Giant Anthem X1 Review

By Steve Devantier

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have a chance to demo the 2010 Giant Anthem X1, and I must say I was thoroughly impressed. I have been racing an older model Anthem for 3 years now. It’s seen me through 3 BC Bike Races and countless other rides, and has never let me down, but when I got on this demo bike I was ready to trade my trusty steed in for a newer model. Here are my thoughts.

The Anthem X1 sits third in Giant’s Anthem line, underneath the XX full carbon and the XO aluminum model. The Anthem is a 4 inch travel bike with a geometry that swings decidedly towards XC riding. The X1 comes very nicely equipped with a full XT grouppo including the wheels, and an upspec XTR rear derailleur. The suspension duties are handle by a Fox RP23 shock and a Rock Shox Sid Team. Giant’s in house aluminum bar/stem/seatpost round out the package. All in all, it’s a work horse build suitable for a bike in the sub $4000 price range; nothing fancy, but nothing that needs upgrading.

Shimano’s XTR Shadow Rear Derailleur and XT wheels don’t need upgrading

My chosen area of attack for this bike was a pre-ride of the Bear/Red Mountain XC course. It was a beautiful day and the course was in immaculate condition. Many thanks to the race organizer who was out prepping the course for next week’s race. For those that have not ridden the course, it starts with a 15-20 minute gravel climb at an easy pace. This is where I noticed the first standout quality of this bike. With the shock in propedal mode the bike felt amazingly light and quick to accelerate. The lightness comes from Giant’s tireless engineering. They were able to significantly reduce the weight of the new X1 over my older Anthem by removing all unneeded material from the frame and redesigning the lower shock pivot area. They called this design “co-pivot” and it essentially uses a single bolt to hold the shock and one side of the dog arm in place.

Fox’s Propedal RP23 shock is awesome! Notice the co-pivot design

As for the quick acceleration, I attribute that to the wheels. Shimano’s XT wheelset is light and smooth, and the non-UST Crossmark tires save approximately 500 grams a set over my tubeless Crossmarks. That’s a lot of rotationally mass. Am I going to jump off the tubeless band wagon and go for snappier acceleration? Not a chance. I was running the tires at 38 psi to avoid pinch flats. The higher pressure never caused me any problems, but the trail never pushed the tires to their limits either. If it had been a wet, slippery affair I have a feeling I would have been begging for the extra traction of tubeless tires. Plus the extra durability of a UST sidewall gives me piece of mind. With all this being said, the XT wheelset has a fully sealed rim making it tubeless ready.

As with any good mountain bike trail, after the climb comes the descent. And this was where I noticed the second standout area of this bike. Flick the propedal off and this bike tears down the rough stuff. It really feels like it floats over bumps, never bottoming out too harshly, while sitting you just far enough into the travel to give you a certain amount of plushness. You’ll never confuse it with an 8 inch travel bike, but you’ll be happy the next time you’re redlined in a race and you take that drop just slightly wrong; the suspension will soak up your mistake without complaint. I also like how Giant specs the Anthem X with 100mm travel forks. For us here on the west coast 80mm is just not enough sometimes, and as I found out this fall, swapping a fork can be expensive. I made the move to 100mm this year on my anthem, which is why the Anthem X impressed me so much. It only has half an inch more rear travel than my bike and yet it felt like more. Can’t put a finger on why, but I liked it.

100mm travel Rock Shox Sid Team

Now of course you can’t like everything about a bike, so here are my minor nit-picks that have more to do about personal preference than anything. The crank; as much as Shimano’s XT crank shifted flawlessly, it is that good, I missed my double. I am a recently converted 2 x 9 lover. I felt like I was alway just over-geared in the 32T middle ring, but I never wanted to shift into the granny ring. If you race, or ride at relatively high fitness level, I highly recommend going with a double. Another complaint I had was with the handle bar. I found it too wide for my liking. I know the trend is to keep going wider and wider, and for trail/freeride bikes that may be fine, but on XC bike you sometimes need to get through some tight spaces. I hit the bar on trees more than once, and riding over a ladder bridge with handle rails, the bar barely fit. This is easily fixed with a hacksaw. I also found the sweep to be a bit off, but that may have been the tilt. My last complaint was chain slap. I usually tape up my drive-side chain stay as soon as I get a new bike, so maybe that is why I noticed it, but I would constantly hear the chain hitting the stay. I think this is one of the reason I stayed out of my granny ring as well. Again an easy fix with a roll of electrical tape.

My finally thoughts; if you are in the market for a XC race to everyday trail bike you have to test out the Anthem X. The bike will not let you down. It’s climbing ability combined with the maestro suspension on the downhill makes this bike fun to ride just about anywhere. See for yourself, drop by Local Ride Bike shop and inquire about a test ride, you won’t regret it.