The latest version of Giant’s Trance X has 27 different configurations. Starting as a 140mm travel trail bike with a 150mm fork, between the three-position rear flip chip and reach adjust headset cups, and the ability to run a mullet rear wheel, a longer fork and an overstroked rear shock, the tinkering potential contained within this one frame is impressive without an outrageous investment of time, money or mechanical ability.

After Wil reviewed the bike last year, we shipped it up to the Gold Coast so that I could spend some time getting to know this rowdy trail bike and see if we could make it into a more playful and rambunctious version of itself. With a few key changes, we’ve taken what is already a fantastic trail bike and given it a more aggressive, mullet-wheel and long travel attitude. It’s still an extremely versatile bike, but now it packs a different punch. Let’s dive into the transformation of this Giant Trance X Advanced 1.

Giant Trance X Advanced — Here is the Trance X in its final form, with a mullet rear wheel, longer travel fork and shock.

From Trail Tamer to Tweakable Beast | A refresher on the Giant Trance X

Even before I started tinkering with the Trance X, I must reiterate Wil’s sentiment after reviewing the 140/150mm trim. Giant has made a damn good trail bike that performs pretty much any way you slice it.

Up for a big pedally adventure? Not to worry, the Maestro suspension is efficient to the point I have yet to touch the blue compression switch, even on road commutes or shuttling my toddler to daycare on his Kids Ride Shotgun.

Have a weekend of shuttles planned, or an afternoon chasing your buddies on big bikes down enduro trails? No stress, that Float X will munch through chunky descents as fast as you can manage with a floaty ride quality, and the bike puts you in a neutral position that doesn’t require any wonky body english to make the tyres grip.

While Giant doesn’t provide much help with setup, once you dial in the rear shock, it’s well tuned, and there really isn’t much need to faff around with volume spacers.

It’s a well-rounded and engaging trail bike that will happily trundle around your local trails, but also has the chops to bring along on a destination road trip and not leave you undergunned and hanging on for dear life. It’s not a sled, and you can’t ride it like a point-and-pray passenger, but it’s also not going to buck you over the handlebars with aplomb when you get into trouble either.

Coming from a Norco Optic, the Maestro suspension is a little more active, but in a good, traction-generating way. Even before I got the suspension dialled, the Trance X was easy to gel with—certainly a jump on and shred style arrangement.

Add in the reach-adjust headset cups to help you dial in your fit and feel, and the three-position flip chip in the chainstay pivot, cables that stay far away from that top headset bearing and a lovely purple-blue paint job — a damn good trail bike indeed.

Why we modified the Giant Trance X?

Giant includes two flip chips with the Trance X, the neutral middle setting and the High/Low chip which adds or subtracts 5mm from the middle, which moves the BB 10mm up or down. Much ink…eerrrr pixels….have been spilled about flip chips and adjustable geometry, and whether it’s just something brands add to tick box to give the marketing department something to talk about. There is also the argument that some of the geo adjustments are too small to actually have any effect on the ride quality or handling characteristics. In the case of the Trance X, the adjustments make a meaningful difference to the way the bike handles.

It didn’t take much experimentation to realise that I preferred the bike in the low setting, which puts our medium test bike in a 64.4º head angle, 76.8º seat angle and a BB drop of 40mm — I measured the BB height in this set-up at 339mm.

This worked out nicely when you slot in a 27.5in rear wheel, it drops the BB by 10mm, so putting the flip chip in the high position pretty well replicates the geometry of the dual 29in setup in the low position.

Mullet Mission | The Trance X Advanced Mullet

Cost | From ~$500 AUD to ~1,500 AUD, depending on the wheel. The Giant TRX Carbon wheel we sourced sells for $1,250 AUD. You’ll also need a tyre, which can range from ~$60 AUD to $130AUD. The Michelin Wild AM² seen here, sells for $129 AUD.
Complexity | Moderate. You’ll need to the wheel, change the flip chip and check tyre clearance
Benefit | Added playfulness and agility. Easier to manual, improved acceleration and more engaging ride feel on techy trails.

We sourced an identical Giant TRX Carbon wheel in the 27.5in trim, and away I went. These things are wide and quite stiff, and the small wheel diameter further accentuates that rear-end stiffness.

