The aim with the longer offset is to shorten the trail to improve handling and steering responses. Trail is the horizontal distance from where the steering axis hits the ground in relation to the centre of the front wheel contact patch. Draw a straight line through the head tube to the ground, and measure that distance to a horizontal line descending from the axle, and you have trail. A slacker head angle will produce increased trail, so increasing the fork offset shortens the trail.
Giant aren’t the first company to dabble with custom fork offsets, Gary Fisher’s G2 geometry for 29ers also uses a custom fork offset.
The main talking points of the new bike are the 65.1 degree head angle, 435mm chainstays and 1,220mm wheelbase, 340mm bottom bracket, 711mm down tube and 785mm front centre, all measurements taken from a size large.
For the first time Giant will offer a full range of aluminium and carbon models (usually they deliver the former first and follow up the second year with a plastic version). There’ll be four frame sizes from S to XL. Claimed frame weights are 2.26kg for a carbon frame (size medium) and 2.46kg for the alloy model. The carbon model will uses an aluminium swingarm.
The 160mm (6.3in) travel is delivered via a 200mm shock with a 57mm stroke, using Giant’s tried-and-tested Maestro suspension platform. Both frames features internal cable routing with a water bottle mount and stealth dropper cable routing. Out back is 12×142 thru-axle setup but it’s convertible to a regular quick release setup.
At the moment there are few details on what models will be coming to the UK. The bikes pictured are the Reign Advanced 0 Team (black/blue) and Reign Advanced 1 (green/yellow). The pricer Team bike gets specced with a RockShox Pike RCT3 Dual Position Air 130-160mm-travel fork, RockShox Monarch Plus Debonair RC3 rear shock, DT Swiss Spline One wheelset with Schwalbe tyres and a SRAM XX1 11-speed drivetrain with Avid Guide RSC hydraulic disc brakes.
The green bike meanwhile gets a RockShox Pike RC Dual Position Air 130-160mm-travel with RockShox Monarch Plus Debonair RT rear shock, Giant P-AM2 rims laced to Giant Performance Tracker / DT Swiss 350 hubs and Shimano SLX / XT 10-speed drivetrain with Shimano SLX hydraulic disc brakes.
The new Reign also, we reckon anyway, looks damn good. Well proportioned lines and smooth curves, the geometry sounds good and and we’re intrigued to see what impact the longer offset fork has to the handling. And the paint jobs on the new bikes look really hot. Giant bikes haven’t always been the best lookers, but that’s no longer the case with the new Reign.
