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The 26" version looked so much better! And rides so much better too! I can see sales falling! 😐
Have you ridden the 29er version then? I've yet to read anything negative about it from anybody who has actually ridden it.
Also, why would sales fall? They are not discontinuing the 26" Five. This is just another option for those who fancy it. Personally I doubt it would be for me. If you are going to make a 29er based on Orange's single pivot platform then I think it makes more sense to shorten the travel and steepen the angles a bit (as they did with the Gyro), rather than keeping the angles and travel the same and letting the chainstays and wheelbase grow, as they've done with this Five29. But credit to Orange for giving consumers the choice and I'll reserve judgement at least until we get a few more reports from the wild.
By the way, I think that picture is a pre-production model as it has the cables going along the top of the swingarm rather than through it.
I bet it takes another two filing cabinet draws to make a five 29er over the 26" cousin.
See, I think it looks better than most 29ers, even with the big tyres exaggerating things. Put it beside a carbon Tallboy and let's see who makes filing cabinet jokes. my eye's drawn to the tail of the swingarm and the cassette though, something very ugly happening there.
I think it looks great, although I've already admitted to liking the looks of a Five, so my credibility is pretty much shot anyway. I can't believe that a bike with 29er wheels, slack angles, relatively long chainstays and a relatively long wheelbase is really going to be for me. Sounds more like a downhill bike for hooligans. Still tempted though 🙂
ah pussywillow is back, bwaarp must be on holiday.... 😉
In the end it's still a 5, plenty of other bikes out there
Roverpig - I think the five29 has both internal and on top of the swing routing, just in case you're lazy!! I've had my five for about 2 years and still haven't routed the brake hose through the swing arm!!
I think it looks great, although double and bash would be better.
I think that was just the prototype and they've gone back to "through the swingarm only" for the production models. But I've not seen one in the flesh, so could be wrong.
Agree that a triple looks a bit out of place on a bike like this though.
How come intense ditched the 29 inch version of the 951 after testing it and went to 650b instead?
Unless you've got inside info, we won't know whether they've gone for 29" or 27" wheels [url= http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/03/22/intense-cycles-hints-towards-the-evolution/ ]until April/Sea Otter[/url]
Andy
Ah, I was just taking it from the first look photos stw had a while back so you might be right.
Looks nice, but they should have taken a pic of a bigger frame.
Same reason as why they don't put pics of XL 26er's in catalogues.
Unless you've got inside info, we won't know whether they've gone for 29" or 27" wheels
Those photos are from 2009.
Intense are supplying 650b downhill bikes for the worlds.
Intense are supplying 650b downhill bikes for the worlds
Link?
Well it's been out for a few weeks now, but not a single online review as far as I can tell. Still, I guess you can't compare Oranges and Apples 🙂
Dirt this months has a review of the Orange FS29 er
Whats the verdict?
I guess the fact that the first review is going to appear in Dirt tells us something about the intended market.
I nearly restarted this thread the other day but was too scared 🙂 So I testrode one of these Five 29ers on sunday.
TL;DR version- it's surprising, very good at some things, bit mediocre at others, some big fails.
First observation is a very Orangey one- it's a £3000 bike with plastic OEM-spec tyres on. They're absolutely awful, you'd not tolerate it on a £300 bike. Handicapped the ride very badly. Bit of a joke.
That aside- you know what you think a Five 29er should be like? Ie, like a Five, but smoother over rocks and such, faster up hills but less agile, and less good in the air? Turns out, it's the other way round.
I am crap at jumping, it was brilliant- found extra air everywhere, and felt so happy while it was doing it. It popped but without feeling bouncy, and was easy to move about once up. Better'n a Five, or most 5 inch bikes.
Carrying speed- might have been the tyres. It wasn't that much better through lumps than a Five, though GT isn't really the place to test that, I'd like to run it down antur black or fort bill. As long as you keep the speed steady, it was fine, but it's a [i]pig[/i] to accelerate.
Flex- It wouldn't bother me in iteself, but the 34's irrelevant if you bolt it to such a flexy wheelset, daft. And at the back, the 2.2 is fairly tight and I could push it into the frame without significant effort. (part swingarm flex, part wheel) So you're limited on tyre choice, and even with a relatively skinny one it's going to buzz if you ride it hard. Not the end of the world but not really desirable. It has the appetite to ride anything so I'd like to be able to put fat tyres in it.
Build- it was all decent enough kit that you'd be happy with on a £1500 bike. The forks were fab. The shock had about a million adjustment clicks and only the last couple did anything, the hubs were cheap-ish Formula same as you find in a £600 Boardman not Hope as I'd assumed. And those tyres! Oh, but it looked brilliant in JPS.