There is a bit more noise that is transmitted through the bike, but that extra lateral stiffness is most noticeable on those tyre peeling hard pack corners where you can really feel the point when the casing begins to roll. Of course, when things get chundery and chopped up, there is typically less tyre in contact with the ground, so a smaller, very stiff wheel does require some added body english to keep it from stepping out, and I’m keen to source a more compliant wheel to see how that changes things.

This is well and truly overshadowed by the liveliness the smaller rear wheel brings into the equation, and how the bike can pivot. The same tight successive corners that took a bit of manhandling to swing through on the dual 29in setup were smooth like butta’ after the Trance X had been to the hairdresser.

I’m not a rider that’s often wiggling around the trail, whipping the rear end to and fro, but even with me, Mr Vanilla, Flow’s resident Capitan Slow steering the ship, I found myself flipping and flopping, poppin and getting all bent out of shape (intentionally of course) in a master class of skill and agility — or at least that’s what I told my friends.

Bringing the smaller rear wheel provides maximum reward for pumping through rollers, pushing down the backsides of things and taking an assertive approach to every trail feature.

It’s worth noting that we’re talking about a size medium frame here with 440mm rear chainstays, and the weight is a sneeze over 14kg. On the larger size frames, the impact of the smaller wheel on the overall system would be lessened, and I’d speculate the effect may be slightly muted.

With less rotating weight, it also requires less effort to get the bike moving, and there is a notable increase in acceleration. There is a little crux tech feature about ¾ of the way up a climbing trail that has stumped me for going on six months. Clearing it takes a combination of a bit of technical wheel placement and a quick acceleration to get the move started — easier said than done when your heart rate has already been pushing 175- 180 bpm for a few minutes. With the Trance X in its final form, I’ve made it through a couple times without dabbing now.

This may also have something to do with the fact that the smaller wheel has the knock-on effect of reducing your gear ratio. With the smaller circumference, the 27.5in wheel doesn’t roll as far as a 29er using the same 10-52T GX Transmission cassette. It’s roughly equivalent to moving down a chainring size, or removing two teeth. I am intrigued to see what a 34t ring would bring to the equation.

Climbing up through hairpins, the smaller rear wheel has the effect of widening the corner and seeming to create more space to pick your line with the slightly shorter wheel base and the added wheel flop.

Of course it’s not all rainbow encrusted unicorn farts and the rear wheel does introduce some compromises.

I ran back-to-back runs on the same loop, and there is no question that the 27.5-inch wheel does hang up on more edges, both on the ups and the downs, and the larger rear wheel also brings more stability at full tilt when things get a bit zesty.

The most noticeable difference for me was just the way the bike carried momentum with the 29in rear wheel, due in part to what I’ve just talked about. It just wants to roll and keep going, both through the chunder and on smoother trails — again, both on the ups and the downs. With the smaller rear wheel, you have to work a little harder for it, but that’s not always a bad thing.

Shock stroke adjustment | Spacer removal for added rear travel

Cost | Zero! No new parts are needed; just remove an internal spacer from the shock.
Complexity | Low. Straightforward if you’re comfortable opening a rear shock, not much more involved than adding or removing a volume spacer.
Benefit | Boosts rear travel to about 145mm. Not a huge change, but it adds a bit of support and a deeper ride.

The Fox Float X ships with a 2.5mm travel-reducing spacer installed. So by removing that lovely little red chip, we’re able to change the 185×52.5mm stroke shock into a 185x55mm shock. This ups the travel to about 145mm but also means you’ll need to re-adjust sag.

Even when you aren’t playing with the stroke of the shock, Giant doesn’t provide much help with set-up beyond saying to aim for 30% sag. With the additional stroke that works out to be exactly 16.5mm (up from 15.7mm), which for my 70kg riding weight worked out to be 168psi. I opted for 7/14 clicks of rebound and compression bang in the middle. There is a climb switch, but the only time I used it was when my three-year-old son, who loves blue compression switches and dials, flipped it without me knowing. This led to about 30 minutes of wondering why I had no grip and how my local trails had gotten so much chunkier in seven days time with no rain.

I’d love to make a sweeping declaration that the additional rear travel completely transforms the ride of the Trance X, but frankly, it’s hardly noticeable. It doesn’t drastically change the geometry at sag, nor does it throw the suspension kinematics all out of whack. It is a nice little insurance policy and there is a bit of added support, I can’t say so far that I ever felt a solid thud from the bottom out bumper, though the o-ring tells a different story.

how to change a fox 36 air spring — The Trance X is also compatible with a 160mm fork. Fortunately, with the Fox 36, that was as simple as an air spring swap.

