So I’ve finally succumbed to the marketing hype and bought into this new fangled 27.5in wheel thingy. In doing so I’ve realised that I don’t have a clue about half the new stuff on it!

I’m the very proud owner of a new Orange Four SC spec and I was just wondering if you folks could clear up a few things for me.

I’ve never ridden tubeless, but don’t actually know if I am now. How do I tell without waiting for a puncture? What do I need if I do puncture? What does the lever on the SLX rear mech do? I’ve now got a 30t single front ring and a 10sp rear cassette with a hilarious 40t cog! Will this give me the same gear range as I had with my old triple chainring and 32t cassette? I’m not even going to start on the settings for the Monarch Debonair rear shock or the Pike fork unless someone can point me in the direction of user manuals? I could only find service ones!

Cheers for any help, I should point out that although I’ve got the bike, I can’t quitr ride it yet as I’m slowly recovering from a serious injury. I just want to have everything sorted, and be able to talk the talk, once I do manage to get out on it!

Cheers, Beagy

What does the lever on the SLX rear mech do?

It’ll be for the clutch mechanism, which means the mech stops the chain flapping about (as much). You need the ‘off’ position for when you need to take the wheel out.

Can’t help with any of the rest!

You’ll have a higher bottom gear than with your previous 3x setup
Let a tyre down and have a look to see if there is a tube in there

Id imagine you have tubes fitted. Rarely a new bike will come set up tubeless nless you ask the shop to do it for you. Lever is the mech clutch as above post.
Gear range no idea what your previous ratios were. Just ride it and see.

As above but did the bike arrive in the post? If not it’s all stuff the bike shop should have explained to you (or you should have asked) if not go back and get them to run through it and set you up.

Punctures, standard puncture kit.

If you go tubeless, a tubeless repair kit (always the first choice as a puncture is fixed in seconds and no need to even get the pump out if you catch it quick) along with a slime’d spare tube (as there will be multiple thorns to find that the tubeless sealant has previously sealed and you probably won’t find them all)

Hi Mike, it was assembled by a bike shop, as it was pretty much a custom build. The wheels came pre-built with the tyres already on and inflated. The guy in the shop suggested that they most likely had tubes in them, but he also said I’d find the tubeless valves in the box of extras (reflectors,bell, fork ‘tokens’, a rather nice Orange branded drybag that’ll get well used thank you, and other bits ‘n’ bobs) that he handed over to me. The valves weren’t there so I was just wondering if there was an easy way to tell, or if anyone new whether Orange sent their …Hope Pro 4 in Orange + Alex Volar 2.5 with Maxxis Minion DHF 3C Exo TR/High Roller II Exo TR… combos out tubeless ready or tubeless.

Like I said earlier, I’ve never ridden tubeless. Partly because of the horror of watching an old riding partner’s (and early adherent to tubeless) tyre roll off the rim and ditch him down a gully, and partly due to the horror stories of trying to seat and inflate the tyres! 😯

The lever clutch thing is handy to know, cheers! So it’s meant to stay in the ‘on’ position all the time and only switched off when I remove the wheel. I shall try to remember that…. there’s probably going to be tears at some point though.

I’ll just trawl through the internet for the rest of the stuff I suppose. Whatever happened to nice handy shock and fork manuals though? I don’t really want to know how to disassemble the things quite yet. I just want to know if I should be fiddling with that red lever and what that blue knob does!

Cheers again!

Beagy

Give the wheel a shake – you should here some fluid slopping round inside.

You could try undoing the little knurled collar on the valve stem a bit, and then try pushing the valve into the rim. If it lets air out it’s tubeless. Heal soon and enjoy you new bike.

Forks and shock will be easier to set up once your riding again. My Orange came with a shock full of reducers and no tokens in the fork. I’ve played about with and changed both alot to get it somewhere near how I like, lots of threads about set up but all comes down to personal preference.

Tyres are probably not tubeless, but just let the air out and check. No you wan’t have the same range of gears, but you’ll probably get up most things you did before. The clutch keeps the chain taught and stops it clattering about and keeps it on the chain-ring.

As for the shocks, they’ve got the sag settings printed on them, start the rear at 30% and the fork at 20%, and the shock wants to have a bit more rebound damping than the forks. There’s plenty of you tube videos about setting suspension.

Prick the tyre with a pin. If it deflates then you have tubes, if it spits a bit and seals itself your tubeless.

I’d be finding a better bike shop if they just handed the bike over without at least asking if you needed to go through the set up of shocks etc or were you too embarrassed to ask? If not it’s a pretty poor show by the shop

Poor service from the shop by the sounds of it. I always ask customers in the LBS I work in if there is anything at all they’re not sure on, no matter who silly a question it may be. They should also have roughly set up the suspension for you, anything after that is experimentation. Wheels will have tubes in, no new bike will be setup tubeless unless the shop specifically does so. A bike could be sat in a warehouse for months, by which time any sealant will dry out.

Thanks Rocket, but I didn’t ask because I was embarrassed. I’m quite grown up that way. 😉 I simply made the mistake of assuming that all the information I needed was in the sealed box that came with the bike.

I assumed there’d be a manual for the shock and fork that’d explain all the available adjustments, settings, recommended pressures etc. That’s what came with my last Orange.

I have been riding mountain bikes for quite some time, I just don’t really keep up with the latest fashion trends. My old Five, the one previous to it, the Patriot before it and the list of Oranges, Treks and whocanrememberthatfarback’s that I’ve owned have all worked long past their recommended retirement dates so it’s only now that I’m coming face to face with tech that you guys have been riding with for a good many years now.

The guy in the shop was very helpful and I’m sure will be more than willing to help if I ask. The fault was mine for not really listening as he went through everything as I assumed the information would either be in the box of stuff he gave me, or easily found on the SRAM website. Alongside that, was my foolish assumption that with 25+ years of mountain biking under my rather ample belt, I’d be able to wing it with the setup! Alas, it’s like my first day in the job at my lab. I’m completely overwhelmed by TLA’s! 😆

Oh, and I tried the trick of pushing the valve in and no air escaped, so there’s certainly inner tubes fitted, hopefully then I won’t die on my first rocky descent! 😆

Cheers again for the help. I’ve pumped up the fork and shock for my weight (the shock is a ticking time bomb at that pressure though! ), and will play with all the twiddly bits on them once I’m out on the trail! 🙂

and will play with all the twiddly bits on them once I’m out on the trail!

Is probably your best bet! Stuff hasn’t changed that much, and your experience will see you right don’t worry. there’s just more stuff to adjust to get your set-up spot on. just record your settings! (but you knew that already, right? )

Trek bike come with a CD Rom these days instead of a manual, other brands you can download similar from their websites, might be worth checking the Orange website for this?

no new bike will be setup tubeless unless the shop specifically does so

Unless it’s a bird 😉

Enough plugging though, if you can be bothered this will help you understand your forks and shock a bit more http://www.birdmtb.com/rockshox-suspension-theory/

Give your shock a few good bounces then check the pressure again too. Can sometimes take a bit to get the pressures to settle and equal out.

Wheels will have tubes in, no new bike will be setup tubeless unless the shop specifically does so. A bike could be sat in a warehouse for months, by which time any sealant will dry out.

My last bike was. UST rims and tyres so no sealant required though.

Also, the bike I have just ordered specifies the sealant in the specifications. So I assume that will come tubeless.