lets sing an anthem

Don't get me wrong! I'm not gonna sing anything for you. I'm only referring to the new Giant Anthem. For you that hesitantly following bike trends, Giant Anthem is supposed to be the replacement of the popular Giant NRS. It only has 3.5" of rear travel, pure XC racing machine. It utilized Giant's owned & designed (this is MBA lines) Maestro design. Giant's Craig David...ooops...I mean Adam Craig won short track XC race on a carbon fiber Anthem at Sea Otter Classic.

It will never replace my previous Blur LT with 5.5" of travel. But it sure climbs very very well. I finished third during last month's Puncak rides (gimme a break, I'm not a strong climber.....so third place is good enough for me).
However I had to negotiate a lot more during the long rocky downhill section. It's rear end just bouncing like it were a hard tail. I did had some difficulties getting the correct shock setting. If I put less pressure, it'll bob too much. But if I crank in high pressure, it behaves like a hardtail. After a while, I was able to find the most comfortable setting. It still bob a bit, but I managed to get maximum travel of the shock without bottoming out.

It's indeed a true XC bike. I would definitely choose it for tracks with plenty of uphills and not-so-technical downhill.