Helloooo

Yep, the newest reign, 6 inch…..
I have tried the trance x, lovely, very stable, but i could
do with a tad more travel on the rear.

I’ve got the ’08 Reign, swapped all the bits over for my existing stuff and put a Fox 36 Talas on.

What would you like to know?

Hello Chakaping

How does it climb

how does it takes bumps, does it feel bottomless

if i join a group of xc riders, how would it behave

Any bobbing

does it feel sluggish, slow, fast, stiff

At the moment i ride a Blur LT, with pikes, and i ride
mostly, fast, technical singletrack,
not so much climbing, decending here in flat Denmark !

I’ve got an 08 Reign X (slightly more travel than the Reign, 170mm compared to 150mm) and it climbs incredibly well considering. Very little bob indeed unless you’re out of the saddle mashing the granny ring and downhill its basically a small DH bike.

Not the fastest up the hill but will get you there in comfort and style.

Recommended.

How does it climb
Very well, especially with a travel adjust fork, but ok even at 160mm. Got relatively light weight components on mine, which must help a bit, but it’s very easy to spin away up the hills and feels quite agile on technical climbs.

how does it takes bumps, does it feel bottomless
Very well, the Maestro suspension system is very neutral and it gives a very smooth ride without ever feeling wallowy.

if i join a group of xc riders, how would it behave
The frame is very light, and the headangle on the ’08 is steep by six inch bike standards – so with the stock 140mm fork it’s got a bit of an XC bias anyway.

Any bobbing
No, see Maestro comments above.

does it feel sluggish, slow, fast, stiff
Not sluggish or slow, not fast when compared to a proper XC bike like an Anthem, but picks up and carries speed well and handles well on singletrack. Very composed downhill (remember this is with a Fox 36 fork), takes rock gardens easily. Quite good on slower technical stuff too, as it’s quite well balanced.

It’s probably better on not-so-steep technical descents than very steep ones, as it’s essentially a big XC bike.

Definitely stiff enough, haven’t noticed any flexing.

All in all, a very good “all mountain” bike: does everything well, probably not the best at any one thing (apart from the suspension system, maybe 😉 ) but has no weak points I’ve found yet.

Bear in mind that the head angle has apparently been slackened by a degree for ’09. This didn’t bother me as I was putting a longer fork on my ’08, but a 140mm fork might have put rider weight a bit too far forward.

I’d offer you a go on mine, but you’re in the wrong country!

jeb, I test rode a Reign last year back to back on consecutive days against the Blur LT1. The Reign was good but the Blur was much better. Ended up ordering an LT2 even though it was about £700 more expensive

Thanxxxx chakaping

WOULD really like to ride it….. but, yep i am in
small Denmark !
Great review, now i know what my tax return money will
be heading for 🙂

Cheers

Happy to help.

One thing I forgot to add, possibly very important.

I have the RP2 (high volume) shock, which is very good.

This was stock on the ’08 Reign 1 and 2, but the ’08 Reign zero and ’09 Reign 1 and zero have DHX air shocks – which may completely change the suspension performance.

I had a DHX air on my old bike and it was a bobbing, wallowing mess (but that was a Yeti 575, single pivot sus design).