I have an 2013 18″ Orange five Pro which is amazing, i love it – my riding style has changed a bit on this bike i have certainly got a lot more confident im not really doing alot of xc but seem to be heading more down the freeiride places or if i do do some xc looking for nice drops to play on etc. Im going to the Alps next year and wondering if i need to change the five for something with a little more travel.
Has anyone used a five over the Alps? taken off big drops/jumps etc – im starting to look at bigger stuff in the UK but sometimes thing maybe my bike isnt for that, would i be better trying to swap for something else perhaps an alpine 160 or is the Five more than capable with what im considering throwing at it?

What bit of the alps?

It’s a big place with lots of very different riding.
If your doing lots of DH stuff and smashing down the Morzine braking bumps then it will probably feel uncomfortable, if it’s on the singletrack around Les Arcs then it will probably feel like it does in the UK.

A chap I know (milky1980, sometimes on here) has been to the Alps 3 years running with his five and has never had any problem with it. He has made a few changes from stock, fitted Pikes and put a volume spacer in the shock to stop it blowing through the travel. I think he just changes the setup a bit to suit the more gravity oriented riding that he does out there.

taken off big drops/jumps etc

How big?
How good is your technique?
Do you need more travel to let you get away with mistakes?

People do huge jumps/drops on bikes with no suspension at all. Just look at the pro BMXs or Danny Macaskill.

i will be going to Chatel/Morzine. Im doing 6ft drops which is fine but i am using a lot of the travel especially on the rear. I will want to hit some of the big stuff but may avoid if i thought it was too much for the bike. I dont wnt to wreck what is an immense bike, and i can only afford one. It has handled everything i have thrown at it todate even if it blows through a bit of the travel on the rear

I no longer have a Five but mine was quite happy being thrown down a few Alps:
Megavalanche
Les 2 Alpes bike park
Garda

It was a lot more at-home with a CCDB coil on it. Very capable in that guise. (I still have the CCDB coil sat on the shelf at home if you’re after one 😉 )

How big? 6ft – 8ft drops, 20ft gaps so far
How good is your technique? My Technique is ok – good i would say, confidence sometimes gets in the way
Do you need more travel to let you get away with mistakes? im running 140mm up front on my five, iv only fell off once on it and that was down to a poorly designed jump rather than me.

It *could* be worth having a look at your technique. I would have expected a Five to be fine with 6 foot drops, especially if the transition isn’t flat.

[EDIT] – I’ve done 20 18 🙂 foot table tops on my Bandit which is similar to a Five. I never felt under-biked.

I’d be more than happy riding my 2013 Five (with 150mm Pikes) in the Alps except for launching off big drops or jumps (which I haven’t got the balls/skills for anyway). A Five’s not really designed, built or warrantied for that sort of thing, but that’s not to say it won’t do it.

My 2014 Five handled everything a downhill bike would in the alps including the drops and big jumps. With the bolt through rear end and pikes i had no problems at all. Kinda smashed my wheels up, but it was a brilliant week.

I was amazed at how much more the bike kicked the shit out of me than my downhill bike though. I did ride some much much better trails than I would have though, as I was willing to pedal the bike up and down.

I would recommend it and will be taking the bike back to the alps instead of the DH bike next summer.

DIRT magazine used to always have the ‘5’ in their Dirt-100 (maybe still do, i havent bought it in a while?), they reckoned it was damn near perfect for a single do-it-all bike….provided you had some spares laying around.

They suggested in standard 140mm guise it was the ideal UK trail bike but stick a longer fork on the front and a coil shock out back and you had a pretty decent Alps bike….there is some initial outlay required but its still cheaper than having 2 bikes.

This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Iv heard before that the fives are pretty bombproof but its good to hear other peoples real experience.

So all I may need to do when the time comes is swap the shocks, any recommendations?

Rode a 2015 Five RS the other day at Stainburn and it was brilliant, so would definitely recommend a Monarch plus shock.

No

The five is a great bike, but if you’re getting more into freeridey stuff why not flog it and get an alpine anyway?

I’d definitely go for a 160mm fork anyway.

Definitely not: http://vimeo.com/m/95980998

So all I may need to do when the time comes is swap the shocks, any recommendations?

CCDB coil. Made a huge difference.

Good article on same “upgrade” here:
http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/news/view/cane_creek_double_barrel/

You’ll be fine. Plenty of people out there riding them. You can always whack a bigger set of forks for the trip if you want. But I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Coil shock and 36’s set to 150mm no problem in the Alps..

3 trips to the Alps and 1 to Molini on my 5 with 140 forks and it was more than capable, just planning next years now… 🙂
Sensible mods IMO to help with the gravity over time have been;
Off set bushes for the rear shock (Burgtec) probably the best value for money upgrade on a 5 you could wish for.
Volume spacer for the rear airshock for my weight, talk to LOCO
Beefy tubeless rims (ZTR Flows)
Shorter stem (60mm)
Bigger rotors
Dropper post.

Hang on and enjoy.