[Closed] Orange Five - WTF makes it so special?

I'm not a fan of them at all. But only way you'll find out what you think is to try one.

Many people like simple bikes. Less to go wrong.

There aren't many bikes around that are

a) true single pivot
AND
b) have as sorted geometry as the Five

Heckler is a good solid bike, but lacks the versatile geometry of the Five.

it is fugly but it is superb downhill.
VPP is good if you want no bob but it does compromise absorption a tad [uphill mainly] IMHO [ got a spider and a 5 FWIW].
I doubt you will be disappointed with either I assume Intense have sorted out the tyre clearance issue as mine was rubbish in mud and only takes a 2.1 tyre. Once I could not even push it through mud without the back wheel clogging up and jamming
Ornage 5 is better suited to Uk conditions [mud and the like] and has fewer bearings to change and is much easier to do - specialist tool required for the spider IME and given greater number = a higher cost.
Very few bad reviews from mags or owners so there must be a point to the 5 IMHO
Take your pick you want looks you wont pick a 5

hype.

I think when that are that many people riding them, and loving them, it's more than just hype!

hype and marketing then.

Nothing ever blew me away on my five, predictable and decent geometry but i felt i really needed a 17" which doesn't exist but if it fits you and you want dependable then go for it. It's not a game changer of a bike it just gets the job done. There are better riding bikes around of the same travel but many find the simplicity and a decade of refinement to be appealing.
No experience of Intense but i wouldn't consider one due to the lottery which is quality control, if its not either out of allignment or cracked your doing well from an Intense from what i gather from the forums (not much real world apart from a bike mechanic mate who used to work at an intense dealer and a former tazer owner of which cracked).
I'd add a Zesty into the options, possibly a saracen ariel too.

yes the ride is dreadfull some Halfords bikes handle better just Orange market and hype those beautifull smooth lines of the Looker that is an Orange 5
FACT all bikes that anyone says are good are in fact crap
Podge more bitte rtrolling please and anyway they are all out riding them down the canal towpath say what you like

My friends and I didn't like the one we demoed (a 2009 Pro, with all the Hope stuff). The main appeal was that it was 90% British made. But we just didn't get on with it. It was a shame.

If it was a new bike then hype and marketing maybe, but i thas been around years and people still like it 😀
Depends where you ride surely.. we ride mostly rocky lake stuff which the 5 excels on so it suits me fine but that doesn't mean other bikes wouldn't suit me too in fact my P7 loves it all just as much 😀

I must be doing well then stevede. 🙄

it would be a troll if I'd never ridden one but I have. I like suspension to work all the time, including while braking. as for simple, how many times have you heard someones ride was spoiled by bearing failure. I fail to see how anyone would spend over a grand on a frame and factor in saving a couple of quid on a new set of bearings every 6 / 12 / 18 months.

as mentioned above, they are welded by someone British which is a huge selling point. to many, more important than the design.

its evolved because it had to, to meet market demands.

its an ok frame but not brilliant

Didn't mean to offend but my mate did work at quite a large intense dealer so not just a one off experience,enough to put me off considering one (that and the price). Each to their own though, i'm sure they ride nicely.

I like suspension to work all the time, including while braking

I test rode one back to back with a Blur LT2 and 575 when I was looking to upgrade my Klein Palomino a fee years ago and just didn't get on with it at all, neither did a mate who was looking to change his Ransom. I ended up with a Maverick. They are too popular to just all be hype, but just wasn't for me.

The main drawback with owning an O5 is that you've nothing to talk about on MTB forums about your latest "upgrade" anymore... 😉

They are the mountain biking equivalent of a short wheelbase Landrover, which, as an O5 owner, I can say is not a bad thing at all. 🙂

I had a five, it was a very average ride, went up and down well but nothing special. Doesnt work brilliantly with the stock RP23 shock, bobs a lot and has horrific brake jack.

