Thin watery stuff is fun, sticky clay sucks (excuse the pun). Love to ride but having to deal with the latter every week would seriously test my commitment.

Had a great day out yesterday on my bling bike, made me ride much, much faster than I could ever have done on a cheap collection of cr*p. Came across some poor chap on a 1990 Kona and felt really sorry for him, he was clearly trying very hard too look cool to the extent that he wasn’t even wearing a helmet! As I flew past him on thousands of pounds of plush high end perfection the wind of passing knocked him flying into a tree…

Last I saw he was being airlifted off the hill and will never ride again. If only he had worn a helmet and spent some cash on a proper bike…

Hilarious this thread, almost as funny as the video… So many odd comments? I ride a bike that’s way over my skill level but I do because I can, my choice of bike is no more ridiculous than someone buying a Porshe for driving to work, or a big TV to watch x-factor, or a nice holiday or a… You get the idea. People like to have nice things; you work hard and reward yourself.

As for too expensive and being ripped off… WTF? Niche market, low volume sales and retail outlets, of course the premium products will be expensive. You can still buy bikes for a few hundred quid, just because Specialized flagship costs £7k doesn’t stop kids getting involved… Or are we all supposed to be entitled to the nice things in life for nothing? Oh yes, I forgot, todays young think everything comes free don’t they…

Grifter.

Genius…

Been looking for a top. £36… 😆

Orange 5
Specialized FSR

Mucky Nutz Fender bender. Catches everything the front wheel sprays into the path of your eyes. Sorted for Less than a tenner and is pretty discrete 🙂

Mucky Nutz

As you wish. I tested an 18″ Five in Red and never quite liked the look, the colour was so bold it made the somewhat agricultural look of the frame stand out. Horses for courses but I love the Chrome finish, I would of course as I bought one…

17″ 2012 Five.

Aaaahhhh…..

Brand new bike waiting at home, working too late this week and as such have to wait until Sunday. Driving me nuts…

You bought the goods from a trader so it is thier responsibility to respond to your request for repair or replacement. If they dispute this then you need to look into your legal rights.

Faulty goods linky

It is highly unlikely that your dealer provided a warranty, this will have been supplied by the manufacturer. This in turn gives you another route to go down.

Warranty linky

Neither of these routes have you talking to Jungle. You need to apply pressure on your dealer or go direct to SC.

Make it a Chrome one, they look ace 😀

Goober, call Ant at Tamed Earth on 07894 199370. He’s based just south of Haslemere so probably not too far from you. He will provide you with a Covert and take you for a test ride up/down his local hill, plenty fun to get used to the bike.

TamedEarth[/url]

If you do let me know and I’ll join you for the ride. I’m ten minutes up the road.

Blimey.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been looking for a bike with pretty much the same skill set you note. Having not been in the saddle for a few years (until recently) I was out of the picture and needed to get an idea of what I wanted. I tested the following;

Yeti ASR-5
Ibis Mojo SL
Specialized Epic 29’r
Orange Five
Transition Covert

Of the lot the Covert was the stand out champ for hooning downhill and made a pretty good job of everything else as well. The Yeti was the unbelievably quick (IMO) but I settled on the Orange Five. It was almost as good downhill as the Covert, just that little bit more composed on single-track and a bit better uphill.

Of what you list I can deffinatly say the Covert is a winner. But I love my new toy. Bought frame with RP23 and built up to best spec I could afford. Includes Fox 32 float 140RLC as well. Collected it’s last Friday – it pretty bloody good 🙂

The Passat is an estate, but I don’t want to squeeze two filthy bikes inside. Much prefer the external route and security not an issue as will never be left unattended.

Nick, what brand of spare wheel rack do you use?

Definately an outsider but for me Alastair Cook. His dominant series in Austrailia last Christmas stunning and he kept repeating it, an outstanding achievement ‘away’.

Struggle to a golfer losing though, but think Luke Donald is a better winner than Mcllroy. Murray shouldn’t be there.

