#226 - Giant Reign 1 2012

The cat's out of the bag :-) After four years of begging

for an All-Mountain bike, Santa Claus (AKA my wife)

has finally relented and so I got a Giant Reign 1 2012

for Christmas !

I took my own sweet time before I started any sort

of  'review' for this bike. To date, I have brought this

bike to four offroad rides (mainly in Rooty Trail) and

one city ride where I descended on all the stairs that

I could find from Kallang PCN up to Boat Quay.

But still, I think I have barely scratched the surface

of what this bike can do (especially the DH part).

Ok, let's start.

Fork - the bike came with a 150mm RockShox

Revelation. This is the RLT version and it comes

complete with lockout and a negative air spring.

The front wheel is connected to the fork using

Frankentein's favourite - a big screw! Also, the

steerer is now  1 1/4" at the top and 1 1/2" at

the bottom.  This promises unheard of stiffness

in the steering department. However, God help

you if ever you need a different length stem or

if ever you need a new stem.

Rear Shock - Giant equipped the bike with

a Monarch RT. Up to this day, I'm still scratching

my head about this shock. This is the picture of

the shock from RockShox's website. If you notice,

the blue lever on that picture is missing from the shock

that I have on my bike. In place of the blue lever, is

a gold dial which is something like a blow-off valve.

Now, on my Reba (and the Revelation fork on this bike),

you lock the fork and then you set up the blow-off

using that gold dial. So I am wondering how I'm

going to use this gold dial on the shock when I can't

lock the shock in the first place???

GroupSet - funny thing that I had my first taste

of a 3x10 speed groupset (SLX) on an AM bike

instead of a CrossCountry bike. My 3x9speed

SLX has never let me down since 2008 and

I expect the same from the 3x10speed version.

Brakes - The brakes that came with the bike

are Avid Elixir 5s. The brake disks are 180mm

in front and 160mm at the back. These brakes

seem to lack in the braking power department.

I am used to SLX brakes with sintered KoolStop

pads and these Elixir 5s are nowhere near the

power of that setup. The good thing though is,

I'm not sure how it happened, but I tend to brake

more using the front brakes with this bike. If I

have powerful brakes that may send me straight

to Endo City. So, all in all, I don't see any issues

with the brakes (yet).

Wheelset and tires - The rims for this bike are

DT Swiss E540 (which as the name implies are

540grams in weight). The front hub is Giant's own

15mm Tracker hub. The rear hub is a Shimano

Deore number. The tires that came with the bike

are Maxxis Minion DHF 2.35 (F) and Maxxis

High Roller 2.35 (R). However, knowing how

anorexic Maxxis tires can get, I decided to change

the tires to Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Stick-E compound

for both front and rear (hehehe bad move).

SeatPost and Saddle - Giant has been equipping

their bikes now with Fizik saddles. My Anthem came

with Fizik Tundra, I can't remember which saddle came

with Paolo and Bal's Trance (surely Fizik, but which model?),

and now my Reign came with Gobi. The seatpost is the

new Giant Switch telescoping seatpost with Remote.

What disturbs me is that the Reign 0 (the next highest

model for Reign) comes with a Joplin seatpost.

The Joplin seatpost, if you believe all the reviews

on the net, must be the worst ever telescoping seatpost

of all time... and it is not cheap! So when Giant

equips their Reign 0 with Joplin and Reign 1

with the Switch, what does that mean???

Having that in mind, for the first 2 rides, I brought

a spare Thomson Elite seatpost with me

jussstttt in case.

Stem and HandleBar - As I mentioned before, Giant

seem to be having this overwhelming urge to be different

and so the fork steerer is now 1 1/4". It follows that the

stem is also that size and the length is 70mm with 8 degree

rise. If this does not suit you, then you might be out of luck

as I think only Giant manufactures this size of stem.

The handlebar is the exact same handlebar that

came with my Anthem. This is another head scratcher

for me as I find it odd that Giant chose to equip their

XC bikes with the same handlebar as their AM bikes.

What does that mean? Does it mean that the bar is

sooo wide for XC that Giant expected us to cut

down the bar? But I didn't cut down my bar.

Is that wrong then?

Anyway, that's the rundown of the bike specs and

so we now go and ride!

Changes

1. The moment I sat on the bike, the first thing that I

felt was ... this bike's handlebar is soooo 'tall'. Coming

from an XC background, I can't stand this. I took all the

spacers from under the stem and placed them all on top.

The stem is now at it's lowest. BUT the handlebar still

felt 'high'. I complained about this to SR Deck and he

told me that since the stem has an 8degree rise, I should

go and flip the stem upside down.... I said ... uhhh that

might result on some weird and funky steering traits

so I better not do that.

2. I thought that when I press the remote for the seatpost,

my bum will just go down? No? It didn't do that. I 

thought I got a lemon. In the end, I realised I had to

give the seatpost a bit of a 'nudge' before it will go down.

Going up is nice and smooth though.

Now, off to the trails :

3. Tires - I thought I was going to pass out !  The decision

to change the original tires to 2.35 Stick-E Nevegals

was definitely wrong! They were sooo draggy! After

just one trail ride, I changed back to the original tires

and I am now even contemplating on putting on 2.1

Crossmarks at the rear when all the mud dries up in

Rooty Trail.

4. I used the Switch Seatpost for two rides, it was

very nice to ride with the saddle lowered all the way

when going downhill BUT I find that there is actually

no need to lower the saddle that much in our trails.

So after 2 trail rides, I took off the Switch seatpost

and changed it to a setback Thomson Elite seatpost.

The bike is not just lighter now, my backpack is

lighter as well since I don't have to carry a spare

seatpost.

5. The steering is very twitchy! Is it because I lowered

the stem too much? Anyway, lowering the stem seems

to have helped in the climbing department and so I will

not put back the spacers under the stem. ... and so I

went hunting for a 700mm handlebar ... not just a normal

700mm handlebar, it has to be low-rise (stock Giant bar

has a 19degree rise), in fact I know that there are wide

straight handlebars (e.g. Sunline) ... but it has to be cheap

too hehehehehe. Lo and behold, when I went last Saturday

to Hup Leong's X'mas Sale, I saw a ControlTech 700mm

flat bar that only costs 66$ before discount! I got that!

Lucky, since it was the last piece. See picture above

comparing the ControlTech straightbar with the original

Giant bar.

6. Did I mention that the bike does NOT come with

pedals? Yup, you need to fork out more money to

get pedals. Nice thing that I have a pair of new XT

Trail Pedals lying at home just waiting for this bike.

7. Lastly (whew!), there are lots of fallen trees

in our trails nowadays due to the never ending rain.

After two trail rides, I noticed that I have been using

my biggest chainring more as a fallen tree crampon.

I use the biggest chainring when I'm on the road going

to the trails but I never utilise the 11T on my cassette.

So I thought the biggest chainring had to go! Good thing

there are some cheap and good bashrings at Hup Leong's

sales bin. I got a black MRP bashring for 28$ and

I installed it myself at home.

That's all! I am very happy with the changes I made.

I went to go for a trail ride yesterday (Sunday) and

everything was almost perfect ... I said almost because

... my wheelset seems to be heavy? (evil laughter ensues.....)