Hi All,

Some late night, wine fuelled ebaying resulted in me “winning” an Orange 5 frame from 2006 (straight top tube and steeper geometry than current models). I’m thinking of building it up for the winter (to save all those pivots on my Trance frame and just to see what it’s like). So, the first question is what forks to put on it?

I’m assuming that I can’t use my Fox F125RL forks from the Trance as these have the “new standard” overdrive 2 with a taper from 1 and 1/2″ to 1 an 1/4″, which presumably wont fit in the 1 and 1/8″ head tube on the Orange.

I would quite like to use my existing wheels though, but the front has a 15mm Fox QR.

Cheers,

Andy

I’ve got a 2005 Orange five, so practically the same as yours and i have U-Tirn Pikes on it. wind them down to 120mm for ups and whck em up to 140mm for downs. It’s great bike and willhandle pretty much anything you throw at it. Have fun.

[/url][/img]

I had 140mm 2007 Fox Floats on my 2006 from new. Sold it to my friend and he used 2010 150mm RS Revs. From memory they came with 130mm as standard.

Thanks. The Pikes look interesting, but use a 20mm axle so I guess they wont work with my 15mm QR wheels. I guess I need to stick with Fox and look for 130mm or 140mm travel.

Cheers,

Andy

Mrs S has a 2006 with 130’s. That’s probably the optimal. I dont think I would go above 140. The geometry on the older bikes are not set up for the bigger forks.
You used to be able to find all the archive specs for this stuff hidden on the Orange site but not any more it seems.

These are from the 2005 catalog for any one thats interested. It was rated from 120mm – 150mm but sold with 130mm forks.

[/url][/img]

[/url][/img]

Got 140mm fox vanillas on mine, work great.

as a blag (apologies OP) does anybody know ditto for 2004 model – which I think came with 100s – can you put 120s on – as Orange do seem to have thinned down their website

I’ve got the 2006 one, it’s got Fox Float RLC 130mm ordinary drop out forks on. It’s a fantastic bike. Not that I’m in any way biased!

Thanks (and blag away). If 130mm is ideal then it’s even more tempting to see if there is any way to use my existing 125mm Fox forks from my Trance. I’ve heard about external bottom cups (Hope?) that will take the 1.5″ bottom end and even though the top of the steerer is 1.25″ rather than 1.125″ I understand that Giant use a “standard” head tube size at the top and just incorporate a thinner bearing. So I wonder if there is any way to make this work.

Cheers,

Andy

I’m sorry I can’t help with your compatability question, TF Tuned do secondhand/recon forks. I would ‘trust’ them (not sure I would trust forks I bought secondhand from the internet).

Andy, I’ve recently sold my 2010 Orange 5 frame and have pretty much everything off it available for sale if you need any bits to build up your frame? Just let me know if you are interested…

2010 RockShox Revelation Race forks (150mm 1 1/8, 20mm maxle), Hope ProII on xc717 wheels, xt gearing, Thomson stem/seatpost etc.

Cheers

Rich

I had an 5 of the same year and tried 3 different fork lengths to try and make it handle,together with 2 different rear shocks.
With 150 forks it was pretty dreadful on the descents when cornering as there was no feel at all from the front end.Went down to 120’s which felt better but i was never convinced about the angles on the bike.
The original rear shock,Manitou X2 i think,was the worst shock i have ever had.Tried a Manitou Swinger which worked far better but just wouldn’t hold its air.
Stuck with the bike for a year but was deeply unimpressed so i was glad to get rid.

Untitled by jambo-uk, on Flickr

160 Uturn lyrics.

Run them at 140 most of the time though.

It’s the strange variant with the length of an 18″, standover of a 16″, and a shorter swing arm. It rocks.

Now that’s the sort of condition I’d expect my winter bike to be in 🙂

My frame came with an RP23 shock, if that makes any difference. Sounds as though 130 or 140 would be ideal and I’d really like to use my existing wheels, so I’m afraid those 20mm Maxle forks wont work TheGingerOne. Thanks for the offer though.

Funny how some people love these bikes and some hate them, but I guess that’s probably true for most bikes. There must be somebody who hates a Trance, I’ve just never heard from them 🙂

Cheers,

Andy

gusamc – Try this ->

http://web.archive.org/web/20040611235112/http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/2004bikes/bikes.php?bike=five

(Very useful tool for browsing the Orange Bikes website!)

cheers xiphon – haven’t seen that page for a while

I’ll assume that 100-120 are ok, 100 on Pro, 120 on base 5 as sold by Orange.

Having said that ole trusty is still running well, but did scratch stanchions in mega leave/grass/mudfest couple of weekends ago.

I don’t think you can use anything but a 1 1/8th straight steerer on the fives before the tapered steerer.

What wheels do you have? if they are pro 2’s you can convert them to 15mm, 20mm or qr.

The correct answer is Pikes. Or at least that was what I stuck on a 2005 Five and a 2006 Five Diva. Suits the bike’s character.

Front Hub is a Giant own brand thing (which is why I’m not too fussed about subjecting it to the winter). So, I guess the only forks that will work with these are Fox. Gotta love all these “standards”.

Cheers,

Andy

Not really relevant to the OP, but do much prefer the look of the older 5s before they put that ugly kink in the top tube to improve stand-over.