Hi, i love my Orange 5 (old model before sloping top tube) but find in technical terrain (the lakes where i live/ride) when its rocky, i’m bashing pedals fairly often, I’ve tried different shock and fork set ups, to alter BB height and have gone to 170mm cranks from 175mm to try to give more clearence. Its worked to some degree, more air in forks to avoid diving and more air in the shock platform to stop saggin too much,any other suggestions?

What forks are you running ? If it wont put the angles out too much i’d suggest you changed your forks for some that are longer/with more travel. Plus 10/15mm should do it.

I have to put lots of air into my rear shock to stop the same thing on my five also. Running Pace RC41XCAM’s up front so not exactly a short fork.

Currently running Fox floats, 130mm i think, i was tempted for longer forks as on some of the faster descents it gets a bit ‘twitchy’, and some longer forks would both raise the BB and slacken the HA……Hmmmm maybe after the new AV amp…………new forks would be nice, its good to find its not just me : )
cheers.

I’ve got Pace RC41s on mine too, only 130mm but as long as the Fox 140mms that came on it. The bike could easily take a longer fork and would probably appreciate it. If I were more flush I’d probably go for an adjustable fork up to 150mm to help with those descents. FWIW I don’t have a problem with pedal strike, I’ve got the stock Manitou SPV shock on it run with 30-40% sag and the forks are at about 10% sag.

Don’t mean to flame, or troll, be patronising or anything but….

It gets me sometimes the way the first thing people think of is it’s that it’s the bikes fault, and the solution is to spend money and change equipment. I mean, do you you seriously think that you’re bashing your pedals because your your cranks were too long by 5mm? Have a look at 5mm on a ruler and see how ridiculous that is 😀

I had a 5 for a while, and I suffered from this at first. After a while I developed an instinct for when a padal strike was likely to happen, and just learned to alter my style to smooth things out. Pedal strikes didn’t totally disappear, but they became a lot less frequent. And I din’t get slower, I got way faster while I owned my 5.

How about having a look at your riding style. Instead of buying kit, Invest in some skills training from a good coach, and tell him/her what your problem is. I bet there is some fundamental riding technique that you could improve on.

It’s not always the equipments’ fault, "bad workmen…" and all that.

Anyway, hope that was constructive….

Again without ganging up and being trollish, I agree.

When I first moved to a full suss I experienced a lot of pedal strikes where I just tried to pedal through every situation as if I was on a HT. Think about it – if you blast through 5" of travel at the same time as the ground is altering in height by several inches – no amount of kit tweaking is going to solve that.

Work on floating through the rough sections and letting the bike work for you and then in the clear sections work the pedals even harder when it’s smoother. I found watching some of the DH pros helped where it’s pedal, pedal coast, pedal pedal coast.

Also, full suss bikes are really easy to pump for speed (HT can be pumped but if you’re not used to doing it it’s hard as you can’t feel the bike respond in the same way) – a mate of mine is always whining about how I seem to pull away yet don’t actually seem to be pedalling…

(and don’t over inflate your fork and shock)

Just over inflate the shock or lock it out if you can, and turn it into a hard tail. Problem solved 😉

Read the trail better, and adjust your pedalling stroke so your cranks aren’t clouting the scenery.
It’s not the bikes fault, or the set-up.

You could try running more pro-pedal or SPV or whatever you have.

I moved the shock pivot on my Patriot forward, to get a lower centre of gravity and slacker angles, and I got loads of pedal strikes on climbs. To help with this I put a bit more air in the shock and added a fair bit of SPV (platform damping) and it did help. Stopped the shock from blowing through travel too quickly.

Pedal strikes are the pay off for the fantastic handling and low centre of gravity of the 5 i’m afraid. If you don’t want to put up with it have a look at a Marin or a Whyte or something.

I have to agree with Richyb and the what some others have said about altering your riding style. Pedal strike is the price you pay for superb handling.

The alternative, is riding a perch like Marin which feels top heavy and vague in my opinion…..i.e. not something I find enjoyable or confidence inspiring.

