Ok so im the typical armchair mtber, spend all week driving a computer and eating cake and maybe one day a week out on the bike. Thus i am unfit, fat and approaching 40.
Nowthen last year i got my bike stolen. Thankfully the insurance paid out and i managed to bag myself a 2013 orange five. This obviously fits in with my stereotype perfectly, so i was happy.
Fast forward a year or so and the insurance company have given me my old bike back. Im now in the position where by i could flog both and potentially get a new one. But heres the thing. I could also just flog my old bike (id say worth about 500 quid now) and spend it on beer and cake (or potentially baby food for the new addition to the family) realizing that a new bike wont infact make me enjoy biking more.... or will it. I would be getting a down specced bike compared to my old one (hope, stans, kashmir etc etc) but it would be the latest 650b but more importantly new geometry. On the flip side i really like the way my current bike rides and it makes riding fun (The 150mm linkage canyon was a lot faster but it just steamrollered over everything)
So is it worth it? or am i just throwing good money after bad.
what are you thinking of changing to, ill probably get flamed for this but the Five is pretty darned good*. If you like your bike and its fun then 650b may not be an improvement, read a hora thread...
*allegedly
This obviously fits in with my stereotype perfectly, so i was happy
Unless your in Surrey and also have a VW T5 you need to up your game 😆
im too poor for a t5 unfortunately.
I am however northern and swear a lot if that helps.
Realistically id be looking at something like either a spectral (for the money) or if i put to a 650b five pro or turner burner. (highly unlikely)
i did consider selling the old bike and buying a set of 150mm 650 pikes. i doubt id get much benefit though.
I honestly don't think you'll find a bike that is more fun to ride than those old 26" Fives. Faster? Yes and faster can be fun. More capable? yes and that can be fun too. But for just flat out messing about a 140-150mm trail bike with decent geometry is about as good as it gets.
I did consider selling the old bike and buying a set of 150mm 650 pikes. i doubt id get much benefit though.
I wouldn't be too sure about that. I switched a nice set of 140mm kashima factory float forks for some (26") 150mm Pikes and it had a very positive effect on the way the bike handled. Mainly just a lot more support in corners, so you could really weight the front properly.
Having said all of the above, I am contemplating selling my 2013 Five and buying a Segment. I don't think it will be any more fun (maybe even a bit less), but I think it might suit the sort of map crossing riding that I do (on rocky Scottish trails) a bit better.
In your position I would either:
- Buy the bike that lets me ride the terrain I aspire to (short of a full on DH bike) knowing I'll probably never get there.
- Buy the bike that fits the terrain I get to ride the most.
If you have a young kid you'll probably not have the time to fit the forks yourself anyway!
Either way, there are no bad bikes!
If it were me I'd keep your 5 as you clearly like it and it's a very capable bike and look at N+1. A hartail maybe? or a CX bike for local blasts? Or even a cheap road bike so you can go for quick, 1 hour from your door rides?
bike fits the terrain i ride tbh. I can honestly say ive never thought ooh i need more travel. I have however though on many occasions im not fit enough and i dont have the skill for this. Shortly followed by me thinking about just how big my mortgage is 🙂
The only things ive thought are. Id like a bigger tyres (just because it looks nice if im honest, ive never had grip issues running trail kinds at 20psi) but the front derailiur is close to the rear tyre and it bugs me in mud. And slightly more ground clearance (after fitting 1 offset bush)
You're not the guy who went to Spain with Ciclo Montana and had "mortgage moments" by any chance?
Nope 🙂
Ok so im the typical armchair mtber, spend all week driving a computer and eating cake and maybe one day a week out on the bike. Thus i am unfit, fat and approaching 40.
Keep the Five. Buy a road bike. Ride it. Stop eating cake. Get fit and thin. Enjoy the Five even more.
Stop eating cake
GTFO. 👿
Stop eating cake.
Burn the heretic!
get a road bike, eat [u]more[/u] cake in a desperate bid to retain a semblance of manly bulk.
This is a great post, and fits well with my bike procrastination/dreaming.
I personally would sell both and buy something that was beyond my ability - maybe even 2 bikes that were beyond my ability.
So ive already got a cyclocross. i thought this would be ideal for my 1.6 mile commute to work...... i take the car!
Cake or death!
Ill take cake please. Agreed burn him 🙂
Ok ok,
So if i keep the five. Should I
Sell the old bike for new bits. Its got fox 32 factory forks which must be holding me back.... or maybe i need carbon wheels as the stans are too flexy? .... or more cake?
too many decisions.
I had a 26" 5 and liked it very much. I changed to a 5 29 / Alpine 5 and like it even more! Defo worth looking at and as it's recently been discontinued there should be some deals about.
