It’s Friday, the sun is shining and we’re in the middle of a cold, crisp day. After grey months behind, it’s looking good for the weekend…
Orange Five Diva Pro
The Orange Five has been an incredibly popular trail bike for the past couple of years, with heritage dating back even longer. This is the Diva model; as the name suggests it’s meant for smaller sized women, with an extra small 14″ seattube for masses of standover and two top-tube lengths available. It’s refreshingly free from twee colours and flowery detail, being finished in the subtly sparkly ‘white cherry’ paint.
The Reynolds 6061 T6 aluminium monocoque swingarm and downtube are matched to butted top and seat tubes, with an integrated 1.125-1.5″ taper headtube. Travel is still 140mm front and rear, though you can put up to 160mm forks at the front.
Price: £2,799.99 as seen or £1,399.99 frame only.
From: Orange Bikes
The frame comes with a FOX Evolution RL shock as standard and a QR back end but you can upgrade to a Maxle thru axle and Fox RP23 Kashima or Cane Creek Double Barrel coilover depending on how hard you’ll be going.
The bike is finished with a mix of 10spd Shimano XT and SL with a Raceface crankset and finishing kit. On the Pro build the forks are 140mm travel Fox 32 FIT RLs with 15QR axle to keep everything pointing in the right direction. Brakes and hubs are courtesy of fellow UK manufacturers Hope, although the list of upgrades you can have fitted at the factory is almost endless.
Maxxis Roleur and Re-fuse 700c tyres
Seeing as spring, the season of good training intentions, is almost upon us, the lovely Andy from One Industries sent us a care package of rubber wide and thin. While Maxxis might be well known for their range of spiky and soft tyres, they also do plenty of skinny road and commuter options.
The Rouler, seen here in a fetching pink, is ideal for spring road riding, with a 23c dual compound 72a/62a tread with file-like grips on the shoulder and smooth centre. The 120 tpi casing uses ‘Silkworm’ technology to offer puncture protection and it comes in an additional seven colours, thankfully including black if you don’t want to be chased from less inclusive pelotons.
Price: £36.99
From: One Industries
The yellow Re-Fuse road tyre is a single 62a compound with light tread all over, aimed at winter or commuting duties. We’ve got the 700 x 23c model in but you can get them in 23c, 25c and 28c flavours. The 23c comes in a staggering 10 colours too, but you’ll have to make do with black in the other sizes.
Price: £29.99
From: One Industries
Maxxis Beaver and Ikon
Back to a more healthy rubber fetish now, with the new 26″ version of the Beaver 2.0″ (stop sniggering) mud tyre. We’ve tested the big version and got on well with it, the widely spaced siped knobs hooking up well in the dirt. The Ikon 2.2″ is a super fast rolling XC tyre, ideal for the thin coating of dust we expect to see across the nation in a month or two.
We’ve got the 60a/70a dual compound folding versions, with 60tpi casings and Kevlar bead but they’re available in a host of other styles, the wire bead versions in particular offering good value at £23.99…
Price: £32.99
From: One Industries
Maxxis High Roller II
The High Roller 2 is an evolution on the original classic DH tyre, with added sipes and redesigned centre and shoulder knobs to provide more stable cornering and better wet weather performance. We’ve for the DH specific dual ply version in the gloriously grippy Super Tacky 42a compound. They’re also available in dual ply with 60a or triple compound or a mid weight EXO sidewall 60a version, all in a 2.4″ width.
Price: £47.99, Dual Ply 42a
From: One Industries
Maxxis Maxxlite 29
At a rather impressive 350g for a 29×2.0″ tyre, Maxxis say these are the lightest big wheel tyres on the planet. They come in a dual 62a/60a compound and 170tpi casing with the Silkworm breaker from the top end road tyres to reduce you chances of puncturing. While the low profile tread won’t be much cop in mud, they’re not designed for that, instead being pitched at people who want to go brutally fast on the race track come summer…
Price: £79.99
From: One Industries
Elite Custom Race cage & Jossa waterbottle
If you’re diametrically opposed to carrying water on your back, then here we have the solution: Elite’s tough resin cage (as used by more than half the TdF field apparently) with rubber tensioner to grip your liquid carrier – in this case a special 500ml Coca-Cola branded Jossa plastic bottle with silicon valve and cover to keep it clean. Suggestion: let your fizzy pop of choice go flat before putting it in and riding or you’ll be blinded by sugar then stung to death by wasps.
