Trev & Jono review the 2023 Giant Reign

Completely overhauled for 2023, the new Giant Reign is no doubt the most forward-thinking iteration yet. Featuring a new frame with internal storage, adjustable geometry and mullet compatibility, the Reign has received a lift in travel to better suit the demands of modern enduro racing. How does it ride? We’ve been testing out the new Giant Reign over the past few weeks to see whether it’s as good as it looks.

Watch our Giant Reign video review here:

With its burly build and DH-adjacent geometry, the composure that the Giant Reign exhibits at speed on rough terrain is genuinely impressive.

An overview of the 2023 Giant Reign

The 2023 Giant Reign is a proper all-out enduro race bike. It’s equipped with a 170mm travel fork and 160mm of rear travel, and it comes standard with 29in wheels. Thanks to a nifty 3-position flip chip in the rocker link however, it’s mullet compatible.

Drawing from the latest Trance 29, the Reign now features internal storage in the downtube. It also gets new frame armour with thick noise-damping protection under the downtube and along the chainstay.

The Reign’s geometry receives all the usual updates – the head angle is slacker, the reach is longer, and the seat tube is steeper. Giant has also shortened the seat tube lengths and fitted long, adjustable dropper posts on each frame size.

2023 Giant Reign price & specs

There are alloy and carbon models in the 2023 Giant Reign lineup, with prices kicking off at $4,399 AUD for the Reign 2.

Giant has also brought back the Reign SX model, which features a dual crown fork and coil shock to suit all the park rats out there. You can see all of the specs, prices and details of the full lineup in our first look article.

Here we’ll be discussing our first-hand experience of testing the top-end model; the Giant Reign Advanced Pro 1.

2023 Giant Reign Advanced Pro 1

• Frame | Advanced-Grade Carbon, Maestro Suspension Design, 160mm Travel
• Fork | Fox 38 Performance Elite, GRIP2 Damper, 44mm Offset, 170mm Travel
• Shock | Fox Float X2 Performance Elite, 205×62.5mm
• Wheels | Giant TRX 2, Carbon Rims, 30mm Inner Width
• Tyres | Maxxis Assegai EXO+ 3C MaxxTerra 2.5in Front & Minion DHR II DoubleDown 3C MaxxTerra 2.4in Rear
• Drivetrain | SRAM GX Eagle 1×12 w/32T Crankset & 10-52T Cassette
• Brakes | Shimano SLX 4-Piston w/220mm Front & 203mm Rear Rotors
• Bar | Giant Contact SLR Carbon, 20mm Rise, 800mm Width
• Stem | Giant Contact SL, 40mm Length
• Grips | Giant Tactal Pro
• Seatpost | TranzX, 30.9mm Diameter, Travel: 120-150mm (S), 140-170mm (M), 170-200mm (L-XL)
• Saddle | Giant Romero SL
• Confirmed Weight | 15.04kg
• RRP | $8,999 AUD

The all-black aesthetic gives it an understated, if somewhat boring appearance. Despite not having any flashy Kashima or wireless bits, it’s still equipped with the important stuff; a top-notch frame and pro-level suspension.

Giant Reign sizing & fit

To suit Towering Trev’s gargantuan height of 193cm, we elected to test the XL size in the Giant Reign. Trev normally rides an XL Norco Sight, and he was immediately comfortable aboard the Reign with its 510mm reach and 77.7° seat angle.

Giant supplies the Reign with 800mm wide handlebars, and while Trev would cut these down to 780mm if this were his bike, he otherwise got along just fine with the rise and shape.

As usual, personal preference will dictate your thoughts on the contact points. Mick and Wil have had good experience with Giant’s latest Romero saddle and Tactal Pro grips, whereas Trev didn’t like the saddle and found the grips to be on the thin side for bigger paws.

All of us were stoked to see a 200mm dropper post however, which features tool-free travel adjustment if you’ve got shorter legs and need to lower the saddle height.

To round out our time with the bike, Jumpy Jono also had the opportunity to take the Reign out on the new Indigo Epic trail. Jono normally rides a size Large, and while he found the XL to be on the big side for his liking, he was still able to provide some valuable input on the bike.

Suspension & tyre setup

There is a tonne of adjustment available when setting up the Giant Reign thanks to the Performance Elite Fox 38 and Float X2.

Giant’s full suspension user manual recommends setting up the Reign’s rear shock with 30-35% sag. To suit Trev’s riding weight of 86kg, we needed 197psi to get in that zone.

