FIRST LOOK: 2010 Giant Glory DH

In the summer of 2007, I was fortunate enough to be invited down to Lake Tahoe, California for the launch of Giant Bicycle’s newly redesigned Reign 6” bike. The big news that year was the introduction of what Giant was calling its co-pivot design on the Reign bikes and the introduction of the new Trance X 5” bike. The original version of the Reign used a pierced down tube design, with the rear shock passing through a hole in the straight and square down tube and mounting to a frame member that was welded on below that hole.

Giant radically changed the down tube shape using hydroforming technology, and moved the bottom attachment point for the rear shock to the top side of the down tube. The result was a significant weight savings – roughly a pound and a half – and a much cleaner look to the Reign frame.

At the time, I asked Giant’s marketing manager, Andrew Juskaitis, if there were any plans to do something similar with the company’s long-travel bikes. They were fairly popular among big bike riders, but the consensus was that they were heavy. Juskaitis’ response was decidedly non-committal, but in the bike business anything other than an “absolutely not!” is pretty much a “yes, but we don’t want to talk about it.”

Fast-forward to the summer of 2008. Photos of Giant gravity rider Jared Rando on a very different looking Glory were making their way around the interweb, and some of my contacts were suggesting that there were big things in the works for Giant. Pictures of a radically new Reign X, Giant’s 6.7” all-mountain bike, turned up in early 2009. All of the speculation, rumour and innuendo was resolved once and for all at the end of July 2009 when Giant assembled world media in Keystone, Colorado to look at the company’s new long-travel bikes for 2010.

In order to cover each of the three new long-travel bikes properly, I’m going to be looking at each of them individually in separate articles, starting with the biggest bike in the line-up: the Glory DH.

The all new 2010 Glory 0 downhill bike. Ready for racing or ripping up your favourite bike park.

The engineering
Giant decided that it needed to give the Glory the same kind of makeover that it had done for the Reign, with the goal of saving weight without compromising the ride characteristics of the company’s Maestro suspension design.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Giant, Maestro is the company’s proprietary floating pivot suspension design. It connects a one-piece rear triangle to the front triangle using two rocker arms and four pivots, with a single floating pivot point located between the middle and big rings. Giant believes this is the most effective suspension design in the widest range of riding situations and it’s used on all full suspension bikes from Giant, from the 3” XC racing bikes to the 8” DH bikes. 

The Maestro suspension design relies on four pivot points and two sets of rockers. This is also a good example of hydroforming on the bike.

The product launch started with Kevin Dana, Giant’s global category manager for mountain bikes, explaining his goals for the bikes. There were no sacred cows. Everything was up for debate. All he had in mind were weight targets, a commitment to build a bike without compromises and a desire to make the most out of the Maestro suspension platform.

The Glory 8” DH bike
Previous iterations of Giant’s Glory DH bike could have been called the ultimate privateer’s downhill racing bike. Riders could go into a shop, plunk down a very reasonable amount of cash, and walk out with a bike that they could race on. It had 8.8” of rear wheel travel, a Fox 40 fork, Saint components and everything else you’d expect on a race bike.

Giant also spec’d an 8″ version of the last generation of the Glory frame with a long-travel single crown fork and sold it as the company’s freeride bike. Although it wasn’t as well received as the Glory DH, the Glory freeride bike had its fans. But both bikes were on the portly side. Everyone, including Giant, knew the bikes were overbuilt. 

The 2009 Glory DH, with pierced down tube and very boxy frame design.

Time finally came for a change, though, and Giant started reviewing the company’s strategy for big hit bikes two years ago. Engineers went back to the drawing board with the new co-pivot design used on the Reign in mind, and along with input from team rider Jared Rando, produced four prototypes before coming up with the current version of the Glory DH. In the process, the Glory freeride was scrapped altogether to make way for the return of Giant’s original freeride bike, the Faith. I’ll go into more detail on the Faith in part two of this series.

The new Glory is radically different from the previous one. It’s more of a new bike than a redesign, there are so many changes. Here are the most significant ones.

First, Giant changed the shape of the tubes. That included the introduction of the co-pivot design, but it was more than that. Giant manipulated almost every tube on the frame using its FluidForming hydroforming technology, where high-pressure fluid (usually oil) is used to create custom tubing shapes.

This is a great example of hydroforming on the Glory. Note how the top tube changes shape several times as it gets closer to the head tube. The down tube is also has numerous sides and is massive where it meets the head tube.

This allowed Giant to manipulate the tubing for the Glory in such a way that it was larger and stronger where necessary but thinner and lighter where strength wasn’t as critical. It also made it possible to shape the tubing for aesthetic purposes. The top tube near the head tube is highly sculpted, while the seat tube goes from circular at the top to square at the bottom.

The second change to the Glory was the introduction of tapered head tube technology, which is standard on all of the 2010 long-travel frames. Giant calls this its OverDrive system, with the top end of the tube being 1 1/8” in size while the bottom flares out to 1.5”; an integrated headset is still stock. 

A shot of the OverDrive head tube and a close-up of the new colour scheme.

Next was the reduction in travel: the Glory went from 8.8” of rear wheel travel to 8”. Giant believes that more isn’t necessarily better when it comes to travel, and was quite confident that the bike performed as well or better than other DH bikes with only 8” of travel.

