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Orange’s Long-Running Five Is New Again, Longer, Slacker & Stiffer

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Orange-Five-Orange

The Orange Five has been around for over 10 years, and continues to run in all of its simplistic, single pivot glory. Updated in 2013 for 27.5 wheels, it also received a through-axle update at that time. Now, the front end gets an update, moving from a bent top tube, to a straight one with a jump brace that will increase front end stiffness by 15%.

Available mid-February, they are just showing it off now at Silverstone. The British brand’s best selling model keeps going strong since the mud-prone country loves to keep their bikes simple and easy to repair.

It will be available in three colors and builds, check out the pictures and geometry of the new model after the jump

Orange-Five-Black By slacking out the front end, it lengthens it by 10mm, which will improve climbing ability by keeping the front from lifting up. The extra wheelbase will also help keep the bike more stable at speed. The shock mount has also been redesigned to distribute stress on the downtube better, and reduce weight. The rear end also gets some small updates to improve the rigidity of the swingarm.

The 140mm travel frame is still built in Britain, where they prize the easy maintenance of a single pivot.

 

Orange-Five-Blue

The beauty of a simple design is that they can be extremely reliable. Orange touts the durability by noting that in the last 12 months, the failure rate was just 0.47%. Its hard to understand that number without context, but most larger brands automatically budget in 2-3% in this area.  It means they have no problem backing up that five year warranty.

There are three different specs available, the Five S, Five Pro and Five RS.

Orange-Five-Geo-ChartOrange-Five-Geometry

We did find it a bit strange that they created the geometry chart from an unsagged position, since most other brands do it at sag, and all suspension bikes (properly set up) are ridden at sag.

SPECS – 

Five RS
RRP: £4000

  • Brand new frame design
  • Handbuilt in Halifax, UK
  • Five year frame warranty
  • 27.5 inch wheels
  • Aggressive trail geometry
  • Longer top tube and wheelbase for high-speed stability
  • Internal dropper routing
  • Suspension: 150mm front, 140mm rear
  • RockShox Pike RCT3 150mm fork
  • RockShox Monarch Plus RCT3 shock
  • SRAM X1, 1×11 drivetrain
  • Shimano XT brakes
  • Hope Pro II Evo/ Mavic 323 wheelset
  • RockShox Reverb Stealth seatpost
  • Kore Torsion 50mm stem and 800mm wide bars

Five Pro
RRP: £3,200

  • Brand new frame design
  • Handbuilt in Halifax, UK
  • Five year frame warranty
  • 27.5 inch wheels
  • Aggressive trail geometry
  • Longer top tube and wheelbase for high-speed stability
  • Internal Dropper Routing
  • Suspension: 140mm front and rear
  • Fox 32 Float Evolution 140mm forks
  • Fox Float Evolution shock
  • Shimano XT drivetrain
  • Shimano XT brakes
  • RaceFace Evolve double/bash chainset
  • Hope Pro II Evo/ Mavic 319 wheelset
  • RaceFace Ride cockpit

Five S
RRP: £2,600

  • Brand new frame design
  • Handbuilt in Halifax, UK
  • Five year frame warranty
  • 27.5 inch wheels
  • Aggressive trail geometry
  • Longer top tube and wheelbase for high-speed stability
  • Internal Dropper Routing
  • Suspension: 140mm front and rear
  • RockShox Revelation RL 140mm forks
  • RockShox Monarch RL shock
  • Shimano SLX drivetrain
  • Shimano Deore brakes
  • RaceFace Ride cockpit

 www.orangebikes.co.uk

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13 Comments
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Ken
Ken
9 years ago

Uk’s version of the Heckler . Rear triangle looks like it weighs 30lbs alone .

SamSkjord
9 years ago

Hooo aarr yoo calling simpul ayy?

wheelz
wheelz
9 years ago

I love the retro look of Orange bikes. Too bad there’s no US distributor.

michael
michael
9 years ago

If they really wanted to stiffen up the front, they should have use a 56mm head-tube instead of that 44mm

Jonas
Jonas
9 years ago

“We did find it a bit strange that they created the geometry chart from an unsagged position, since most other brands do it at sag, and all suspension bikes (properly set up) are ridden at sag.”

I do not know a single bike brand that does this.

JayCee
JayCee
9 years ago

£1600 for an alloy frame without shock seems a little pricey to me

Andy
Andy
9 years ago

“We did find it a bit strange that they created the geometry chart from an unsagged position, since most other brands do it at sag, and all suspension bikes (properly set up) are ridden at sag.”

This isn’t true, the overwhelming majority of suspension bike geometry charts are derived from the static position of the bike.

J N H
J N H
9 years ago

@Micheal, it’s a 49/49 One Point Five head tube, so us northern weirdos can use Works headsets and make them even slacker.

Rzilla
Rzilla
9 years ago

Most mountain bike geometry is measured unsagged. I can’t remember the last time i saw geo with sag included, besides on-one. If it did include sag, 340mm bb height would be ridiculously high on any trail bike. It also happens to be very much near average actually.

Neil
Neil
9 years ago

They’ve only just introduced the five year warranty, it only used to be two, it’s nothing to do with confidence, more to do with the fact that compared to other manufacturers two years was a joke.

They also left 26″ owners in the lurch when they inroduced the 650b as 26″ parts are no longer available.

Frame only option does come with shock though.

ted sanchez
ted sanchez
9 years ago

most other brands list their geo charts at sag? i dont think so…

Bent Udder
Bent Udder
9 years ago

Neil – which 26″ specific parts are you referring to? I’m curious.
I’ve owned a Sub 5 (the predecessor to the Five) and a Five over the years, and pretty much the only consumables were mech hangers, rear pivot bearings and shock bushings, all of which are commonly available from third parties. The pivot bearings were common cartridge units.

Maxle rear ends have been available for years on the Five, by the way BR – aside from stiffening things up back there, it also solves a rather specific problem with that monocoque swingarm – the QR version would creak like crazy if the QR wasn’t nice and tight.

I can see why people might not see the Five as a particularly desirable bike, but often they’re also people who haven’t ever swung a leg over one. They’re enormously fun bikes to ride.

Brendan
Brendan
9 years ago

“By slacking out the front end, it lengthens it by 10mm, which will improve climbing ability by keeping the front from lifting up.”

This doesn’t make sense to me. If you lengthen the front end, weight distribution shifts rearward. This makes the front end more likely to lift up.

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