2026 Giant Anthem review: Lustworthy at last
Giant knocked it out of the park with this one.
Cross-country is the one non-motorized segment of the mountain bike market that hasn’t been declining in recent years, and for good reasons. The riding is incredibly fun, the racing is thrilling to watch, and the bikes are far more capable and versatile than they’ve ever been. It’s understandable then that Giant would want to toss all of its eggs into the short-travel basket, and the Taiwanese brand has really stepped up its game for the 20th anniversary of its Anthem XC race machine.
The suspension is fantastic. It’s exceptionally light. The geometry is spot-on. It’s surprisingly burly. And heck, it even looks great. Hardcore racers also get the focused models they need, while downcountry riders get the slightly beefed-up versions they want. The new Anthem genuinely seems like it could be a world-beater, and Giant is rightfully proud of what it’s created.
If you’ve never considered a Giant XC bike in the past, be prepared to change your perspective. There are some caveats as always, but this new Anthem is most definitely worth a much closer look.
Pros: Fantastic suspension performance, outstanding pedaling efficiency, excellent chassis stiffness, low weight, spot-on handling and fit, way more capable than you’d think, looks great.
Cons: Suspension performance isn’t as good on the more trail-oriented version, headset cable routing is well executed but still polarizing, rear hub is crazy loud, probably not as strong a value as many are expecting.
The takeaway: Not only Giant’s best XC bike ever, but likely one of the best in the category, period.
Coming out of its shell
The new Anthem is very much a product of its times, thoroughly up-to-date with the latest trends, but without going at all overboard.
First and foremost, suspension travel has increased all around, from 100 mm out back on the outgoing Anthem to a more usable 120 mm. Correspondingly, the front travel receives a boost from last year’s 110 mm up to either 120 or 130 mm, depending on model.
The suspension design itself has received a soup-to-nuts overhaul. It’s still a single-pivot flexstay layout like the previous Anthem (and like nearly every other short-travel XC bike on the market today), but the pivot geometry has been revised so that there’s only 5 mm of maximum deflection at the upper swing-link as the rear end moves through its travel – supposedly barely 1/10th the deflection of the Specialized Epic 8. According to Giant’s off-road category manager, Joe Staub (a former mechanic for the Giant factory team, and later the team manager), that minimal movement allows for more predictable and consistent rear shock tuning since you no longer have to account for the leaf-spring effect of the rear end flexing under load. As a bonus, the stays can be both lighter and stiffer since you don’t have to account for so much bending.
Further aiding in tuning the suspension performance is a move toward a bigger shock in general. Whereas the previous Anthem utilized a stubby rear shock with just a 165 mm eye-to-eye length and 45 mm stroke, the new one goes with a 210x50 mm setup. Air can volumes were custom tuned for Giant to flatten out the spring curve – which helps to keep the leverage ratio low for better small-bump sensitivity – while that longer stroke and increased oil volume also allow more flexibility for tuning the damper characteristics.
“Damping tunes were fully developed over the course of numerous session with Fox and RockShox,” Staub told me. “Part of our adjustments from V1 prototype to V2 involved the re-bracketing for lock force and trail modes. The V1 kinematics wasn’t hitting our target, but V2 gave us more oil and shock stroke to work with. This allowed a firmer lockout force outcome and improved open and trail mode compression performance. In addition, we spent a considerable amount of time to refine the rebound tune to minimize unwanted oscillation in open mode. We feel this delivers a more efficient performance while mitigating rider body motion input into suspension movement.”
Giant also moved the rear shock from its previous vertical orientation in front of the seat tube to a new horizontal location under the top tube. It’s partially tucked up into the underside of the frame for a cleaner appearance, and still driven by a molded carbon fiber swing link. The new location now leaves plenty of room inside the front triangle for two water bottles – a must-have these days – and there’s also a flip-chip integrated into the forward shock mount that alters the frame geometry by about 0.5°.
The new Anthem is lighter than it’s ever been, too, despite the jump in travel. Claimed weight for a painted medium frame with the swing link and hardware (but without the rear shock or ancillary bits) is just 1,530 g – about 90 g lighter than the old model, and almost 200 g lighter than the current Specialized S-Works Epic 8 according to Giant’s numbers. The gap to the Epic 8 narrows by about half once the rear derailleur hanger and headset are added in, though, and it’s worth pointing out that Giant doesn’t include internal storage on the more racing-oriented version of the Anthem SL, whereas Specialized still includes that on its flagship.