If you must swap a bike, choose one that will see you ride more. Since you like your Orange, i'd suggest a cheap road bike (decathlon for example), or a cross bike or a winter singlespeed. Anything that will see you riding more. Then enjoy your extra fitness on the Orange.
Having just changed from fox 32s to Pikes I'd say sell the bike and go that route...
You should have enough change from £500 to buy a fair bit of cake to offset the calories burned from the extra distances due to the new found plush front end...
Get something to make you commute to work, and encourage you to take the long way home
Sell one, bank the money for the sales/next bike? A Canyon isnt a bad call though.
OK now we have a problem. I took both out yesterday back to back. The five and the recovered bike ( a nerve Al+). Now the nerve can't jump as it blows through its travel too easily. Riding it about it was a lot lighter and felt more enjoyable.
Balls I didn't want that. I wanted to like the five more.
So now I'm thinking sell both and get something like a stumpjumper. Or spectral
What ya think?
Stumpy or camber evo
I bought new bike after 7 years. Mojo really back plus feel have to rude after spending the money
This is the problem with owning two bikes; especially modern bikes which are all pretty good. You ride one and there is always something about it that you prefer to the other one and something that you don't like as much. So you start thinking about that fantasy bike that combines the best of both. Eventually you realise that's a myth though. The Stumpjumper and Spectral are both great bikes, but if you bought one, waited for the honeymoon period (during which it is the best bike ever) to expire and rode it back to back with either the Five or the Nerve you'd still find things you preferred with those bikes.
There are two "solutions" to this: you either go down the n+1 route where you end up with a shed full of bikes or you accept that all bikes are great but none are perfect and just pick one.
What tired said, new wheels/forks/650b aren't going to make much difference, a baby will limit your time.
Who would have thought I'd get a sensible answer.
Bugger.... 🙂 going to pop both up for sale and keep the one that doesn't sell.
I spend a lot of time thinking I want a new bike, an n+1 or just a new bike.
I too don;t ride enough, sit at a pc, dream and drool over bikes, fatansise about building a cheap carbon bike, and a fat bike.
I can always resist, due to hating spending money on large items, that is why I get a new bike piece by piece.
Saying that, I did buy a new bike last year for the first time in 15 years, from Wheelies, and it turned up damaged, with the gears not indexed and the brakes not tightened - kind of ruined it for me.
Flog the old bike and chuck the £500 at doing more riding, fuel, race entries, camping, b&bs, maybe flights to somewhere interesting...
It's a failure of imagination if you really can't think of more than buying new bike parts or beer and cakes with a bit of spare cash...
looks like i have no imagination then.
Me either...........
I ride 2/3 times a week, currently have 2 hardtails, a rigid ss, and a retro rigid coming this week, 3 out of the 4 steel frames. That probably shows some lack of imagination in itself.
I spend a lot of my spare time looking at bikes/parts/upgrades and fantasising about this bike or that, and trips away etc.
In reality, the bike I was starting to like the least is probably turning out to be the most versatile, and best suited for me for the riding I currently do, and am going to be doing for the foreseeable future.
I'm on my second rigid ss in about 2 yrs, intended just for using around the farm, and quick local jaunts, but there's no pub or shop within 3 miles, and I hardly use it in reality. Might split it.
As an aside - your bike got stolen, they gave you the money to replace it....then your old bike resurfaced (from the garage of a scrote presumably)...and they gave you that too?
Seems unusually generous for insurance gannets. I would have thought your old bike was now theirs and they would just have flogged it for a few quid to recoup the cost.
Oh and I've come to the conclusion replacing a 26inch with a 650 is something sane people only do when the 26" is either worn out or no longer the right type of bike for you for other reasons (too much/little travel or a change in geometry etc). Not sure a 2013 bike will be too dated on the geometry front. A lack of fitness and familiarity/confidence that comes with riding frequently will be holding you back more.
yup your right convert, i would have thought the same and discussed this with them at length. it appears not.
On paper the bikes are very similar. I tested them back to back (literally swapping several times over the course of a few hours.) over a 2 mile route at the side of my house. The canyon seems to be nicer on the rooty stuff but it was terrible over the jumps / berms etc. The orange was a lot faster but felt a little sketchy. The canyon felt as though it had wider bars for some reason. even though they are the same width.
Strange...
Have you got any mates with newer bikes/geometry that you could use on the same circuit to get an idea if a newer bike actually is better for you?
Get a few down and everyone can ride each others bikes on the same circuit and see how they're all set up.
I'm sure everyone could take something away from that about their own bike setup, even if it's just they have it perfectly dialled...
The orange was a lot faster but felt a little sketchy.
How sketchy would the Canyon have felt if you'd ridden it at the same speed as the Orange though?
Sketchy could just be down to something simple like tyres (compound or even just pressure) or suspension setup.
both bikes are running rubber queens / trail kings. But the canyon is on racesports where the five is on protections. the racesports are a LOT more forgiving