red_devil

Hey, im thinkin of gettin a giant reign 3 ex-hire form my local bike shop. There is a maximum hire discount of 35%, 1% off the rrp every time it is hired out. It is getting close to its 35% the guy in the shop said, and if i give it a few weeks it should settle at around £800. I know this is a good deal, but could i get better for the price range of up to £1000? And ive ridden it a couple of times and i really like it, but ive not tried any others, so i dont know the standard of freeride/xc bikes. And any people with reign 3's, please post your expeiences of the bike, advantages, disadvantages, and upgrades i could get which would solve any problems before they start. Thanks!

Maelstrom 

Have you tried mtbreview.com? The likely have some reviews there. I think only 2 or 3 people here have owned one

xenochimera

i own one, got it for 1200 USD plus some goodies. its an all mountain bike, a cross sort of between a xc and a freeride. i just got it recently so i cant give you much feedbacks, but change the effing brakes, seriously, the brakes annoy the living crap out of me, when you make a turn the brake hits the pads and you get a ziinnnggg sound...uh nasty. the frame and shox is the same for all reign bikes, so you get slightly better components with the better reigns, but the manitou nixon fork isnt great, so no point dishing out extra cash for that. i am planning to upgrade pretty much everything, the fork to a manitou sherman flick, rear shox to fox dhx 5.0, avid bb7 brakes, xt rear deraillur, may be some others....it definately a sweet ride, but a tad heavy for XC 32 pounds as compared to 25~ pounds the nrs were, and trance currently, but again, you can rip the desent, climb with minimal loss of energy, take 7 footer probably you can take. buy one, you should, at peace you will be