I then got a 2009 tracer which blew the five away. Climbs just as well but is a much better ride down the hill, really confidence inspiring and a lot more stable than the five. Put a CCDB on it and its a real weapon. Yes there have been some issues with tracer frames cracking but these were the 2009 frames. Post 09 frames have the updated rear triangle and have no problems with breaking apparently

It's because it's from Yorkshire, God's own county.

I know someone who had a cracked orange 5 frame, so am I missing something?

I doubt you will be disappointed with either I assume Intense have sorted out the tyre clearance issue as mine was rubbish in mud and only takes a 2.1 tyre. Once I could not even push it through mud without the back wheel clogging up and jamming

Ive had a tracer for 2 and a half years and ridden it in all sorts of gloopy mud with maxxis minions 2.35, plenty clearance and never had a wheel jamb on me to date...

Get a tracer you want be disappointed there awesome... but make sure you get one with the mk2 rear chainstay.....

After years on an Orange, I bought a 2nd hand Spider last year. Overall, the Intense rides better. It's stiffer, climbs better, is loads more comfortable and doesn't have brake jack. Quality is fine and bearings are dead-easy to do, though not as simple as just the 2.
However, the Orange did have a kind-of aggro feel to it which I used to love and I reckon it was a tad faster downhill. It also made such a racket at speed, it was great to see people panic as you caught them up.

It's just a bl@@dy good ride!

It's one of the best FS I've ridden. However I'm am sure there are many other excellent bikes out there. I thought the Remedy was equally as nice, but will have more complex linkages etc.

Almost every other bike at Hamsterley this morning seemed to be an Orange Five so they must be doing something right.

(The other 50% seemed to be Giant Trance's)

marketing is very good at the mo aint it 🙂

i like the new geometry of the 5,not keen or never have of the back end,but that's just my preference

i have a Heckler at the moment,which i prefer the rear end of.

but also the 5's head angle feels better for me,

could do with a blend of both.

Reasonably light, low maintenance, looks good

I had one, couldn't get on with the swinger shock it came with or the downhill braking performance

They're excellent bikes all told. They don't look particularly great but they perform brilliantly, certainly on my list when it comes to replacing my current bike. They do suffer from the BMW 3 series effect but meh. To quote some bloke I was chatting to about his bike "there are two types of biker; those who have a five, and those who wish they had a five" - seems pretty apt

Here's a genuine attempt to offer an explanation:

The geometry of the Five is pretty sorted. It's been a good deal lower in the BB and slacker in the HA than most bikes until just recently. The low BB in particular mean is flies along and down.

It's got just the right amount of suspension for UK riding (and hasn't ever had too much or too little even when a lot of mainstream trail bikes were heading up to 160mm) and crucially that's meant you've been able to run it with a 140mm 32mm stanchion fork which keeps the weight down to a reasonable c.28lbs.

It is simple in design and it's British.

It's bigger travel stablemate, the 223/224 has had enormous success on the race scene, especially in the hands of everyone's hero Steve Peat.

A lot of very (very) good riders like it and eulogise about it because they get all the benefits of its design (slack HA, low BB, simplicity of design, goes down hill real fast) without any of the major issues of the design, i.e. the rear doesn't work when you use the brake.

The better the rider, the less this issue of the rear jacking under braking is an issue; really good riders don't tend to brake as much as us average joes.

I also think a big part of it is marketing; the marketing is very clever though. It doesn't matter how good or bad you are on a bike, no one ever took the piss out of you for riding an Orange Five. You could be really joe average or 'god on a bike' and if you're on an Orange Five it's absolutely fine. It's a bike for all people.

Whereas if you're on something like an Intense, Santa Cruz, Yeti or other exotic, semi-exotic bike, especially if it's a longer travel model, then you better be pretty good otherwise everyone's going to point at you and say 'all the gear.......' I think that puts off a lot of people.

Felt like a really comfy armchair of a bike when I test rode one. Nothing wrong with comfy armchairs, I just wanted something a little tauter that made me want to ride faster on the flatter stuff.

