Giant Reign E+ 2 Pro Review | Enduro Lovers NEED To See This
A terrific suspension setup, and a highly-capable motor highlight an overall great ride experience.
Our time testing and reviewing the Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 was eye-opening. There was a lot we already knew going into it: Giant knows what its doing with MTBs and produces sound products, Yamaha makes good motors, and a lot of the components listed on the Reign’s spec sheet are tried and tested and generally good quality.
Surprisingly, even though those are all positive known statements, they short-change a greater experience that we had to ride to know for ourselves. It sounds cliche, but the whole really was greater than the sum of its parts. The Reign E+ Pro is well equipped for a fun enduro experience.
Giant gave the Reign E+ Pro a slack geo, a slightly longer than most chainstay, and then gave it a burly 160/170 setup with the Fox Float X and RockShox Zeb. Although we already knew the suspension components were nice, they felt better than ever when paired with Giant’s Maestro linkage tech. If you want to have fun, try barreling downhill or hitting jumps – the bike can more than handle it.
It wasn’t all about the downhill though. The PW-X3 motor more than holds it’s own against some of the great e-bike motors out there today. It’s arguably one of the better performers in low cadence settings like going slow into a hill. Enduro bikes up hill is usually a chore, but the motor makes it just another good part of the ride.
Our expectations were exceeded and then some with the Reign E+ Pro. See how it did in all of our testing down below.
Class 1 (pedal assist to 20 mph)
- The suspension makes downhill riding and jumping a blast! The combo of the Maestro linkage, Rockshox Zeb, and Fox Float X made for an exhilarating experience.
- The Giant-tuned Yamaha motor is fantastic. It shines in low cadence pedal situations, but just makes the bike highly capable in most any setting.
- The geo of the bike is very stable. It’s a fairly slacked out setup, but it has a longer chainstay that helps keep the bike feeling steady when going down hill at speed.
- Lot’s of control for handling technical terrain with the Maxxis mullet setup. The tires provide nice traction in various settings, yet rolled with great efficiency and speed.
- We liked the minimal LED interface, and the Giant companion app allows for ride customization for tuning the motor output to your preference.
- The Flip Chip tech can change up the geo. We enjoyed steepening the headtube when we took it on trails that had more switchbacks and tighter cornering. Optionality is never a bad thing!
- The PAS control buttons are hard very subtle, but they are hard to discern on the fly. A more tactile and distinct pad would be nice.
- Not so much a con as an FYI, the motor feels twitchy when trackstanding. It can be dialed back in the app, but we learned to enjoy the benefits of quick engagement.
- Battery:EnergyPak Smart 625, EnergyPak Plus range extender compatible
- Display: Wireless display compatible (LED indicators on top tube)
- Motor: Giant SyncDrive Pro (Yamaha PW-X3) , 250W, 85Nm mid drive
- Headlight:N/A
- Taillights:N/A
- Pedal Assist: 5 PAS level assist, Torque sensor (Giant PedalPlus 6-sensor technology)
- Claimed Range:43 – 155 miles
- Tested range:23.5 miles on max power w/ 2400+ ft in elevation gained
- Throttle:N/A
- App:Giant Ride Control
- UL Certification:N/A
- Claimed weight: 56 lbs
- Tested Weight: 56 lbs
- Stack: 645 | 641mm
- Reach: 475 | 480mm
- Top Tube Length: 622 | 621mm
- Seat Tube Length: 450mm
- Seat Tuble Angle: 76,7° | 77,5°
- Head Tube Length: 110mm
- Head Tube Angle: 63,7° | 64,5°
- BB Drop: 25 | 15mm
- Chainstay Length: 454 | 454mm
- Wheelbase: 1265 | 1266mm
- Brakes: 4-piston SRAM Code R 4-piston hydraulic brakes, 220mm front / 200mm rear
- Fenders: N/A
- Fork: RockShox ZEB, 170mm, preload, rebound adjust
- Shock: Fox Float X, 160mm
- Frame: ALUXX SL-grade aluminum, 160mm Maestro suspension system, ‘Boost’ 148x12QR, Giant EnergyPak Plus range extender compatible
- Drivetrain:SRAM GX Eagle, 12-speed 11-50T cassette, 36T chainring
- Grips: Tactal Pro lock on grips
- Saddle: Giant Romero Trail
- Seatpost: Giant Switch Dropper, 170mm
- Handlebar: 800mm Giant’s Contact Trail
- Kickstand: N/A
- Cranks: Praxis 165mm
- Pedals: N/A
- Tires: Maxis tires 29 x2.6” inch Maxis Minion DHF front,27.5 x 2.5” inch High Roller rear
- Rims: Giant AM 27.5+, Tubeless ready, 35mm inner width
- Hubs: Giant eTracker Boost
- Spokes: Sapim E-Lite [r] Race [f]
Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 Review: Motor & Battery
The Reign’s motor is the Yamaha PW-X3 motor with custom tuning by Giant, using what they call Sync Drive technology. It has 250 nominal and 500 max watts and a nice 85Nm of torque. At 6.06 lbs, it gives you an 82.5 Watts per pound power-to-weight ratio, which is solid.