That weight loss can be partially explained by the new rear suspension layout, but Giant says it has more to do with how the new frame is made as compared to the old one (and let’s not forget that Giant is one of the only brands that actually manufactures its own stuff in-house).
The front triangles of carbon fiber full-suspension mountain bikes are usually laid up as several sub-assemblies that are then brought together in a clamshell mold and cured all at once to form a cohesive structure. Giant borrowed a page from its road-going TCR range for the new Anthem, building the front triangle as a single unit from the get-go, which the company says allows for longer and fewer individual plies of pre-preg, as well as less ply overlap. And instead of using conventional plastic bags to apply pressure from inside during the curing process, key areas are wrapped around net-molded semi-rigid hollow plastic mandrels that Giant says yields more precise wall thicknesses and more complex internal geometries for reduced weight and increased stiffness. Robots are even used in key areas for more precise ply placement.
Frame geometry isn’t drastically altered from the old Anthem, though it still features some notable updates.
Reach dimensions are basically unchanged and still appropriately long, but head tube angles have slackened by 0.5°, from 67.5° on the old model down to 67°. Conversely, the seat tube angle has steepened by 0.5° to accommodate the more forward seating positions riders often prefer these days.
Chainstay lengths and bottom bracket drops are essentially carried over from before, but interestingly for a top-tier XC bike, stack heights have grown taller by about 10 mm across the four-size range.
All of the above figures apply to the flip-chip in the high setting; switching to the low position kicks the angles back by about 0.5° and lowers the bottom bracket by about 7 mm, down to 51 mm below the hub axles.
But wait, there’s more!
As you may have picked up on already, Giant has split the Anthem range in two this thing time around. In addition to the more racing-oriented Anthem SL, there’s now a new Anthem X geared more toward general fast XC/downcountry riding. The Anthem X features basically the same frame, but with a slightly more generous 130 mm of front suspension travel, built-in down tube storage, and a reinforced front end to accommodate the longer fork and big hole that’s cut into the down tube (sort of like on a convertible car vs. a hardtop).
That longer fork kicks the head and seat tube angles back by another 0.5° from what I’ve listed above. There’s a slew of spec changes, too, most critically RockShox suspension almost across the board on the Anthem SL models (with either manual remote or automatic electronic lockouts), while the Anthem X mostly uses Fox bits front and rear. Other changes on the Anthem X include 20 mm-shorter stems, different damper tunes (with no remote lockouts), meatier tires, larger front and rear brake rotors, smaller chainrings, longer-travel dropper seatposts, and more aggressive grips.
Shared among all Anthem models, however, are UDH-compatible rear dropouts (duh), PF92 press-fit bottom bracket shells, dedicated mounts for MRP mini-chain guides, and – sigh – headset-style routing for the control lines.
Giant expects the Anthem X will be sold in higher volumes globally than the Anthem SL, though not by much – perhaps a 60/40 or maybe a 70/30 split at most.
Homegrown bits
Giant isn’t exactly bashful about telling folks it actually makes its own stuff, and when it comes to dressing up the new Anthems, virtually everything aside from the groupsets, suspension, and tires not only come out of its own factories, but was designed specifically for the project.
Up front, you’ll find one-piece bar-and-stem combos, made of molded carbon fiber for higher-end models, or hydroformed aluminum (welded to forged steerer clamp sections) for more affordable builds. Yep, you read that correctly: an aluminum one-piece bar-and-stem combo. Giant is offering both in stem lengths from 50-90 mm, all with 780 mm-wide bars that can be trimmed to suit down to about 720 mm.
Why the one-piece bars, you ask? Well, in the case of the carbon ones, Giant contends they can be made very light (295 g claimed weight, 780x60 mm) and with a carefully tuned flex pattern, but without them ending up too spindly. That argument seems a little less convincing for the aluminum one as the claimed weight is a much more substantial 540 g for the same size. Ultimately, I think it boils down to aesthetics. The flowy designs admittedly look sweet, and Giant has incorporated deep channels on the underside of both that gently guide the brake hoses and rear derailleur/dropper post housings into the upper headset cover in a nice, large-radius arc.
It’s worth noting that none of the lines pass through the bar or stem so it’s at least easier to pack up the bike for travel or to perform basic maintenance. Giant also says the headset is pretty well sealed so owners shouldn’t have to dig into it much, anyway. Regardless, Giant unfortunately isn’t planning to offer a standalone stem for riders that want to run their own bar, but still want the clean appearance. Regular 1 1/8”-diameter stems will fit, but the end result won’t look nearly as tidy.
