I've just flogged my Stumpy and old '03 Patriot (set up more for DH) to get something somewhere in the middle. Want either the Alpine or the Five AM, with Talas forks. As I'm fairly light (just under 11st) do you think I might be better with the Five? I need it to be fairly robust for drops and jumps. Not massive stuff, but I don't have much finesse.

i have an alpine and i bloody love it. i have ridden all the bikes you have listed. (i work at a shop that sells orange bikes) i love the alpine and i hit every jump and drop i can find. its set up more dh than a.m. the only thing that is a problem is that it dosent climb so well. its not bad but not as good as the five. im thinking five am is the way to go if you enjoy the climbs too. wang a hope bb on it and switch to the hope m4s and you will have a mighty fine ride. but even after saying all that i wouldnt trade my alpine for the world. its a tricky one.
good luck choosing
joe x

There's no easy answer really, and it comes down to what your priorities are. The five is a superb all-round bike, but is probably a bit compromised when it comes to jumps/freeride/DH, strengthwise (perfectly capable from a geometry point of view). The alpine is a just as much of an all-rounder, but leans more towards the downhill side of things.

The question is, where are you more prepared to compromise on performance? Uphill or downhill? If you're jumping etc, personally I'd say go for the alpine.

I've been looking into this too.

Once you start sticking the big fork on, I think the Alpine has much better all round geometry. (being a geek, I dumped the dimensions for each frame into CAD and overlaid them). With the 160mm fork fitted, the 5 has quite a slack seat angle, which means it's going to be more of a handful uphill. The Alpine is much steeper, which puts your weight further forward over the front, which has benefits both up (better balance) and down (more front wheel grip). There's not a lot of difference in frame weight either.

Not ridden an AM 5, but had a spin on a normal one, plus a long ride on an Alpine. Thought the Alpine was really fun, whereas the 5 didn't do a lot for me.

i guess thats why the am comes with the talas. dropping the front back down will sort out the seat angle. im still totally loving my alpine….

I'm 11st like you and at our weight the Five is quite a lot of bike. I've got a 15QR 32 Vanilla mine and I go downhilling, pump tracks and the odd table here and there. Although it still is just my go anywhere trail bike most of the time.

I guess what I'm saying just to mix things up is consider a Five pro and run a double + bash on it. At our weight you'd have to be a proper muppet to break one…

Looking at these two myself, though more of an 18 stone rider! I used to have a Patriot and loved it, though it was a bit lardy (it was the Deore kitted version with Fox 120mm Vanillas on). They tell me that the Alpine is a bit lighter than the old Patriots so it may just fit the bill… but keep looking at the 5AM and wondering.

Cheers for the advice guys. Ordered the Alpine this morning. Hopefully by the time it comes the weather will be cold and crisp, rather than crap and wet.

Does anyone know the frame weight (with shock) of the alpine?

I just read somewhere it's 3.2 kgs but I've lost it. Bah. The full build 18"er felt pretty light. I'd rather it didn't break than weighed the same as a bag of sugar!

I have the 5 AM 2008 version that came with high end finishing kit
and Hope Mono4 brakes
I too started looking at the Alpine and after a visit to Orange head office and spoke to them. I decided to keep the 5 AM and re-spray it.
apparrantly they say if your a heavier rider then the 5 can take a 5-6 foot drop and if you ride lighter like rowan Sowell he can do 11 foot drops on the 5.

Return wise Orange recieve around Three Orange 5 frames a year returned.

Regarding geometry yes at 160 fork setting it raises the front end.
What I did was to put a zero rise stem on and this, to compensated this and if it still feels imbalanced you can try a flat bar.

What makes the Alpine that bit heavier is down to having the same 224
rear swing arm minus the straight parts in the arm.

To be honest I dont know what type of riding you are going to do in the Alps But looking at you tube the 5 AM is well up for what I see.
Unless your going to do massive jumps or drops.

Faced the same dilema and could probably write an essay on it, but in the end I bought a 2010 5AM from Biketreks. Stuck Sunline V1 stem and 745 bars on and swapped out contis for some stiky Maxxis and went for £180 Hope X Tech brake upgrade (look good but as yet are crap)
I'm 15 stone and ride DH hard, previously rode a 40lb Marin Quake everywhere from Scot, Welsh trail centres to French Alps and can't imagine you would need anything more than this for UK trails, will reserve comment on how it fairs down the Pleney and Chatel but expect it will hold up!

I've demoed both. Wasn't impressed by the 5 (although I suspect this was as much to do with the way the shop set it up for me as anything else). Tried the Alpine on Sunday at Glentress and although it's massively too much bike for GT it was fantastic fun. True, it's not the best climbing bike I've tried (although an adjustable fork might help), but it was fantastic for everything else; jumped well, confidence inspiring at speed and pretty forgiving of my utterly inept riding. The stiff back end was really noticeable in corners compared to my Meta 5. I fully expected not to like it, but came away seriously considering buying one.

5 and 5AM… bit different.