Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 0 - First Ride Impressions

Back in November Mark got the chance to spend two days riding the new e-MTB from Giant in the Utah desert. Not enough time to conclude it's long term worthiness on UK trails but certainly enough time to get a feel for what this bike is all about and what it is for.
Lovers of Fox LiveValve can look away now.
To learn more about the details of this bike, including geos and specs, head over to our launch story here singletrackworld.com/charged/... ..

[@kayakutah]

This was a great monolog! Very informative, and covered concerns that aren't normally talked about!

[@herbertmichaels2841]

Speaking of batterries my 500 watt hour giant stance E +2. 2023 gets great range with it i always have 30%-50% after long 3 hour rides and thats using full power alot of the time

[@captainchipowen5184]

I don't get you guys that don't like the advantages of the Live Valve. I absolutely LOVE mine!

[@GavinStagg]

You mentioned that an aluminium version is on the way. Can you give us a release date or time frame for this, plus any indication of what the starting price would be? The bottom end carbon is still way out of range for me

[@singletrack]

We have no more details on the aluminium models beyond what we've been told. That is they will have the 800wh battery and will weigh in around the 23kg mark - so we've been told. No release dates on them yet but when we have them we'll update our website with a story.

[@markroberts7866]

The entry model of this bike has an aluminium rear triangle I wish they let you review that one it’s 5.5k so 1k less than the trek fuel exe and just seems like a better buy straight out the box spec wise wonder what you guys think?

[@kayakutah]

@@markroberts7866 I just checked out the $6000 (U.S.) Elite 3. In a medium, it's 45 pounds, 11 ounces or 20.7 Kg. That's very reasonable! Nice and quiet, good app adjustability. This could be the one for me! Buy 2 and have enough left over for 2 range extenders. Honestly, this bike at $6k is way more impressive than an 18.8Kg bike no one can afford! Plus, I'd pay extra to NOT have live valve! And I'd just as soon have normal bars and stem! I have a OneUp set of bars I love and Fasst Flexx bars with 12 degrees of sweep I might want to try. Can I sell a zillion dollar stem/bar?

[@markroberts7866]

@@kayakutah yeah it sure seems like you get more for your money with giant spec wise, thanks for the weight info.

[@SuperDodoe]

why are all the rider rocking the spare tire ?

[@Paulthenutter34]

Not a fan of the live valve concept either. Any idea of the actual weight of the elite 2 please?

[@singletrack]

We don't have weights for all models yet as we haven't been provided with test bikes to ride on our home trails yet. The 18.8kg for the Model 0 is Giant's claimed weight. We always weigh bikes ourselves when we get test models in.

[@kayakutah]

The Elite 3 is only 20.7 Kg in a medium. I would guess the 2 is not a lot lighter. maybe .5 Kg or so. The fork would be lighter and the rear triangle will shave some weight, but other than that, I think it's pretty close to the same.

[@neilrobertson1345]

So why the live valve so bad in what way

[@singletrack]

If you remember Specialized had a reactive rear suspension system that was mechanical. A ball bearing in an oil tube would block the compression valve so when things were smooth the rear was almost locked out completely. When you hit a bump however, the ball bearing was bounced up into the oil and the valve was open - and the suspension began to work. It's a great concept in theory but in practice you needed that initial JOLT to open up the suspension. I've found a similar issue with Live Valve. As great as it is, it can't predict the terrain in front of your wheel, so that initial thump is always harsh. There's more to it than just that, but that is a large part of the problem with this tech for me.

[@evo5349]

@@singletrack Live valve is for idiots who don't know how suspension works, but big wallets. Just buy a bike that has a good standard suspension that you can afford so servicing is easy and can be set by the rider. If I can go through 4 shock bodies in one year of riding my ebike so much so that my bike doesn't come recommended any more because of frame flex and designed a link for my Trance so that the shock is pushed from both ends and was so good and never had a problem but there's a Patent so the shock has to be fixed at one end.

[@JamesSmith123456789]

That bike only cost $14,000 awesome sign me up🤣

[@bimmerfan729]

I wish Giant would send their non live valve equipped bikes out for review. I don't know how many reviews I've read where that's all they talk about how much better the bike would be without live valve and it takes away from the performance of the actual bike. Looks like a fantastic bike, however.

[@Adrian-cw8yu]

£13,000 for a bicycle 😂😂🤣🤣😂😂

[@singletrack]

That's nothing. Have you seen how much some people pay for a watch? 🙂

[@IPlayVidyaGames]

Acoustic bikes..... Please stop trying to push that term.

[@singletrack]

What is your alternative suggestion?

[@lukasvrana6388]

@@singletrack Amish bike, analogue bike :D

[@jasper_of_puppets]

@@singletrack Regular bike. Non-Ebike.

[@kayakutah]

@@singletrack Mountain bike. A mountain bike without a motor is a "mountain bike". A mountain bike with a motor is an ebike. Those are the two different categories - so far. Why not, "Acoustic, human powered, no battery, no motor mountain bikes"? How redundant must we be? The people at the "department of redundancy department" should not be in charge of naming.

[@SevernBeach]

@@singletrack Amish ?

[@Twongo]

Acoustic? 1: of or relating to the sense or organs of hearing, to sound, or to the science of sounds acoustic apparatus of the ear acoustic energy : such as a: deadening or absorbing sound acoustic tile b: operated by or utilizing sound waves

[@singletrack]

Also the opposite of electric in a guitar context.. But you knew that already, right? :-)

[@Twongo]

@@singletrack Because? The electricity is amplifying the acoustical properties (sound) of the guitar. While the motor on our bike does amplify the sound of putting down power, that is not the goal of the electrification. Analog? Probably a better descriptive, especially now that intelligent control will soon be dominating the tech. Bio? eh... But 'acoustic' is just sloppy English, and quite frankly, a bit try-hard. Cringe.

[@bigchungus2536]

​@singletrack Man the biking community can be real snobby huh? I've been looking to get into mountain biking and wanna hop straight to electric and am landing on this elite and pretty much every thread of comments in vids has people mad at something trivial like calling a regular bike an acoustic or analog bike. Really hope that's not indicative of the culture as a whole. Anyways, great vid. I really appreciated you showing how it rides with the motor off. The fact it rides well enough without it AND can put out 85nm of torque is why I'm attracted to this bike. Sounds like a blast. Cheers, and ignore the gatekeeping edgelords. 😄