Giant Reign Advanced…any good?

I think he meant were you looking at the 09 Glory instead of the 09 Reign X.

Geo for 2009 Regin X is:
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/reign.x1/2415/32131/

H/A 67
Seat 72.5

the angles i gave were the angles i measured on my bike using a digital inclinometer…i then compared them to the current reign geometry

just seen what looks like the new 2017 model and its looks damn good!!
my mind is now definitely made up…

Hoping they bring framesets in this year. If not, will wait until the revised version is released next summer/autumn

Hoping they bring framesets in this year

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/reign.advanced.frameset/26027/92924/

The US market had the frameset option last year, but Giant UK elected not to bring them in. I’m probably going to wait until next year, as would hazard a guess they will introduce the metric shock to the Reign. No real performance gain from swapping from a 2015 to 2017 frame.

No framesets again this year (friends owns a Giant store).

How about getting a nice watch?

I work at very large giant store and we have been told that they are bringing in framesets this year to the uk

oooohhhh so who’s lying??!

How did you get on with this gonzy?

Interested in one myself.

The German Giant site has all the weights:
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/de-de/bike-catalogue/series/mountainbikes/21/

I have a 2015 Trance and love it, it climbs fast and descends well, but I do sometimes find myself wishing I had bought the Reign.. depends what terrain you are going to be riding..

Don’t listen to what the mags say about the 46mm offset, it feels loads better on steep stuff simply because it puts the wheel further out in front of you.

As for head angle, the true, real world angle is actually about 64.5 degrees.

The 46mm offset makes hardly any difference going downhill, I’ve swapped out my pikes for some 42mm offset lyriks and after swapping back for a bit decided there’s actually f’all difference, maybe very slightly slower steering with the 42mm but that’s it.

What’s the real world weight of an advanced reign? Loved my old trance but want to start riding some bigger stuff next year.

My Advanced 1 was 32.1lbs, dead stock with XT Trail pedals.

It’s now at 29.7lbs (1 x 11, carbon cranks, carbon bars, Easton Heist 30 wheels, Grid/Supergravity tyres tubeless).

My Reign was my first proper mtb, rode it from 2006 to 2012 as my only bike. XC to Alps. Obviously the new models share little except the name but its such an important product for Giant I can’t imagine they’d screw it up. The new bikes look great and ime the frame pedalled well and descended even better and you can upgrade or not as you wish.

Was that an XL Reign Advanced? My Reign 2 Alu weighs 32.5lb and the only thing I’ve done to reduce weight is go 1×11.

I guess it weight 33.1lb before though – so the carbon must be a fair bit lighter. It’s just a lot pay for a 32.2lb stock bike.

What’s the real world weight of an advanced reign? Loved my old trance but want to start riding some bigger stuff next year.

My ali reign hovers around 30lbs, depending on tyres. Would expect for the same build, the advanced would be approximately 1lb lighter.

Thanks, was hoping around 30lb. I know weight isn’t everything and it’s more how it pedals but I’d be using it for everything so I don’t want to be dragging a big lump round if I’m on a decent ride.

How’s the sizing in the reign? Was going to go for a medium being 5′ 9″ with a 32″ inseam.

Mine’s a large. I’m 5’10” with a 33″ inside leg – large is perfect for me.

Sounds like I’d better get to a dealer and cock a leg over one, thanks proutster!

Chucked a leg over a large alu and a medium advanced today. Tried the large first on which I felt a little stretched then the medium which felt fine but lower at the front, I know the large has a slightly longer head tube but I didn’t check the sag on either.

Could probably get away with a large but I’m not convinced.

You could probably go either way.

Large with a shorter stem maybe?

Check what length stem the full builds come with, also bear in mind the bars are pretty wide at 800mm and check if the seatpost has any offset (last years giant ones were circa 25mm!). So swapping to a shorter stem and a more sensible width bar and a inline seatpost (unless one was fitted to the bike you tried), the large will feel a little smaller.

bluearsedfly, I’d say you were more of a medium than a large, especially if you are using it for everything. FYI, I am 6ft with a 33″ inside leg, I have a large with a 40mm stem and a 780mm bar, 170mm dropper (with seat slammed forward in the rails to get weight over the front for climbing)

How did you get on with this gonzy?

Interested in one myself.

not managed to swing a leg over one yet. i need to head over to my LBS and arrange a demo ride…but due to the father in law passing away a fortnight ago and this week our house sale falling through…i dont think talking new £4k bike purchase is the best topic to be discussing with the wife!!

most likely i’ll be going for the advanced 1 but i do like the look of the reign sx but it only shows up on the US website and not the UK website…so my guess is its only available for the US market

even if the bike weighed 32lb…i’d be happy with that…my current reign x2 weighs in between 35-37lb depending on which wheels and tyres i’ve got on it

5.11 here and ride a large, felt streched out with a 60mm stem so swapped to a 35mm – feels perfect now.

