Anyone who has watched a recent NWD movie knows that freeriding has long moved past its skinny ladder bridge and wheelie dropping early days. Today's riders, both pros and local shredders, are doing moves that most of us never even dreamed of only a few short years ago. The large majority of this progression is undoubtedly down to the rider's skill and courage, but the evolution of the freeride bike cannot be over looked either.
photo: Jake Orness
It's bikes like Giant's Faith 0, previewed below, that allow Kurt Sorge to charge off the lip of a 70ft canyon gap at the Red Bull Rampage without worrying about his equipment. With the DNA of a downhill bike, but using geometry and suspension suited to big, technical moves, the Faith 0 is Giant's top tier freeride bike.
Kurt Sorge going into orbit at the Rampage aboard his Faith.
Photo by Margus Riga
The Faith 0 is built around Giant's 7 inch travel, freeride specific frame - the very same that you've seen Kurt Sorge take flight upon at the Red Bull Rampage.
Giant Faith 0 details:
- Intended use: freeriding
- Seven inches of rear wheel travel
- RockShox Totem Solo Air fork and Vivid Coil RC2 rear shock
- SRAM X9 shifter and rear derailleur
- Avid Elixir CR disc brakes
- Weight: 39.5lbs (w/o pedals)
- MSRP $4,400 USD
The Faith's burly frame features massive diameter aluminum tubing that certainly portrays a sturdy ride, especially the bike's immense MegaDrive down tube that is wide enough to match the bike's equally large, tapered head tube and 83mm bottom bracket shell at each end. Underneath the eye catching metallic green paint job is a set of hydro-formed tubes that have been shaped to best handle the loads that the 7" bike is built for. The impressive shaping gives the bike a very distinctive look when inspected up close - even the seat tube isn't spared - and the neon green graphics accentuate the bike's contours.
Extensively hydro-formed tubes give the Faith both more strength and a unique look, along with its massive, tapered Overdrive head tube.
While the Faith platform uses a slightly altered version of the Maestro suspension layout as seen on its bigger brother, the DH orientated Glory, its frame features different geometry to better suit the bike's intentions. Instead of all out speed between the tape, it needs to be slightly more maneuverable at slower speeds and be able to handle steep booters. For this reason its head angle is more than a full degree steeper at 66.75°, which results in a more compact wheelbase and a bike that can be thrown around easier. At the rear of the bike you'll find a set of clean looking, replaceable thru-axle dropouts that allow half a degree of handling adjustment to let you fine tune the handling.
Giant's Maestro suspension consists of two short links that create a virtual pivot in a place where it wouldn't be possible to position it with a more conventional design. Virtual pivot designs are not a new thing, but it is important to remember how small changes in pivot locations can greatly effect how the bike rides - just because it resembles another design does not mean that it will ride exactly the same.
Giant's Maestro Suspension controls the Faith's 7" of rear wheel travel via two stout links, creating a virtual pivot point in a position that would otherwise not be possible to use - high and just behind the seat tube. The imaginary pivot's position is tailored to give the long travel Faith an ideal axle path for the bike's intentions, while still allowing it to accelerate relatively well under power. Everything rotates on large sealed bearings, and the lower link's main pivot does double duty as the rear shock's lower mounting point, saving weight and simplifying things in the process.
Specifications
|
Price
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$4400 |
|
Rear Shock |
RockShox Vivid Coil RC2 |
|
Fork |
RockShox Totem Solo Air w/ 20mm Thru Axle and Tapered Steerer, 180mm Travel |
|
Cassette |
SRAM PG970 11x32, 9-Speed |
|
Crankarms |
Race Face Atlas FR, 36T |
|
Chainguide |
MRP Mini G2 Guide, Custom for Giant |
|
Bottom Bracket |
Race Face, External |
|
Pedals |
Giant Alloy Platform, Sealed |
|
Chain |
Shimano HG-73 |
|
Rear Derailleur |
SRAM X.9 |
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Shifter Pods |
SRAM X.9, Trigger |
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Handlebar |
Giant Contact AM, 750mm, 31.8 |
|
Stem |
Giant Contact FR |
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Brakes |
Avid Elixir CR (Giant LTD Edition), [F] 185mm [R] 160mm |
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Hubs |
[F] Giant Tracker w/ 20mm Axle, [R] DT Swiss 350 w/ 12mm Axle, 32h |
|
Spokes |
DT Competiton, 14/15g |
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Rim |
Sun Ringle MTX31 |
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Tires |
Kenda Nevegal, 60 tpi, 26x2.5 Stick-E |
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Seat |
Giant Freeride |
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Seatpost |
Giant Contact, 30.9 |
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The Faith's burly component package looks to match the bike's intentions quite well. Suspension duties are looked after by RockShox, with a strapping 180mm travel single crown Totem up front, complemented by their Vivid RC2 out back. Both units feature a number of external adjustments that allow them to be setup to deal with hard impacts that a bike like this will see, but without sacrificing small bump compliance in the process. It is also nice to see matching green graphics on both the fork and shock as well.
