How do I make my 2022 Giant Reign rideable? 😂

Jurassic

Active member
Subscriber
Jul 22, 2022
230
240
Helensburgh, Scotland.
I have a medium reign E+0 2022 and have it in the low setting and very rarely get any pedal strikes with saint clipless pedals, the medium comes with 165 cranks and when I measured the BB in low it was 335mm so perhaps the larger frames are just a bit lower and with 170 cranks would cause more pedal strikes 🤷🏼‍♂️
My size large E+1 came with 165 cranks not 170s (which I've swapped for 155s anyway).
 

NicoMTB

Member
May 8, 2022
71
85
France Grenoble area
I had similar problems with strikes from time yo time or too low on some compression, forced me to ride better and cleaner, anticipate more. but I also realised after a while of testing with the shock my X2 kind of blew through its mid range and if id increase air pressure i d loose small bump sensitivity and grip.. so ended up getting a coil shock that has excellent grip small bump sensitivity and a great mid stroke support , which keep the bike up much higher than the X2, that i fiddled around for months. Dont get me wrong its an excellent shock i have 2 other bikes with it and brilliant for DH duties, but it does need a lot of maintenance and regular so its stays reliable. FYI I ride steep rocky rooty Alpine terrain and Climb it everywhere of course.
 

Donamici

Active member
Jan 1, 2022
139
170
Ireland
I had similar problems with strikes from time yo time or too low on some compression, forced me to ride better and cleaner, anticipate more. but I also realised after a while of testing with the shock my X2 kind of blew through its mid range and if id increase air pressure i d loose small bump sensitivity and grip.. so ended up getting a coil shock that has excellent grip small bump sensitivity and a great mid stroke support , which keep the bike up much higher than the X2, that i fiddled around for months. Dont get me wrong its an excellent shock i have 2 other bikes with it and brilliant for DH duties, but it does need a lot of maintenance and regular so its stays reliable. FYI I ride steep rocky rooty Alpine terrain and Climb it everywhere of course.
Interesting, what coil did you go for, link?
 

NicoMTB

Member
May 8, 2022
71
85
France Grenoble area
Interesting, what coil did you go for, link?
I went for this : FENIX ENDURO SHOCK STANDARD Lock out lever color Purple Size 200mm of length x 57mm of stroke The Fast Fenix is a bit unknown , but a great product high quality and it will be tunned to your weight and bike upon purchase. It has a sperate channel for its climbing lock out, and has a hydraulic bump stop /bottom out feature. where i ride its perfect , Id never look back, and is extremly low maintenance. the grip levels and tracking of the terrain is really night and day. And I can ride flat out in sections where the bike would be too low. I guess if there isnt much climbing in your area, a coil without a climbing mode ( cheaper) would do a great job.
 

Rando_12345

Active member
Nov 16, 2022
337
435
France
Reviving this thread, unfortunately :(

So my first ride out on stock tyres wasn't too bad, BB in high ~335mm high BB (which is ridiculously low) only a few pedal strikes.

Second ride this morning, I setup my much nicer wheels both rocking 2.4 tyres instead of the 2.6/2.5 stock tyres, BB dropped quite considerably down to 228mm in high (well done Giant on the completely incorrect numbers in the geo charts), and went out to a rocky area with a lot of technical climbing, I hit the cranks hard at least 20 times in an hour and had two heavy motor casing impacts also.

Got to the office, immediately ordered a 2.8 rear tyre and 150mm cranks.

Need to play around with suspension, I have the fork pretty stiff (feels great), but the rear seems to be blowing through travel, might need to drop sag below 25%, could also use some additional damping but don't think I have any external adjustments on that.
 

Bordtea

Member
Oct 2, 2022
23
6
Gloucester, UK
Reviving this thread, unfortunately :(

So my first ride out on stock tyres wasn't too bad, BB in high ~335mm high BB (which is ridiculously low) only a few pedal strikes.

Second ride this morning, I setup my much nicer wheels both rocking 2.4 tyres instead of the 2.6/2.5 stock tyres, BB dropped quite considerably down to 228mm in high (well done Giant on the completely incorrect numbers in the geo charts), and went out to a rocky area with a lot of technical climbing, I hit the cranks hard at least 20 times in an hour and had two heavy motor casing impacts also.

Got to the office, immediately ordered a 2.8 rear tyre and 150mm cranks.

Need to play around with suspension, I have the fork pretty stiff (feels great), but the rear seems to be blowing through travel, might need to drop sag below 25%, could also use some additional damping but don't think I have any external adjustments on that.
Really interesting to read this as I wondered whether my 2.4 inch rear contributed. Do let me know if the 2.8 helps - I’ve found the 152 cranks are great but didn’t totally solve!
 

