Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 | Electric Mountain Bike of the Year contender

Giant’s Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 delivers a distinct blend of the qualities of lightweight and full-power eMTBs, but sits comfortably in the former category thanks to its 19.98kg weight (size large, without pedals).

It uses the same Giant/Yamaha co-developed SyncDrive Pro2 motor as Giant’s full-power bikes, boasting a meaty 85Nm of torque and weighing a claimed 2.7kg. It’s fitted with a 400Wh battery, shaving some crucial grams.

Giant’s high-tech carbon fibre frame is matched with an all-in-one carbon bar and stem. Using the brand’s twin-link Maestro suspension, the Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 has 140mm of rear-wheel travel.

Fox’s Factory-level 36 fork and Float X dampers are fitted, as is SRAM GX AXS Eagle Transmission gearing. The bike retails for £9,499.

A geometry flip chip on the rocker linkage changes between low and high modes. In the low setting, the 65.8-degree head tube angle is mated with a 76-degree seat tube angle and a 480mm reach, cementing its trail-focused intentions. It uses mixed wheel sizes (29in front, 27.5in rear).

Keep the Trance X on shallower gradients and the combination of its low weight and powerful motor pays dividends; speed is easy to accumulate and maintain once you’ve exceeded the motor cut-off.

Poppy, active and stable suspension irons out the trail; it works hard to provide grip and control, even when you’re hard on the brakes.

Uphill, there’s little standing in the way of the powerful motor, except its internal battery’s range. Riders weighing 75kg shouldn’t expect any more than 1,000 metres of ascent on a single charge in the lower-power modes, and that drops if you utilise the full 85Nm.

On gnarlier downhills, a steeper than average head angle, firm-compound tyres and stiff-feeling ride keep total control just outside of your grasp, blunting the Trance’s performance.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 RS frame, suspension and motor

Made from Giant’s Advanced carbon, where the front triangle is assembled as one piece of the material, the bike's tubes are sleek.

Cables run internally via the headset, while there’s a water bottle mount on the down tube. A set of secondary bosses are nestled under the top tube, home to the top-spec model’s Fox Live Valve suspension controller.

There's chain-slap and down-tube protection aplenty and the bike uses SRAM’s Universal Derailleur Hanger.

Delivering 140mm of travel, Giant’s twin-link Maestro floating pivot point suspension system is claimed to be efficient and active on the trail.

Fitted with a 400Wh battery – that Panasonic designed specifically for Giant – the SyncDrive Pro2 motor puts out as much as 85Nm of torque.

When set to Smart Assist (the blue LED), the motor uses an inclinometer and accelerometer to help control how much power it delivers.

Motor assistance – in all its modes – can be turned up or down via the smartphone app, giving the bike multiple personalities.

Giant says it’s the only brand capable of reliably delivering full-power electric bike motor performance using an SL battery.

The brand claims this is possible because of how much current (amps) it can deliver to the motor. Regular lower-powered batteries can’t reliably provide enough current to run the motor at peak torque.

A 200Wh range extender is also available.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 geometry

A flip chip between the seatstay and upper rocker pivot adjusts its geometry figures between steeper and slacker settings.

This equates to a 66.5 or 65.8-degree head angle.

Seat tube angles also change between 76.7 and 76 degrees, but these are steeper on the size-small bike.

Across the four-size (S to XL) range, reach figures span from 439mm to 513mm, with the large getting a comfortable 480mm number (in the low setting). The chainstay is 447mm for all sizes.

While not extreme, the Trance X’s figures – bar the head angle – are at the more progressive end of the trail bikes category.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 specifications

Sitting one down from the range-topping model, the Elite 1 boasts some fancy kit, representing reasonable value for money.

Fox’s 150mm-travel Factory 36 fork and Float X Factory shock headline the spec sheet.

SRAM’s GX Eagle AXS Transmission derailleur and drivetrain are paired with Praxis Carbon ebike cranks. Code R brakes clamp large rotors (220mm front, 200mm rear) and there’s a Tranz-X Rad+ travel-adjustable dropper.

A host of Giant-branded parts finish off the bike, including the one-piece Contact SLR Trail Integrated Advanced Composite bar and stem, grips and saddle.

E-TRX wheels are wrapped in Maxxis tyres; a Minion DHF up front and a Dissector at the rear, both dual-compound EXO casing versions.

The size-large Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 weighs 19.98kg without pedals.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 ride impressions

I tested the Giant Trance X in Scotland’s Tweed Valley, home to some of the world’s best mountain biking.

Conditions ranged from freeze-dried dirt and dust through to mid-winter bogs, with a good measure of rain, snow and ice thrown in.

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.

How does the Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 compare to the Whyte ELyte 150 Works?

Neither the Giant nor the Whyte are embroiled in a suspension-travel arms race, both settling on an identical 150mm travel Fox 36 fork and 140mm (142mm for the Whyte) of squish out back.

Both also have punchy motors, but the Giant’s full-power unit beats Bosch’s SX on torque (85Nm vs 55Nm) and assistance (400 per cent vs 340 per cent), and doesn’t need to be spun at high cadences to get the most from it. But, when set to equivalent outputs, the Bosch uses its battery power more frugally than the SyncDrive unit.

There’s only 360g between each bike – the Giant weighing 19.98kg and the Whyte 19.62kg – and overall the specs are pretty similar.

But head towards gnarly terrain and a performance gulf appears; the Whyte is leaps and bounds ahead of the Giant in terms of feel. It’s damped, muted and easy to control, and there’s bucket loads of grip on tap. In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking it has quite a bit more travel than claimed.

A lot of this is down to the two bikes’ geometry, particularly the 64-degree head tube angle. Even in the slackest setting (65.8 degrees), the Giant is nearly two full degrees steeper than the Whyte.

Speccing such a steep figure on a bike with a long reach, low bottom bracket and steep seat tube angle feels anomalous, and the proof is in the pudding out on the trails. Little can be done to tap into more performance and calm its handling.

If you’re looking for a bike that’s more capable on tougher terrain without any less pep in its step, the Whyte is the one to have.

If you need a full-power motor without the weight – and can deal with limited battery life – it’s tricky to argue against the Giant, however.

Giant Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 bottom line

Giant’s Yamaha-built custom-mapped SyncDrive Pro2 motor and its Maestro suspension are the Trance’s highlights.

The motor’s easy-to-control torque and assistance translate to speedy forward drive that feels brilliant on the climbs, and even the lower-power modes have plenty of kick.

Combined with a low headline weight, the Trance rides like an SL bike but packs the punch of a full-power model.

Add in impeccable suspension, and if the trails aren’t too extreme, there’s little that stands in the way of grin-inducing rides.

Spec choices, such as the budget tyres, one-piece bar and stem, and chunky rims, reduce control when the going gets tough. A steeper than average head angle makes performance crumble further, culminating in a pingy and loose ride in rough and steep terrain.

If your local trails are relatively flowy, or you don’t want to race down steep tech, the Trance X Advanced E+ Elite 1 blends lightweight and full-power ebike performance well.