Orange bikes to appoint administrators

Not good..

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2024/01/06/orange-mountain-bikes-to-appoint-administrator/?sh=94cdc174cd7c&s=09

[Mod] please see here:

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/orange-bikes-calls-in-administrators/

It’s not good, I was waiting for the sale of my late parent’s house to go through and I was going to treat myself. My first new bike in 23 years!

Aware the industry is struggling, but that is a bit of a surprise…a shame.

No, but not surprising either sadly.

Oh no. Had been seriously looking at a P7 in the sales but not with no warranty. 

Wow. This is sad news.

Do they do one with SRAM kit? If so, you’ll have 2 years warranty on those bits globally through SRAM. Frame is unlikely to go wrong…warranty is handy but I don’t think it would stop me from buying if I was already considering it (aware that most likely is just me though that thinks that way).

Awful news for staff and bike owners

Shimano has a 2 year warranty too (XTR and Dura Ace have 3 yr warranty).

Do they do one with SRAM kit? If so, you’ll have 2 years warranty on those bits. Frame is unlikely to go wrong… warranty is handy but I don’t think it would stop me from buying if I was already considering it (aware that most likely is just me though that thinks that way).

Everyone I’ve known who’s had one has had the rear triangle crack 🤷‍♂️

£2600 list price for a p7 29 s. No wonder the industry is going down the pan!

Everyone I’ve known who’s had one has had the rear triangle crack 🤷‍♂️

That’s only the alu full sus ones though, right? Clubby is on about buying a P7. They’re made out of steel so they’ll be reet 😀

Sad news.

Love my P7 and would buy another without warranty if they started to sell them off.

They’ve been part of mountain biking from the early days – I had an Aluminium ‘O’ in ’93 / 94 ish. Gutted for them.

Shame.

They were never a contender for me though due to the price for the level of spec. Always thought I ought to demo one before getting my next bike though. A company I feel that kinda ought to exist and make these bikes, even if I can’t/won’t buy them.

£2600 list price for a p7 29 s. No wonder the industry is going down the pan!

I was curious so looked it, actually price to buy seems to be £1600 across a variety of shops, at which price point it looks like a relatively good buy.

Are list prices mostly inflated now to account for inevitable discounting?

Was going to have a moan about overpriced modern bikes with high end tech like wireless gears etc. but was actually pleasantly surprised by the P7 at £1600, good kit with decent stuff where it counts?

I had a lovely 2003 clockwork that I built up myself when I was in college. Mavic 231’s, control tech stem, use seat post, flite ti saddle, dia comp brakes and ritchey z max tyres( the soft clay coloured ones), control tech bar ends. It was super light and an awesome ride back in the day. Still got it in the shed as well as a 2003 ish sub-5.

Sad times. Still got my old 2001 Strange E Six in the loft. Easton ultralite frame, original Hope Minis, Raceface turbines, Hope XCs, and Shimano XT. Was a great bike

Sunset are selling a 2023 crush for £1099 but the spec isn’t very good.

https://www.sunsetmtb.co.uk/shop/index.php?product_id=11495&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkeSsBhDUARIsAK3tiecj9sIu2MVUNDjkiU_0b0cbBQQKl_O9cx7Ag9RDTu6kH7phSoPmQGwaAt_1EALw_wcB

Not as a total surprise as they were paying later and later. Finally put them on stop in December but still a little exposed.
Feel for the staff, the guys we deal with clearly didn’t know it was coming.

It’s a shame, I’ve always liked the idea of owning one but the price and geometry didn’t tick the right boxes for me.

Shit, shit, shit. Big hugs to all the staff… you’re good people.

😢

My first orange FS, had a 97 P7 in nickel too

All those problems with cracks over the last few years has to have been expensive… Was never sure how far it actually hurt the brand, you can still find people who proudly declare them bombproof even after they’ve had a rear triangle replaced. I really shouldn’t say this as I’ve got a Stage frame to sell but I just don’t trust it, and it’s the sort of bike that only makes any sense if you trust it.

But also, it’s an expensive way to make a bike- time consuming and labour intensive. Some expensive bikes you know perfectly well have a lot of headroom, Orange I think not so much. They used to say that they sold literally every bike they could make, and that it wasn’t practical for them to expand (ie the machines were flat out, buying a second set of machines was super expensive and would be such a massive increase in capacity that they couldn’t use it all), but that’s a risky place to be in if the arse falls out of the market. And every attempt to get out of folded metal seemed doomed, they’d make excellent bikes and nobody wanted them.

