Proutster's New Reign

Proutster

Here's a quick taster pic or two of my new baby, more & full specs to follow:





And sandwiched in between his bigger and smaller brothers - pity that the Trance has to go, to make room, but that's life - it's been emotional

cat_with_no_tail

Bit of a chavvy move buying an AMG merc then buying the matching plates just in case anyone's eyesight is so bad they miss all the AMG badges Mercedes provide you with. I do hope that's not the replacement for your Landy.

mike hunts alpine

"Black and yellow, black and yellow"

DodgeT

Nice, that came quick!
First outing sat?

Proutster

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Bit of a chavvy move buying an AMG merc then buying the matching plates just in case anyone's eyesight is so bad they miss all the AMG badges Mercedes provide you with. I do hope that's not the replacement for your Landy.

Nowt to do with me mate, I've still got the Gaylander. Must've been some posh bloke popping to the gun shop on the corner - not surprisingly the police do a pretty quick turnout when that alarm goes off....

Proutster

DodgeT wrote:

Nice, that came quick!
First outing sat?

Yes, just over a week from France.

Unfortunately not, I've got to heli-tape the frame and swap over lots of bits first. So Saturday will probably be the last trip out for the Trance

Proutster

mike hunts alpine wrote:

"Black and yellow, black and yellow"

Yeah, uh huh, you know what it is
Everything I do, I do it big
Yeah, uh huh, screamin' that's nothin'
When I pulled off the lot, that's stuntin'

Reppin' my town when you see me
You know everything
Black and yellow, black and yellow
Black and yellow, black and yellow

Actually it's lime green

Proutster

Just finished stripping the bike down ready for heli-taping and then swapping lots of bits from my Trance.

Before I did that, I couldn't resist popping the Pikes onto it to see how it looks - ignore the steerer, that'll be sorted when I build it up properly. Anyway, here are some before and afters:

Firstly with the 150mm Revelations:



And then with the Dual Position Air Pikes set at 160mm:





Pretty pleased with the look, the 35mm stantions on the Pikes look so much better than the 32mm Revelations - every time I see a bike with 32mm forks at 150mm they look noodly!!

Heli-taping to be done on Sunday (out for a last ride on the Trance in The Peaks tomorrow ) then to start building it back up.

CitizenLee

Looking good mate, and great upgrade from the Trance!

Jealous of those Pikes!

Proutster

CitizenLee wrote:

Looking good mate, and great upgrade from the Trance!

Jealous of those Pikes!

Cheers mate.

I'll take some in-progress pics tonight and post them up.

It'll be interesting to see the weight when finished as an initial weigh-in, as it was when I received it, was 31.25lbs without pedals on my super-accurate £5 EBay special fishing scales. The Trance, before I stripped it and swapped bits over was 32.5lbs...

CitizenLee

Proutster wrote:

CitizenLee wrote:

Looking good mate, and great upgrade from the Trance!

Jealous of those Pikes!

Cheers mate.

I'll take some in-progress pics tonight and post them up.

It'll be interesting to see the weight when finished as an initial weigh-in, as it was when I received it, was 31.25lbs without pedals on my super-accurate £5 EBay special fishing scales. The Trance, before I stripped it and swapped bits over was 32.5lbs...

Yeah, will be good to see some more pics! Will be interesting to see how it measures up against the Trance too. I'm anxious to see if my Mega will be lighter or heavier than my old SX Trail.

rockmonkeysc

Very nice. I always wished I had got one of these instead of the Reign X.
Good ride and absolutely bomb proof.

pesky_jones

Whats the difference between the dual posistion and the rct3s? apart from the colour

lawman

Pesky Jones wrote:

Whats the difference between the dual posistion and the rct3s? apart from the colour

Dual position is the air spring, it has two settings, 160 or 120 iirc. Other option is fixed travel solo air, neither is better or worse, but given I never used the travel adjust on an old set of forks I had I'd always go solo air. RCT3 is the top of the range damper, the other option is RC which is less adjustable but both use the charger cartridge afaik.

Proutster

lawman wrote:

Pesky Jones wrote:

Whats the difference between the dual posistion and the rct3s? apart from the colour

Dual position is the air spring, it has two settings, 160 or 120 iirc. Other option is fixed travel solo air, neither is better or worse, but given I never used the travel adjust on an old set of forks I had I'd always go solo air. RCT3 is the top of the range damper, the other option is RC which is less adjustable but both use the charger cartridge afaik.

Mine are RCT3 Dual Position Airs - 160mm & 130mm - feel very plush when just sat on the bike. Need to get them set-up properly for sag tonight and then see how they are on tomorrow night's ride.

rockmonkeysc

I have dual position solo air revs. I can only get them set nicely in one position or the other. Not as good as the old u-turn travel adjust.

pesky_jones

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I have dual position solo air revs. I can only get them set nicely in one position or the other. Not as good as the old u-turn travel adjust.

Think Ive got them as well. you manually turn the dial to wind it down to 120 from 150? Rockshox rev rlts? remote lockout.

They feel a bit flimsy tbh might get some pikes.

Proutster

Pesky Jones wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I have dual position solo air revs. I can only get them set nicely in one position or the other. Not as good as the old u-turn travel adjust.

Think Ive got them as well. you manually turn the dial to wind it down to 120 from 150? Rockshox rev rlts? remote lockout.

They feel a bit flimsy tbh might get some pikes.

