[Tharkun]

Thats cool you got to ride the reign. Hopefully someone will get to ride the Faith soon.

 

[KleinMp99]

Atleast they got rid of those ball licking AC bikes. One of my friends works at a giant shop and he is getting a faith with the super special maestro suspension

"Maestro Suspension works with you and the terrain to form a seamless harmony of ride motion that allows you to become one with your bike."

 

[Bulldog]

Giant Reign (meastro suspension) impressions;
Freak geometry, at least compared to what you'd expect on a trail bike. This is an 18" frame. Wheelbase is 45.75". Chainstay length is 17.75". Headtube angle is slacker than claimed (this is the one geometry facet my buddy was happy with on his bike) and about 68°, there's no way it's near the claimed 69.5°. BB height is about 14.5". Comparing visually against my foes that has a 13.7" BB, the Reign's is at least an inch higher.

Overall the build of the bike is pretty nice, it's comparable in weight to my Foes FXR. My foes is a little lighter because I've went to some extremes to make it that way, but the wheels on the reign (high end mavic, forget the name) are very nice.

So, it's somewhat wierd; Rear suspension is great. Front suspension ruins the bike. Build is pretty good. Geometry is WAY off claimed.

I noticed the geo too. Measured my 20" build to 14.75" bb height - that's with a little 5" fork (Reign 3). The bb of my RFX is 14.75" - but with the world's tallest SC fork - the 66!

So yeah, I noticed the same things: VERY high bb, long CS's, and slacker HA. Basically bigtime FR geometry on an AM bike. So an interesting frame design with very interesting geo. I'm afraid that geo is gonna make for a love-or-hate deal. Shame the bike wasn't more *normal* so it could be judged on it's suspension merits better.

 

[Jm_]

I noticed the geo too. Measured my 20" build to 14.75" bb height - that's with a little 5" fork (Reign 3). The bb of my RFX is 14.75" - but with the world's tallest SC fork - the 66!

So yeah, I noticed the same things: VERY high bb, long CS's, and slacker HA. Basically bigtime FR geometry on an AM bike. So an interesting frame design with very interesting geo. I'm afraid that geo is gonna make for a love-or-hate deal. Shame the bike wasn't more *normal* so it could be judged on it's suspension merits better.

With that long of a wheelbase and chainstays, I don't think the BB height is the big deal, because it's proportional to the entire bike, the real negative IMO is the entire bike may be too stable and sluggish, but not directly as a result of the BB, more as a result of the overal picture. 14.5" for a DH bike isn't extremely high, and this thing basically has a DH wheelbase and chainstays, and definitely on the "long" side of DH as well...

Hopefully we can get the Reign1 rolling again by next weekend, worst case is to just run it with the warrenty manitou Nixon. To be fair, manitou was great about the warrenty and is sending out a new fork without any questions asked, and when we get the new one we ship back the old one, so props to manitou customer service.

I'd like to get more time on it to explore it geometry wise, although right off the bad I noticed it wasn't as manuverable as my foes (16.75" chainstays). I have a feeling it may be a decent bike for my friend for what he wants, but so far it's impossible to tell.

 

[punkassean]

Sounds like a trailbike for the really big DH type who's never really ridden XC so he plows through crap instead of around it. Weird geo. #'s to say the least...

 

[Bulldog]

With that long of a wheelbase and chainstays, I don't think the BB height is the big deal, because it's proportional to the entire bike, the real negative IMO is the entire bike may be too stable and sluggish, but not directly as a result of the BB, more as a result of the overal picture. 14.5" for a DH bike isn't extremely high, and this thing basically has a DH wheelbase and chainstays, and definitely on the "long" side of DH as well...

To me it's more of a proportion of the bb height to the size of the fork and height of the bars. My 14.75" bb on the RFX feels just fine because I'm behind a tall fork and higher bars. The 14.75" on the Reign felt weird due to feeling on top of a much smaller fork. Much more noticeable IMO. Would give more OTB feelings I think.