There are no suggestions for compression or rebound though, so some experimentation is required when approaching the 4-way adjustable damper. Fox does provide some tuning recommendations based on the pressure you’re running, but it quickly became apparent that these made the back end feel too firm and slow. Trev backed those off to end up with both rebound dials set one click faster than halfway, and with the compression dials wound just 1-2 clicks off the lightest setting.

Fork setup proved to be easier, with the recommendations for the Fox 38 getting Trev to a good starting point. In the search for more grip and comfort, he ran a touch less pressure and a little less compression damping than the guide suggests.

As for tyres, Giant specs the new Reign with a Maxxis DoubleDown casing on the rear and an EXO+ casing on the front, which is a perfect match for a burly enduro bike. Trev ran pressures between 25-27psi on the front and 28-31psi on the rear.

Giant Reign weight

Confirmed weight for our Giant Reign Advanced Pro 1 is 15.04kg. That’s without pedals and with the tyres set up tubeless.

It turned out to be quite a bit lighter than we expected given the travel and overall girth. To put that figure into perspective, it’s over 2kg lighter than the Norco Range.

More impressive is the fact that Giant hasn’t tried anything funny with the build. The tyres are heavy-duty, and the brakes come with proper rotors including a 220mm disc on the front. And although the in-house TRX 2 wheelset uses carbon rims, it also features standard J-bend spokes and chunky alloy hubs. Confirmed weight on these is 1,939g, which again feels appropriate for a race-ready enduro bike.

What do we dig about the 2023 Giant Reign?

With its burly build and DH-adjacent geometry, the composure that the Giant Reign exhibits at speed on rough terrain is genuinely impressive. No matter how rowdy the trail gets, it always seems to feel planted and totally in control.

Compared to the previous generation Reign the increase in travel is noticeable and welcome. The kinematic isn’t radically different, which is a good thing. The extra travel simply allows the bike to float more calmly through the chunk, with the high-end Fox dampers doing a marvellous job of isolating your feet from the trail. Seriously, this thing is proper plush.

Though we have a mixed durability track record with the Float X2, there’s no denying it’s a killer shock on the trail. Combined with the proven dual-link Maestro platform, small-bump sensitivity and mid-stroke response are excellent. There’s plenty of travel kept in reserves for absorbing earth-shifting landings, with the big bottom-out bumper providing a cosseting cushion of support to prevent clanging the end of the shock.

Magic Maestro

The real beauty of the Maestro linkage on the Giant Reign is the way that it delivers this gooey plushness without detracting from its pedalling efficiency. When pushing hard on the pedals the shock doesn’t bury itself in its stroke. Far from being the lounge chair we expected, the Reign has surprised us with its reasonably responsive acceleration.

We did make use of the climb switch on smooth fireroads and on the bitumen, but otherwise left the shock open when tackling singletrack ascents. For chunky and loose technical sections, the back end delivers excellent grip, and the near-78° seat angle prevents you from feeling like you’re falling off the back of the bike.

Also surprising for a bike with a 1,303mm wheelbase is that the Reign isn’t difficult to manoeuvre. Sure, you need to be conscious of where you’re positioning the front wheel, but the sub-450mm chainstays allow you to pivot off the back on sharper switchbacks. It’s also relatively easy to pick up the front wheel to negotiate square ledges when rock-crawling uphill.

Bear in mind that Trev and Jono have been riding XL frame here. We expect that riders on the Small size, where the reach is shorter than the rear centre length, are likely to have a different experience.

Flippin’ chips

We’ve spent most of the time riding the Giant Reign in the neutral flip chip position, which is how it comes from the factory. An offset chip is included with the bike, and subbing this in provides you with low and high geometry settings.

Trev tried out the high position, and while it felt good on the climbs, the increased BB height made the bike feel too tall and awkward everywhere else. However, this setting will be useful if you decide to fit a 27.5in rear wheel.

The low setting kicks the head angle out to 63.5°, which improves the Reign’s descending stability even further. If you were heading off for a weekend of shuttle action on steep and fast trails, this is the setting to go for.

After trying the offset flip chip, Trev has since gone back to the neutral setting, which provides a nice compromise between the extremes. Compared to the low position, the steeper seat angle is noticeably better on the climbs, and the front end doesn’t feel as floppy either.

What could be improved?

