Lachlan Blair is one of the fastest young riders of the newly reformed Orange Factory Racing Team. For this season he is racing a team spec Orange Stage 6 and in this bike check we’ll be seeing what makes it tick!
Lachlan, at 175cm, is racing a size medium Orange Stage 6 for the EWS. Painted ‘Smoke White’ this team spec bike is the same single pivot, UK made bike you can purchase from Orange yourself!
Orange is running suspension from Italian brand Formula. On the rear, the single-pivot bike runs the Mod Shock with a 500lbs spring. The coil theme continues upfront with the Selva C fork fitted with a firm spring. Formula suspension also uses the very clever CTS system, that allows riders to fine-tune the damping from race to race by simply removing the stack and fitting a different colour-coded unit. This 29er runs a set of E13 alloy wheels wrapped in excellent Michelin Wild Enduro Competition tyres. Andi tested these tyres earlier in the year and won’t stop raving about them, they’re that good.
Orange has teamed up with a bunch of OE suppliers to build a race bike that uses many of the same parts as off-the-shelf Orange bikes. For the cockpit Lachlan uses Burgtec carbon bars cut down to 750mm with an orange Burgtec stem. The rear wheel is also held in place by a Burgtec axle. Not seen in the photo, is the hidden Granite Design Stash tool, located in the steerer.A 170mm SDG Tellis dropper keeps the saddle out of the way for playtime, while the ultra-comfortable SDG Bel Air Mk3 saddle is the team’s perch of choice for in saddle duty.
Sure this team spec bike looks great, but how does it ride? Check it out in action in the Orange Factory Racing official team video below;
Andi is a gadget guru and mountain biker who has lived and ridden bikes in China and Spain before settling down in the Peak District to become Singletrack's social media expert. He is definitely more big travel fun than XC sufferer but his bike collection does include some rare hardtails - He's a collector and curator as well as a rider. Theory and practice in perfect balance with his inner chi, or something. As well as living life based on what he last read in a fortune cookie Andi likes nothing better than riding big travel bikes.
I bought an Orange Stage 5. I demoed one expecting it to poor due to all the forum comments.
However it was great fun on the descents. Climbed well and surprisingly light compared to how it looked. With big 36 fox forks it came in at 14kg with pedals.
Climbs well. I use mine as a trail bike and as a one bike to fo it all it’s great. On Forest of Dean launch pad it was amazing. Very confidence inspiring. No weird foibles. Front end grip is nuts. Jumps well, and it’s a lively fun bike. Always fancied one and glad I got one.
mashr – Yep that was my thought. Maybe Lachlan likes a crazy high bar height. If he doesn’t then all those spacers, a high rise bar and a 50mm stem mean that the stack and the reach needs to be longer. Extend the headtube, top tube and down tube a bit and you end up with the same bar position with less spacers, a shorter stem and a lower rise bar. Whether that’s better or not is debatable.
An appropriate backdrop…
There’s still something about Orange’s that appeal to me.
very good that. deep down i long for a orange too.
I have been on mates, they do really well downhill. Just never climbed one. Anyone have any climb time on it?
I bought an Orange Stage 5. I demoed one expecting it to poor due to all the forum comments.
However it was great fun on the descents. Climbed well and surprisingly light compared to how it looked. With big 36 fox forks it came in at 14kg with pedals.
Climbs well. I use mine as a trail bike and as a one bike to fo it all it’s great. On Forest of Dean launch pad it was amazing. Very confidence inspiring. No weird foibles. Front end grip is nuts. Jumps well, and it’s a lively fun bike. Always fancied one and glad I got one.
Are we going to pretend that massive stack of spacers for a 1.75m rider isn’t happening?
mashr – Yep that was my thought. Maybe Lachlan likes a crazy high bar height. If he doesn’t then all those spacers, a high rise bar and a 50mm stem mean that the stack and the reach needs to be longer. Extend the headtube, top tube and down tube a bit and you end up with the same bar position with less spacers, a shorter stem and a lower rise bar. Whether that’s better or not is debatable.