have an orange and I take it to big mountains and nothing else
Ride a HT the reest of the time and SS in winter
I have just the one bike (a Five with coil front and rear) and so I use it for everything. It also has supertackies on so not the lightest build but it suits the type of riding I do round Halifax. If I do longer type rides, yes it will be compromised, but I just put up with the fact that it will be a little harder on the climbs than a lighter build. I've built it for the type of riding I do/enjoy the most. 😀
Cheers for the opinions, its been an interesting read as always!
I think I'm going to get on with enjoying my hardtail down here in the south and just think of my five as a bike for things when I go away.
Although, saying that I have been looking at Giant Trances, they sound good...
A Transition Double sounds a bit like what you're after
I would love to have a go on a tr double, looking at it I'm just not sure it would be as fun after dragging up the nth hill as it was after the first.
The tr Bandit looks great to though.
daveagiles - Member
International Richard think you have hit it on the head, what did you get when you sold your five?
Sold the bike 2nd hand to a friend for £1850 after 6 or so months, twas an Orange 5am. I've been on 2 decent cycling holidays, done quite a bit of gnarly stuff too but i'm talking over 10 years.
My bread and butter is a sterile trail centre! Why? cos i've got work, kids and wife with all the joys that come with running them to football practice, homework, overtime and of course some gentle love making. I probably go where my orange 5am would be appropriate about once, twice per year... sad but true
Ride bigger stuff I did an uplift day @ cwmcarn downhill and five coped fairly well, never really missed a beat after 11runs, I was trying to keep up with my mate who races dh on his new foes. Not a chuffin hope really but did overtake some geezer on a trek session. Mwahhh hhhah hhaaaaa.
A 120mm carbon full sus will allow you to really attack technical xc, whilst still be light enough for xc. Especially if you go for carbon, better power trnsfer, stiffer, lighter. Oh yeah. Much faster and more fun than a hardtail on proper trails.
But....to the guys saying a five is dull anywhere but the alps or fort Bill, seriously, drive somewhere. And ride faster. Much much faster.
Love my Five on the right trail. However my iOID gets far more use. It's so much more fun to ride on twisty single track.
Horses for courses and all that.....
blue pig.fast, simple and fun on the downs, but get loose and it gives you a good kicking without throwing you off.
perfect for me. best bike i've owned for exactly the reason you mention. got bored on FS.
That's good to hear. I might be getting one as I'm bored with my FS bike.
I ride an 08 Trance x2 with a Pike and really like it...but got the feeling my technique was getting mushy so built up a Dialled PA rigid 69er and also really like that. I committed to the PA exclusively for a while and was noticeably sharper when I came back to the Trance.
I fear a Trance may bore you too, they work very well! Try putting a rigid fork in your Virsa (26" or 29") it's odd, but not bad.
Theres far more gnarlier places in Scotland than fort flippin william!
Too true....
If you rode at places like coed-y-brenin then you wouldn't last two minutes on a hardtail! I've started riding the black routes and tbh I don't think you'd get around it on a hardtail without pushing sections. My five is a fabulous bike which gives me the confidence to ride such aggressive terrain. 8)
I miss my inbred for its constant I'm going to die any minute feeling - the five Is far better but a different ride, I can push the boundaries much further now. I'm less mince and more mincecorre on the five. That said I'm off to Wales in a mo and fully expect to eat my words and feel the I'm going to die any minute feeling :/
Sold my Ventana FS last year, trails are much more fun on a rigid clown wheeler. Trying a mates FS the other week confirmed my decision. Loving my riding again, & getting something out of it that I last got pre FS days.
I'd still love a Five though. 🙂
If you rode at places like coed-y-brenin then you wouldn't last two minutes on a hardtail! I've started riding the black routes and tbh I don't think you'd get around it on a hardtail without pushing sections. My five is a fabulous bike which gives me the confidence to ride such aggressive terrain.