There’s definitely room for improvement with the internal frame storage on the Giant Reign. The main issue is the hatch itself, which is quite small. This makes it impossible to fit a mini-pump in there, and we even found it tricky to fit a single Dynaplug tool and a 29in tube despite using the supplied storage sock. The storage concept is a nice idea, the execution just lacks refinement compared to a modern Specialized or Trek.

Of course the Reign could easily be improved by routing the cables through the headset. Ha, just kidding! It’s actually quite nice to see a new mountain bike frame with conventional internal routing, especially one with tidy bolt-in ports like the Reign uses. Along with the foam insulating tubes and cable ties around the storage hatch, cable vibrations are kept to a minimum.

Bringing a bazooka to a gun fight

Although Trev and Jono have been impressed by the efficiency and climbing performance of the Giant Reign, obviously you’re not buying this bike to use for all-round trail cruising.

During two days of riding the Indigo Epic trail between Beechworth and Yackandandah, Jono found the Reign to be great fun for all the side hits, though otherwise total overkill. Yes it pedals well, but it’s still a big bike that’s really best suited to bombing down steep and gnarly terrain.

It’s burly, long and slack, and you need to ride it accordingly to get the most out of it. Commit and get your weight over the front end, and it’ll reward you with oodles of grip and stability. Ride off the back of the bike, and you’ll struggle with understeer and potential front tyre washout. This is especially the case on meandering trails over flatter terrain. If that sounds like your backyard, you’ll be better served by the Trance X or even the Trance 29.

And while the Maestro linkage is stable while seated, there is a lot of squish from the fork and shock when you’re hammering out of the saddle. This differs to Flight Attendant-equipped bikes like the Merida One-Sixty, which offer incredible efficiency and support thanks to their automated electronic suspension. Even the Canyon Strive, with its Shapeshifter system, offers a more pert pedalling platform at the flick of a bar-mounted remote.

Of course the Reign offers a much simpler approach to those bikes. There are no electronics or added cables, and that’s a big part of its appeal.

Component highs & lows

The Giant Reign Advanced Pro 1 is a legit race-ready enduro bike straight out of the box. The all-black aesthetic gives it an understated, if somewhat boring appearance. Despite not having any flashy Kashima or wireless bits, it’s still equipped with the important stuff; a top-notch frame and pro-level suspension.

With this in mind, the decision to spec a GX Eagle drivetrain is a good one. It works fine, and given how hard enduro racing can be on a bike, the alloy cranks are a sensible choice.

The Shimano SLX brakes deliver awesome stopping power thanks to the big rotors, and we’re glad that Giant chose to spec the quieter non-finned pads. Trev found them to be a little bitey coming off SRAM Codes, but it was easy to get used to after the first few rides.

One tradeoff of the Reign’s sure-footed handling is a bit more front-end feedback. This is likely a combination of the big fork chassis, carbon rims and 35mm diameter carbon bars, with the latter providing a lot of stiffness that transmits more vibration than we’d like.

The TRX 2 wheels have been solid, though it’d be great to see a faster-engaging rear hub. There is an occasional lag at the pedals on technical climbs, which Trev noticed having come from a Bontrager hub with 108 engagement points.

Otherwise we have nothing but props for the tyres, which have proven to be robust and well-damped on rocky terrain. The Assegai provides awesome grip, even with the intermediate MaxxTerra compound. You could certainly get more traction by upgrading to the MaxxGrip version, but we’d save that for race day as the softer rubber wears out much faster.

The rear tyre did suffer from a small snakebite during the final photoshoot, which was simply a reminder that we should really have fitted a CushCore insert from the start. For most riders and trails however, the stock tyre setup will be spot-on.

Flow’s Verdict

Having received all the updates we were hoping for, the new Giant Reign has taken a welcome step up in performance.

It’s plusher and floatier than its predecessor, and it offers incredible composure at warp speeds. Short of being on a full-blown DH bike, there’s very little that will upset it on the descents.

The well-tuned Maestro linkage means it still pedals well though, and we like that you can tune the handling and riding position with the new three-position flip chip. The mullet and coil shock compatibility is appealing too.

The internal storage could do with some refining, but otherwise we’ve been mighty impressed with the overall finish and the build kit, which represents great value for money amongst its main competitors. Certainly, for those who are after a contemporary enduro race bike, the Giant Reign is a superb option.

It’s plusher and floatier than its predecessor, and it offers incredible composure at warp speeds. Short of being on a full-blown DH bike, there’s very little that will upset it on the descents.