I'd like another go, on not-crap tyres, somewhere harder. I would like it more, I don't think I'd like it enough. I'd never buy this build at this price, it's just daft. Most of all, it didn't feel 29erish, not in a good way, nor in a bad. I'd have a normal Five over it. It is not the messiah.
Interesting comments. Thanks.
I've got some sympathy with Orange on the tyres. If margins are tight then there is no point in specifying expensive tyres that the buyer will probably just swap for their favourite brand anyway and supplying a test bike that has exactly the same spec as the one you would buy is at least honest. But it's still frustrating and leaves you wondering how much of what you are feeling is the bike and how much is down to things like tyres, wheels etc that you'd probably change anyway.
I've got some sympathy with Orange on the tyres. If margins are tight then there is no point in specifying expensive tyres that the buyer will probably just swap for their favourite brand anyway and supplying a test bike that has exactly the same spec as the one you would buy is at least honest. But it's still frustrating and leaves you wondering how much of what you are feeling is the bike and how much is down to things like tyres, wheels etc that you'd probably change anyway.
I disagree. Tyres do make a big difference on how a bike feels as you say; so why scrimp on what amounts to a maximum of £20 on the build cost by speccing cheap OEM tyres.
It also sounds like the wheels aren't up to scratch at that price which is really important on a 29er.
I've no idea what their costs and margins are, but you are right that £20 does sound like penny pinching. Supplying bikes with cheap OEM tyres does seem pretty standard in the bike industry though. Some companies are just smarter (or less honest if you prefer) at sending bikes out for testing/reviews with better tyres (and even wheels in some cases) than you get when you actually buy the bike.
I can see both sides... But I reckon if you can't make a £3000 bike without fitting disaster tyres then you can't make a £3000 bike full stop. And there's other cuts they could make, but they probably think they play less well, they've done the XT mech thing frinstance so people say "Look! XT!"
But you're right, it can make sense to scrimp on the contact points since folk often replace them anyway (I've bought all my Butchers off Ebay as people remove them untried from new bikes- they're brilliant tyres but they want to fit what they know)
I can't fairly compare the wheels as I've no time on quality 29ers, maybe they were a weak build or maybe you just need to spend more to get stiffness out of big wheels, no idea. It was a pretty fresh bike so I don't think it was just beat up, but you never know.
Looking around the demo at some other bikes the spec just felt poor. It's not a straight comparison, but Whyte's 129 is only £2000... it had cheaper but still quality suspension, and I think slightly cheaper brakes but everything else I spotted was as good or better, and it came with a bloomin reverb! Then again the suspension build on the Orange is proper no-compromise excellent.
All demo bikes should have premium rubber on them. Otherwise you get comments like the tyres were poor or worse.
Still sounds like the 5 and the alpine I rode, not all they were cracked up to be, probably always the case people reckon they are the bestest thing in the world when in fact they are a competent single pivot bike, hard to live up to the hype really.
mikewsmith - MemberAll demo bikes should have premium rubber on them. Otherwise you get comments like the tyres were poor or worse.
It's kind of cool that they're the same as you get if you buy it- very honest. If I was Orange I'd sell them with crap OEM tyres but demo them with the posh version 😆 But yeah, you can't really test a bike if it doesn't work
Still i reckon the 29er-skeptical should try one if they can.
Can somebody please scan the article about the Five 29 in the last dirt magazine....
@roverpig - never say never "They are not discontinuing the 26" Five"
There is 1 month to go and the 26" Five is gone, forever. 650b (27.5) will be the standard trail bike.
29ers are for people who like short travel and lack skill (they smooth out trails) so take the 'fun' out of riding (IMHO). Truth is Mountainbiking is a massive growing sport, 29er's will make riding easier for lesser skilled riders that are coming to it. They buy the bikes,top Racers get new ones free every season. Most people don't huck jumps so no need for long travel.Remember 100mm used to be long travel once (thats all there was) . 200mm for downhill is 'just enough' now.
The more people that are attracted to this sport the better. People want choice. No more Model T Ford in one colour!!
BTW, think I've settled on a new Five 650b for me as my XC/AM (because I'm not skilled enough to ride a hard tail and like a comfortable ride). The debate will trundle on......
Truth is Mountainbiking is a massive growing sport,
Have you got any evidence for that? I'm not saying you are wrong, I've just not seen the evidence. Road cycling does seem to be on the increase and the road sections of my LBSs are growing, pushing out the MTB stuff.
29ers are for people who like short travel
A strange comment to post in a thread about a 140mm super slack 29er !
29ers are for people who like short travel and lack skill
Is quite possibly the funniest most completely wrong thing I've ever read on ST & that bar is set quite high 😛
well one of my pal's has a new 5 29er and he's now setting Strava KOM's on our local DH sections. That's good enough for me. We used to be neck / neck but he's ahead now. First thing he did was change tyres!