I've ridden those on everything from a unicycle, through a rigid singlespeed to a big-hit & they're all fun, all rideable, just different.
Try and get spesh camber on a demo it rides like a hardtail but has the give when the going gets rough i always ride hardtails as neve rode a fs that exited me but the camber is the closest iv come.
If you rode at places like coed-y-brenin then you wouldn't last two minutes on a hardtail! I've started riding the black routes and tbh I don't think you'd get around it on a hardtail without pushing sections. My five is a fabulous bike which gives me the confidence to ride such aggressive terrain
I do hope that was supposed to be tongue in cheek.
Although, saying that I have been looking at Giant Trances, they sound good...
They are good and very efficient so if you find your 5 boring I'd imagine you would find the Trance boringer? Personally I'd just go for a hardtail rather than a shorter travel FS bike. I think if you're going to have full suspension you may as well have loads of it or none at all but that's just me.
if you rode at places like coed-y-brenin then you wouldn't last two minutes on a hardtail! I've started riding the black routes and tbh I don't think you'd get around it on a hardtail without pushing sections. My five is a fabulous bike which gives me the confidence to ride such aggressive terrain
STW Troll Of The Week.
Any one that rides coed-y-brenin on a hardtail must be some sort of riding god 😉
ha ha!
next!
Transition bandit, Whyte T120, Yeti ASR5, Trek EX8, Santa Cruz Nickel. Loads of full suss bikes that have less travel, more pop and still strong enough to handle Alpine/Scottish/Lakes/Dutch cycle paths. Unless you are doing 10ft drops and huge doubles it's still just trail riding surely?
It sounds like there's no need to get the 'hardcore' short travel, as you're not hitting stuff hard enough to warrent it (please don't take this wrongly, even orange reckon that most people on a 5 should be on an ST4)
A friend and myself often ride together around the southwest. He's got a 5, I've got an Anthem x1. We swap bikes every so often, and find that the 5 really does need something pretty hairy to become fun (and by hairy I mean something far more difficult than I've found at a trail centre), however, when you're pushing, it really is a huge amount of fun. The Anthem is better for all day riding generally, as in it'll climb better, be less effort to ride along the flat and be [i]almost[/i] as much fun on the decents, but you've got to get the line right as it'll bite when you try to plough through/over everything in your way.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the 100mm xc machine is better for the style of riding I do, and the 5 would be better for the mental, alpine descents I'm not really good enough to do justice to, but that doesn't stop it from being one hell of a bike, oh, and really quite sellable second hand!
+1 orange blood
it makes no sense (more bearings, less travel, chopper angles) but is so much fun. a bit of a go-er if you know what i mean
Come on 'fess up, rupertpostlethwaite has got to be the troll-alter-ego of one of the regulars on here. But who?
The comments on here about CYB and those on the "sweary northerners" vids, just subtle enough to hook a response. 😆
Yep, agree. Says he rides a five so could actually be one of the sweary northerners?
Old thread I know but recently been round this conundrum with my garage of bikes (2007 Spesh Stumpy FSR 07, 2000 'Dale F1000SL and 2011 Boardman HT). Spesh not enough fun for me and too many pivots needing maintenance, Dale F1000SL was too XC for me and the Boardman was OK (apart from having a BB30). Wanted something a bit more fun though but didn't really get the use out of FS like the OP. Always had a weak spot for a good HT.
So I took the parts off the Boardman and put them on a Santa Cruz Chameleon.
My skills are less than my ability to pick up speed so a 26 HT is excellent for me (riding in the South): fewer crashes... Despite not being a 29er or carbon or FS (or all of the above) like most bikes I see on rides, I always have - shock horror - loads of fun on it. Just needs a type 2 rear mech now and potentially lighter wheels.
Another one for the Blood.
