Orange Five weights

Alright then, i am thinking about selling my scratch air and replacing it with a Five as the scratch is too much for all day trail riding. It weighs in at just shy of 32lb which isn’t terrile but is better suited as a park/freeide/downhill bike.
I am looking to test both the Five pro and the Five AM. Anyone ridden both of these? Anyone know what they come out at weight wise?
The bike will mainly be used as a trail bike around the chilterns as well as pretty regular trail centre visits. I will also be using it for the megavalanche this year. The pro with the maxle swingarm upgrade seems the right choice to go for. The only difference between the two then would be the different forks float 32’s on the pro and float 36’s on the AM and the rims. I would change the triple on the pro to a double too.
Any info on weights would be really helpful.
Cheers
Matt

Roddi

Have you considered the Cube Stereos / Fritzs, far better specification, better looking and miles cheaper. My mate bought a brand new Fritz last year and took it to the Alps, it was only slightly heavier than my 5 SE ! and he is still in love with it. My brother has also just sold his 09 Stereo which has a bit of an AM feel which he adored (BB a bit low though!)

Also most Cubes have Formula brakes (many of them R1s) perfect for hard AM / DH use

There is bike beyond the “5” !

Kev

To be honest bud i hadn’t but will look into them. I am not certain about a five it just appeals to me as its pretty basic and i never got on with my last over complicated remedy 8. I really want a hardcore trail bike as i have a dh bike already and have learnt from having the scatch that there is no point having two spoons for one cup, so dh is covered and xc is too as i have a steel 456 that is ideal for round here. It’s just the trail centes and gnarly trail riding i am looking to cater for now and like the orange from what i have heard/ read. The proof will be in the riding though and i am in no rush so will try whatever i can in the mean time. Whatever i get i will deck out with elixir.
What weight is your SE?

2008 Five Pro here. XT drivetrain, Thomson post, stem , EA monkeybars, mono mini’s, wtb speediscs with 2.35 tubed Rampages, Fox 32 RLC, time pedals – comes in at 28.5lbs

My SE was just short of 28lbs, but my mates stock 5 Pro was 29.4lb. We weighed these on our companies calibrated industrial scales.

The Cubes are definately worth a look at. I have rode both, both are quite different but the added value for money with Cubes would win over every day.

Kev

Cheers guys. I have been looking into the cubes and reading reviews and they do seem to be very highly rated. My main issue, call me stupid, is the price. I don’t really understand how a reasonably small company such as cube can knock out bikes with a higher spec component range for cheaper than bigger companies sell lesser spec’d rigs for. I get that to an extent you are paying for a name. I just wonder that maybe the money being saved is in the frame building? I have read people saying about problems with cubes frames and even though they have also stated that cube are good at replacing warranty frames, it doesn’t make it right. I have also heard that other bike companies are concerned by the quality of there frames.
Anyone else heard anything like this?

Where have you heard this? Not had any problems with my Stereo.

My 2011 5 build:

Frame – 18″ chrome grey; Forks – fox float RL 140mm 15mm axle; Brakes – formula megas with 203mm rotors each end; chainset – raceface diabolous triple (meaty!!!!); seatpost -Thomson elite 30.9 x 410; Saddle – wtb; Stem – fsa fr230 90mm; Bars – sumline v1 737mm wide; Grips – orange lock on; Shifters -SRAM x9; Mechs – deore front & x9 rear; wheelset – mavic 819 tubeless on hope pro2 with Scott cougar tyres, stand sealant; Chain – SRAM pg980 (I think) ; pedals – time atac.

Weight: 30.5 lbs

Could be reduced drastically by ditching diabolous chainset, sunline bars & fr stem, but feels mega solid as is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG8LhOpp3ZQ

check out between 1;13 and 2 mins :wink:

Love the furry grips! Euro thing???
Heard it from a rival companies rep i know.

