When Ak asked me if I was interested in attending a bike school, I wasn't sure what I was in for. Until I was there only then did I realised it was Taiwan's Giant Maestro Bike School Grand Opening on that day. I felt very honored to be there and witness the grand opening. The Bike School is located in Hengchun Township, only a few kilometers away from Taiwan's famous beach, Kenting. The grand opening was not just the Giant Maestro Bike School, YOHO Landis Beach Club had converted part of the area into a YOHO Bike Hotel. The rooms and around the hotel area had been converted to a bike friendly area which included bike spa, road trip around the area or an off-road MTB class, bike stand to hang your bike in the room and, a little nice fan to put infornt of your bike and many more!!
It was a 2 days affair, the grand opening was targeted more to the press media which came all over Taiwan from Taipei to Kaohsiung. The day started off with a short presentation on the day's event which included the track orientation, opening ceremony, armature and professional race, lunch and dinner parties.
Day one vid..
The next day after breakfast, there were 2 events that Giant had arranged for the morning, either you can join the road trip together with the General Manger of Giant or join the MTB class which me and AK were more interested.
5 years ago I had laid eyes on the Giant Reign when they had first introduced the Maestro system and today, I just can't wait to put my legs across the Reign. I was later given the Reign 6.7 for a basic introduction to off-road riding...Woohhoo!! AK had the Trance 5.0 X2. I was hoping he could get the Trance X zero so he would be able to taste the real Trance X at work but too bad some fat bloke from "Mobile One" took the bike. Well.. I think in the whole class me and AK felt intimated because it was more to basic off-road riding. We just can't wait to take the bikes and burn the track, so patiently we followed the class until it ended when Ak asked me ...... "you want to go around the track??" Hell...I was waiting for it and both of us headed off leaving the rest of the class having their refreshment. The track started off with a stepped climb and geez....either the Reign is too heavy for me or I am slacked, by the time I finished the first climb I was almost out of breath. However the Reign did very well in all the obstacle that was put infront of her, it was better than my Trance. Both the front and rear suspension absorbed all the bump very well. The bike did not bounced much and it felt very smooth. The whole track was around 1.5km and by the time I finished, I was panting like a dog under the hot sun. When I got back to the rest point, my partner told me Ak had gone for another round and I was a minute behind him..Grrrr. I needed the break and I did want to go for another round but by then it was lunch time, so just coming to the end of lunch I took the bike for another spin going around the woops.
The afternoon ended with a Maestro presentation. Giant had finally found their target, with last year's roaring sales of Trance world wide, Giant had finally convince themselves that the design of Trance would be used in the 2009 bikes which include the Anthem X and Regin. In 2008 the Trance was classified as an All Mountain bike by most MTB bike magazines and reviews but Giant had classified it as Trail bike together with the Regin 6.0 in this presentation and the Regin 6.7 will be the All Mountain bike.... in next few years is my Trance X going to be XC???
Below is a list of Giant's Maestro bikes classification.
Antem X 4.0 - Cross Country Competition
Trance X 5.0, Regin 6.0 - Trail
Regin X 6.7 - All Mountain
Glory 8.5 - Free Ride
Glory DH 8.8 - Downhill Competition
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