https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/mountain-bikes

Two carbon bikes, £3.5k for SLX although it does have SIDS and carbon wheels and £4.2k for the bling 1 – Carbon & GX1 Eagle.

Two Alu bikes, £3.5k for Fox / GX Eagle / carbon wheels and £2.5k for low end fox SLX & Alu wheels.

The 2 £3.5k bikes are a hard choice IMO.

Almost an ideal bike for me. Seriously looking at the low end alu one. Annoying that it only has one bottle cage and 27.2mm dropper posts are so rare though (and no internally routed dropper posts are available?). I do wonder if Giant have some new posts in the pipeline.

I had hoped to use my Hope hoops from my hardtail but see they won’t fit either, so this could get expensive… 😯

KSLev’s are available in 27.2 and internal.

I find myself looking at short travel FS bikes more and more now.

KSLev’s are available in 27.2 and internal.

Nice, I didn’t know they did an internal one now, thanks.

still only 100mm drop, mind.

Look good but wonder why with such an efficient platform they feel the need for rear shock remotes.

They’ve moved on from being a budget default with heaps of scope for improvement that’s for sure. Also wonder why 90mm rear – surely a marketing gimmick?

Specialized command post xcp is 27.2 and internal routing.

35mm or 50mm drop, which is surely enough for an xc bike.

such an efficient platform they feel the need for rear shock remotes

Sprinting?

Look good but wonder why with such an efficient platform they feel the need for rear shock remotes.

Because there isn’t really such a thing as efficient rear suspension – its just varying degress of watt sucking misery.
They mentioned on the coverage from the world champs at the weekend that Nino uses his remote lockout approximately 200 times per race.
And there was a WC race last year, where judging by the TV footage Jenny R seemed to be running her Spark locked out for most (possibly all) of the lap.

They all have pro mechanics and aren’t racing/training in UK mud… I’ve found suspension lock outs to be a royal PITA. Then again I don’t sprint.

Well believe it or not, Giant make bicycles designed to be used in more places around the world than in UK mud.
Write to them and maybe they’ll do a custom UK model with no lockout and extra mud clearance.

I’d say people like Nino are far better skilled and conditioned to make suspension less of a issue with regard to control & rider fatigue than your average middle aged XC Racer.

Speaking personally, I’d lock it out for the sprint off the line and for long non technical climbing, it’d be unlocked otherwise especially for >2 hour races.

The problem with these Anthems is that mine has cost £300 rather than £3000 to mimic the angles, and I suspect its not much heavier. I’l love one, but can’t justify it. Maybe in next years sales…

Also wonder why 90mm rear – surely a marketing gimmick?

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/article/2018-giant-anthem-29er-details-50256/

“By moving to a longer shock stroke and 90mm of rear wheel travel, we were able to substantially lower the leverage curve, which allows for greatly reduced shock pressures, a wide range of usable rebound, and elimination of the ‘dead zone’ of unused suspension travel that 100mm platforms traditionally suffer from,” said Kevin Dana, senior off-road global category manager at Giant.

I’m guessing the shorter travel has let them shorten the back end. It’s far shorter than their old 29er.

What happened to the rumoured re-appearance of a 29er Trance?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJEFIfopBQc[/video]

Giant are nothing if not inconsistent with their beliefs .

Anyone seen any info on weights anywhere?

Really interested in these, the anthem used to be a decent relatively affordable bike…I think my old 26er X1 with xt / sids / dt swiss stuff cost £1800 🙁

yeah dt78 my anthem xt was 1800 , it was great too

Hmm, 23.5lbs with a not-as-light-as-you-might-think wheel set. Not bad

Sauce: http://singletrackworld.com/2017/09/first-look-2018-giant-anthem-advanced-pro-29er-1/

But its the 2 mid range bikes I’m interested in: Carbon front end with SLX and SID, or all Alu with Eagle & Fox Elite – which is lighter?

Well believe it or not, Giant make bicycles designed to be used in more places around the world than in UK mud.
Write to them and maybe they’ll do a custom UK model with no lockout and extra mud clearance

Did you really mean to sound such a git?

“By moving to a longer shock stroke and 90mm of rear wheel travel, we were able to substantially lower the leverage curve, which allows for greatly reduced shock pressures, a wide range of usable rebound, and elimination of the ‘dead zone’ of unused suspension travel that 100mm platforms traditionally suffer from,” said Kevin Dana, senior off-road global category manager at Giant.

FOES have been doing this for years – Mechanical Engineers – why have other manufacturers not gone for reduced leverage ratios upto now?
Simple speak please…

yeah dt78 my anthem xt was 1800 , it was great too

I used to have an old 26″ X2 (the XT equipped) Anthem which was about £1600 at the time after discount. The £2400 list price for the SLX (alu X2) one probably isn’t ridiculous in that context. 15%-20% off won’t be uncommon in Christmas sales I reckon, so it doesn’t look too wild when you take into account inflation and the state of the pound.

Specialized command post xcp is 27.2 and internal routing.

Thomson have just replied to a tweet saying that they have a 27.2mm internal post in testing, due in Spring.