Giantly dialed

As you probably know, Giant just released the new 2013 Glory, complete with the new geometry that their team demanded and wouldn't ride without since about midway through '11.


I had a Glory for a few years, and at one point I even had two. It's a really good privateer bike.

I was also really good at lighting photographs back in the day.

No, seriously, I had two Glories at one point. It was back when I thought "hey, it'll be a buddy bike. Maybe someone will want to try out downhill and I'll have this spare bike they can ride." But then reality sets in, and you realize you don't have any friends and that  you can make some quick scrill by pawning off your clapped out downhill bike from last season. I made like, 320 five dollar footlongs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c764JWVt5Fw when I sold that bike.


But anyway, the head angle and the bb height both bugged me on that bike. I ended up getting an angleset, which made the head angle better (a little under 63 degrees with the fork at full height), but I couldn't do anything about the bb height. The bb was 14.25" stock, but with my fork at full height (to slacken out the head angle) the bottom bracket was 14.5". If you're not good with numbers, a 14.5" bottom bracket height shows up in the WTF/unrideable range on the BB height guide:

Giant had exactly the same geometry on their downhill bike in 2006 when the athertons debuted the new glory, and they kept it unchanged up until 2013. All of this amidst the constant, desperate cries of Giant team riders and internet forum superstars the world over.



That's right, the bike that you see Gee Atherton riding in 2006 in that sweet video from the best movie maker in mountain bike history has the same bb height as the 2012 Glory ridden by some dude in this awful, late-to-the party electronica video from Blackrock:

Actually, they did change something. In 2010 when they redid the Glory (made it lighter, and lowered the travel to 203mm) they didn't change the geometry, but they did stop listing the bb height on their geometry chart. Crafty.


And for 2013 they still don't list the BB height. What is that? They even built their own website to brag about the new 2013 bike, and to talk about the "reengineered geometry," and all they say about the BB height is that it's "lower." Literally the only numbers that people care about when they buy downhill bikes are chainstay, head angle, and bb height. Three numbers isn't so hard to remember, but somehow the kind people at Giant didn't get around to listing that one when they took the time to dedicate an entire website to the bike. But whatever, it's lower, so that's cool.

And if you're going to say that toptube length also matters, you're an idiot. Obviously top tube length matters, but unless you're freakishly tall or you're an oompa loompa, there's a size with a toptube length that fits you in every bike lineup ever. So, again, the only three numbers that distiniguish one bikes geometry from another are chainstay, bb height and head angle.




Here are some other things you can look forward to coming from Giant in 2013: with it's super tall housebrand rims and the mammoth 2.5 schwalbe tires, the Glory 00 also doubles as a snow bike. You'll be stoked at how many people ask you if you're running 24" 3.0 Gazzalodis:

And this bike sure looks good.

I'm super cereal right now.