Out of interest do you run SPD’s or flat pedals? I find I get far less strike with SPD’s because the pedal body is so much narrower.

jimmer is right – better handling with a lower BB.
However, you’re running an air shock right ?
have you had the rebound damping circuit ramped up quick enough to avoid pack-down ? this in itself will contribute to pedal strike if you don’t / can’t dial out pack-down.

all imo.

i find laying off the brakes means you don’t have to pedal as much.

ergo less pedal strikes.

anyway the five is nothing compared to my first enduro SX, 12.1" BB.i got through a lot of pedals….

As i said it was mainly in rocky technical terrain, it not always practical to ‘time’ pedal strokes to avoid roots/rocks etc, i would like to think my technique is good as i’ve been riding off road for over 15yrs on mainly the same terrain, and this is the first bike its been an occasional problem with, i just wondered if it happened to anyone else? seems it does, as for 5mm being a small amount,it has helped a little as I’m not mashing the pedals (which are flats by the way jimmer himself), just clipping, so i lose the top of a pin every now and then.
As said above great bike, I’ll just live with replacing the odd pin.
cheers.

😀

jwt – I don’t think anyone is suggesting you’re a bad rider, I too am on first full suss after 15yrs of HTs and I did suffer pedal strikes more than expected at first, now it’s infrequent…

I TOTALLY disagree that pedal strikes are the pay off for a well handling bike. Give the Orange 5 in question to Peaty (who used to ride a single pivot Orange downhiller) or some other top rider on the same terrain, and see how many times they strike the pedal…..

jwt, don’t mean to suggest you’re a bad rider, just that if you look to your own riding style, and see if you can learn some new skills or change some deeply ingrained habits, then you might actually become a BETTER rider than you already are….

jwt – am in the same position as you. Ridden for years, had FS since 2000 and own a Five. Descending I don’t have a problem with, it’s usually the short tricky technical climbs where you *have* to pedal to keep momentum up. The five is a great bike and as long as I keep the shock pressure up high then all is well but if there’s "too much" sag in the shock then the pedal strikes appear.

I guess you’re talking about continuously and very rocky climbs where you must pedal and there are few flat spaces between rocks to get a pedal stroke in.

Otherwise it is about attaching the climb so that you have enough momentum to carry through rocks to the areas were you can get half/full stroke in. This is hard to see as you approach esp if breathing out of bum.

One thing that’s helped me is realising that I’m dropping my head as I tire. That’s why I fail to anticipate climbing obstacles and stop/strike or slip – I don’t see them in time. I love techy climbs, esp. those I can’t do because it’s a challenge unconquered.

It’s worth noting that the character of the 5 changes greatly if you have more or less sag. More sag for steep drops and weight-back chuckability; less for a more upright racy position to attack those climbs.

For rocky climbs where you have to pedal, make sure the suspension is unweighted when you need to clear blocks – or your weight is forward. That is to say, when you put in some big pedal strokes before the rock put your weight back a little, then as you hit it come forward, unweight the back so it rises.. then in the last stages of the obstacle shove the bike forward underneath you to gain a bit more distance without having to put in another frantic pedal stroke – maybe even dab the front brake a touch.

Easy 🙂

The suspension character of a 5 changes between big, middle and granny ring too. Middle ring s the most supple on my set up but granny can had stop pedal induced bob and pssibly therefore pedal strike.

Smooth action also helps

you are not alone in strikes, it to think that i strike the pedals more wiht my five than i did wiht my iron horse mk III or spesh before it, but i do also think its a better overall ride. i find the time i strike is on tec twisty stuff with sudden drops when you are seated and spinning!! tried adding air to the rear and it reduced somewhat. still the sweetest ride i ever had tho 🙂

not been a problem for me but then I always did say you rode the 5 like a downhill bike! (I’d suggest bad technique caused by too much downhill – your not telling me you take a different line on the descent to seathwaite are you?

probably should have kept the san andreas! 🙂

Hi
Sorry for the late reply.
I’ve had a five for years now. Was putting up with the odd strike now and again, but have developed a fondness for taller profile tyres-currently on Kenda Nevegals, previously Nokians. Hey presto-few if any strikes! Depends on your riding style I suppose, but I thought I’d mention it.