It’s hard to believe these days, but once upon a time no-one had heard of Giant. Even though it owned the biggest bike factory in the world, it was mostly involved in making other people’s bikes rather than doing things under its own name. Today, of course, it’s a major brand. And one of the things that got it to that point was downhill bikes. The early 90s ATX-990 was almost ubiquitous at DH races at the time – it wasn’t really intended as a DH bike, but it was a half-decent full-susser at a sensible price at a time when such things were a rarity. Then there was the ATX-One, the first choice of privateer DHers across the land. And now there’s the Giant Glory, the final piece in Giant’s Maestro full suspension jigsaw.

When we first saw the new Maestro range, it had bikes for the recreational middle ground but not the racing extremes. The Trance, Reign and Faith covered everything from trail riding to freeride, but XC and DH racing was still covered by older frames. The 3.5in travel ultra-light Anthem has XC covered, and the 8.8in travel Glory will shortly be on sale for the DH racers.

We’ve had a bit of a poke and a fondle at one, but haven’t ridden it. We like what we see, though. The suspension design is essentially the same as the other Maestro bikes, with the shock passing through the massive down tube to a “gantry” underneath – there’ll be an optional carbon guard to keep rocks off it. The shock is a Fox DHX4.0 coil. The frame has all the essentials, like ISCG mounts on the bottom bracket shell (although you can in theory mount a front mech to it…). The rear end has axle holes rather than dropouts, and can accommodate 10 or 12mm through-axles.

If you have your own ideas about componentry you can just get a frame and shock, but there’ll also be a complete bike which is exactly as you see here – 8in travel Fox 40 RC2 fork, Hayes HFX-9DH brakes with 8in rotors, SRAM shifter and mech, Race Face Evolve DH X-Type cranks, E-thirteen chain guide, Mavic EX729 rims and 2.6in Kenda tyres. There’s certainly nothing on there that you’d want to change immediately.

You’re probably wondering how much one of these’ll cost you, and we’re pleasantly surprised by the answer. A Glory frame will go for £1,250, while the complete bike will be £3,250. Which is clearly a whole hill of money, but for a race-ready DH bike doesn’t look at all bad. We fully expect DH races to be packed out with them within weeks…