Giant Rincon 2007 Mountain Bike Review

Good Points
Hi-spec for price
Rock Shox Dart 1 forks
Disc Brakes
Value

Bad Points
For the money, none.

General Comments
I moved to Sydney, Australia recently and had to sell my trusty soft tail Saracen before I came. A sad moment to be sure. But onwards to new horizons. Now I didn't have a great deal of cash and settled on a hard tail Giant Rincon 2007 for $629 Aussie dollars (~250GBP). What I wanted was off-road (down hill and cross country) ability at the weekend and commutability to the city during the week. After another great weekend on the fire trails in the bush it has sailed into work this morning with scarce a care.

I wont bore you with a exhaustng list of technical specs here, if you want to know exactly what chainset etc. you get then go to the Giant website.

Suffice to say the standout items are:

Excellent Rock Shox Dart 1 forks. 100mm travel with adjustable damper pre-loading. They managed some big air over rocks and gravel on Sunday without bottoming out. They also absorbed a great deal of punishment on some very high speed downhills as well. Great stability and positive feedback through to the handlebars. Lock out would have been nice for the commute but no chance at this price.

Shimano 6" disc brakes back and front. OK it is probably at the entry level standard of equipment here but they were good stoppers both wet dry when new. After bedding in, you can stop on a sixpence, surface permitting!

SDG saddle. Not too much to talk about here. Comfortable and scuff free even after a bailing a couple of times at the weekend.

The high spec and stiff aluminium tig welded frame gives a the rider a great deal of confidence and control respones are swift, precise and assured..



In all fantastic value multi-mode bicycle. True, dedicated downhillers will want a soft tail and commuters will want to be able to get out of the saddle without the front end absorbing all their effort but in this sort of price range these options are out of the question. If you don't want to own two bikes then I can't see much further than Giant's '07 Rincon as an excellent compromise without compromise.

Heartily recommended.