Orange Bikes Launches Stage 5 and Stage 6 Bikes

At today’s Bike Place Show, Orange Bikes is launching several new bikes. There are three that will cause people to sit up. One is the Strange prototype e-Bike Alpine Six and the other two are the brand new Orange Stage 5 and Stage 6. Think of them, if you will, as the 29er versions of the Orange Five and the Alpine Six and it rounds out Orange’s 29er range, with the Segment as the 29er trail bike, the Stage Five as the bigger terrain beast and the Stage Six here as the ‘Careful what you wish for’ complete trail steamroller.

Orange Stage 6

We’ve previously said that going from a 26in (at the time) to a 29er was worth 20mm of extra travel, so by that yardstick, the 160/150mm Stage Six should ride somewhere in the region of a 170 or 180mm 26 or 27.5in bike. If you’re not going to show it who’s boss, it might get the better of you. You can even run a 170mm 29er fork if you can find one…

The Stage Five (at the bottom) has 140/135mm of travel front and rear and is still going to be a pretty chunky terrain-swallowing machine.

Orange is building the bikes at the moment and for the time being is only offering the bikes in these hand-picked ‘LE’ – or ‘Launch Edition’ specs. The bike you see here will be £5500. If it looks a little familiar, it’s because Orange showcased ‘Strange’ versions of the bikes at Eurobike to see what the reaction was. We assume that reaction was positive as they’re in production.

How about a video?

Here’s what Orange says:

• Handbuilt in Britain
• 5 year frame warranty
• Unique monocoque aluminium and tubing chassis
• Single pivot suspension for the utmost performance, efficiency and reliability
• 29in tubeless wheelset
• 160mm Front/150mm rear travel
• Fox 36 Factory Kashima 160mm Boost Fork
• Fox Float X2 Factory Rear Shock
• Enduro race honed geometry
• Fox Transfer Factory Kashima 6in Dropper Seatpost
• Increased length toptube and wheelbase coupled to a shorter stem for high-speed stability

The Stage 6 LE is the Launch Edition available in limited numbers. Specced with a high-end Fox Factory suspension package that few can rival. 1×11 speed Shimano drive train and an internally routed dropper post delivers a bike that means business. A brightly coloured Hope Tech/Renthal flavour to the finishing kit tops off this limited package…

Sizes will be Medium, Large and XL and Orange reckons riders down to 5ft 6in can be accommodated.

Orange Stage 5

The Orange Stage 5 is the more all-round and slightly less bonkers bike, though it’ll still be worthy of respect. Designed with enduro racing and extreme terrain riding of all sorts, it features 140/135mm of travel, still with Fox Factory Kashima 36 forks, a Transfer dropper post and a Fox X2 Factory. It’s in no way the poorer cousin of the Stage 6 – it simply has a different amount of travel. Both bikes will retail, in this top-end spec for £5500 as ‘turn-key’ race bikes. Like all of Orange’s suspension bikes, they’re hand-welded in Halifax by burly men with tattoos who know their stuff.

Both bikes should be available within weeks and Orange will be adding demo bikes to its fleet, so if you’re not convinced, then you’ll be able to give one a try. We know plenty of owners of Orange’s Five29 bikes (a bike way ahead of the time it seems) who don’t need convincing.

So… what do you reckon? Is the world ready this time round for some rock-eating 29ers?

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