the front end of a bike than to buy bigger forks!

If you really need to, buy a riser stem and some bigger rise bars but personally I think it’s all in your head and you just need to get used to riding the thing 🙂

Your bars are already very high!

Get the bike muddy. Don’t change anything until you have.

renton is hora’s sockpuppet and I claim my £5.00

pah too easy – that’ll be worth 5p max! 😆

Wolfenstein can you explain that a bit better please.

Bregante…. Forks would be a last resort.

Surely it’s about getting the bike comfy for me to ride not what it looks like.

Bearing in mind it’s my only bike and I have to commute on it too.

Front looking at the photos I reckon it’s fair to say that the Turber was freakishly high, rather than the Trance being low

So is it preferable to have a bit of a drop to the bars from seat height. ??

Different strokes for different folks, the difference in height from the bb to the bars is more important for me

Your turner looks very high. The trend these days is for lower front ends and the front of my last two bikes has been much lower than those preceding it. Funnily enough they are much faster. I woukd perservere for a while, as in several months, and keep your heels dropped when you descend so more weight goes through your feet and I reckon you will end up enjoying it.

If not get higher bars. And probably a dropper seat post.

Where do you live Renton?…I have a 150mm revelation doing nothing if you fancy putting it in and seeing if it achieves what you’re looking for, not travelling for hours to get to you mind!

Scotland mate.

I’d have said you should have gone for the XL. Not very helpful, soz.

Whys that dave??

Apart from the seat tube length and headtube length its pretty much the same as my old xl five spot anyway!!

Its also pretty much the same as a large stumpjumper which I ride with no issues!

As you probably know I also had an XL 5 spot on which I also had the bars high due to a knacked back. Like yours it never really fitted me right or looked right. As you say your L Giant looks about the same. I moved to an XL Sultan which is the first bike I’ve ever had which has fitted me properly after years of the “I don’t want to ride a gate/ small frames are more flickable” way of thinking. The longer head tube of a bigger frame also negates the need for higher bars a bit. I think we’re about the same height from memory so all things considered I think the XL would fit you better.

Will put some photos of both bikes up later for comparison.

That would be great.

I am 6 foot 1 and according to giant should be on a large?

I feel as though I have enough room between the bars and saddle but would just need them a little bit higher.

On the Trance I think the difference between the L and XL in headtube length is 1.5cm.

Sorry Renton I’m South East (work) and South Wales (home)…Scotland is a stretch!

No worries Deviant thanks for the kind offer anyway.

Here is a better pic of the giant as it currently sits…………

here is my old stumpy as a comparision……..

Here is a picture of the stem and spacers………

Compared to the five spot the total steerer length is around the 20cm marks wheras the 5 spot was 23cm.

Riser stem?

Personally I’d suggest sorting your core and hips out tho

If you can bend at the hips you can have the bars low but your core will hold your weight, not your wrists

Are the forks set up for your weight/set the sag right and tried running a little less air in the shock?

Try this- firmer current fork softer shock. Just a tad.

I like that Trance- why did you go smaller than that ungainly awkward looking charity-shag 5spot? It couldn’t pull in a blind disco.

Smaller??

Sure it’s got a shorter seat tube but it’s the same length and has a longer reach than the 5 spot ?

Maybe it just doesn’t look as ungainly

Just buy a cheap set of high rise bars, if you are happy with them then buy a better/lighter set.

Also you could put on longer cranks or cheaper would be lower profile pedals.

I’m taller than you, with I guess longer legs and my saddle on any bike is always way above the bars – I run these with a 40mm riser (only 177grams):

http://www.ubyk.co.uk/renthal-fatbar-lite-carbon-handlebars/15682