Mildly contentious - I "think" the 5 is a pretty good bike when ridden downhill on the edge of ridable for a 5" bike by skilled riders compared to a lot of other 5" bikes - that's why they don't need a lot of tweaking to turn it into an Alpine. However I don't see many of them ridden that close the edge like that - just as nice comfy and relatively sat up and slow skill compensators by middle aged chaps on quite mellow trails.

a rigid Kona has had huge amounts of success under Steve Peat.

Convert I think you could be right about many of the riders - but it is great riding and seeing people riding them on the edge 😀

This is me - on the edge - of a lake ;-D

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I think geetee1972 is pretty much spot-on with all of that.

They are just too damned heavy for me. I prefer my five inch travel bikes to be sub-25lbs 😉

First bike in years I haven't wanted to change after 6 months. To me, the perfect mix of DH capability and still rideable up and along.

There are plenty of lighter bikes, burlier bikes, etc but this is the first one I've found that is so capable everywhere.

I've got one.

And I honestly don't know what people are talking about this brake jack thing. The rear end does not pack down under braking, it can't be cause the wheel and the brake are fixed to the same bit of metal. If anything, a LACK of brake jack makes it pitch forwards more than some other bikes and causes the rear end to go light which might make you feel like the suspension wasn't working.

I bought mine because the LBS had them in and it had a good rep. It's not as sophisticated suspension as some (but then again it's MTBing not motorway driving!) but it has sorted geometry and is stiff.

I'm sure it's not the best bike in the world, I'm sure no bike is.

I'm sure it's not the best bike in the world, I'm sure no bike is.

+1

Podge +1.

I've had two sub5s and an 04 Patriot as a trail bike. I thought they were great until I rode an 05 5spot. Now they just feel clunky and unrefined and they fold in the middle. Platform shocks have saved the design IMO.

Just thought I'd add though, I've had the same set of bearings in mine for 5 years. My mate has had to change the bearings in many of his multi-pivot bikes (all 12 of them) every 6 months.

Platform shocks have saved the design IMO.

Not just in your opinion... that's a fact.
However, Steve Wade had the foresight to realise this and decided, on balance, to stick with a simple design. In other words, if platform shocks hadn't been coming out, he'd have changed the suspension design.

Had a 5 for a year and hated it.Bought it because of all the hype and really regretted not test riding one.Downhill in a straight line it was good but anything else and it felt dead.Paint finish was pretty awful as well and the stickers peeled off at the first sign of rain.
Sold it at a big loss as i preferred to ride my £300 hardtail.
My Giant full suss does everything better for me,especially climbing.
I think the marketing by Orange is spot on as i know people who have bought a 5 that have never ridden a mountain bike in their lives but it looks good to own one.

He has included new designs though, hasn't he? ST4? Nice that they continue to make the old ones though for the advantages they bring.

Sold it at a big loss as i preferred to ride my £300 hardtail

Did you spend any time fiddling with the setup? This is crucial for any bike. Mine has both annoyed the hell out of me AND put a huge grin on my face, often with only a small but significant change.

I've had the same set of bearings in mine for 5 years. My mate has had to change the bearings in many of his multi-pivot bikes (all 12 of them) every 6 months.

Love this comment.

It's not the best performing bike I've ridden (brake jack, pedal bob and sub-par square edge handling) but it is fun to ride. Can see why people love it.

molgrips - Member
Did you spend any time fiddling with the setup? This is crucial for any bike. Mine has both annoyed the hell out of me AND put a huge grin on my face, often with only a small but significant change.

Not so IMVHO, my Maestro bike rides well even with poor setup. Pedal bob and brake jack are handled by the design of the linkages, so you don't rely on having the setup exactly perfect for it to work well. Horst link seems to be this way too.

This thread is making me doubt/ change my mind on getting a 2011 5 as frame only 😕