Hi chaps,

How do you find your Reign in the tight and twisty stuff, and how do you find it climbs?

Cheers

Ricks

No concerns with tight & twisty for the bike, I run 800mm bars on mine which presents more issues because of the close proximity of trees on some occasions.

Climbs pretty much like every other multi link 160mm bike i’ve ridden.

Very limited time on mine, but no problems at all with what you mention. The turning is fantastic for me coming from a horsethief, alot quicker than I’m used to. Climbing was surprisingly good as well, expected a wallowing drudge but the platform worked well and I could feel the suspension accommodating the terrain rather than relying on the wheel/tyre that the horsethief worked with. All in all very happy with the way things are going so far.

Also limited time on mine, but on my favourite fast & twisty descent I found it quicker – needing fewer small line corrections in between corners. Did a bit of trail centre descent on it and it did feel a bit ponderous, but I wasn’t used to the steering at that point.

Climbing is about what you’d expect. Influenced greatly by wheel & tyre choice obvs. Certainly not a drawback.

Ive owned a Reign for 3 years,its an awesome bike,changed nearly everything on it now haha but thats just made it better and probably on par with the 2015-16 Reigns,although i hear the newer ones are a tad bigger and longer,

Climbs like Rickon says. Tight and twisty it’s ace. I ride everything in the Tweed Valley and it feels right at home. It begs to be thrown at steep, rocky, rooty stuff as fast as you dare. I can’t recommend it enough.

The suspension is plenty efficient but it still climbs like a bike with a 65deg HA!
No probs in the corners but I reckon my trance is a better all rounder (if that’s what you’re after).

What ‘wrecker’ said, tried both but bought the Trance, if I raced Enduro more than a handful of times a year I might have bought the Reign but realistically for 90% of my riding the Trance with 160mm forks covers all bases.

I have both! Took the kit from the Reign team and put it on the trance (as the spec was very trail for the Reign Team IMHO) and built the reign up a bit more burly. They both seem happy.

Are you guys running a lot of headset spacers and a high rise bar? The stack looks very short on the medium

Plenty maneuverable enough for tight and twist stuff, the downside is that the weird offset can make it feel twitchier than you might expect from a 65 degree head angled bike on fast stuff.

Swapping to a lower offset fork at some point – as I don’t feel it can be weighted up at the front when combined with a 35mm stem QUITE as easily.

Other than that, it is a brilliant bike.

Oh yeah, the stack is too short. Need to swap to a high rise bar even with tonnes of spacers.

The fork steerer is cut fairly short, so you can’t run a huge amount of spacers. I had the same concerns but in use, it isn’t an issue. I use ENVE DH bars.
The fork with the big offset is now on my Trance and feels brilliant. The Reign now has a fork with a normal offset.
I love the Reign, but the Trance is jaw droppingly good on normal stuff esp w/the dual air 160/140 forks.

I run a 170 fork on mine, with 20mm of spacers & a 23mm rise bar. The head tube is very short on the bike, but a combination of a slightly longer fork, some spacers & mid rise bar is fine, it may even be a touch too high for flatter stuff now.

No problem with the short headtube on my medium Trance as I like the aesthetics of a low front end anyway, I then just use bars with anything from a 25mm rise upwards to get to where I want to be.

Cheers chaps, so the OEM bars at 20mm rise with all the spacers may still be a little low? Just working out if I’d need to buy a new bar to get a comfy fit.

Try it with stock, buy new if you don’t like it?

Reigns are superb all rounders and there’s very little pedal bob climbing

I have loads of steerer tube above my stem, unless you like your bar unusually high I reckon you’ll be alright.

Cheers Chakaping, what size reign are you riding?

Medium, but I’d consider a large if buying again.

Took it to the lake district this weekend and rode some familiar trails. Lovin’ it.

That because of the low stack? Or you just into longer bikes these days? What height are you?

I have loads of steerer tube above my stem, unless you like your bar unusually high I reckon you’ll be alright.

My large reign has lower bars than my old mans mk2 nomad with the bars slammed right down.

They are low, even with lots of spacers.

181cm and riding the large.

My large reign has lower bars than my old mans mk2 nomad with the bars slammed right down.

That’s weird, as the stack on the large Reign is 4mm taller than the mk2 large Nomad.

Might be the external lower bottom cup then. That would add about 10mm on the Reign, plus the 30mm bars.

It is definitely taller, which now you mention it – doesn’t make sense. As the old 26 inch Fox 36s should have a lower axle to crown as well?

Might be the long top tube that make it feel that way.

I’m 5ft 8in but with a long body.

The reign is fine but my other bike has a reach of 460mm and I love the extra stability it gives.

Just had my first ride on my new (2015 but only bought last week) Advanced 1. Have gone from a medium 2013 Reign to a large.

My god it loves to go fast but feels incredibly stable doing it – and I didn’t notice any turning issues either.

Pretty sure that I’m going to take the spacers out from underneath the stem as it feels a little high at the front, plus I feel it’ll help me to put a it more weight on the front that the longer reach is hindering.

But, first ride = bloody happy, a solid 8 out of 10 😀

That would be a monster of a bike at 5’8″ on a large, my wife is a touch taller than you & it was pretty amusing when I was trying to diagnose an issue with her bike so got her to hop on mine & ride it down a mountain 🙂

Mind you, her large Nomad then felt damn scary by comparison to try & ride!

My oil tanker long XL Reign turns fine, better than my Enduro 29er and it is as good as any long travel bike at climbing. I can winch up mountain passes fine.

Regardless of the bike I ride the weakest link continues to be the rider…

2016 Med Reign 1 here only a few rides in and coming from a Nomad 3 there is no noticeable diff in climbing and its certainly no worse in tight stuff (I’m thinking its actually better but need more ride time) plenty stack adjustment on mine as well.

Although I’m just over 5ft 8in, I have stumpy legs so my torso is roughly equivalent to an average 5ft 11in person.

These new long bikes are brilliant for me.

Had a pedal round on a large strive race yesterday and it felt ok, despite being longer than my large process 111.

Anyone had any luck sourcing framesets from Giant UK? Really don’t want to be buying a bike and replacing half the bits on it!

It is possible, Do you have a friend who works for a big, high value Giant dealer? Generally they can pull a few strings for specials they don’t usually bring in.

Have you guys had the Squeaky Dog Toy shock noise? And if so… Have you managed to fix it?

Cheers hob nob, will have to be a bit more specific when I go to the shop next (which I know well)

Rickon, I had this issue and SRAM replaced the shock (actually upgraded) with no fuss. Although they were very quick in the end I didn’t want to the without a bike so took the opportunity to get an X2. Highly recommended!

For Rickon…

Rickon – Yup, had the squeaky dog noise. SRAM say it’s down to a slight tolerance issue on one of the seals inside the shock. They claim it doesn’t affect the shock’s performance or reliability, it’s just a bit annoying. SRAM Tech UK are pretty good at sorting niggles out though so your dealer should be a be able to get it fixed.