Price: £9.99 each
From: Madison
Elite O3one Endurance Protect cream
Designed to be nice and thick to stay put on long rides and with the gentle, refreshing tingle of menthol, this chammy cream has anti bacterial properties to help prevent sores and infections and heal small cuts and abrasion. We’ve got some fun sized samples to try out – remember: friends don’t double dip friend’s chammy cream.
Price: £17.99 for 150ml tub
From: Madison
Continental Mud King DH
Probably the most voluminous 2.3″ tyre we’ve seen for some time, the Mud King is part of Conti’s revamped tyre line and we’ve heard good things. It’s part of the range developed with the help of the Atherton racing family, using a reinforced Apex sidewall and the magical properties of Black Chili rubber, which apparently manages to be super soft and also hardwearing. The widely spaced tread should clear much and hook up nicely in the filth that’s currently coating the trails…
Price: £54.99
From: Continental UK
Bionicon Marmelade
A little something Chipps picked up at Core Bike – no, not all the free shampoos and a dressing gown from the hotel – but some tasty marmalade courtesy of Roger at Bionicon. It’ll transform dull toast into a delicious snack for any time of day…
Price: Priceless
From: Bionicon
Squirt Devil Degreaser, Bike Cleaner and Long Lasting Chain Lube
The waxy, flaky, self-cleaning formula of Squirt’s Dry Lube seems to be growing in popularity in the office – at least with the people can can be bothered to clean their chains properly before applying it. Happily, they’ve sent over some of their new bike cleaner and degreaser so even the slackest can give it a try…
Price: £7.99 for 120ml Dry Lube, £TBC for Degreaser and Bike Cleaner
From: In2Dust
Cannondale Ryker helmet
Cannondale have just launched a full range of helmets for 2012 and this is the Ryker, which uses an in-moulded shell with ‘SI alloy exoskeleton cage reinforcements combine with internal roll cage’ which they say gives it best-in-class ventilation. The fit is adjusted using a dial at the back and there’s a full complement of wicking pads and some nice feeling soft webbing straps.
Price: £TBC
From: Cycling Sports Group
Cannondale Radius
The Radius is the slightly cheaper brother to the Ryker, using the same adjuster dial fit system and an in-moulded shell but without quite the same level of venting and low weight.
Price: £TBC
From: Cycling Sports Group
Comments (12)
Comments Closed
(ahem)… £80 for a tyre !!!
Heck, £55 for a tyre? When I were a lad £30 was a lot of money for a tyre.
Paceman – seen the price for a Maxxis Maxxlite 285? These are practically a bargain!
Ooh, Mud Kings…
£30 is a lot for a tyre I reckon!
Crazy tyre money for your average rider.
is that really £80 a boot or £80 a pair or a typo?
Good tyres make a great bike amazing. It’s like trying to go climbing in walking boots and then wearing a proper pair of stickies. in fact i’d go as far as saying that If I was in a shop and I had a choice of two bikes with different spec options but essentially the same frame and forks , I’d go for a lower spec and upgrade the tyres with the difference in cost .
Why such a high front end on the Orange if it’s for small women?!
since when was a 510mm ac fork considered high?
I have a set of the 26″ Maxxlites in the garage – used for one lap of Catton Park in the dry and never again… Narrow, small volume, zero grip and just terrifying. I use Schwalbe Furious Fred regularly and those are fine – the complete lack of edge knobbles on the Maxxlite is the problem I think.
What an odd time of year for Squirt to be trying to sell their patented mud glue.