@Mildred, That is a simailar build to what i would be aiming for apart from maybe elixirs and either a single or double up front,Shimano too, would shed some weight, the 760 bars are a must though

“My main issue, call me stupid, is the price. I don’t really understand how a reasonably small company such as cube can knock out bikes with a higher spec component range for cheaper than bigger companies sell lesser spec’d rigs for.”

bit of a guess here so don’t flame me but looking at the size of their model range, I’d reckon that Cube were a far bigger company than Orange.

Ok fair one, i will add trek and specialized to that then

My girlfriend has recently got a fritzz as jack-of-all-trades bike. It was 1600 new with fit talas rc2, formula rx brakes and rp23BV shock! I took it down glentresss black and I was amazed at just how well it corners, how well damped and controlled the suspension was and have forgiving it was to poor line choice and badly executed aerial maneuvers. It seemed to pedal extremely well on the flat and uphill. That’s coming from a specked-up prophet which is analogous to the five.
I really rate cubes for their value for money and the reviews are great.

Cheers for all the info on cubes, i’m sure they are great but to be honest i am more interested in hearing about fives.

i ride the five pro.(Diva)..2009 version…..i find it very light to ride…my son tested an ‘AM’ it was heavy…..

This…..

With this spec + 2011 XTR pedals…..

weighs 28 & a titchy bit on my scales. It weighed 27.12 on the shops scales without pedals.

Just get one, ignore the Orange bashers on here, you won’t regret it.

I have a ’07 5 Pro with performance pack & X9 instead of XT

28.2lbs

I love it, excellent bit of kit…

But

I demo’d a Fritzz and it is bloody awesome, superb value for money and very well built. Excellent back up from Cube from what I know too.

I’d be hard pushed to shell out for a new 5 when the Cubes give it a run for it’s money in the handling department and it’s better value for money.

Cubes all the way, they are 50 times bigger than Orange hence why they can spec bikes far higher.

I spent a reduced £2690 on a brand new upgraded 2009 5 SE, my brother spent £1810.00 on an upgraded Stereo. His looked better and there was nothing in it performance wise!! (other than nearly 1k)

Leisure Lakes in Bury have a 2010 Stereo HPC (Carbon) with full XTR, Formula R1s and draped with bling in a matt black and red colour. Tipping the scales at 27lbs and only £2500. It is stunning and pathetically priced…I was looking at it 2 weeks ago and it looked like a 4k bike.

The main reason I would not go again for a 5 is that I was parked up waiting for about 10 mountain bikers to come past me on a night ride, I bet 7 out of the 12 were on 5s….Zzzzz. Overhyped and common as muck!

Here are a couple of thoughts that may help. I haven’t ridden an Orange Five (shock horror!) so I will just comment on the weight issue.

What fork you run will make a significant difference to the overall weight. There’s more than 300g between a Fox 32 and a FGox 36 and while the 32 is probably good enough for 80% of all riding in the UK and certainly 100% of trail centres, if a bike isn’t designed around the A2C that even the 150mm version offers it largely doesn’t matter how good the damping is or how stiff the chasis is. You’re bike’s not going to work right.

The best thing as far as I can see with the Orange Five is that it is designed to work around the height of the Fox 32 so right off the bat you can save almost 1lb in weight. On that basis, since weight is a key factor, go for the version with a 32 rather than a 36.

The other key point is that the weight of the wheels will make a far greater difference to the ride weight of the bike than anything else.

Consider two bikes, one weighs 26lbs but has wheels that weigh almost 2kg and another that weighs 28lbs and has wheels that weigh 1400g (which are stiffer and stronger to boot – I’m thinking Easton Carbon Havens which i got to try the other day and oh lord are they good).

The heavier bike with wheels over 1lb lighter is going to feel far quicker.

I think there’s something like £500 between the AM and the Pro, so if it were me I’d be ordering the Pro and speccing something like a pair of Easton Havens, Mavic Crossmax SX or STs depending on how heavy you are.

Hope that helps.

Ragti…how dare you say ‘orange 5”s common as muck…. :evil:
if 7 out of 12 riders flew past you on Orange Fives then theres only one PERFECTLY good reason for that !!!!! :wink: :mrgreen: