Giant Reign SX - New ride for this year!!!

After much thought, maths, reading, reviewing, test riding and careful decision making, I finally found the perfect bike. Many people say having one bike to do it all isn't possible, and to a degree I agree with that theory. There are some pretty heavy extremes at either end of the very broad mountain bike spectrum these days, from weight shaving, pedal pushing uphill blasters in the XC world, to the heavy hitting, break-neck speed blasting downhillers. I was looking for something that could pedal around and explore comfortably, but still had some pretty serious capabilities when the summit was reached and it was time to come down. Not too heavy, but still burly, manouverable, but rigid, a strong, fast, capable all mountain machine.

In 2009 in my first summer here in BC, I was riding at Silver Star Bike park outside of Vernon where I met a mechanic working in the service centre. Giant bicycles supports the mountains rental fleet, and the mechanic spoke very highly of this new "Reign SX". He said it was a great park bike, loved jumps and single track, soaked up steep, gnarly terrain but could be taken out for a trail adventure and comfortably climb without sapping all your energy before the fun ride home.

Here I am 2 years later, and I found a brand new, Large frame SX still sitting in a shop, waiting to be plucked and shown a good time! with a clearance price on it and a better spec than the current model (which was on their showroom floor for over a grand more!) I new the search had come to an end. We tuned the rear suspension and replaced the spring in the fork with one the next step heavier, put a larger range rear cassette on it and away I went!


I have taken a few pictures and will post some more later, this is just one of my immediate favourites.

Whistler tomorrow for the Red Bull Joyride, its going to be a fantastic event, and the weather has calmed perfectly for the weekend, its going to be a great day of action and excitement!

Brandon Semenuk my tip for the win, the kid is on fire!!

I'd say "in all her glory" but the Glory is her bigger sister! 

** 2 images blended with photomatix. 1 image flash left, 1 image flash right.