Orange's Five29. Finally Released.

You’ll probably have seen photos of the pre-production prototype in our coverage of the Bike Place Show (http://singletrackworld.com/2013/01/orange-five29er/) and in, ahem, other magazines, but this is the first time that a production one has been allowed out of the building at Orange, so we’ve got the first look at it.

Straight-through headtube is lighter than tapered.

New, neat oval grommets.

Decent mud room with chunky tyres.

142mm dropouts (yay!)

A very neat-looking 140mm 29er.

First to feature Orange's new, lighter shock mount (which allows a lighter down tube)

And in complete contrast to any photos you’ve seen of the previous pre-production bike, the Five29 features zero swingarm cable bosses. It’s through the frame or nothing, traditional Orange style…

Look - no stops!

New, lighter rear shock mount too.

The first 50 will be in this 'Black Gold' colourscheme.

Retail price will be £2999.99 and the bikes will be starting to arrive in the next couple of weeks… And when these are all gone, some new models (one upspecced and one d0wnspecced from this one, though neither in this colourscheme) will start to appear…

More details will be on Orange’s website. orangebikes.co.uk

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

Comments (15)

billoddiebilloddie March 11, 2013 at 2:50 pm

That looks bloody long! What is the chainstay length?

teetosugarsteetosugars March 11, 2013 at 3:11 pm

Not a fan of the “John Player Special” colourscheme I’m afraid… 🙁

PacemanPaceman March 11, 2013 at 3:20 pm

I like it apart from the colour.

zbontyzbonty March 11, 2013 at 3:34 pm

I have a cough today and the JPS paint job makes it feel like i’m back on the tabs.

What next? A silk cut white/purple one?

RickosRickos March 11, 2013 at 3:35 pm

Have they kinked the seat tube? Can’t quite tell.

bigrichbigrich March 11, 2013 at 3:56 pm

I think it looks rad. the paint is smokey and the bandit car

eddedd March 11, 2013 at 4:21 pm

“142mm dropouts” – good news, I hope thay are adopted by other Orange models.

MarcMarc March 11, 2013 at 4:43 pm

Two things that I find visually detestable on a bike, Orange swing arms and 29 inch wheels.

Yet I find the combination of both oddly striking.

terrahawkterrahawk March 11, 2013 at 5:28 pm

looks ace. I bet it’ll do 80mph+ down something rocky, no probs 😉

dracdrac March 11, 2013 at 6:18 pm

Loving the colours reminds me of my favourite toy car as a kid. Can you guess what it was?

So I’m willing to do a long term test, say about 10 years.

PatriotPatriot March 11, 2013 at 6:59 pm

Pontiac Firebird Drac?

cheezpleezcheezpleez March 11, 2013 at 8:25 pm

What size frame is that?

billyboybillyboy March 11, 2013 at 9:58 pm

Rule 1. Never buy a bike with internal cable routing unless it has the facility for external cable routing when things go tits up.

lancashire-kiwilancashire-kiwi March 11, 2013 at 10:30 pm

Could not agree more billyboy. Internal cable routing looks good on paper, pain in the arse in reality. What should be a simple job becomes a nightmare and that is just gear cables. The fun is multiplied beyond belief with a Reverb Stealth when it is time for a wee service!

stilltortoisestilltortoise March 12, 2013 at 9:36 am

That’s not a 29er. It’s just one of the teeny tiny Diva frames that they’ve painted five29 on.