Decided that now that mine is a bit battered I would get it resprayed and all the bearings done and refurbish it generally - much cheaper than a new bike for my birthday. I bought it originally because I love hardtails but they do end up being a bit limiting in some circumstances. Also have a Soul, a rigid and a downhill bike for uplifts and keeping up with the kids but most of my time is on the Soul or the Blood depending on where and with whom I am riding.
I'd say keep the 5 and ride faster. You can achieve that "on the edge" feeling, just at a far higher point to point speed, as well as having option to hunt out steeper terrain!
Early Hemlock. 100mm rear with 160 front.
I'm in a similar boat at the minute. I have a 6 month old Nukeproof scalp with the unbelievable cane creek DB shock bolted on it but in the 6 months I've owned it I've used it twice and now I don't race anymore there is zero point in me owning it so as painful as it will be to see it go, go it must. Plan is to try and swap it for a beefy burly short travel slope style type bike. After riding the YT play last week I realised that for proper fun on the UK's fairly tame downhills this is the sort of bike that wins.
Higher speeds = bigger accidents
Steeper terrain = bigger accidents
It's the same as many things, cars, motorbikes etc., sometimes what you want is fun that is accessible. Genesis Grapil is worth a look.
Orange Five is the future. Embrace it. Enjoy it. Dont let anyone tell you to sell it.
I love my Five even though i never ride it.
But it looks great in the garage.
Getting a CCDB for mine, so it will look even more rad in the garage.
Love the alps comments 🙂 Weekly riding was generally more tech than the Alps back up north.
Would also suggest other manufacturers are available who make a different style of bike.
I vote for just riding your hardtail most of the time. I really enjoy my full Susser on more downhill type, dry trails. But on just about everything else (which is most stuff here in Ireland) I prefer my hardtail.
But that doesn't mean I don't love both of them.
This thread has almost made me fee guilty for leaving my brand new 5AM in the garage whilst all the cack weather has been around and I have only been able to ride dull boring mud fest local trails on the OnOne 456. Difference is now that I throw the dirty On One back in the garage dirty and dont fret about it where as the last filthy muddy ride on the five I had to clean it properly when I got home 😆
I sold my previous 'big bike' to help fund daughters wedding as i only rode it once every couple or three months but boy did I regret it and I will never do such a thing again.
Doesnt help that three years on they are getting divorced and I spent three years getting a stiff backand being to concenred that I would taco a wheel by taking drops and getting any air on the hardtail.
My advice to PO would be if you can afford to keep both bikes, keep the five and ride it as and when you want. their will come a time ie Snowden Rangers path perhaps that you will have more fun on the five than a hardtail IME
If there was one person the Blur TRC was made for then judging by the OP it was him
If you rode at places like coed-y-brenin then you wouldn't last two minutes on a hardtail! I've started riding the black routes and tbh I don't think you'd get around it on a hardtail without pushing sections.
lol my brother rode the red bull run at CYB on a fully rigid Marin when he was 7 and I used to ride the place all the time as a teenager on a Santa Cruz Chameleon.
That or great troll!
I've pedalled everything from 80mm to 160mm, and what I have learnt is that less is more.
Especially in the rear. 😆
Guilt? Weird!
I own stuff, some of which is rarely used. I don't feel guilt about it. Why would I?
Ride what you like when you like where you like. Life too short for existential guilt.
I can entirely sympathise with the o.p here. I find Five's boring too.
A big LOL @ people who think you need 140mm of travel to have fun on a bike or ride a certain place.
How times have changed.
I love my five AM too it may be a bit heavy and numb going uphill but its given me great confidence to do stuff id never have done before
the 5 is bang on for everything really does it all,
Just realised that this thread has had a bit of a revival.
You will all be glad to hear I am loving the five at the moment...
Turns out that the shock was badly serviced by Stendec. It has now been Pushed by TF, along with servicing the revelations and fitting a shadow plus rear mech it is back to being fun. Can't get enough of riding it.
Makes you realise how critical rear shock setup is on single pivot bikes.