I used to have some Sektor U-Turns and these seem a lot better than that endless winding on the U-turn, simply a quarter of a turn then either lift up on the forks (to extend from 130 to 160mm) or push down (to go from 160 to 130mm) and jobs a good un.

Apparently, from reading the mtbr forum, there's no effect on the damping either - some people are running the dual position airs all of the time at 130mm to suit their frame.

First ride tomorrow will tell.....

rockmonkeysc

It's not a problem if you always run them in one position or the other but if you regularly adjust them there is a noticable damping change between the two positions.
I'm planning on replacing mine with Pikes next year for a bit more stiffness.

Proutster

Here it is at the end of last night's fettling and before tonight's:

Proutster

All finished!!

It was a late night, but got everything done and it's now on the back of the car ready for tonight's shake-down ride





Weight - according to my cheapo, £5 EBay-special fishing scales, is 31.8lb / 14.42Kg.

Not bad as the Trance - with the same wheels & tyres, bars & controls, cranks & pedals, Reverb - was 31.5lb. So I've gone to 160mm at the front, 35mm stantions, 150mm at the rear for an extra 0.3lb!

Full Spec (in case anyone's interested) is:

Frame: Giant Reign 2013, Aluxx (Aluminium)
Rear Shock: Rockshox Monarch RL High Volume Rear Shock, 150mm travel
Forks: Rockshox Pike RCT3 Dual Position Air, 160mm/130mm
Bars: Answer Pro-taper DH, 780mm
Stem: Gusset Staff, 50mm
Headset: FSA
Grips: Lizard Skin Peaty Lock-ons

Front Brake: Formula RX
Front disc: 203mm
Rear Brake: Formula RX
Rear Disc: 180mm

Front Shifter: SRAM X5
Front Mech: SRAM X7 Direct Mount
Rear Shifter: Shimano XT
Rear Mech: Shimano SLX Shadow Plus, Medium Cage (GS)
Chain Device: MRP 2X

Seat: Giant Performance Trail
Seat Post: Rockshox Reverb, 125mm rise

Cranks: Shimano SLX
Chainring(s): Shimano SLX, 26/38
Pedals: Superstar Nano Flats

Wheels: Superstar AM-490 on Superstar Switch Hubs
Front Tyre: Maxxis Swampthing, Wire-bead, Single-Ply, Supertacky, 2.35"
Back Tyre: Kenda Excavator, Kevlar-bead, DTC, 2.35"

rockmonkeysc

That's a good weight for a big bike and you have a strong build as well. Should be a good ride.

Thewaylander

Love the look of those pikes.

Just a shame there 15mm axle only 20mm or nothing for me.

CitizenLee

Those wheels are the icing on the cake Proutster!

Thewaylander wrote:

Love the look of those pikes.

Just a shame there 15mm axle only 20mm or nothing for me.

Due to non-convertible hubs or just preference?

Proutster

Just been out for a shake-down ride and I farkin love it!!

The forks are super plush but have a bottomless feel, used all but about 20mm of travel on some pretty steep stuff and the whole bike felt superb.

Patting my own back, I'm also pretty pleased with my spannering - not a rattle, squeak or owt. Gears indexed perfectly etc. god I'm good

Out again tomorrow evening, around The Goyt Valley - bring it on!

CitizenLee

Proutster wrote:

Just been out for a shake-down ride and I farkin love it!!

The forks are super plush but have a bottomless feel, used all but about 20mm of travel on some pretty steep stuff and the whole bike felt superb.

Patting my own back, I'm also pretty pleased with my spannering - not a rattle, squeak or owt. Gears indexed perfectly etc. god I'm good

Out again tomorrow evening, around The Goyt Valley - bring it on!

Dirty pics or it didn't happen

Proutster

CitizenLee wrote:

Proutster wrote:

Just been out for a shake-down ride and I farkin love it!!

The forks are super plush but have a bottomless feel, used all but about 20mm of travel on some pretty steep stuff and the whole bike felt superb.

Patting my own back, I'm also pretty pleased with my spannering - not a rattle, squeak or owt. Gears indexed perfectly etc. god I'm good

Out again tomorrow evening, around The Goyt Valley - bring it on!

Dirty pics or it didn't happen

Sorry, as it's my new toy I showed it some love and gave it a rinse straight after the ride - will try to remember tomorrow

lawman

Thewaylander wrote:

Love the look of those pikes.

Just a shame there 15mm axle only 20mm or nothing for me.

Seems silly to discount them on the axle alone, I bet in a blind test you wouldn't be able to tell which axle it had.

Proutster

lawman wrote:

Thewaylander wrote:

Love the look of those pikes.

Just a shame there 15mm axle only 20mm or nothing for me.

Seems silly to discount them on the axle alone, I bet in a blind test you wouldn't be able to tell which axle it had.

I'd agree - on a long, steep descent on the edge of The Peaks last night that had intermittent boulders varying from 6" to 24" randomly placed on it, I was able to either pick my way through the rocks, plough through them or hop off them and the fork / axle / wheel felt as stiff as the Boxxers (with 20mm axle) on my Mondraker Summum DH bike.

But perhaps I'm a pussy that rides slowly?

I'm lucky though, all of my front wheels are convertible to whatever axle I need (Superstar Switch FTW!) - perhaps that's why they're no good for Thewaylander?

For the cost of a new hub and a front wheel re-build, it would be worth it - I've heard nothing but good things from everyone that has the Pikes, including me

angry_bird

Very nice

Dick Scruttock

Very nice. I think I need to have a go on some pikes.