5.11 here and ride a large, felt streched out with a 60mm stem so swapped to a 35mm – feels perfect now.

5’8″ so i’ll most probably be going for a medium but i’m going to try a small as well as the size charts put me between the 2 sizes

Sorry to hear that gonzy, sounds like a proper shit fortnight.

Nearly 12 months to the day I had to sell my Spitfire as we were running out of money moving house, the survey on our house found knotweed and the survey on the house we were buying said we needed to carry out structural engineers reports etc. It ended up costing us around 8k more than we budgeted for with the above and other stuff. We’d sold cheaper than we wanted to and went over budget with the house we bought. I never thought I’d be looking at another ‘proper’ bike ever again. I’m sure your time will come!

The stem on the large only looked around 50mm so I’m not sure going down in length would make that much difference. Bars were very wide but I did try riding with my hands over the brake/shifter clamps but still felt stretched.

The large just felt really ‘long’ and as Sir HC mentioned I’d be worried about the front lifting on steep climbs. The medium just felt a bit more agile. I’ve always ridden medium everything else so I think I may stick with it.

Thanks.

You learn to ride around the front lifting on climbs – it only happens on very very steep gradients. You can go shorter than 35mm, down to 30 or even 25 if you don’t mind forking out for the PDent bar/stem combo.

The Mediums reach is only 13mm less. 50 to 35 is a 15mm loss so you can more than make it back.

My fathers riding a bike thats as long as mine in the reach and he’s 5 foot 8. He loves it (Nukeproof Mega 275 – which is one inch shorter in the seat tube for the same reach).

I’d always go for 35mm or less stem these days.

In case anyone’s interested, before spending money – I’ve got a frame kit Advanced Team for sale. I wouldn’t normally post it up here, but could save a good amount of cash….

Very nice bike, I just prefer single pivot bikes these days 😉

Daft question, but what would I be gaining from going to a large with a short stem? The reach would then be the same, the front slightly higher which I admit felt a bit better (on the car park), but what else would I gain?

my current bike is a 2009 reign x2. its a small but the long top tube means that the frame measures up more like a medium. i also run a 50mm stem.
ive sat on the 2016 reign and it felt pretty much spot on so id be interested to see how the small measures up if only for comparison. i didnt take the bike for a spin as it didnt have any pedals fitted and i was in a rush…so im going to wait for the 2017 stock to arrive.

funnily enough i got told that the reign is the only bike that giant didnt have in its demo fleet last year…maybe that will change this year.

the interesting bit will be the geometry for me. my current bike runs a 170mm fork and also has 170mm at the rear. with the offset bushes the head angle is a very slack 65 degrees.
but like tom said once you sit on the bike and account for body weight the head angle will slacken off. mine drops to 64 degrees.
so with the current head angle on the 2017 bike being 65 degrees i would be surprised for it to drop to 64.5 degrees once the rider sits on it.
the reign sx also has the same 160mm rear travel but the front fork runs on 170mm so the stock head angle is 64.5 degrees…i would imagine that it would drop to 64 degrees or less once the rider weight has been added.
i like my bikes nice and slack…so ideally the alu sx is more appealing to me but its not a deal breaker….id still be more than happy with the reign advanced 1

why does it have to be such hard work deciding on a bike??

Daft question, but what would I be gaining from going to a large with a short stem? The reach would then be the same

The frame reach would be longer, more of the distance to the bars would be made up of frame, giving the bike a longer front centre = more stability.

Think I’m going to have to sit on them both again, it just feels like a big risk plumping for a large then swapping the stem and bars it the hope it will feel better.

Will the longer wheelbase of the large not make it hard work on the tight stuff? 46.9″ for the medium and 47.9″ for the large Reign versus 45.4″ for my old bike.

I cope fine with my Reign on the tighter trails (cannock off piste). My Trance is a bit shorter and more nimble, so a little quicker.

Something else to consider is where you position your body on the bike, if you ride off the back of the bike, a medium will make more sense, keeping weight on the front to get the bike to turn.

Rickon
How old is your frame, size? I’ve been thinking of going from my single pivot back to maestro..

Thanks Sir HC, after going to another dealer today and from what I’ve read here I’m going with a medium. I presume by riding off the back of the bike you mean generally having my arse over the back wheel? If so that’s how I tend to ride most stuff that doesn’t involve pedalling.

Gold-digger, my Reign above is a medium, and is about 9 months old. But in that time I was off the bike for about 2 months with injury.

The front triangle looks new, the back end looks in excellent condition.

Long shot, but is anyone here running a 150mm dropper on a medium frame?

Looks like it might be a tight fit.