Ok, ive sold my Freeride bike. I have a budget of £1500. I have found 4 bikes all within my budget of £1500 for a used bike. A 2007 Whyte 46 at £1100 (seems a bargain), a 2007 orange 5 Pro at £1300, a 2007 Nomad at £1400. I have also seen a few enduros at around £1000 (new shape 2007/8 ones)

I ride long xc in the lakes with quite a few trail centre trips. I am knocking the uplifts on the head now (too old!)

Pros and cons? Thoughts? I’m swaying towards the Orange at the moment.

Orange 5 is great in the lakes, I prefer my 456 hardtail for trail centres though.

Orange 5 Pro just won 10/10 in a certain cycling magazine… Robust simplicity is your friend…

I think that if you’ve sold a freeride bike you’ll find the whyte underwhelming.

I rode a whyte 46 for about 4 years in various guises. First was the original one, ’04 was it? Then I snapped that and got a replacement ’05 or ’06 one which I rode until last year. At the start of ’08 I think I replaced the Mavericks with Pikes.

For context in that time I varied between 12stone and 14stone. Rode most stuff, trail centres, natural and DH (on my STD, not the 46).

My thoughts: It’s a good bike, not the POS that a lot of people imply. It’s light and flexy though if you push it hard. The Mavericks were very flexy in some conditions and the bike was a load better with the Pikes. The Big Gripper is a piece of bicycle crime, it doesn’t grip and I snapped several rear axels which I blame it for.

I’ve tested a Nomad and I thought it was a great bike but maybe a bit big for your likes?? Not tested the Orange 5 but a mate just bought one and seems to love it. What about the prevous generation Enduro??

I ride a Hustler now and totally love it. A mini DH bike compared to the Whyte!

all good bikes on the list there, but be wary of the spesh own brand shocks and forks, one of my riding buddies has had his in for repair almost as much as he has had in on the trail! I can recomend the nomad , i do similar riding on mine and it is way more capable than me, and if you ever get a hankering for an uplift and a bit of light freeride again it is more than enough bike to cope.

As above all good. Don’t worry about the problems with the enduro fork, I find it better than the 09 Talas36RC2 I had. Reliabilty is sorted now, makes for a great al rounder. TBH can’t go wrong with any of those. I think the Nomad is a great price if it’s not too abused.