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2012 Giant Mountain Bikes – Overdrive Headsets and New Carbon-Alloy Trance

2012 Giant Trance X Advanced 1 full suspension carbon fiber alloy mountain bike
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2012 Giant Trance X Advanced 1 full suspension carbon fiber alloy mountain bike

For the most part, Giant’s 2012 mountain bike line gets the BNG treatment – Bold New Graphics.

They are carrying over the Overdrive 2 tapered headtube design recently introduced on their 2012 road bikes. The 1.25″ to 1.5″ tapered HT will be on the:

  • Faith 0
  • Reign X0, X1
  • Reign 0, 1
  • Trance X Advanced SL 0, 1
  • Trance X Advanced 0, 1

…and basically all the rest of their top end 0 and 1 level bikes, including the 29ers. One interesting tidbit from my conversation with their Canadian PM was this: The OD2 design is actually only a change in the headset’s upper cup, not the frame. So, you could buy a lower level bike and upgrade later by purchasing the right stem, fork and headset. Alternately, if you have a fork and stem you really like, or you get an OD2 frames but don’t want to commit to a new standard, you’d only have to put in a smaller headset cup in the top. This also means you could potentially set up any other brand bike that has a reasonably modern tapered headtube with this new OD2 style front end.

The bike above is the new-for-2012 Trance X Advanced, a mixed media middle ground between the full carbon Trance and the all alloy model. Details and pics, including some rebadging on the women’s side, behind the break…

2012 Giant mountain bikes get the new Overdrive 2 headset standard

For the bikes with Overdrive 2, Giant had Fox and Rockshox press new steerer tubes into the forks to accommodate the 1.25″ upper headset cup. Interestingly, the OD2 system isn’t making its way to the cyclocross bikes yet, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up there next year.

2012 Giant Trance X Advanced 1 full suspension carbon fiber alloy mountain bike 2012 Giant Trance X Advanced 1 full suspension carbon fiber alloy mountain bike

The new Trance X Advanced uses the Trance X Advanced SL’s carbon fiber front triangle but an alloy rocker arm and rear triangle. It only adds around 100g to the frame, but lets Giant bring in an upper middle price point to the range that satisfies both the wallet and the scale.

2012 Giant Trance X Advanced 1 full suspension carbon fiber alloy mountain bike weight

25.74lbs on the scale for (I think) a Large. Possibly Medium.

2012 Giant Trance XW alloy mountain bike

For the ladies, the Cypher becomes the Trance XW and gets some nice, subtle graphics on the top tube.

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JON
JON
12 years ago

PURE BULLSHIT.

user2489
user2489
12 years ago

That seems heavy for the trance x0, my 2011 trance x1 was at 25.8lbs without pedals.

Will
Will
12 years ago

no Trance 29er?

C’mon Giant…

Raff
Raff
12 years ago

same old cheap and nasty giants….

wonny
wonny
12 years ago

Does the mountain bike world need another head tube standard? bullshit indeed!

Alex
Alex
12 years ago

G* damn it, Giant! Stop inventing new standards! First overdrive IS OK!
Reroute the cables near the rocker arm on next years’ frames! PLEASE!

slam
slam
12 years ago

i was hoping for a trance 29er, 142×12’s and not another headtube standard…

Speed565
Speed565
12 years ago

New standard – new problems for buyers and bigger sale for manufacturers 🙁
What’s the point of a tapered HT if I need a new steam for it !! A normal straight one would be cheaper and simpler. Probably in 2013 they will make it and call it Overdrive 3 or 4 😛

rodney
rodney
11 years ago

I think I know why they did this. I just bought a 2012 anthem size medium, and cant get my ’10 tapered rock shox to fix, even though they shipped it to me with a od1 headset – the anthem has an extremely short steer tube – so short that the top bearing hits the taper before it can seat along with the compression ring…..Im guessing their proprietary fork has a taper that ends earlier + clears the bearing. and they went with a fatter top end to sell some stems. My bike headset also came with a reducer ring so i think ill say f00k tapered all together and run a straight 1- 1/8 till Chris King gets involved. im not down with proprietary, but i like maestro and warranties so guess im a lemming….

Harry
Harry
10 years ago

An excellent hi spec bike I ride enduro , AM, some downhill only update is the giant dropper post which is spectacular, I’ve ridden 3000 kms this season without a problem, amazing value for the money

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