Should take at least 2.35 with room to spare. I had kenda small block 8s on mine which are fairly generous in their sizing.

Give orange a call they'll know..

For this time of year you want a skinny set of muds - bounty mud x is my fave.

Hi mate. Firstly, great choice for a retro bike - you've really caught the five well in its immature teen stage.

I agree with CS, a 2.35 should be ideal as long as you aren't riding in sticky clay followed by grit - that could cause problems.

Re tyres, you're gonna need some chunky ones on a 26inch these days, they don't grip the trails anywhere near as well as they should which is largely why they are redundant as a wheel size IMHO. I reckon two Minion front tyres (sounds mad I know but the grip is great), or some Schwalbe Dirty Dans. TBH anything as knobbly as those two will give you the bite you need.

Nice choice..

I have a 2006 five with some Schwalbe Alberts, 26x2.35. Pretty wide with some room to spare. Can take a tyre clearance shot tomorrow if you like!
Dan

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EDIT -( I'm not seeing the edit button for some reason), but just to add, I wouldn't recommend the alberts on dry or slippy rocky trails, the knobbles are a bit far apart, very little contact on rock surfaces etc, have found them great in the mud though!

[b]dan86[/b] Nice build mate, that colour looks quality .

chaps - how do you know they're 2006 (from someone with one of possibly 4/5/6 vintage) is there a feature I can use to work it out ?

ta

The rounding on the reader swingarm towards the front and the straight top tube put the bike 03-06 ish I think. From 07 they bent the top tube. HA is 70 on that bike with a max 140 fork.

I had a 00 sub five, then a 2006 Five. The earlier 5s had a squarer swingarm without machined dropouts iirc. They were the noticeable changes. After that every year or so they tweeked the geometry and shaved off a bit of weight.

Then after 07 they started going the other way, focusing on strength and making the bike more gnar-core

Thanks for all the great responses you lot. I'm liking the Schwalbe Alberts and the Maxxis Minions

dan86 - Love your build! Great colour. Although I couldn't not get an orange Orange 🙂

I went for the o6 Five as i don't like the bent top tube on later models.

All I have left to do now is buy a set of DMR Vault pedals and maybe a Renthal fatboy bar?

Off topic but Orange Fives used to look cool with that straight crossbar ?

Thanks cogitoergosum and benzjammin! Agreed on the top tubes! Heres a clearance pic with the 2.35 Schwalbes. Clearance was fine this summer in the dry, but possibly a problem in thick mud..

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