My 2021 Giant Anthem

It’s my favorite holiday: New Bike Day! But before we get to the good stuff, here’s a little history lesson:

In July 2019, I sold my mountain bike, a 2011 Trek X-Caliber that I had purchased in early 2012. At the time, I thought I might soon be selling my house and maybe even moving back to Pennsylvania, so unloading the bike (and a bunch of other things) made perfect sense. At 8 years old, the bike was outdated. It was time to get a new one that offered several technological advances. I figured I would do that in my new location, but more than 2 years later I’m still here in West Bend and I now have no plans to leave. It’s time to put mountain biking back on my program.

That’s easier said than done, however, as the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the global supply chain. With almost all bicycles coming out of Asia, getting a new bike is a challenge. I’m lucky that I found not just any bike, but one that meets all of my needs: the 2021 Giant Anthem 29 2. During an exhaustive search that included almost every imaginable brand, I spotted the bike on Giant’s website and quickly completed the purchase. Giant shipped the bike to Mountain Outfitters, West Bend’s downtown bike shop, for final assembly. The purchase price included a tubeless wheels/tires setup, an absolute essential for a modern mountain bike but something most brands don’t provide. You know what the other brands mean by tubeless-ready? They mean get ready to pay even more money.

The Anthem is my first full-suspension mountain bike and I’m counting on that rear shock to make a world of difference. My first mountain bike had 26-inch wheels, so upgrading to the Trek X-Caliber and its 29-inch wheels back in 2012 was a huge step forward for me. I was instantly able to overcome trail obstacles that had stopped me before. Now, I expect a similar leap as I upgrade to full suspension. I’m not the most technically adept mountain biker. Getting more out of the equipment will help. I also expect to like the simplicity of the Anthem’s single chainring. The X-Caliber had a triple that was a frequent and frustrating source of dropped chains.

I think the Anthem is going to be a great fit. I would have been happy with the equivalent Trek, but nothing was available and there’s no end in sight for the distribution bottleneck. So, I feel a little guilty not being able to patronize Pedal Moraine, the bike shop sponsor of the racing team to which I belong, but these are unusual times. And I’m not super loyal to Trek as a brand. The Anthem is my third Giant: I used to have an OCR1 and an FCR3, great bikes that eventually I outgrew as a rider. Giant bikes offer exceptional value. At any given price point they are usually outfitted better than their rivals from other major brands.

There’s a lot of uncertainty about the 2022 mountain bike racing calendar here in Wisconsin. Neither WORS nor WEMS has announced a schedule yet, and many people believe WORS will not come back. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m going to train as if mountain bike racing will be an option next year. The Anthem is a great cross-country machine and I would like to see what I can get out of it—and out of myself—in competition.