As the saying goes, it's all in the details. The Faith 0 sports a stunning metallic and neon green color scheme that is sure to attract attention in the bike park. Even its Elixir CR brakes (top right) get the green treatment.
Slowing the green bike down is a set of Avid's Elixir CR brakes, complete with matching anodized green highlights. Interestingly, Giant has paired a smaller, 160mm rotor out back with 185mm front disc. The Elixir's are well known to have power in spades, but there is a question in my mind as to how the smaller rear saucer will handle the abuse that the bike is intended for. A number of Giant's house brand, Contact, parts are used on the build, including their solid looking FR stem and 750mm wide Contact bar. Laced to Giant's own brand hubs are a set of robust looking P-AM1 rims, which are also from their own component lineup. While not many riders will be familiar with this hoops, the look like they are ready to brush off any and all abuse that we'll be able to dish out.
The Faith 0's 180mm travel Totem Solo Air fork suits the bike's intentions wholly: big moves on big terrain
Highlighting the fact that the Faith 0 is a purpose built freeride machine is its single ring MRP Mini G2 guide. There are a number of similar travel bikes out there that make use of a dual ring guide to allow the rider to get to the top under his/her own power, however slow that pace may be. Not the Faith - it is assembled with sessioning hits and going big in mind, not climbing. The only ascending that the Faith 0 will be doing is on a lift, in the back of a pickup, or getting pushed back up to the top of the run-in by its rider.
Watch Giant's Faith 0 come to life:
| The Faith 0 underlines how much freeride bikes have progressed in recent years and just what a well thought out 7" travel bike is capable of. Giant's green machine looks ready for both banging out laps in the Whistler Bike Park all day and launching that massive drop in your local zone. Stay tuned for a full test after we've spent time on the Faith 0 scaring ourselves silly! - Mike Levy |
Check out the
Giant website to see their entire lineup.
The no-nonsense scottish description: eh aye this wan is actual rapid minted
AND:
66.75 degree head angle on a 7" travel freeride bike? I can set my 120mm trail bike up that slack.
I don't want to pretend that I know more about geometry than Giant, as I don't, but that sounds insanely steep to me.
I don't have problem with Giant own brand stuff, it's all good quality and fairly priced. But it's NO WAY the best on the market. And at £4k (right at the top of the market for main stream manufacturers) I'd be expecting the best of the best. And so will every customer who's interested in this type of bike.
Actually just checked the site and if you look at the STA it shows the angle change but not on the HTA. So I think that the dropouts are still available and this bike at 66.25 will do just fine IMO.
www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/faith/7346/44099
it will definitely have a detrimental effect on handling at higher speeds - this bike is a FR bike designed for fast, loose, gnarly lines in the chunder, quick lines into big booter stunts and race-style runs down A-Line in Whistler
what slow speed handling is needed anymore??
ARTICLE says "Anyone who has watched a recent NWD movie knows that freeriding has long moved past its skinny ladder bridge and wheelie dropping early days"
hell, my 145mm all-mountain bike has a slacker HA with just a Fox 36 Float 150mm up front (66.4) and runs 65.5 with fork at 160mm
The Giant looks solidly built, but HA is critical on a "big bike" and Giant need to dial this into the 64-65 degree range to suit the needs of the modern ripper, or provide CC Angleset to allow geometry adjustments by the rider (but this bike has taper steerer which means no Angleset?)
I love my Glory (old shape), but then I'm pretty slow, and ride on fairly small, push-up tracks. If the Faith is meant for 'big country freeriding', I'd expect it to be slacker than my Glory, not steeper!
That was that 65-66 adjustment.
Also after switchin from 67 to 66-65 and then to 63.7 it is noticable and in my opinion unless you ride a lot of steep jump lips or slow speed wooden features the slacker the better(and for steep jumps Id advice something with less than 7 inch of travel )
or for freeride duties i put the steeper drop outs on and the totems - lp1.pinkbike.org/p4pb6241671/p4pb6241671.jpg
its great to have two bikes in one, the 888s give a 1/2lb weight gain but overall its around 36lbs (with stock wheels)
Thanks for the pic of Sorge's bike DARKSTAR63!
But I do wish MTB bikes would sort out the dam cable routing only thing that ruins it for me! Giant please route down the top of the down tube, not the underneath, in our country we ride on the dirt not on the road!
Road bikes under down tubes and chain stays "not MTB" also for the specc I know its a price point but that saddle and stem stack setup is not a good way to promote such a bike, why do OEM companies keep shoveling this shit out, minor point and easy to sort compared to the horrendous cable routing, other wise another sick, slick great value product for Giant.
Any shop hacks for that? I heard lighter oil would speed things up?
, www.giant-bicycles.com/_generated/_generated_us/bikes/models/images/2000/2010/Reign_SX_white_silver_GU_72dpiWIDE.jpg
ABP = Swingarm 4 bar
Maestro = Short link 4 bar
a little bitchy dont you think?