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PRODUCTS
Giant
Reign 2
A guest review
by Steve Diederich
The
Jolly Green Giant
Giant Reign
2 –
It looked great
on the wall – Errrr ….”Simon – don’t suppose you have a Demo I can take out?” –
“Why don’t you come back tomorrow and we will build this up so that you can give
it a go”. Well, good to his word, the next day I was wheeling the Reign out of
the shop having had it set up for sag , rebound and other techie stuff that I
struggle to understand.
So, what I had
was the framset built with other standard componentary, this was going to be
interesting. First impressions looking at the beast are of a lot of engineering
on this frame – a gantry arrangement on the rear suspension gives you a
virtual-pivot point, I am so un-technical that this means little too me –
however it looks really purposeful, I bounce up & down on it a few times and
the movement seem plush and neutral, The quality of the build and finish looks
really polished, attention to detail on the joints is excellent, I am not sure
about the colour on the Reign 2 ( It’s a light Olive Green), but others gave
this a thumbs up, but I would probably go for the Reign 1 with a Cherry Black
finish out of choice.
The first
surprise you have with the Reign is when you pick it up – it looks like it
should be as heavy as a combine harvester – it isn’t – It is sub 30lbs and
changing some of the components could easily get this down if
weight obsession is your thing. For a 6” travel bike, that’s
pretty good going.
The real
surprise starts to come under foot – The rig is beautifully mannered,
negotiating single track is like riding a full on XC, it whips around corners
that belies its steering angle, I expected the first few turns of Summer
Lightning to give some resistance to fast tight manoeuvres, but it holds the line really well and
sets up neutrally for the next turn. Even more of a surprise is the pedalling
platform – I wasn’t looking forward to the haul up to Leith Hill Tower, however
I couldn’t have been more wrong – There is no detectable bobbing – each stroke
delivers power to the rear wheel like you would want with perfect manners, I was
riding with a friend on a Specialsed enduro, he kept having to reach down for
the rear shock lock-out , no need on the Reign, it does it for
you.
Now
for the fun stuff as I approached my first drop-offs – I was really looking
forward to this – And the Reign didn’t disappoint –
perfect manners allowing me to pick a line and hold it, inspiring confidence to
make me go back and do it again – a little bit faster this time. This is one of
the big surprises, I was expecting an all-mountain bike to feel remote from the
terrain, but you get oodles of feedback from the setup, through the bars,
peddles and seat, you feel totally in control and able to make changes to line
and speed easily, Now, really pumped and oh-so confident with
drop-off fever, I was desperate to find a section that would really show off its
design pedigree – I pointed it down the long rocky “High-Ashes” descent and let
it go – it sailed down with perfect poise, again allowing me to chose the line
without the usual wrestling act that I have had to perform on other bikes.
Are there any
down-side to the bike? ….. well besides the colour, the only time I had any
surprises, was in the air – I am not talking big-air, and this is almost
certainly down to my own lack of expertise, however it did feel rear-end heavy
after take-off, I repeated the same jump several times , each time bringing the
front further forward to compensate which did eventually do the trick, however
this shows that this is a different set up to the XC setup I have as my daily
hack and would have to be ridden differently.
Overall – I
have nothing but praise for this bike – It is a perfectly mannered all rounder
that seems to have few compromises. The depth of travel combined with its
comfort and climbing ability take it into a mileage-muncher league of its own. I
am in no doubt that this bike is in a small elite group of new generation bikes
that will shape the future of mountain biking, and at under 900 quid for the
framset, I am going to get my order in now!
Steve
Diederich
19 Nov 2005
Tech
details
- 6"
travel
- Manitou
3way swinger
rear shock
- Zero
brake jack
- Total
pedalling
independence
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