Yamaha designed it to output between 80-400% assistance, which we found very natural and powerful on the trails.
It is very useful, especially when starting – it has more power than most when pedaling at a lower cadence.
What’s the benefit of that? If you’ve slowed down a bit, coming out of a corner and going straight into a hill, you’ll find it has a great amount of push when starting the climb. It always helps to be in the appropriate gear, but it feels like this one is even a bit more forgiving since you don’t need a higher cadence to access higher power levels from the motor – it just starts with more.
By contrast, it feels a little less powerful than other motors when pedaling at a higher cadence or as you progress through a longer climb. Because of this, it took a little practice to find the necessary gear, but overall, once I learned how the motor worked, I still thought of it as a great climber.
It does have some noise/whine to it, but overall, we came away very impressed with what Giant has done with Yamaha here. We think that Yamaha deserves to be talked about more in the eMTB space.
The motor has five different power levels. Each felt fairly distinct from the others without making any adjustments, but there is an app that allows you to tailor each level’s power output.
One quirk of the setup we noticed was what I’d describe as twitchiness.
You notice it the most when track standing or if you push down on the pedals when you stop to rest on the side of the road or check your phone.
If you press the pedals at all, you sense the motor really wants to engage. It’s almost like a vibration when doing a track stand or a bit lurchy when at a standstill.
If this sounds like a big deal, it’s not. It will take some time to get used to, and you can play with the programming within the app to eliminate it if you’d like, so it’s just something to be aware of when you are starting out.
One of the few true issues we had with the whole system came down to the PAS controls. This isn’t our favorite interface, as the buttons were hard to hit accurately on the fly. I sometimes hit the middle one or hit up when I meant to hit down. It’s hard to distinguish without looking and especially difficult in gloves, so we’d welcome a different control panel with more distinct buttons.
On the battery slide, giant Reign models offer a few different sizes. This 2022 model comes standard with a 625Wh battery. There is also a 750Wh battery, and current-gen reigns start with massive 800Wh batteries.
Obviously, be aware of your own battery needs. Bigger isn’t always better since there is a weight penalty, but if you’re looking to maximize your ride time and take longer trips, it’s nice to know there are size options.
Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 Review: Display & App
The Reign has a fairly simplistic interface. LED indicator lights along the top tube let you know your power level and the remaining battery life. It is one of those systems meant to stay out of your way but easy to understand when you glance at it.
The bike has an app that you can use to connect with the Giant Ride Control app. Here, you can change how the bike operates at different PAS settings. You can tailor three different outputs to your liking across all 5 of the PAS levels.
There’s the Support, which affects the total power you receive. We personally felt Eco mode could be increased here. Then there’s Torque, which is what will really shine in terms of how it performs on hills. Finally, there is Launch. We mentioned the aggressive feeling when track standing or putting any pressure on the pedals, and here is where you can control that. Lowering the Launch will reduce or eliminate that, with the tradeoff of feeling a bit slower in those low cadence settings. We didn’t change this from the factory setting once we got used to it, but you can tone it down if it isn’t for you.