The new wheels should be a lot less controversial.
Giant has developed two sets for the Anthem range: the XCR with carbon rims and spokes, and the XCA with aluminum rims and Sapim Laser 14/17/14-gauge stainless steel spokes. Both rims feature 30 mm internal widths and 5 mm-wide rim edges to ward off pinch flats at low pressures, built around Giant’s own hubs with a 120-tooth (3° engagement) conical star ratchet-type rear driver plus two-to-one spoke lacing.
Claimed weight for the XCR is 1,350 g per pair (725 g rear, 625 g front). The XCA is notably heavier (but still decently light) at 1,783 g (941 g rear, 842 g front).
Rounding out the house-brand gear on the new Anthems is Giant’s Contact Switch SL dropper seatpost. These are very much XC-focused, with mechanical springs instead of complex air chambers and hydraulic cartridges, discrete full-up or full-down positions, 110 and 140 mm travel options, and titanium hardware for the two-bolt cradles – basically Giant’s answer to the Fox Transfer SL. Claimed weight is just 360 g for the shorter version, and 390 g for the longer one.
Models and pricing
Giant is offering up to five complete Anthem SL models and up to four complete Anthem X models (plus some framesets) with availability depending on region.
Both the US and Australia will skip the entry-level Anthem Advanced SL 3, for example, built with a Fox 34 SL Performance fork and Float SL Performance Elite rear shock, Shimano Deore 1x12 mechanical drivetrain, Shimano BR-MT500 hydraulic disc brakes, Giant XCA wheels, Giant Contact Core dropper post, and a Giant aluminum integrated cockpit. Buyers in Europe and Canada will be able to take part, though, for €4,500 / CA$6,300.
Most regions will get the Anthem Advanced SL 2, built with a RockShox SID Select+ fork and SIDluxe Select+ rear shock, a SRAM Eagle 70/90 Transmission drivetrain and Shimano SLX BR-M7100 disc brakes, Giant XCA wheels, a Giant Contact Switch SL dropper seatpost, and a Giant carbon integrated cockpit for US$5,600 / £5,300 / €5,500-6,300 / AU$8,500 (sorry, Canada).
Next up is the Anthem Advanced SL 1, which features the same RockShox suspension, Giant carbon cockpit, and Giant Contact Switch SL dropper, but steps up to a SRAM GX AXS Transmission wireless electronic drivetrain, Shimano Deore XT BR-M8100 disc brakes, and Giant XCR carbon wheels for US$8,000 / £6,500 / €7,000-7,800 / CA$8,700 / AU$11,000.
Moving another rung up on the fancy ladder is the Anthem Advanced SL 0, which comes with the same Giant carbon integrated cockpit, Contact Switch SL dropper, and XCR carbon wheels, but upgrades to a RockShox SID Ultimate fork and SIDluxe Ultimate rear shock, SRAM XX SL Eagle Transmission wireless electronic drivetrain, and SRAM Motive Ultimate brakes for US$10,500 / £9,000 / €9,500-10,700 / AU$15,000 (sorry again, Canada).
Feeling flush? Then clearly the flagship Anthem Advanced SL SE is for you, which gets the full complement of SRAM go-fast wireless electronic goodies (RockShox Flight Attendant suspension, RockShox Reverb AXS dropper, SRAM XX SL Eagle Transmission drivetrain, Quarq power meter) plus SRAM Motive Ultimate brakes, Giant XCR carbon wheels, and the one-piece carbon cockpit. Hope you’re sitting down: retail price on this one is a whopping US$14,500 / £10,500 / €12,500-14,000 / CA$15,300 / AU$18,500.
If you think you can put together a more economical DIY build, you can get an Anthem SL frame with a RockShox SIDluxe Ultimate rear shock and Giant one-piece carbon cockpit for US$4,500 / £4,000 / €3,700-3,800 (no soup for either of you, Australia and Canada). Team edition paint will cost a bit more.
The Anthem X range will be more restricted globally, with the current plan featuring no models offered in Europe at all.
Most of the rest of the world kicks off with the Anthem X Advanced SL 3, built with a Fox 34 Rhythm fork and Float SL rear shock, Shimano Deore 1x12 mechanical drivetrain, TRP Slate Evo hydraulic disc brakes, Giant XCA aluminum wheels, a Giant Contact Switch AT dropper, and Giant one-piece integrated cockpit for US$4,800 / £n/a / CA$6,200 / AU$7,400.