Fourth, the size medium bike got a longer top tube. Rider input suggested that this frame was too short, and that it didn’t fit well into the gap between the small and large frames. The new medium frame is 37.4mm (1.47”) longer. Rejoice, medium sized people.

There are a few geometry changes on the Glory worth noting. Head angle remains unchanged at 65.5° for all sizes, but the seat angle changes dramatically. It was 69° for all sizes, but is now 66.1° for the XS, 65.7° for the S, 59.7° for the M and a very slack 59.0° for the L.

Top tube lengths change as well, with the XS growing 0.9” to 20.6”, S staying the same at 21.9”, M growing almost 1.5” to 23.8”, and the large staying the same at 25.4”. A note on the top tube for the L frame: it may sound very long top, but those measurements are from the centre of the rear-most portion of the seat tube, not where the seat post enters the frame.

Chainstays remained at 17.5”, head tube lengths didn’t change and wheelbase was identical: 44.0” for XS, 45.1” for S, 45.5” for M and 46.7” for L.

The other huge change for this bike is in standover room. Small riders will love the fact that standover for the XS bike dropped a huge 5.5”, from 34.4” to 28.9”. Standover for the S is now 29.8” (was 34.0”), M is 31.0” (was 33.7”), and even the large is lower at 32.2” (it was 33.2”).

There were a few other, smaller changes to the bike. There is now internal routing for the rear derailleur cable. The bike got new pivot hardware. It also has a more industrial look to it, with a brushed aluminum finish rather than painted to cut down on weight. The upper linkage rockers are forged, and are no longer joined. The Glory uses convertible 12mm dropouts that accept standard 12mm thru axles, Shimano Saint axles and SRAM Maxle axles. 

The new cable routing for the rear derailleur makes for cleaner lines on the bike. Rear tire changes are possible with an Allen key, so you can leave the wrench at home. 

So what did all of these changes do to the weight of the bike? A hell of a lot, actually. The new Glory frame – not the bike, the frame – is 1,500 g (3.3lbs.) lighter than the old one. Frame weight, including shock, hardware and paint / decals is 4,060g (8.9lbs.) Total weight for a size medium Glory 0 without pedals is a very impressive 37.9lbs.

Ride (and rider) impressions
I haven’t spent any time on previous Glory DH bikes, so it’s hard to compare this bike to earlier versions. The other issue I was facing in this product launch is that riding conditions at Keystone Resort weren’t the best for this type of bike. Aside from the lightning that shut down the lifts and incessant rain, most of the trails in the park were too undulating or simply not steep or technical enough to really see what the Glory could do. 

How do you get to the top of the mountain when lightning shuts down the lifts? Load the demo bikes into the back of a pick-up and hit the access roads. This hole in the storms only lasted about 20 minutes.

That said, there were a few things about ride characteristics that I did note. The bike is stiff. Very stiff. The massive down tube / top tube junction and the OverDrive head tube make for a front end that will track through just about anything. Giant says that stiffness on this Glory is the same as the old bike, but with a 26.8% weight savings. The only time you’re going to lose your line is through pilot error or a problem with your rubber staying in contact with the terrain. 

Speaking of that, the Michelin DH tires that come stock on this bike aren’t great in the wet weather. I had a few sketchy moments trying to make high-speed corners on dimension lumber stunts and wet grass in the middle of a Colorado thunderstorm. 

This is what most of the first day at Keystone looked like. There was a lot to see out there when the clouds disappeared…

This is also a light bike. Even though the trails weren’t particularly steep, and in spite of the fact that I was at over 11,000’ of altitude, I never felt like I had to work hard to keep the Glory moving. The size large bike with pedals was probably quite close to 40lbs., and that’s respectable for an 8” bike. Light bike fans should be able to get a Glory frame with an air shock and air fork down under 36lbs. without too many problems.

The Glory makes a very strong visual and aesthetic impression. The lines on the bike flow into one another, as was the intention of industrial designer Erik Klemm. His goal was to create a sense of speed, agility and tension with the bike and he did just that. The colour and decal scheme is understated, but it’s got a decidedly racy look to it – without making the bike look like it belongs at a NASCAR race. 

The scenery was spectacular in this part of Colorado, but the terrain wasn’t the best for testing a DH bike. Even the double-black trails were better suited for a 7″ bike.

Small details like a blue stem cap that matches the colour of the headset spacers, forging on the rocker arms that line up with the seat tube, matching blue bar end clamps and bottom guard on the chainguide, and even the internal cable routing for the rear derailleur all attest to the fact that Giant put a lot of time and effort into the production of this bike. 

The lines of the new forged rocker arm follow those of the seat tube, and the pivot hardware continues the clean, simple look of the bike.

The suggested pricing for the Glory 0 is CDN$5,999 and $4,659 for the Glory 1. US MSRPs are $5,350 and $4,125, respectively. Dealers may sell for less, though, so check with your local Giant shop to know how many pennies you’ll have to save up.

I’m working on getting a Glory to test, so stay tuned for a full ride report on that. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the all-new 2010 Glory on the race course and in the lift line. This bike is going to be a hit.

So there you have it – the ’10 Giant Glory. Stay tuned for my First Look articles at the Faith and Reign X bikes over the next couple of days.

– Stuart Kernaghan

Like what you see here? Think Giant was right when they said 8″ of travel was enough? Curious how large the L bike really was? Head over to the boards and start typing.