Trance update

There are a few things about my Singular Swift that stand out as being miles better than my Giant Trance, improvements are in order. Firstly the steering is faster, more responsive and easier to control…so much so I nearly fell off the Trance when I got back on it after riding the Swift for the first time. The Swift’s bars are 30mm wider and the stem is 30mm shorter, when I tried them on the Trance they made a good improvement so I think wider bars and a shorter stem are coming my way in the future. Flat bars like I’ve got on the Swift won’t work though, they lower the bar height too much and I can’t raise the stem any higher because I don’t have the fork that normally comes stock on the Trance. I’ve only recently noticed how much flex there is in the seat tube/post since I’ve been riding the Swift with a pretty solid 400mm seatpost. The Trance has a 350mm Race Face Evolve seatpost which is only inserted about 95mm, I’ve read it’s not particularly stiff anyway so I’m going to get a longer one with plenty of setback and a good clamp design. The Swift has also sold me on Ergon grips, I still don’t like the fact they’re rubber but the shape is noticeably more comfortable so I might get some grey ones for the Trance.

The first thing I’m going to do is get a new rear hub and ditch the Alfine in favour of a 1X9 setup. The Alfine’s still working great but I want the bike to be lighter and faster for Summer. I’m planning some other stuff but I need more money before I can do much bike stuff, especially since I have to kit out my new flue bunker…