I’ve been riding my new 2011 Orange ST4 for a couple of months now when it occured to me that the Revelation 140 (or 150mm) forks are the same weight as the fitted Fox 32s at only 120mm of travel.

I’ve just been out for my first run in the Surrey Hills with the Revs on and wow, what a difference it makes to the bike. These forks are so much plusher – what a difference 20mm makes. The bike truly feels like it’s floating on air and with the pro pedal on at the back very stiff and planted for bombholes and the like.

The steering is slowed down somewhat as I imagine the head angle is more like 67 degrees instead of 68 but the bike just laughs at descents now and has massively increased it’s downhill speed (via confidence obviously.)

I’ve had to temporarily turn the stem upside down to get the stack height down as this is all a bit of a test for the moment but I think I will stick with it.

Have any other ST4 owners tried this yet? The warrenty shows that 140mm is allowed, I wonder why they put 120mm on there by default when there is no weight gain? To my mind it’s now a FIVE with a slightly different zippier feel.

I thought the max travel was 130mm? I’ve got a frame that I need to build-up and I have some Revs to go with it, but was thinking of dropping the travel to 120/130mm, but might leave them at 140mm now!

Yeah website says 130mm max doesn’t it? I was considering getting Revelations and dropping them to 130mm, but at the moment it’s great with the 120mm Rebas. Mine is a 2010 though 🙂

Frosty Golf Course by Ginger F0x, on Flickr

I asked the shop I bought from and the Orange website seems to confirm:

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/support/warranty/

140mm max, now then, that is interesting.

Revs have really short axle to crown lengths for their travel so I reckon you’ll be alright.

I was quite surprised out how much difference the 20mm made I must admit, I found myself shifting my weight over the forks on rough descents and letting the forks take the hits rather than the rear shock so much. It has really increased the bike’s can-do.

I finished building mine a month or so ago, i got a good deal on a set of coil RockShox Sektor, i had RockShox on my last bike and preferred them to the Fox forks.

The Sektors are 150mm with U-Turn adjust, i woujd them down to 110mm to climb then back to 140mm for the down bits, then i realised it climbs just as well in the 140mm setting so i left them there.

I got a 2010 frame and built it up how i wanted it, it weighs just under 27.5lbs and does everything i want from a bike, climbs like a mountain goat and decends like a bike with much more travel…outstanding bike!

Sorry to go on a bit but it is ace.

I thought that Orange bikes were a simple design that has been honed and tweaked to perfection over many years.

How come you’re having to mess so much with the suspension and geometry?

I guess this is a bit of a response to some of the negative reviews the bike has received from the magazines which seem to boil down to the fact that is is the same weight as a FIVE but with less travel so why bother?

Mine is now 29 pounds with a heavy KS descender post, so would be 28.5 with a Thomson but this is with a 1 x 10 single front chainring which I have weighed as saving 0.6 of a pound by throwing away the other two and the shifter but. If you then add back the weight of the chainguide it’s back to about 29 pounds if it was triple chain-ringed.

I had a bike shop weigh a stock FIVE with pedals on and I was quite surprised to discover that they are 32 pounds in weight so the ST4 is a full 3 pounds lighter with the same front travel but obviously with less at the rear but it is that different feel to the bike with the mismatched travel that I liked when comparing the two – I think the mags missed this point.

The ST4 feels a lot more exciting and alive that the FIVE even though it is a superb machine and capable of plough through anything.

Basically, I wonder if the ST4 should come with 140 forks since it involves no weight penalty – have Orange deliberatley reduced it maybe to not compete with the FIVE?

I know everyone will have different views on things like this but from my perspective it’s made a great bike even better. With the pro-pedal on at the back it is very taught and almost hard-tail like when pumping in and out of bomb-holes and around berms but with very bottom-less feeling travel on big-hits and drops. The longer forks just make it even more capable.

Sales pitch over, just wanted to share.

Frame weights should be the comparison surely? What’s a “stock FIVE”?

So 7 months on, whats your conclusion on running the ST with 140 forks?