I’ve no idea what their costs and margins are, but you are right that £20 does sound like penny pinching. Supplying bikes with cheap OEM tyres does seem pretty standard in the bike industry though. Some companies are just smarter (or less honest if you prefer) at sending bikes out for testing/reviews with better tyres (and even wheels in some cases) than you get when you actually buy the bike.

I can see both sides… But I reckon if you can’t make a £3000 bike without fitting disaster tyres then you can’t make a £3000 bike full stop. And there’s other cuts they could make, but they probably think they play less well, they’ve done the XT mech thing frinstance so people say “Look! XT!”

But you’re right, it can make sense to scrimp on the contact points since folk often replace them anyway (I’ve bought all my Butchers off Ebay as people remove them untried from new bikes- they’re brilliant tyres but they want to fit what they know)

I can’t fairly compare the wheels as I’ve no time on quality 29ers, maybe they were a weak build or maybe you just need to spend more to get stiffness out of big wheels, no idea. It was a pretty fresh bike so I don’t think it was just beat up, but you never know.

Looking around the demo at some other bikes the spec just felt poor. It’s not a straight comparison, but Whyte’s 129 is only £2000… it had cheaper but still quality suspension, and I think slightly cheaper brakes but everything else I spotted was as good or better, and it came with a bloomin reverb! Then again the suspension build on the Orange is proper no-compromise excellent.

All demo bikes should have premium rubber on them. Otherwise you get comments like the tyres were poor or worse.

Still sounds like the 5 and the alpine I rode, not all they were cracked up to be, probably always the case people reckon they are the bestest thing in the world when in fact they are a competent single pivot bike, hard to live up to the hype really.

mikewsmith – Member

All demo bikes should have premium rubber on them. Otherwise you get comments like the tyres were poor or worse.

It’s kind of cool that they’re the same as you get if you buy it- very honest. If I was Orange I’d sell them with crap OEM tyres but demo them with the posh version 😆 But yeah, you can’t really test a bike if it doesn’t work

Still i reckon the 29er-skeptical should try one if they can.

Can somebody please scan the article about the Five 29 in the last dirt magazine….

@roverpig – never say never “They are not discontinuing the 26″ Five”
There is 1 month to go and the 26″ Five is gone, forever. 650b (27.5) will be the standard trail bike.
29ers are for people who like short travel and lack skill (they smooth out trails) so take the ‘fun’ out of riding (IMHO). Truth is Mountainbiking is a massive growing sport, 29er’s will make riding easier for lesser skilled riders that are coming to it. They buy the bikes,top Racers get new ones free every season. Most people don’t huck jumps so no need for long travel.Remember 100mm used to be long travel once (thats all there was) . 200mm for downhill is ‘just enough’ now.
The more people that are attracted to this sport the better. People want choice. No more Model T Ford in one colour!!

BTW, think I’ve settled on a new Five 650b for me as my XC/AM (because I’m not skilled enough to ride a hard tail and like a comfortable ride). The debate will trundle on……

Truth is Mountainbiking is a massive growing sport,

Have you got any evidence for that? I’m not saying you are wrong, I’ve just not seen the evidence. Road cycling does seem to be on the increase and the road sections of my LBSs are growing, pushing out the MTB stuff.

29ers are for people who like short travel

A strange comment to post in a thread about a 140mm super slack 29er !

29ers are for people who like short travel and lack skill

Is quite possibly the funniest most completely wrong thing I’ve ever read on ST & that bar is set quite high 😛

well one of my pal’s has a new 5 29er and he’s now setting Strava KOM’s on our local DH sections. That’s good enough for me. We used to be neck / neck but he’s ahead now. First thing he did was change tyres!