By Takeaway: A light, maneuverable full-suspension bike for an awesome price.
• 29-inch wheels offer great roll-over ability for rocky terrain
• Wide gear range for comfortable climbing
• Doesn't come with a dropper post
Price: $1,550
Weight: 30 LB (S)
Imagine, for a moment, the ideal bike-to-work scenario: A perfectly tuned mountain bike, hard frozen trails, your breath rising in light fog while you pedal uphill, plenty of time to dawdle and think and daydream. There’s a thermos of steaming Earl Grey tea in your bottle cage and a fresh donut in your pack.
This is what my first rides on the Giant Stance 29 2 looked like. And while it made me realize how lucky I am to have my office within riding distance of home, I was most impressed by another fact that wormed its way into my consciousness as I pedaled: It’s pretty awesome that bikes like the Stance exist.
Pros
- 11-50t cassette
- 1x SRAM SX Eagle drivetrain
Cons
- No dropper post
This $1,550 mountain bike is the kind of bike that I would be happy to recommend, without reservation as to quality or ride—a pretty rare and wonderful find. The Stance 29 2 is new for 2020—Giant has had a Stance 27.5 model for several years now, but this is the first year it gets bigger wheels.
It’s also an excellent example of the whole bike being greater than the sum of its parts. My experience on relatively cheap mountain bikes has shown me that there’s generally one glaring defect that ruins the entire experience. It’s like having a pebble in your shoe the entire time you’re hiking the Grand Canyon—it’s so annoying and even a little painful that you can hardly think about anything else. Which makes sense: Who can enjoy a ride if the brakes are so bad that you have to white-knuckle even the tiniest descent? Or if the suspension is so bouncy that it bucks you off in rock gardens?
3 Things We Love about the Giant Stance 29 2
1x Drivetrain
Simplicity and reliability are no longer a premium feature.
Aluminum Frame
At 30 pounds for a size small, the Stance 29 2 won’t weigh you down.
Wide Gear Range
The 11x50t SRAM SX Eagle cassette helps you spin up climbs and power down hills.
This is what makes the Stance 29 2 magical: On this bike, everything works well together. It’s some kind of alchemy, because individually, the parts choices on this bike all fall into the “fine but nothing special” category. It’s only when you mash them all together that you get something amazing.
Take the Suntour rear suspension: It isn’t great—there’s a slight amount of pogo-ing that occurs when I drop off a curb, no matter how much I slow down the rebound. And it’s lacking that support and super-plushness that other, higher-end bikes have.
But it’s just fine. Pleasant, even! “It uses a more simplified version of Maestro [Giant’s four-pivot point suspension that’s found on all higher-end mountain bike models],” says Andrew Juskaitis, global product marketing manager at Giant. It’s effectively a single-pivot rear suspension system, which relies on the flex of the aluminum seatstays and chainstays to give the bike 120mm of travel. “It’s a simplified system, it’s tried and true. We’re obviously not the only ones using this suspension system, but it’s a very effective way to get 120mm of suspension, and do it in a very light way and in a way that gets you to the overall price of the product.” And it works: When I was riding to my office, I found my mind drifting—enjoying the way the morning sun slanted through the trees, debating what animal made those tracks, wondering if it’ll be warm during the weekend. It’s a good sign, to not stress over a bike.
Frame ALUXX-Grade Aluminum, 120mm
Fork Raidon 34, Boost, 130mm
Shock Suntour Raidon R
Handlebar Giant Connect Trail, 780x31.8, [GA 690]
Stem Giant Contact
Seatpost Giant Connect, 30.9
Saddle Giant Contact (neutral)
Drivetain 1x 12-speed SRAM SX Eagle
Brakes Shimano MT200
Cassette 11x50
Crankset SRAM SX Eagle DUB, 30t
Rims Giant XCT 29” tubeless ready
Tires Maxxis Forekaster 29 x 2.35
Sizes S, M, L, XL
Giant has made a slew of other smart choices in building out the rest of the bike. There’s a single chainring up front, with a mount for a derailleur (if that’s your thing). A wide, 12-speed, 11-50t cassette is truly modern and has enough variety to both climb techy trails and bomb down paved roads. The Giant-branded wheels and Maxxis Forekaster tires are both tubeless-ready (the bike is shipped with tubes). And at 30 pounds, the bike is pretty darn light, more so than other trail bikes that cost twice as much.
In a way, a bike this cheap had to come from Giant. With its immense purchasing power (“We buy more SRAM, more Shimano, more Maxxis than anyone else on this planet,” Juskaitis says), the brand is better positioned than most to hit incredibly low price points.
It even looks cool—it has great lines, and the paint scheme is simple and modern. Nothing about this bike screams, “I’m a beginner!” which is almost as important as the performance, especially on a $1,550 bike that can also satisfy the needs of veteran trail riders who can’t (or don’t want to) shell out more than $2,000 for a new bike.
Of course, there are some clear places for upgrades: The next model up, the $1,800 Stance 29 1, remedies the 2’s biggest drawback—its lack of a dropper—and comes with Giant’s Contact Switch model. It also has a nicer shock and fork (better-performing Rockshox Monarchs over the Suntour Raidons on the 2).
Overall, the Stance 29 2 is a bike that will help you get into new adventures, whether that’s increasing your fitness, getting rad on tough trails, or even just arriving to work feeling calm and happy. And if it’s the last one? I’ll bring you a donut.
Taylor Rojek is an associate features editor who has been writing, editing, and testing gear with Bicycling and Runner’s World since 2014. She was nominated for an American Magazine Award in 2017 for her work on the information-packed feature “How Cycling Works.” She has a depth of experience in both sports—she’s split the last two decades between racing on foot, with distances ranging from 800m to 26.2 miles, and on all kinds of bikes, including road, mountain, and cyclocross. This year, she’s moved away from the starting line to focus on training her dog Rosie to join her on the trail. She balances that activity with her current quest to bake—and eat—perfect homemade bread.
