Every once in awhile a bike comes along that’s such a great value, such a great performer, that you have to sit back and say “Ok, what’s the catch?”
Best part is when there is no catch.
The Reign X1 is the bigger brother of the Reign. In a nutshell, it’s a little slacker, a little beefier, a little more suited for aggressive riding. It’s not a full-on DH bike, but it can take a bunch of abuse. The fun part though, is thatit’s designed to go up too.
And it does.
With 6.75 inches of travel in back, and a 6 inch travel Fox 36R up front, you’re pretty much ready for anything you’re going to run into (or over). The Giant comes spec’d with some pretty nice bits, including a full Easton component group (bar, stem and seatpost), RaceFace Ride DH X-Type cranks, integrated headset, SRAM X.7 drivetrain, and Avid Juicy Five brakes with 7” front rotor and 6” rear. Wheels are no-name hubs (but likely formulas) on WTB trail rims. Good enough. Tires are Hutchinson Scorpion, 2.3s.
There are 2 versions of the Reign X series for 07, with the Reign X0 getting upgrades in every part you’d expect (higher drivetrain, 36 Float RC2, and so on) for about a thousand bucks more.
The frame is the real star here though. Giant is clearly all over hydroforming and it shows. Tubes changes shape in every direction leading to a look that’s clean, fluid (no pun intended) and strong. The shock pierces the downtube, keeping everything low and safe. We had some worries that the shock might catch on things, but of course that never happened. Giant provides a nice little plastic cover for the shock to keep crap out, although it does make accessing the adjustments tricky. And of course, the real feature of the frame is the Maestro suspension system. Not going to get into all the technical bits about that (you can read about that here) but just know that it’s designed to haul ass in an efficient manner. Oh, and it works too!
On the trails, the Reign motors. Once you have the right spring rate (that’s key, btw) you set the suspension front and rear, and give’r! Seated, the X1 will fly along with very little bob, and fantastic traction. With the shock so low in the frame, cornering is a breeze. The rear suspension feels good, although strangely it was much softer then the Vanilla R on the front, the opposite of the Specialized SX Trail we tried. Be aware that, depending on your weight, you might need a different spring for the rear. We found the stock spring was decent for riders around 135-160 pounds, but anything more than that you will need to up the springrate by 50 pounds, to start. We tried out a 600 and it was just about right for a 200-pound guy.
Going up was decent but not as good as it could have been. While the rear of the bike provided a ton of traction the front end was so high it made climbing fairly difficult. Climbing a 6” fork can be hard enough, but with the X1, you also have a whack of spacers (about an inch plus) under the stem, and the top cap for the headset is a triangular cap, about an inch high. As such, you are sitting with bars that are at least 2 inches higher then they need to be. Considering the lack of travel adjust on the fork, this means steep climbs are harder than they need to be. Nitpicky for sure, but its true. The rear stayed fairly grounded, but we had a bit of tire spin with out of the saddle monster truck climbs.
Decents are great, as expected. The X1 is a great decender, better then you’d think after riding it on the trails. Aim it down, and it goes. Again, make sure you have the right spring rate or you are going to bottom out all over the place. The X1 has a medium/ high leverage ratio and it’s fairly easy to get through its travel. Again, spring rate is key here. The DHX 3 was a decent shock, but not amazing. Consider saving up for an upgrade by PUSH Industries to really unlock what it can do. Still though, the X1 was a blast going downhill, so much so that we would easily suggest it as a short travel DH replacement.
Considering the Reign X1 is about $2800 bucks Canadian it’s really hard to bitch about things. It’s a stellar build on a great frame and its a great value. However, bitch we must.
The bars plain out suck. Get wider ones. This ain't an XC bike and we aren't couriering in the city, so why the narrow bars? The rims were pretty lame, too. Giant makes the Reign and the Reign X series. Strangely, the X1 is a very trail-like build but we feel this short-changes what the bike is really capable of. We'd be much happier seeing something like Sun's S-type rims here. Yeah, there is a weight penalty, but at least you can let loose and not worry about bent rims. Tires were surprisingly decent though, although they'd flat if you pushed them hard enough.
As a package, the Reign X1 is one hell of a bike. It goes up, down, straight, DH, can jump and would probably get the groceries if you asked it nice. It’s definitely the deal of the year considering the performance and components. The only real question is: can you find one that hasn't already been snapped up?