The Anthem X Advanced SL 2 features the same rear shock, dropper, cockpit, and wheels, but moves up to a Fox 34 SL Performance fork, SRAM Eagle 70/90 Transmission drivetrain, and Shimano SLX BR-M7120 four-piston hydraulic brakes for US$US$5,600 / £5,000 / CA$n/a / AU$8,500.
The Anthem X Advanced SL 1 moves up to a Fox 34 SL Performance Elite fork and Float SL Factory rear shock, SRAM GX AXS Transmission wireless electronic drivetrain, Shimano Deore XT BR-M8120 four-pot disc brakes, Giant XCR carbon wheels, and Giant’s carbon fiber one-piece integrated cockpit for US$8,000 / £6,500 / CA$8,700 (your turn again to lose out, Australia).
And finally, there’s the Anthem X Advanced SL 0 with factory-level Fox suspension front and rear, Shimano XTR Di2 drivetrain and brakes, a Fox Transfer Neo wireless dropper seatpost, and Giant’s XCR carbon wheels and integrated carbon cockpit. Interestingly, this one will be offered exclusively in Canada for CA$11,700. Go figure.
Sadly, Giant showcased a standalone Anthem X frameset at the launch event, but it doesn’t appear there are plans to actually offer the thing for sale anywhere, which is a particularly big bummer since the paint job is killer.
Retail price for the new XCR carbon wheels is US$2,200 / £1,600 / €1,900, and US$900 / £700 / €800 for the XCA aluminum ones. Pricing and availability for other regions is still to be determined.
Ride report
And finally, the moment(s) you’ve all been waiting for. Sorry, that was a lot to housekeeping to get through there.
Giant flew me out to Taiwan to both see how the new bikes are manufactured and to ride the new bikes on home turf: the curiously named Bunny Trail network in Taichung, located a couple of hours south of Taipei, and just minutes from the factory. The system isn’t all that expansive, comprising just two main loops – one 6 km-long, and other 4 km – but both feature an entertaining mix of mildly technical features, a fast and flowy feel, surprisingly decent dirt, just the right amount of jankiness, and lots of tricky twists and turns that often come with a properly hand-built trail through dense forest.
I also brought back to Colorado an Anthem SL, which I’ve continued testing every day since I got back, so let’s start there since that’s the one I’ve ridden more.
As is typical for a product launch from a major brand, Giant only had flagship models on hand, which in this case was the Anthem Advanced SL SE. As you’d expect, it’s impressively light with an actual weight of just 10.75 kg (23.70 lb) for a medium size, without pedals or accessories (and keep in mind that the complete Flight Attendant setup is a bit heavy). Sag was set front and rear at the recommended 25%, and subsequent experimentation on either side confirmed that was best place to be.
As one would hope for a dedicated XC racer, the Anthem SL pedals with fantastic efficiency. There’s almost zero bob when seated even when really pushing hard, and still not very much at all when standing, either. Combined with the low weight (not to mention the fast-rolling 29x2.4” Maxxis Aspen tires), the Anthem SL is an absolute beast of a climber and gains elevation with impressive eagerness. Heading uphill on this thing is so legitimately fun that I nearly eclipsed two PRs at two very different trails that I’d set more than ten years ago – and not because I’d purposefully set out to do so, but just because I was having such a good time ripping around on this thing.
That pedaling performance doesn’t come about because of heavy-handed valving in the rear shock, either. In fact, I’ve intentionally done most of my testing with the suspension fully open so as to help fully reveal any potential faults the bike might have in that department (more on this in a bit).
Giant didn’t include an anti-squat curve in its press materials, but given how the bike behaves (not to mention just by looking at the rather forward and high swingarm pivot location), there’s clearly plenty of it on hand to resist pedaling forces, but yet not so much that the bike feels at all weird under hard pedaling torque.
“Without standardization of center of gravity location for such modeling, these figures/graphs won’t reliably allow comparison to another bike’s data and could be misleading for a consumer,” Staub explained to me when I asked about an anti-squat graph. “Furthermore, anti-squat varies significantly for standing or seated position, and I have yet to see a consistent representation for either used commonly enough to feel like sharing the data is correctly illustrative.”
Fair enough, Joe. Regardless, the new Anthem pedals great.
What’s more unexpected is how well the suspension works overall.
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