WHAT IT IS: Giant Anthem X2
WHY IT'S RAD: My first mountain bike was my mom's pink Schwinn Mirada. I essentially repo'd that rig, a mother's day gift my dad gave her, when I was 14 and getting heavily into the hot mountain bike scene at Kansas City's Minor Park. After that it was a full rigid Specialized Stumpjumper with Shimano Deore DX and thumbshifters. I remember waking up in my tent the day after I rode the 409 trail in Crested Butte thinking that I had literally broken my wrists they hurt so bad. Those days are long gone and in the interim I've had the chance to ride hundreds of different bikes, some good, some that sucked (my K2 Razorback full suspension rig comes to mind. Snapped the chainstay on that one, and it just basically sucked). I'm not a huckomatic kind of guy. That shit's cool, but I'm 34 and use my arms and hands for a living and don't have a desire to be typing one-handed. I put a premium on a bike tough enough to handle my size—6'2", 180 pounds—that's a decent weight (under 27 pounds is good, I'd love lighter but I'm not prepared to trade in my car for one of the current crop of $10,000 full carbon rigs with all the gingerbread), that climbs without much pedal-induced bob and is geared towards xc riding. Right now I'm primarily on fire roads because that's what I can ride to from where I live. I'm not in love with the blue/black/white paintjob on my Giant Anthem 4.0 and sure, I wish I was on the carbon version with XTR, but this is a very, very solid and capable rig. It's the best climbing full suspension bike I've ridden, even out of the saddle, feels solid and stable on wide-open descents, and can take a beating without falling apart. Pedaling is generally very, very smooth to the point that I just don't think about the fact that I'm on a full suspension bike. It disappears underneath me, and that's what it's supposed to do. The Fox F100RL fork has tremendous torsional stiffness, smooths things out adequately, and hasn't blown up, so it gets good marks in my book. The full Shimano XT groupo is bombproof and keeps shifting perfectly, which is great because I like riding bikes, not spending all of my time fixing them. The ancillary components like seatpost, stem, bars, etc. are all quality Race Face stuff, totally adequate, durable, and nice to see name brand components in these areas where many manu's cut corners with house brand kit. My Anthem isn't superlight, probably about 27 pounds, but I'm always confident I'm not going to destroy anything on the bike, and nothing on it is so exotic that I'll have a problem replacing it. Also, it has a water bottle mount on the downtube I can actually fit a water bottle in (awesome, don't always feel like drinking stagnant Camelbak pond scum, nice to be able to grab a bottle out the door and roll). I've also moved back to Shimano XTR clipless pedals on this rig (I'm a longtime Time user). The float isn't as buttery as the Time ATAC's I've used for years, but they also don't have the weird lateral float ATAC's have, which I don't like and which always cause your feet to migrate to the outside of their pedals thus increasing Q Factor and fucking up your spectacular, efficient pedal stroke. Have had zero probs with the Shimano pedals, entry and release is crisp, float is okay but not great, and they don't detach from the spindles like Crank Brothers pedals (which I will never use again after ripping a Crank Bros pedal body off of the axle and impaling my shin bone a few years back). I'm very happy with this bike overall. It's a hell of a value in its category, as Giant bikes usually are and allows you to do some very serious mountain biking without forking over the down payment on a house. I just wish I had the '10 model, which has a much, much better paint job. Curious to try the new Giant 29ers also.
BUMMERS?: Not into the paintjob, but that doesn't impact my ride experience. Saddles are a matter of personal preference. When will someone make a suspension fork that allows you to get up and hammer out of the saddle without bobbing like a pogo stick? The Fox Float RP2 shock on the rear of this rig allows me to do that, the fork doesn't. The WTB saddle on this rig is a genital destroyer IMO. Other folks with different ass shapes may love it. As for me, I'm looking forward to getting a Specialized seat on the Anthem at some point.
$: $2850
INFO: http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bikes/model/anthem.x2/3894/36667/
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