I’ve had my Four for a couple of months now but I am still getting a cracking sound when first using it. I’m fairly sure it’s coming from the bearings and goes after a bit of use. Looking on the Orange website it does talk of new bearings cracking when settling in, I haven’t used the bike much, maybe 30 miles or so, how long should bearings take to settle in? Could it be something else? Also Orange don’t specify any torque settings for the pivot bolts, only to tighten them, how tight should they be as I did have to tighten one which was a little loose? Cheers, Trevor.

Since they got rid of the horiz hold pinch bolt with spacer design this is a fairly common issue.
The bolts should be torqued to a mere 12 nm using some mild to med locctite on the bolts.
The creacking will be the stock bearings they are pretty dry out the factory.
Buying a pr of hope ones from wiggle and youll get a couple of years out of them instead.
Buy the bearing tool from orange for 35 notes its simply a fantastic tool and makes it a doddle.
Old style horiz hold requires no special tools but the new ones inc the 4 do

Cheers. Wouldn’t expect to have to change the bearings on a new bike straight away, not a cheap bike at that!

Just had another look on the Orange website and on the ‘replacing the bearings’ instructions they state 14nm.

they may of upped the nm 2 if there having issues
contact orange re bearings they will post 2 out to you just pack them with a good quality grease .juice lubes is a good waterproof version .
yes its a bummer but in Yorkshire I can kill a full 12 bearings on a linkage bike and that gets painful

also worth joining the unofficial orange fans facebook page as it has some helpful info on there ,I tend to stay clear of it as there is some shall we say interesting people on there but its good for research if you get stuck .

It’s a good resource that Facebook page, but there is a load of rubbish on there too. They get very defensive over the frame cracking issues orange seem to be having currently

I’ve a Four – no creaking but I’ve read locktite the thread and re regrease helps.

As for the FB group – if Orange sold shit on a stick a lot of them would buy it lol.

I thought Orange had fixed their cracking issues, or have they just always had them?

My A160’s bearings are nearing three years of use and started creaking. They’re still covered by the bearing warranty but I couldn’t be bothered going back to LBS to have it sorted as without the shock on the bearings seemed smooth and no sideways play at all. I took the seals off and cleaned them out a bit (there was a bit of muck in there and not much grease) and re-packed them with fresh grease. They’ve been fine since. Wish I’d known how easy it was to do that earlier.

Just before I did that my 2013 Five had a knocking from the rear and it was pivot bearing play. As it was the old type they were really easy to remove without taking the bike apart at all. The old ones were totally seized! New ones re-packed and fitted. There was next to no grease from the factory in the new bearings. If I get my hands near a bearing I re-pack it now! Did all the BB bearings I could find and they’ve all been much better since. An old Hope BB was revived from the spares box and into service by simply re-packing it 🙂

Wishing the Alpine had the same system but can’t grumble. I only got a few months out of a 12 bearing linkage bike before I got an Orange 😉

I’m might expire the A160’s bearings this winter before the warranty runs out. I think it’ll be good going though! I’ve ridden it pretty hard and in all conditions. I never hose wash it though.

Was out last night… still a superb ride up and down despite it’s old fashioned wheels.

Wish I had read about the issues with ‘cracking’ bearings before buying one! Why do Orange rarely reply to visitor posts on their Facebook page?

Every bike make has ‘cracking’ issues and Orange have very low frame failure rates. It’s how the manufacturer deals with it that counts and Orange are reportedly great with it.

How did this thread change from ‘creaking’ bearings into ‘cracking’ frames anyhow?

The chances of you having a frame that cracks from Orange are low enough not to worry about it and that’s what the Five year frame warranty is there for.

I’d buy a second hand Orange before I ever bought a second hand carbon frame bike – 100%. I did. My Five has been amazing as a second bike.

3500km+ on the Alpine and 2500km+ on the Five by me. Awesome bikes. Extremely reliable. Extremely fun.

I think the sound is the bearings creaking but it sounds like a crack when eminating through the frame. Don’t think there’s anything wrong with the frame.

Why do Orange rarely reply to visitor posts on their Facebook page?

thorpie – have you tried referencing your query to their twitter account? That worked for me, when I had a query re: mech hangers.

Cracking has become more of an issue with the later models it seems…hell there has even been a separate group setup on Facebook ‘orange cracked frames’

I’m a life long orange fan and never had a cracked frame myself, but I had a problem and they were woeful in how they handled it! They still to this date have not replied to my last contact email…every time I emailed I had to follow up with a call 2 days later. Shame!