New Bike Time! Giant Reign or Commencal Meta V4?

I put a Monarch Plus Debonair on the back of my Trance and a Marzocchi 350NCR Ti on the front before I sold it earlier this year. Totally transformed the bike. Rode it in the bike park a few times too and as long as you don't expect to be able to charge through the chunder like a DH bike, you'll find it's a lot of fun.

Find some good used suspension components and try that. After factoring in selling your stock fork and shock, you should be able to create the bike you want for significantly less money that buying a new model.

I'm on the Reign and absolutely would pull the trigger on another one if I needed to. As is mentioned about, you strike pedals a bit more than usual but a bit of work and you can get it figured out. That said, the price has gone up this year.

I'd say take a long, hard look at both the Range and (if you can get it in your price range) the Altitude. Guys I know on Altitudes just love them but they do cost a bit more.

I am very happy with my new Altitude 750 msl. The adjustable geometry means you can leave if fairly slack and low for park days and then steepen it a bit for everything else. Might be on the lighter side of things though but I am surprised how stiff it is coming from an older bike.

Ya, the 750msl was close CLOSE runner-up in my decision for a bike this year. Beautiful steed.

Anyway, to the OP, I went with the Trance Advanced 1, and man, I couldn't be happier. I do believe with the significant upgrades over the "2", going with the "1" or straight up top-drawer Trance Advanced 27.5 (top model), you'll be pretty happy. A lot of my friends ride the Reign and for a moment I thought about getting it too - for those "imaginary gnarly days" - but after sitting in the seat, taking them for a pedal, I totally love the crispness, agility, flickability, and responsiveness of my Trance over the Reign. I'm hitting all the non-lift trails in and around Whistler, and have only got hung up on Gargamel and a few spots on Anal Intruder with it. Outside of these "steep face to baby head/sharp loose shale pits of death" descents, the Trance kills. And I owe a lot of its prowess to the upscale suspension it has on deck.

It's making me a better rider - being more cognizant of line choice and flow. 5.5" front and rear is more than adequate for everything I'm hitting and it climbs like a champ. Geometry is great for up, down, over, under and across. I am not so sure the Reign would be as nimble, but it's likely be able to forge through more suff without me having to be as critical of line choice.

I guess what I'm saying is rather than upgrading parts alone - consider selling it and just buying the next best thing (note: 2017 are coming in with a one-piece Maestro linkage system and a few other refinements which either means high price for 2017 or blow-out pricing for 2016s :dizzy: )

YMMV.

The new Giant Trance dropped today. Just to add more confusion

Why not a Banshee spitfire?

The new Giant Trance dropped today. Just to add more confusion

150mm fork and some extra carbon fib…., um, "composite" on the rear triangle/linkage.

Nice.

Anyway had another absolutely killer day with my now out-dated, old-school, totally archaic and shitty-ass current model Trance A1 today. Christ it's a heavy bike :lol:

I have +1,000km on my 2016 Reign and it has been bullet proof. Would buy again.

Upgrade the suspension. My wife has a 2014 Trance 2 and that oem Fox Evolution CTD stuff is crap. I like the feeling of her bike for climbing, nice and snappy but the suspension is awful (doesn't help I weigh 205lbs). She's still a newb so we haven't bothered changing it yet but I imagine the bike would be awesome with real suspension.

A few guys here that I ride with are on Reigns. The carbon XT equipped one is hard to fault if you exclude the frame colour-way that'll likely be stale in another year.

still loving my reign, nice to smash off a few evening park speeder jump laps and cruisey singletrack, and then pedal up to some loamers on the way home

Thanks for the responses everyone.

I'm still torn on what to do. I've been making inquiries on some new suspension bits. Reading the forum's it seems a lot of people have had success with 160mm forks on the Trance and adding a quality shock seems to transform the bike as a few of you have mentioned here. It could give me everything I'm looking for.

I think I've ruled out the Commencal for now but looking at some used options as well continuously looking into sales on 2016 stuff with all of the 2017's incoming. The 2017 Trance does looks the tits and I was drooling at the pics when they were released last week. We'll see what comes up over the next little while. With work being so busy I won't have much time to ride anyway so I can search out the best deals and go from there.

So I ended up getting a brand new 2016 Reign Advanced 1. I could not be happier. You obviously get what you pay for and the entire package is pretty incredible on the trail. Super easy to ride fast with no drama down but it still pedals up or along extremely well. It definitely feels more stout than my 2015 Trance in every way. It's just a bigger bike all around compared to the Trance but it doesn't suffer on the climbs as much as I would have thought. I thought the bikes would be closer in how they feel but I was wrong. The Trance feels like a trail bike that can be ridden on DH trails while the Reign feels like DH bike that can be pedalled. I even went for my usual 10k XC ride yesterday and the Reign was a champ. With a little more tire pressure and firming up the suspension I'd have no complaints riding the Reign longer distances.

I rode both bikes back to back yesterday and the Trance is definitely more playful and feels lighter and more nimble but I'm not sure if it's the rear shock on the Reign but the Reign seems to handle the steep climbs better. I never do technical climbs but colour me impressed and really surprised. After only ever riding DH bikes I feel much more comfortable, confident, and at home on the Reign. Don't get me wrong I love my Trance and I'm going to miss her but the Reign easily lives up to the hype.

Thanks to all who contributed to the thread.