Fork Spring Surgery | 160mm air spring swap

Cost | $108 AUD for the Fox 36 air spring, plus another $100-150 AUD for labour if you’re local bike shop is doing the swap.
Complexity | Moderate. This requires opening the fork and changing the air spring. Most confident home mechanics can complete this job with the right tools and oils.
Benefit | Improved capability up front for aggressive trails and steep descents. A slight change to the geometry improves stability.

Bumping the Fox 36 up to 160mm is a slightly more involved process, to swap to the longer air spring, but one any semi-competent home mechanic should be able to handle without issue.

Of course, this raises everything by 10mm, choppering out the head angle to 63.9° and the seat angle to 76.3° (pretty slack for a trail bike) in the high flip chip position, with the smaller rear wheel. This introduced an interesting and subtle change to the handling that didn’t completely come to bear until I ran the back-to-back loops with the different-sized wheels I mentioned above.

I preferred the flip chip in the mid setting. This only changes the head and seat tube angle by 0.5º, which is negligible, but it drops the BB by 5mm, giving more of the in-the-bike sensation, while also balancing not smacking your cranks into every rock and root you come across. I am interested in banging a set of shorter cranks in for some additional ground clearance, as I do still find myself ratcheting up and over things on a relatively regular basis.

The seat angle is still pretty slack, at 75.9º, but with the saddle pushed forward on the rails, it puts you in a manageable and efficient climbing position.

With the added wheel flop and the agility in the back end, initiating corners comes easily, but the change to the head angle brings back a small but appreciable level of stability. When you’re pinballing down the sketchy chute, you can be a bit less discerning with your line choice and let the bike do its thing, and then hit the catch berm at the bottom without the fear of blowing out over the highside.

It makes for an extremely balanced and capable ride across a vast swath of terrain, while also maintaining some of that playfulness and deft handling that allows you to swing the rear end around.

Versatility Dialled In | Flip chip and wheel clearance

With the flip chips and so many moving parts in this equation, Giant has a compatibility chart, including what wheel sizes work with each flip chip configuration.

These have less to do with ride feel and dragging your cranks along the ground with the mullet rear wheel and the fip chip in the low setting, and more to do with the rear wheel coming into contact with the frame at full travel.

I tried it in the workshop with the longer stroke shock, flip chip in the low position and a 29-inch rear wheel, and there was room to spare. I should note this on the medium frame, and it also does not take into account frame flex. If you’re hitting full travel, the frame and wheels will definitely be bending under force. There’s no seatstay bridge to come crashing into the seat tube, and there is still some breathing room between the diagonal brace, but I’d probably abide by Giant’s suggestions here and not dance with the devil.

Of course, I cannot speak to the smaller-sized bikes. However, I would speculate that there may be frame contact, and rather than sending out a chart with caveats, the brand’s legal department suggested that it just provide one clear sweeping declaration.

Stretch or shrink | Reach adjustment with the headset cups

Cost | Nada! These are included with the bike, and no extra purchase is needed.
Complexity | Low. The hardest part is dropping the fork. The cups easily pop in and out with just your fingers.
Benefit: | Fine-tunes fit and handling to match rider preference. Helpful if you’re between sizes or want to tweak steering feel.

Frankly, this is a feature I wish every bike had. Not just from a fit perspective but also a ride characteristics perspective. Bike sizing is a spectrum, and even within those sizes, there are folks who will be just in between the high or lower end. With 10mm to play with, it not only allows you to find where you think you should be, but also experiment to find what you actually prefer.

Just like everything else, reach is just one number that exists within a larger picture of the geometry and plays a role in the way a bike rides. My personal bike is a previous generation Norco Optic in a size Large. Standing 175mm tall, I’d usually choose the model with a 450-460mm reach. However, Norco’s size chart had me bang in the middle of the size large, so I took a punt and went for the big bike with a 480mm reach. I’ve had the privilege of riding both a medium and a large on that bike, and despite the reach being well beyond what I would normally have chosen, I liked the way the bigger bike felt.

The Trance X in its longest form (dual 29) is 464mm. However, I preferred the way the bike felt in the short setting at 456mm. In the more aggressive final evolution, the reach gets shorter again, at 444mm with the short cup and 451mm in the long cup. In this configuration, I’ve been going back and forth between the middle and long cup, having not yet settled on my favourite. There is a noticeable change to the stability of the bike’s descending, as well as its manners on the climbs.

