Based on the frame designs Definitely the Five. I like Oranges style, like they mean business!
The Giant is hideous that swoopy downtube just looks w*nk. The Gyro being a 29 just looks like a five with a deformity.
saying that, as complete bikes and as depicted by the photos the Gyro does look the nicer bike… Strangely…

Thanks folks, that was very interesting. Even when the question was purely about the aesthetics it seems hard for us to ignore our preconceived notions about the bikes themselves and just focus on the look. Some people obviously didn’t want to admit to even being able to bear any of them, which was quite funny and others ignored the question all together in favour of jumping to conclusions about why I might own these bikes even though I never said I did (and don’t, or at least not all of them).

I’ve tried this question out on a few non-cycling friends and family and as you might expect the responses are very different. So far, none of those people have even noticed the different sized wheels. Not even when asked to list 10 differences between the two Orange bikes! That could be partly due to that fact that the Five is a medium and the Gyro a large, so the wheels and frame are both scaled up a bit.

Anyway, it was just a bit of fun. Thanks for playing.

ps. For those who liked the Five, the frame should be up on ebay soon. Bid early and bid often 🙂

None of them.
They all seem to be stuck in a gaylords gear.

Semi seriuos answer.
You seem to keep asking the same questions on here over and over again.
Maybe you should just bite the bullet and buy another bike.
You seem to have no idea what you want and I’d say the only way you’ll find out is by trying to live with a few different bikes.That way you’ll get more of an idea what you really want. 🙂

There is no magic answer and no one on here can tell you what want to hear.
Sorry if that sound blunt but someone needs to say it.

No, I think you may be interpreting the questions the same way and jumping to your own conclusions there. This was simply a bit of fun to see if people’s view of which bike looked better was really just based on how they looked or more on their preconceptions of the bikes themselves. I did indeed pick some bikes that I’ve ridden (and in two cased lived with for a fair while), but that was just so save me hunting through Google images.

TBF you do seem to keep asking the same question but dressing it up in other ways.

At the end of the day you need to make your own mind up on what you like and what you don’t.

What other people think is kind of irrelevant. 🙂

All 3 make me want to poke my eyes out.

All three are gopping.

like I said, gopping fugly and pointless. buy yourself a proper 29″ trail monsyer if you’re an enough / tall enough and enjoy.

but those oranges look shite and are crackers ££££ if you pay retail.

single pivot ????? horst link still rules the world and no-one wants to pay the premium unless they can / own the license / are european 🙂

turner runs nicolai close , but not quite close enough.

if you want a shot of my helius AC 29er around pitfichie, let me know – yous for free for an extended demo – then you’ll knw about quality 29″ HL suspended design………..

Orange orange, straight tubes.

and others ignored the question all together in favour of jumping to conclusions about why I might own these bikes even though I never said I did

Rate my bike

I’ve tried this question out on a few non-cycling friends and family and as you might expect the responses are very different. So far, none of those people have even noticed the different sized wheels. Not even when asked to list 10 differences between the two Orange bikes!

you must be a hoot at parties 😉

FWIW – I think the orange orange is the least worst of a bad bunch, still find most 29ers to be out of proportion so the gyro doesn’t sit well with me and makes me pull a funny face, but that Trance is just gopping…

who cares, they all look like everyday bikes…nothing special

The five looks best, but it should older swing arm graphics!

Based purely on looks

bit like trying to pick the pretty one out of these

The orange (sorry ginger) in the middle… Excuse me I feel sick !!

Oh dear. Still I guess it was only a matter of time before that happened 🙂 It does seem as though most people’s view of which bike looks best is strongly affected by their view of the how the bike rides though, which is basically what I wanted to test.

This thread was triggered by my wife trying to convince me to buy a neon pink Five with neon green rims that she’d happened to spot. I was trying to explain why that wasn’t going to happen and was struck by the fact that my objections had less to do with how it actually looked than about my preconceived ideas about the bike and what I thought it would say.

the_lecht_rocks: Thanks for the offer, I may take you up on that sometime. I’m going to spend a little while mulling over my Gyro demo and getting a few more rides in on the Trance before deciding what to do next though. I’m sure nicolai make great bikes, but that’s not really the point. In some ways my wife is right (she often is); it’s not just about how the bike performs. I don’t compete. I ride (on my own if possible) for fun. So, I don’t need the bike to be the best, I just need it to be right.