Was about to go order a Five Pro with upgrades when some bills landed on the front door mat – rubbish!

Someone on here joked you could build a bike from scratch for about the same cash – well this got me thinking…

Take the brakes, saddle, bar, stem & tyres from my old build and I think (if my maths is correct) I can build a five with custom hope wheels, XT 10 spd drive train Fox Float RLC 150’s and a Reverb for £200 less than the build price on the Orange web site?

This sounds nuts – so thought i’d sound it out here…
Flame on!

specialized do very nice and good value for money bike…….. 😀

Ton – the same principal works on pretty much any frame Spesh / Santacruz etc

The only reason I’m going orange is I’ve had enough of grinding bearings away in the sandpits of the midlands!

Generally the off the shelf bikes are substantially cheaper than custom build on the basis you are using new components. How do your brakes compare with the spec on the Orange (plus of course they are not new) ? Can you get a discount on the new bike (you would from a LBS) ?

Whenever I’ve looked at of the shelf vs custom the difference has been hevily in favour of off the shelf. Custom only makes financial sense if you are re-using a reasonable amount of components.

Custom only makes financial sense if you are re-using a reasonable amount of components.

Or where you can be very canny in sourcing the components at highly discounted prices. If you can buy a groupset at a 40% discount, it starts to be worth considering

Your right of course, I’d mainly be swapping like for like parts – the only difference really is the handle bar – a Answer Pro Taper instead of the orange spec’d Carbon Haven bar…

The only reason I’m going orange is I’ve had enough of grinding bearings away in the sandpits of the midlands!

Hardtail FTW!

Agree with Wors. If you’re sick of grinding bearing away. Ride a HT. Last time I checked the Midlands wasn’t that gnarr!

dikecomponents.de and rose bikes

I boughta Pitch as apparently they were a bargain for the money.

hubs (and by association, rims)- shit
BB (and by association, cranks)- shit
brakes – shit
stem – shit
headset – shit
grips – uncomfortable
saddle – uncomfortable
pedals – nececary

For what it cost me in the first 2 months in upgrades I could have bought a 5 frame, transfered a few parts and bought all the stuff I had to upgrade anyway.

I’m happy with it, but next time I’ll not consider off the shelf builds unless it’s very definately what I’m after.

Agree with Wors. If you’re sick of grinding bearing away. Ride a HT. Last time I checked the Midlands wasn’t that gnarr!

Dark Peak? Nothing wrong with FS, it’s faster on anything except the road, and the 5’s versitile enough to do anything from the Alps to winter mud plugging.

After buying the Pitch and discovering a whole new world of technical riding and speed the only bike I’m keeping hardtail will be the BMX and the Swift for riding round Swinley.

I’ve owned a number of Orange bikes and except my very 1st the Sub-5, and a Crush, I have always been able to spec’ it better for less than the RRP of the bike – you don’t see Orange bikes with quite the discounts of other bikes so its always worth trawling the sales for bargain components to drape on a frame. Plus, I’ve always got a bit of discount off the frame at my LBS.

But you’re right – the bearings seem to last for ever.

Long story – I do like riding my HT, unfortunately it’s being split to fund this – got to go to one bike to do it all

Besides have you seen the size of the braking bumps at Cannock almost as gnarr as the weirwolf drop ;o) (i’ll get my coat…)

I must admit to thinking about swapping my HT for a full bouncer, but the whole bearing/maintenance thing puts me off somewhat. And the price.

Frame; £1400; Orange (discount possible)
Forks; £360; bikescene
XT groupset (inc brakes); £550; merlin
Wheels; £300 ; anywhere (pro 2/flow)
HS; £37; CRC, saddle; £40; CRC, Tyres; £50; anywhere, finishing kit; £85 (RF evolve).

£2822 with full XT and far better wheels. That’s £22 more expensive than the pro build and only missing grips, tubes and pedals (the orange ones will be proper cheap anyway). Going SLX (more like the pro) would save £120.
Granted, you may get a discount on the full bike BUT more shopping around would also save you more money.

Custom all day long for me, as wrecker has demonstrated you will get a much better bike for the same money or less.

Sunline V1 bars and stems £30 a pop on CRC at the moment I think, they’d look nice on a Five – you can start shopping now!

£1400 for the frame
XT group £493
Wheels £300

And cheep finishing kit on Rose or Chainreaction

When I ordered my Five S late last year it worked out to be £20 more expensive to buy the complete bike (with a 15% discount) than just the Frame, Forks (140 RLC), Reverb and Wheels (Hope), so I got a whole bike and have a box full of spare bits. I guess it all depends on what spec you want and what deals are out there at the time on the various parts.

When I ordered my Five S late last year it worked out to be £20 more expensive to buy the complete bike (with a 15% discount) than just the Frame, Forks (140 RLC),

Is that if you take shop price for forks of £650-ish though? Forks seem to vary in price more than any other bike components and it’s not hard to get a very good one for £400.

I think that shop in France still has some Five frames for a grand.
I’m building a Five, if my sums are right it will come in cheaper than a Black & Gold with a better spec than a pro, probably won’t have a kashima shock.

Take the brakes, saddle, bar, stem & tyres from my old build

If I were you …

If you’re absolutely decided on a 5 frame, why not transplant the wheels & drivetrain too?

These can be upgraded at a later date – maybe wait for deals to come up that you can take advantage of.

For now, buy the frame, forks & reverb.

That was my original thoughts but my wheels are QR / 20mm Burgtecs and not compatable with the Maxle / 15 of the new bike

as for drive train I’m stuck between the XT / XTR 9spd I have already or a new 10spd XT drive train? I’ve got to but new chain / Cassette / chain rings anyway and I want to future proof as much as possible…

my wheels are QR / 20mm Burgtecs and not compatable with the Maxle / 15 of the new bike

Revelation RLT ti 150mm with the 20mm maxle lite would be a perfect fork for a Five I reckon.