Setup

Setting up the Trance X was easy.

For my 74kg weight, I first set the fork’s air spring to 95psi, installed three volume-reducer spacers and opened all the GRIP2 external damper adjustments. During testing, I decreased pressure to 85psi to improve small-bump performance, finishing with 17 per cent sag.

I initially inflated the rear shock’s air spring to 230psi, but increased this during testing to 245psi to help balance the bike out. I fully opened the shock’s external rebound and compression adjusters to help free up the dampers, and ended up with 21 per cent sag.

The skinny EXO-casing tyres needed higher pressures than usual to avoid excess carcass deformation (28psi front, 30psi rear), but this reduced grip significantly.

Balancing grip and carcass support with the firm-compound, lightweight tyres – that are more suited to human-powered lightweight trail bikes – proved tricky. This was exacerbated by the bike’s 20kg weight.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 climbing performance

Despite the front end’s relatively low stack height – 625mm for the size large I tested – when seated, the bar feels tall.

This gives it a relaxed aura, taking most of your weight off your hands and focusing it on your sit bones. It’s great for covering mile after mile, reducing the shoulder, wrist and hand pain more hunched-over riding positions cause.

The adjustable (via different-sized chips) effective rise and stem length of the one-piece bar and stem contributes, lifting your hands higher than other bikes. Stem spacers can be used to further alter its height, but it’s only compatible with specific Giant ones.

A 636mm top tube is consistent with its trail-focused intentions. It helps you hunker down on techy or high-powered climbs, lowering your shoulders to the bar.

Add a generously steep seat tube angle to the mix – that places your hips directly over the bottom bracket – and the Trance’s seated position fills you with confidence. Control is particularly easy to master.

Lifting and placing the front wheel to weave and wind up technical sections of trail is remarkably fun; you point and the bike goes.

Advanced techniques such as cocking it up onto its rear wheel – even when the trial is super-steep – don’t result in control racing away from you.

Lengthy chainstays (447mm) keep your weight further forward in relation to the rear wheel and feel great on steep ascents. Front-wheel lift is limited and rear-wheel drive plentiful, despite the lacklustre tyre compound and racey Dissector tread pattern.

Giant’s Maestro suspension is well-tuned. It remains supple under power, absorbing rocks, roots and imperfections to create comfort and traction, but doesn’t sag excessively when rider weight shifts rearward up extreme gradients.

Motor performance and battery life

The SyncDrive Pro2 motor is powerful – even when torque and power are turned down in the smartphone app – helping the Trance X ascend effortlessly.

Power is controllable, too. Inputs are easy to master; it’s neither too sensitive, spinning the back wheel as soon as you push on the cranks, nor delayed, taking the wind out of your sails.

This gives it a premium feel, and clearly Giant has worked hard on the motor’s tune.

True to the brand’s claims, the Trance X sits in the SL eMTBs category, and its motor’s assistance can be toned right down to match the feel of lighter models.

Battery depletion, however, regardless of the motor’s state of tune, is quick. In fact, using the Eco (30Nm, 75 per cent assistance) and Tour (50Nm, 125 per cent assistance) modes only, I managed a mere 900m of ascent spread over 21km before emptying the on-board battery.

The 200Wh range extender is a must-have, especially if you’re planning on using higher assistance settings.

A large 36t chainring is limiting once the battery has run out; I struggled to climb up steeper or more technical sections without the motor’s assistance. Spinning your legs at a comfortable cadence also isn’t possible.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 descending performance

Head downhill and that high front end, long 480mm reach and generous chainstays combine to create a confidence-inspiring feel; you stand in the bike not on it, and behind the bars rather than over them.

While this gives a great hand-to-feet relationship, it feels at odds with the steep 65.8-degree head angle.

Angling nose-down into super-technical terrain, it can feel twitchy and nervous; you naturally recoil towards the rear of the bike to help maintain control, but doing so begins to upset its balance.

Adding to the issue further is a defined harshness felt through the bars. While it’s hard to isolate any single component, the dual-compound EXO-casing Maxxis tyres lack the damping, grip and control found on tackier, chunkier models. These are hardly reflective of the Giant’s £9,000 asking price.

Ride through loose, angled rocks or slick roots, and the front and rear wheels deflect left and right. The tyres scrabble for grip, causing the bars to twitch left and right as you fight for control. With rubber simply too hard, the tyres can’t deform around the trail’s bumps to mute unwanted inputs.

But there’s a level of stiffness in the front end, too. Whether it’s the wheels, all-in-one cockpit or grips is tricky to define, but you may need to swap out those parts to improve comfort.

All this is a shame when the Maestro suspension is so adept. It’s smooth and composed on the choppiest, roughest terrain, doing its hardest to provide grip and control.

There’s plenty of pep to its feel too; push the bike into the ground to pump or pop and it rewardingly bounds aloft or accelerates forwards. It’s also amazing on the brakes; hammer on the anchors and the terrain remains muted while you come to a brilliantly quick stop.

Flatter, more undulating descents, where you have to work the bike to build and maintain speed, reveals an engaging and fun side to the Trance. The suspension tracks the ground wonderfully, and its balance isn’t upset like it is on steeper descents.

Its low weight and high-power motor help too; you reach the assistance cut-off quickly but can power through it under your own steam.

Even though its geometry – for the most part – is pretty progressive, the head angle gives it a more traditional trail bike feel, getting to the edge quicker than it should.

Although a few shrewd upgrades (such as a better set of mountain bike tyres) would unlock more performance, little can be done for the relatively steep head tube angle.