Decreased weight and more connectivity underline updates to the brand’s trail-focused electric mountain bike

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Giant’s newest electric mountain bike, the 2022 Trance X Advanced E+, gets updated geometry and a new Yamaha SyncDrive motor.

The new geo figures take inspiration from the Trance X Advanced E+’s burlier stablemate, the updated 2022 Giant Reign E+ that we claimed could be one of the best electric mountain bikes to date, with longer, slacker and lower geometry.

Travel remains the same as on the outgoing Trance X Advanced E+, with 140mm of Maestro rear suspension. There’s 150mm at the fork and it still rolls on 29in wheels front and rear, but now has a 625Wh battery pack.

The Yamaha-made SyncDrive Pro Motor for the 2022 bike has been made lighter and more compact, while getting more torque, and is claimed to make less noise.

Prices start at £5,999 / $6,800 for the Trance X E+ 2 Advanced and rise to £7,999 / $9,300 / AU$12,799 for the range-topping Trance X Advanced E+ 0.

Giant says its latest Trance X Advanced E+ has been built from a high-performance grade raw carbon material with an impressive stiffness-to-weight ratio.

To achieve the desired performance balance, the front triangle is said to be layered up and moulded as one single section of carbon in a process called Modified Monocoque Construction. The rear end is also made from carbon fibre, as is the Maestro suspension upper-rocker link.

The Maestro suspension – as used on most of Giant’s full-suspension bikes, and the Trance X Advanced E+ – has 140mm of travel. It has two co-rotating links to give virtual pivot placement that creates “the most active, efficient and independent suspension system on the trail,” according to Giant.

The suspension system is similar in theory and practice to other twin-link systems on the market, including Dave Weagle’s DW-Link, Santa Cruz’s VPP and Intense’s JS Tuned system. Pivot placement enables the brand to tune attributes such as anti-squat, progression, leverage rate and anti-rise.

In the case of the new Trance X Advanced E+, Giant doesn’t divulge any details on the system’s specific kinematics, however.

At the heart of the new bike is Yamaha’s SyncDrive Pro motor that now delivers up to 85Nm of torque – an increase from 80Nm – and weighs 2.7kg, lighter than the outgoing version. Visibly, the motor is more compact than the older version, and Giant claims it has reduced noise levels.

The motor is paired with a 625Wh battery pack, but it’s also compatible with Giant’s EnergyPak Plus, a 250Wh range-extender external battery.

The bike is coupled with a new handlebar remote that has three buttons, called RideControl Ergo 3, that can be mounted on either the left- or right-hand side of the bars, and can be paired with a second remote with user-programmable controls in the RideControl smartphone app.

The app connects to the bike wirelessly and permits the connected smartphone to function as a live ride data display, and can perform system updates.

The main on/off button – called RideControl Go – is integrated into the bike’s top tube and can also be used to change the assistance levels.

The 2022 Giant Trance X Advanced E+ geometry has been given a welcome longer, lower and slacker makeover.

Its geometry is also adjustable between a high and low position, thanks to a flip chip located in the lower shock mount. This changes bottom bracket height­­, head tube angle and seat tube angle.

Headline figures include a 65.8-degree head angle, a 76-degree seat tube angle and reach numbers that span from 439mm for the size small up to 517mm for the extra-large bike.

While the figures aren’t as extreme as some bikes on the market, they do represent a significant leap forwards for Giant’s trail-oriented electric mountain bike, and we suspect they’ll open up a world of performance potential for Trance X Advanced E+ riders.

Headlining the range is the 2022 Giant Trance X Advanced E+ 0, decked out with Fox’s Live Valve 36 fork and Float X Factory shock, and Shimano’s XT M8100 drivetrain and brakes, which costs £7,999 / $9,300 / AU$12,799.

While adding Fox’s Live Valve to any bike is a tech lover’s dream come true, the exact benefits of an electric mountain bike’s suspension locking itself out to improve pedalling efficiency are a little lost on me.

The need for a super-efficient suspension platform is mitigated by the addition of a motor with 85Nm of torque. Why, exactly, further steps need to be taken isn’t quite clear.

That said, Fox’s Live Valve works well, as technical editor-in-chief Rob Weaver found out on the standard-powered Giant Trance X Advanced Pro 29 0, so it shouldn’t hinder performance, even if the enhancements are marginal.

With 140mm of rear-wheel travel, the Trance X Advanced E+ is at the lower end of the ebike travel spectrum.

The closest we’ve recently tested is the 2022 Specialized Turbo Levo, with 150mm of squish, but it’s fitted with a Fox 38, instead of the Fox 36 on the Trance.

Geometry figures also don’t match up perfectly, and arguably – despite the Turbo Levo being described as a trail bike – it packs a heftier punch than the Trance X E+. Canyon’s Spectral:ON CF is close on geometry figures and travel, but has slightly more squish at 150mm.

Don’t get hung up on travel figures though – the Trance X E+ looks as though it should be up there with the best of the current crop of trail electric mountain bikes.

Alex Evans is BikeRadar's mountain bike technical editor. He started racing downhill at the tender age of 11 before going on to compete across Europe. Alex moved to Morzine in the French Alps at 19 to pursue a career as a bike bum and clocked up an enormous amount of riding. Riding those famous tracks day in, day out for eight years, he broke more bikes than he can remember. Alex then moved back to the UK and put his vast knowledge of mountain biking to good use by landing a job working for MBUK magazine as features editor. Since working for MBUK, Alex's focus has moved to bike tech. He's one of BikeRadar's lead testers, knows how to push bikes and products to the limit, and wants to search out the equipment that represents the best value for money. Alex is also a regular on the BikeRadar Youtube channel and BikeRadar podcast.

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