Rando_12345

Active member
Nov 16, 2022
337
435
France
So I fitted a Vittoria Martello 2.8 tyre, it is listed as 1300g but mine weighs 1220g which I think might be a bit too light for a tyre that size, let's see how long it survives. Interestingly, I found the tyre didn't look as big as I expected, visually it looks fine within the bike and I have about 1cm of clearance side to side and 1.5cm in terms of height towards the BB. It seems to have raised my BB about 5mm. The other choice would have been the eddy current but I don't have the courage to fit a 1500g tyre right now.

I also reduced my sag down to just under 25%, running 210psi for a 75kg rider in the fox float x.

First ride out, in a mix of smooth and rocky trails, almost no pedal hits, beat most of my PRs and even grabbed back some KOMs in a very competitve area.

Second ride this morning, after fitting the 150mm cranks and a 32t chainring in the same area as my disastrous ride from 2 posts above: 2 hard pedal hits, but both within acceptacle conditions, one was just after a compression/g-out where the bike was highly compressed, the other from landing a small huck into a rock garden. Cleared some extremely technical climbs without issue.

I would still love the BB to be a cm higher, but I have kinda exhausted most cheap/simple options, going back to a 2.6 tyre up front is definitely on the cards when my current one wears out.

Other options:
Increase fork travel: Cheap and easy, but will have 0 effect when suspension is fully compressed.
Underheadset spacer: Probably my prefered option but Giant are using a weird standard and I'm a bit concerned about waranty not being honoured. Something like this but for zs66 Wolf Tooth Lower Headset Cup Extender - ZS - Zero Stack
Custom length shock: pricy and difficult to source.

I also tried fitting a 29er rear wheel with a 2.35 tyre (ETRO 57), it just about spun freely but isn't viable as there is no clearance. Slightly annoyed about that as Giant kinda made the chainstains fairly long with loads of clearance for a 27.5, they could have either made them a touch shorter around 450mm for 27.5, or made them 460mm long an allowed a 29er rear (which I am 100% convinced was the original plan considering the geo chart on their site matches the numbers when a 29er rear is fitted in the frame...)

Sorry for the wall of text, hoping this can help others.
 

LJR69

Member
Jan 4, 2022
79
98
UK
Pedal strikes became a thing of the past when I moved to Coil spring. But then again I'm a fat knacker and my poor air shock should have been knighted for getting me down some stuff.
 

Rando_12345

Active member
Nov 16, 2022
337
435
France
Don’t blame the bike!
While I agree with "it's the rider, not the bike" for most things like speed, technique etc. For pedal strikes, it really is the bike, the stock reign has a BB, and thus pedals, 2cm lower to the ground than average for the enduro e-bike class, and 4cm lower than some of the top rated ones like the Pole Voima. It isn't just my pedals that are hitting the ground but the motor casing and chainring also!

That in itself would be fine, except that Giant's geometry sheet is wildly incorrect with the bike being 1cm lower than advertised along with 1degree slacker and having a 2cm longer wheelbase.
 

rcheliguygb

New Member
May 6, 2023
8
7
UK
Evening all - took my Giant Reign E+0 to Afan today and the number of pedal strikes I was getting was quite ridiculous.

I have the flip chip in high but even so I lost count of the number of pedal strikes I got today, not even just on techy rocky climbs, I could feel it clipping the ground occasionaly on relatively tame trails too.

It’s a size large so I believe it comes with 165mm cranks as standard - would say the Hope 155mm cranks help to solve this, do I need to increase rear shock pressure significantly etc? Any ideas would be very welcome from anyone who has also had a similar issue!

Edit - just occurred to me that I have changed the front and rear tyre sizes to 2.5 and 2.4 respectively (0.1 decrease each) - could that be part of the cause?
Fit 155 crank arms. I have hope 155s on mine and pedal strikes are much less
 

Plummet

Flash Git
Mar 16, 2023
1,152
1,632
New Zealand
15bb drop is workable. 25 is getting a bit low.

Shorter cranks will help heaps as will thinner pedals.

Dont sacrifice shock settings for bb height.

After that is s technique change. If that doesnt work then change the bike for less bb drop/ higher bb.
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
242
80
03818
I can't but help think that short cranks are trending right now so don't just think that's the end all. there is a balance. Using that logic, it be shortest cranks and eggbeater.
 