I was really impressed when they got out of the overpriced crap market- there was a point where most Orange bikes sold were G2s and G3s and they were just ridiculously expensive, if the G2 had said Carrera on the side they’d have cost £300 not £650. That was a brave move and I hope it worked out for them, but having containers of taiwanese hardtails with XCRs on that they could sell for a stripped bare margin might have been a big help now?

Hope they can pull through it.

That is sad news. I worked closely with them back in the mid 90’s into the early 2000’s.
Their bikes always had the wow factor and they were probably the first company to offer component and groupset options when buying a bike.
Shops bought the frames and the build kits and they were assembled in-store from a bare frame. Even the wheels were built in store! This meant customers got a truly custom built bike each and every time.

Really sad.  I’ve had many bikes over the years but I always seemed to come back to an Orange Five.

Very sad had a Five and still got a P7 and a Switch, all  have taken me on great adventure riding and shredding the gnarr all over Europe sorry to see them go.

Never really fancied an Orange in all the years I’ve been riding, although did look briefly at a P7 recently. The FS bikes have never appealed

Rubbish news though

Really sad.

Iconic brand, and in the early days of MTB definitely one of the leaders / innovators.

Regardless of the recent industry wide problems, they didn’t seem to keep up with other brands in recent years. I haven’t considered buying one of their bikes for a very very long time, which probably says all it needs to.

Very sad, particularly for the employees and owners.

I and the family have owned from them:

– Tempest sails (luminous pink and green spinnaker 😎 ) 

– C16r

– P7 

– Clockwork

– Sub5

– Five (26″)

– ST4 (best bike I’ve ever owned)

I rode things like the Prestige and MrO prototypes, and a bunch of Lester’s own bikes back in the day 

🙁

Their bikes always had the wow factor and they were probably the first company to offer component and groupset options when buying a bike.

Yep, you could mix and match the group set’s + finishing kit back in the early 90’s when every other normal manufacturer just offered stock builds.

As an unashamed fan boy since 1990 I’m gutted by this. Have had a modern Orange ever since I got back in to MTB in 2004. In fact, I’ve had at least one Orange bike in the garage since 1992! 5’s, Segment, P7, Clockwork’s, Evo4, Diva, 5 29 and finally Stage 5. Add to this my original 89 Clockwork and more retro content than I could possibly remember since I found retrobike.co.uk in 2007.

I’d been seriously tempted to change the Stage for a new model during the huge autumn/winter sale that’s been going on but I guess that tells it’s own story? Even I have had to wince at the RRP increases in the last few years but looking at the market I guess there’s a very tight line between being viable and being competitive?

Reckon the frame issues will have had an impact as there are certainly less out there than they used to be. Never seemed to be a problem when Lester and Steve owned the company but when they sold the focus seemed to change to lighter aluminium and away from Reynolds. Only one I had crack was a 2016 Segment that was post sale. It was quickly replaced by the Stage 5 under warranty, which has been ace but I still keep checking it.

Hopefully they can find a buyer but as a huge fan a bit of the magic went when the original owners sold. The fact it went to a family member sort of kept the nostalgia but who knows what comes next? Hope the owner Ashley comes out alright as a mate is a childhood friend and speaks highly of him. More so the staff though as they have always been first class, and clearly committed every time I’ve bothered them at Orange HQ for a look around, new bike or re-spray. 🙁 🙁

What does this mean? They have gone forever, or looking for investors so they can carry on? Bad news for the staff, but one local bike shop used to do a lot of Orange and has hardly had any in stock during 2023.

RIP Orange

I hear that the reality is not as grim as the headline – hopefully they find a way through this.

What a shame. My first mountain bike was an 1993 orange clockwork which I rode into the ground, had one of the nickel plated P7s about 2002 which got nicked, another P7 2009 which i had 10 years of fun with (still going strong) and a 2019 P7 29er which is my favourite of them all. Damn!!!!

Hope the reality isn’t as bad as the headline… love orange bikes, have a clockwork, rx9, five and alpine 6 in our quiver!

There was a time in the early/mid 00’s when every other bike on the trails was an Orange 5. I remember MBR raving about each new model nearly as much as they raved about anything from Specialized.

And then…. Nothing. Just seemed to vanish from the scene. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Sad news though, definitely one of the early iconic brands.