The app also lets you change the controls of the physical PAS buttons. You can program each button and assign it to increase your PAS level, engage walk assist, activate smart assist mode, etc..
If you’re doing something a bit more mellow and cross-country, you can use your phone as a display and get more information, such as distance and battery. There is also a trip planner and GPS—and you can even sync this to your Strava account.
There’s also a quick diagnostic you can run in the settings to check that the electric systems are all running properly, which might be wise to do before a longer ride.
Overall, it’s a pretty easy-to-use system. I did have a few connectivity issues for the first few days, something I’ve seen others online discuss having encountered before, but I was finally able to get it to work.
It can also do OTA updates to get you on the latest firmware. Really, the functionality here and the ability to tailor your PAS settings is always nice to have and the app is similar to what many other motors are including these days, so it is just nice to have.
You also don’t have to use the app on every ride. You can just hop on your bike and go if you want, but we recommend getting the app and using it for the initial setup and to check in on firmware updates from time to time.
Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 Review: Range Test
Typically, we only conduct a Max power test (there’s a lot of variables that’ll effect range, so the same course and having every bike give it’s max output is our best bet at producing comparable numbers here). When set to their highest assist level, you see that most bikes cluster around the same mileage.
23 miles and change is nothing to sneeze at. That’s a solid ride for any rider on a bike that’s doing a huge amount of the heavy lifting. With over 2400 feet in elevation gain, the bike more than holds its own.
With the Giant Reign E+ Pro, we had a extra time so we ran a test in in lowest setting, Eco, to see what mileage looked like there. We logged 56.4 miles in a little over five and a half hours of ride time, and nearly 5,900 feet in elevation gained. That test is a one of one – nothing to compare to with that, but it felt like a good result.
We found Eco did little more than offset the extra weight you get on an e-bike, so realistically you’d want to choose a higher mode for riding.
Bottom line, the range seem fairly practical and usable, especially since this is a bike that’ll just need to climb enough to get you to the downhill where it will then truly thrive.
Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 Review: Hill Climb Test
On the water tower climb it was a little slower than others. As I mentioned before, the motor is powerful but did feel slightly less powerful than some of the other motors out there. Just keep in mind that you’ll notice this more on long, drawn out climbs up double track roads. On the trail, I don’t think you’ll notice this much at all.
You still get to the top pretty easily, and enduro bikes are more for downhill anyway, so the fact that the motor can take the slog out of climbing and make it enjoyable is a pretty big win.
Overall, we think it’s just a sound system, especially if you’re coming over from an acoustic mountain bike now or if you just appreciate the fact that you can now ride up something instead of having to take a tram on an enduro ride.
Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 Review: Ride Quality
The comfort was terrific. It’s always interesting to test the same components on a different frame. The RockShox Zeb has always felt good, but it felt FANTASTIC on this bike with the frames geo, the Maestro linkage, and Float X suspension.
Speaking of the linkage, the bike already has a longer chainstay length was longer which gives it nice downhill stability, but when you compress that Maestro 4 bar linkage it actually further elongates your wheelbase. We think that’s one of the reasons we liked the feel of this bike when pointed downhill – overall, it’s just a great system.
The Flip Chip is a pretty nice feature to have when it’s needed, even though you might seldom tinker with it. We did several runs with the bike slacked out and then did even more after adjusting the chip and making the headtube steeper. It provided a nice change to make your bike feel more versatile when more responsive handling was needed in tighter environments.
The drivetrain, brakes, and tires will largely boil down to personal preference, but it all felt like good total value for the package you’re getting. They all performed well in the desert and mountain trails we rode.
Giant Reign E+ Pro 2 Review: Summary / Where to Buy
It absolutely thrives downhill – the suspension feels better the faster you go and on even some of the more intense trails we have at our disposal.
The Reign E+ Pro 2 is definitely worth a look if you’re looking for something to take the excessive work out of climbing, or if you want the familiarity of known names like Giant and Yamaha.
Happy Riding! Make sure to let us know if you have any questions or if you think we left anything out in this review of the Giant Reign E+ 2 down in our comments section.