Buckaroony

Member
Dec 17, 2021
69
85
UK
I can't but help think that short cranks are trending right now so don't just think that's the end all. there is a balance. Using that logic, it be shortest cranks and eggbeater.
I can honestly say 155 cranks have transformed mine. Hardly any strikes now.
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
242
80
03818
I can honestly say 155 cranks have transformed mine. Hardly any strikes now.
I'm sure it did why wouldn't it? The question is whether there was much of a trade off( There's that whole balance thing) and would it be same for some else with a different body build? Don't get me wrong I'm not saying don't go that route it's just not an end all.
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,524
5,004
Weymouth
I changed to Hope 155mm cranks on my Whyte e180rs which also has a very low BB. Lots of others with the same bike have also made the change. Both my own and everyone else's comments are that it makes a huge difference to pedal strikes......I have seen no negative comments.
I actually experienced no difference in feel when stood on the pedals and the shorter cranks actually noticeably improved the ability to accelerate the bike when seated.
 

psst!!!...

Active member
Mar 2, 2022
38
26
Portugal
I wouldnt touch the suspension in order to avoid pedal strickes.
I would definitively check if the suspension is well tunned and sag is correct but would NOT turn around priorities.
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
242
80
03818
I changed to Hope 155mm cranks on my Whyte e180rs which also has a very low BB. Lots of others with the same bike have also made the change. Both my own and everyone else's comments are that it makes a huge difference to pedal strikes......I have seen no negative comments.
I actually experienced no difference in feel when stood on the pedals and the shorter cranks actually noticeably improved the ability to accelerate the bike when seated.
Did you end up changing your saddle height?
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,524
5,004
Weymouth
Did you end up changing your saddle height?
No. I dont do much riding in the saddle and do not in any case set the max seat height to be the most efficient for pedalling because with a motor, that is is not a priority and I want the saddle slammed as low as possible a lot of the time. As I mentioned a bove the shorter cranks make it easier to rotate the cranks from standstill or slow start anyway.
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
242
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No. I dont do much riding in the saddle and do not in any case set the max seat height to be the most efficient for pedalling because with a motor, that is is not a priority and I want the saddle slammed as low as possible a lot of the time. As I mentioned a bove the shorter cranks make it easier to rotate the cranks from standstill or slow start anyway.
you do know that most people can do both with the right dropper? I do get where your coming from as far as not being in the saddle much. There are technics that use being in saddle for things like traction. As far as max seat height being the most efficient it depends what you set for a max seat height. For me a good dropper can be slam all the down close to the frame and go all the way up where you want its max ride height another words it has the full range you want not having to sacrifice one for the other. Any way i'm not bashing short crank:LOL: and they do work but it does depend on the rider to degree what would optimal
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
242
80
03818
I adjusted my seat height when I went to 155 cranks. I agree that they make a big difference in terms of clearance with no downsides that I can feel. I've been wondering whether to go even shorter (down to 145).
What you gained far outweighed any losses you may of had. So coming short was actually a good thing. What is key is any downsides are so small that you're not noticing them. I think you would start to notice something with the 145's.
 

Jurassic

Active member
Subscriber
Jul 22, 2022
230
240
Helensburgh, Scotland.
What you gained far outweighed any losses you may of had. So coming short was actually a good thing. What is key is any downsides are so small that you're not noticing them. I think you would start to notice something with the 145's.
Obviously there will come a point where cranks will be too short but I wonder if a lot of us aren't stuck in our ways from years of riding analogue bikes? When Hope are saying that they now recommend 155 cranks for normal bikes maybe the optimal length for eebs might be even shorter? I'd be interested to hear from people who have actually tried 145s and aren't solely basing their choices on years of programming about what constitutes "normal". I've been riding long enough to remember when 135mm stems were considered optimal........
 

Rando_12345

Active member
Nov 16, 2022
337
435
France
This article kinda blew my mind at the time: Why Shorter Cranks Are Better (According To Science) - Pinkbike

"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lowest power outputs were recorded with the most extreme (120 mm and 220 mm) crank lengths. The highest power output was recorded with the 145 mm crank, although the difference wasn't large or consistent enough to be considered significant compared to the 170 mm or 195 mm cranks. The difference in power between the "best" (145 mm) and "worst" (220 mm) crank was just 3.9%"

And that is on non-electric bikes, so definitely run what feels right and don't worry about the power...
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
242
80
03818
Obviously there will come a point where cranks will be too short but I wonder if a lot of us aren't stuck in our ways from years of riding analogue bikes? When Hope are saying that they now recommend 155 cranks for normal bikes maybe the optimal length for eebs might be even shorter? I'd be interested to hear from people who have actually tried 145s and aren't solely basing their choices on years of programming about what constitutes "normal". I've been riding long enough to remember when 135mm stems were considered optimal........
your thinking that they would be shorter on eebs. I think if both bikes have the same clearances they wouldn't be. If your saying the motor could compensate for the shorter cranks yes.
 

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