Tell me about your Giant Trances..

…Please;0) I’m thinking of swapping My Cotic Soul frame for a Giant Trance frame so that I have a bike that is a bit better for 24hr events (in a team) a few Enduro events and just general arseing about. I’d prefer to have something a bit shorter travel but still fun, but how is the Trance?

Is there much mud clearance at the rear? Is the 5in Meastro set up efficient? and would you run 115mm Reba SL’s on one even if they are a tiny bit short?

Ta, TR

Righto, well the magic is that if you buy one of my ones for sale here you could probably keep the soul too! And they’re both the shorter travel 4.2″ ones.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic.php?id=561

Clearance wise at the back you can happily run a 2.3 tyre and still have plenty of mud clearance, and there’s acres of it with 2.0s. The mud does tend to collect on top of the front mech and the bit directly behind there, but never enough to foul the function of the wheel or mech.

Riding wise, they’re very efficient in my opinion – happily done all day rides on both the ones I’m selling (the bonus of the 2007 one I’ve got is that I upgraded the shock to one with lockout) so it’s a hardtail when you want it to be as well. It’s brilliant for attacking singletrack, and tracks, accelerates and is balanced beautifully. Weight wise there’s probably a 3lb difference between a hardtail frame and one of these so you do notice it a bit, but it never feels like you’re riding a heavy bike uphill, but really does come into its own on the downs where it feels like it has way more travel than it does.

My personal preference on them is a longer travel fork, but that’s as I had mine set up as more of a fun bike – if I was doing some racing on it a lighter, shorter travel fork would have been on there, and rebas would have been my choice. I generally run the pikes at 130mm, so there wouldn’t be a huge difference. Also, the complete bike comes specced new with 100mm forks, so you’d be fine in my opinion.

Any specifics, feel free to ask

cheers,
pk

pk ripper that is one sales pitch.bought the 2008 trance xo and cant beleive how much easyer rides seem onit compared to the vt1 i had before suspension works great.like i said mine is the 5inch travel one and i built a cove handjob hardtail with all the bits off the vt1.first ever hardtail and i cant say it climbs or feels any lighter than the trance x.awsome bike i love it.and im not tryna sell you one ha ha

Agreed … loads of tyre clearance and builds into a really efficient bike. I used a Revelation with mine. It’s been hanging up since October and a subsequent purchase means I’ll probably sell it. Contact me on swayndoAThotmailDOTcoDOTuk if you fancy a medium 05/06 with a PUSHed RP3 and Enduro bearings all round.

Just bought an ’08 Trance secondhand myself – because I wanted to try something more versatile than my Anthem.

I’ve swapped some of the parts already, including the 100mm fork for a 100-130mm Revelation, and here it is…

So far I’m really pleased with it. Been out for a big ride on the Dales and a lap of Dalby and it seems almost as snappy as the Anthem, but with a more heads-up riding position that makes technical descents a lot more enjoyable.

The frame handles the extra travel at the front really well too, which also makes the descents a joy. It feels very much like my Handjob actually, but with a little safety net of travel at the rear.

The ’08 frames are very light too, so could be just what you’re after for enduro races. I’m planning on having a go at one or two of those myself this year on the Trance.

There were a few left at good discounts when I was looking a couple of weeks ago, if you’re after a new bike.

And I’m not trying to sell mine either, btw.

😉

I should just point out that the only reason I’m selling mine is that I’ve bought myself a spanking new X0’d up carbon FSR, which has a very similar suspension set-up, just with the brain linked shock.

And not a total sales pitch – I’m a complete convert to them, as one of the best bikes I’ve ever had. If I could afford to keep one of the trances to really smash around on, I would, but space is at a premium in my flat right now.

I had the older trance a 4 model, bought as a frame only blue with spots. Built it with pace forks 130 and xt kit, great bike, in its second version i had pikes on and very capable, lightest buils was 28lbs i would guess and it rode great, excellent suspension system really grips in on climbs, very neutral going down in a very positive manner. at 6ft got a large always felt it was too big, frame weighty at 7lbs I think but it is a great bike cpapable of letting rip. Recommended

Thanks guys,

That seems to have confirmed what I was hoping, PK- ripper, I’m actually swapping with another chap on the Classifieds, but I did see your ad! And it’s good to see that the earlier frames were only 4.2 in travel, that will balance the bike nicely.

Cheers chaps,

TR