GIANT BICYCLES PRESS LAUNCH 2005

So moving along with the story, last Thursday the folks at Giant fed us piles of potatoes and pork, then drove us to the Santa Ynez Mountains, just outside of Santa Barbara. If you haven't ridden the Pine Mountain/Buckhorn trail area, do yourself a favor and head out there—it's worth the trip. Damn fine singletrack. Lots of short, steep climbs. Lots of short, fast descents. Most of it is twisty singletrack squeezed in on all sides by dense chaparral. Throw in some oak trees and luge-style sections and, whooeee, it was a good day.

As for the bikes…Maestro comes pretty close to achieving all those goals that I wrote about two paragraphs ago (or about as close as any company has come to date). The bike is designed to be efficient with or without the use of platform rear shock (always glad to see companies take this route), although the Trance 1 models we rode used Fox's high-end RP3 rear shocks with adjustable platform settings. The longer-travel Reigns use Manitou SPV rear shocks.

What did it ride like? Well, I'd be a fool to try and give you some kind of definitive statement after a mere day on the bike, but if pressed for a comparison, I'd say the Trance felt quite a bit like a Santa Cruz Blur—and that's about as healthy a compliment as I could give any bike. Oddly, I found the Trance a bit easier to work through tight corners than the Blur (I rode a Blur for about six months this year, so I've got a decent bead on how that bike rides). I say "odd" because the Trance has a slightly longer wheelbase than the Blur. Who knows? Hopefully, I'll get a chance to spend some more time on the bike and will be able to suss out an answer for you. There are four Trance models, ranging in price from $1,200 to $3,400. You also can buy the Trance frame for $1,100, including the Fox RP3 shock and a headset. There are three Reign models, ranging in price from $1,600 to $3,300. A Reign frame costs $1,500 with a Manitou Swinger 3-way air shock and a headset. For all you hucking and downhilling fools in body-armor land, there are three Faith models (from $2,000 to $3,500) and you can score Faith frames for $1,900 (this one is equipped with a Swinger 3-way coil shock and, yup, a headset since all of these Giants feature integrated headsets).

Several Giant pros were on hand at the press launch, including trials legend Jeff Lenosky, cyclocross/XC racer Adam Craig and downhill ace Tara Llanes. Llanes (left) is straddling one of the new Giant TCR Advanced carbon road bikes. If you have a hankering to be like Jan Ullrich (and who among us doesn't?), you can get yourself a T-Mobile pink Giant carbon bike too. I'd say more, but this is a mountain bike website, so surf over to giantbicycle.com if you want to get your roadie groove on.