I am about to dismantle my trusty old Trance and build up a shiney new Orange 5. This is costing me a pretty penny and I want to sell some bits (old Trance frame etc) to ease the cost.

Should I sell my Rockhopper Disc 07 to pay for a few extras? (maxle rear end, new set of hoops etc)

I figure I can only ride one bike at a time and if I can hang the kids bike traile off the back of the 5 every now and again – everyone is a winner.

go for the maxle if you can, if anything its the most important upgrade. future proofing your frame. and if you want to do it later a new swing arm is big big money.

i did the same thing and stripped and old rocky mountain flow to build a fs. i didnt get that much for the bits and in the end just wished id kept the bike as it was a heap of fun. if id just held out a little longer and saved i could have kept the old bike too. its worth the wait. and the trails are pretty poop just now anyway.

keep your hardtail for the winter months

Hardtail for the winter months? I'm building up an Orange 5 🙂

keep your hardtail for the winter months

He's right, no one should ride a full suss in winter. That's just crazy. In fact don't ride at all. Best to be safe.

The five will be fun even without a Maxle. I'd keep the spare bike too.

I would only HT front spring fork for winter unless I was rich and had the time to service it.

I'm selling my bikes as I have too many otherwise I'd keep one xc one road, one tourer and one hack. Selling my extra roadbike as it never gets used and I need the room.

If you have the time and space for your bikes, keep the frame!

imo maxle is not all that, not the system but having bolt through rear is not that noticeable.

I'm in the same boat as greasy stain. I ride a ss inbred all winter (and most of summer), and just had a trance x arrive today courtesy of the cycle to work scheme.

So now my geared tinbred is suddenly redundant, and could be disposed of to upgrade bothe the inbred (to slot drop scandal frame) and get some decent forks for the trance.

Hmmmmmm….

ERM… NO NO NO NO NO

Ok ok I think I'll probably just go Maxleless and keep the HT. It was just a thought I had while putting the kids to bed.

Thanks for your input guys.

Si you're right on that one.

I've ridden maxle orange and marins back to back and there is no noticeable difference. I have never had a problem with a QR rear.

Most people's spokes aren't tensioned properly, and that causes far more flex than the back axle; certain magazines have made the maxle out to be the holy grail, but a solid built swing arm and correctly built and maintained wheel is more important.

The only way to be sure is to be sell it- 6 months later you'll know if you did the right thing 😉

I've not ridden a 5 with a Maxle rear but if it's anything like it is with forks, it'll be mostly hype. Certainly there was nothing at all wrong with the QR-equipped 5 I rode.

sorry, maxel front end and other large axils make a massive different, I would have though on swing arms like the 5 a maxel again would make an improvement.

"sorry, maxel front end and other large axils make a massive different"

Not on my Revelations they don't, I have one of each and there's a trivial difference.

Definitely keep the HT if you want to ride through next winter.

I've been riding SS hardtail this winter and it has saved me loads of cash and time. It's been great fun too

Saved cash and time on what? Seriously, I just don't get this 'winter bike'. I ride full suss and HT through Scottish winters for years and so far I've managed to survive and it's cost me zip.

Plus, it's a five, they're pretty weatherproof, and cheap and easy to service if/when it eventually needs it.

I understand why people don't want a full suss in winter for maintenance reasons, but is the winter weather that much worse than the summer weather these days?

I ride the same terrain in the winter as summer, so why would I want to compromise the type of bike I'm riding? FS all the way for me and just suck up the maintenance. HT is only used for hack duties.

Sell them all and get a decent hardtail.

I have owned a five for three years and park it up during the winter.The trails i ride need a bit of road work to get to them.My idea is a cold wet wednesday night ride come home chuck hardtail in shed which i don`t really care about its condition.When i was riding my five i was always washing to keep the road salt off the thing.The onkt bad side to keeping things is you need alot of space!!

I tried swapping out the rear of an 08 Marin MT Vision to Maxle last year. Did make a massive difference.
But it did involve swapping out to a chunckier wheel so a bit of difference will be down this this.