We’ll be putting together another feature looking at reach adjustment, stay tuned for more on this.

Months On | Real world impressions living with the Trance X Advanced

Given that Giant sells this format of the Trance X in different markets with the SX moniker, while there are some small compromises to the geometry, they are not out of the realm of what the brand has designed the bike around. I know of a local shop that has had a few customers ask for the longer air spring and the travel reducer to be removed on their new Trance Xs after having a few rides.

The seat angle is a little slack and puts your weight a bit over the back wheel while climbing. The Maestro suspension handles this well, but I did have to push the saddle up on the rails, which all but mitigated the issue.

Given I’ve been riding this bike and tinkering with it for many months, I’ve also had an opportunity to see how things settle in and wear through that period. All of the bearings are still running smoothly, and I greatly appreciate the torque specs being printed directly on all of the hardware.

Chainslap, bottle rattle, and storage struggles

The frame is generally quiet, bar some chainslap — more on this in a sec — and the rubber downtube protection is ample and well placed. There are a couple of paint chips on the back of the seat tube, but this is a mountain bike after all.

Most of the things that have annoyed me about the Trance X are things that Wil identified in the first review.

The chainstay protection has been an ongoing issue, and none of the more elegant solutions I’ve implemented have worked all that well. It’s a funny-shaped bit of the chainstay yoke that does not play super well with adhesive, nor will anything slip cleanly over it. My current solution has been a tube, zip-tied on and finished with electrical tape to prevent it from moving around. This has reduced the incessant slapping when things get rough — though the paint underneath is a bit worse for wear.

And then there is the in-frame storage. When done well, this little cubby inside the frame is a revelation. Poorly executed, it can be a creaky, expletive-punctuated mess as you struggle to get the pouch containing your tyre levers or multi tool both in and out of the frame.

Giant falls more into the latter category. It’s not the worst I’ve come across, but the opening in the downtube is simply too narrow — the Lezyne multi-tool I usually carry is wider than the downtube opening.

Loaded with a smaller OneUp multi-tool, tyre levers, plugs, a CO2 canister and inflator, and a lightweight tube, there is plenty of room inside the frame, but getting it through the opening is an exercise in blind Tetris and patience. And when you need to get it back out, that’s a whole other situation.

It’s also not particularly well sealed, and there were several occasions I’d go fishing around for a pouch, and it would be absolutely soaked.

With the placement of the door and the bottle cage bosses, it also limits clearance for water bottles, and anything more than a 500ml bottle is going to contact the frame. On the bright side, it doesn’t creak.

There is still some experimenting to be done with this long travel, mulleted Trance X Advanced, but I think I will be leaving it in the mullet configuration.

Flow’s Verdict

The Giant Trance X is extremely adaptable and a bloody good trail bike. It does just about everything well bar a few small niggles.

We calculated that there are some 27 different iterations of the Trance X you can build with the reach adjustment, flip chip, wheel sizes, and travel adjustment. And I think I’ve tried them all at this point.

I’m very much a set and forget type rider but all of this does add to the versatility, and is convenient enough where I could see myself fiddling with things depending on where I’m headed. While I doubt many folks will be changing the travel around more than once, the ability to swap the rear wheel without compromising the geo and have a notable change in the way the bike rides does create a viable solution and allows the Trance X to occupy two spaces at once. Headed out for a big pedal with a backpack and pockets containing so many carbs it would make even Willy Wonka’s teeth hurt? Bang the 29in wheel in the back and pedal for your life.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you’ve booked in a day of shuttles hitting the steepest and deepest trails you can find, that mullet rear wheel will be the ticket for an awesome day out.

The question everyone has been asking me is, will I change the Trance X back, reduce the travel or revert to the 29in back wheel?

Nope.

The Trance X wearing this more aggressive outfit is a spectacularly fun build, and it’s seen my riding becoming more playful and enthusiastic. And the fact that such a different ride quality could be achieved with a few key changes, and without too much elbow grease, shows just how versatile and adaptable the Trance X platform has become.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER - Colin Levitch

Hometown

Gold Coast, QLD

Height

175cm

Weight72kg

RIDING STYLE

Aggressively mediocre

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Staff Rides | Colin’s long travel mulleted Giant Trance X Advanced

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