Longer sentences 💡 What happened to the guys that nicked your bikes? slap on the wrist and home for tea I expect…

Network idea is sound but difficult. Best you’ll probably ever get is what we have here, or on similar forums. Maybe a little coordination between websites? If each site has a ‘stolen’ section that is synced with all the other sites then we get eye’s on, as long as people bother to read the section.

Personally I think a better society is the only way and that’s not going to happen anytime fast, all the bankers have stolen or lost our money, makes vermin desperate 🙄

Toys19 that is a very nice ride, very. Like the white rims, but imagine how they would look on a blue frame? Only kidding, or not… Shit, maybe I should have bought a Covert!

Buy a blue one and post a picture. Looks very nice on the web but would be good to see in real world setting. Spend some cash for STW 😉

Test rode both the Covert and ASR-5 (with 140 forks) recently on my way to a new bike. I can be pretty clear with my opinion as I thought it was cut and dried.

The ASR-5 is a brilliant all day all round up / down mashine that just makes you go and go. Very quick and superb climbing. My only thought was it didn’t offer quite the confidence inspiring ride down technical descents that I was looking for. I’m sure in better hands it’s amazing but I’m not that good.

The Covert was quite the reverse. Climbs confidently but without flair, gets you to the top with wind in your lungs and ready for the down. And this is where it excels, you can ride the descents with such confidense it’s awesome. I was leaning the Covert into corners like on a snow board (crap analogy but you get the idea). Very good.

For what it’s worth I bought an Orange Five, had it custom built to a pretty high spec and to me it sits perfectly between the two and captures the bits of both I liked. Shows how important test rides are, or not if you get my drift… Both are such good bikes I can’t see anyone being anything other than blown away. Until of course you start over analysing like I did and become obsessed….

Tested a very well spec’d Covert a few weeks back after a huge downpour, rode up a local hill in pretty wet and muddy conditions and loved it. Sat back and spun up the hill nice and steady like… Can’t see how any lighter bike would have made a jot of difference in those conditions.

Got to the top, turned round and holy cr*p the Covert gets down well. Bloody flew down. Again, definitely no way a lighter, less travelled sibling would have been better – for me certainly.

Win win that one. I thought the covert rocked. Nearly bought one.

5lab that was pretty hard… Any notable damage?

Love the way your mate responds, he’s clearly seen a few of those before…

I’m 6′ and have a 31″ inside leg and my 5 feels pretty spot on. Suggest you try both, a 17″ might be fine but I suspect an 18″ might be better, haven’t tried it but not sure how much further i’d want to extend my seat post. Maybe that doesn’t matter but sure as hell looks odd.

OK I can’t answer your question directly, but just bought a new 5 and had XT brakes fitted with 203/180 rotors. Had a two hour ride on Saturday and even without being bedded in they were awesome. They’re going to be amazing when fully up to speed.

Not sure on the weight though.

Regarding conveying speed; set a fairly slow shutter speed, say around 1/60s, and track the rider whilst pressing the shutter release. The back ground will blur whilst the rider stays in focus. Play with the shutter speed to get the best balance, it’s quite nice when the rider is a little blurred as well sometimes.

Oh, and use a flash. Biggest one you can afford. Can get gloomy under the trees where good exposure becomes a problem.

Charlie, Riding Giants; good isn’t it.

I polished my new bike a popped a Fender Bender 2.1 on the front. Sunday week can’t come round fast enough…

Ah, the one you saw is the rig they built for sale, it was this bike that pretty much made my mind up aesthetically. I ordered mine two weeks ago but Orange couldn’t get the forks in good time, one of the lads gave them what for on Thursday and got the frame to the store inside 24h. They took the forks of the one you saw.

Mine is a little different as you can see from the list above but the Chrome colour rocks!

Good ride? I’m off to Peaslake next Sunday.

Hi Steve. Here goes…

Orange 5 with RP23 and Maxle rear end.
Fox float 140 RLC forks
Mavic Crossmax ST wheels with Specialized purgatory 2.3″ tyres
XT 11/36 cassette
XT front mech
XT shifters
XT brakes with 203 and 180 rotors
XTR shadow plus rear mech
XTR 2 x 10 chain set
Renthall fat boy handle bars and 50mm stem
Rockshox Reverb post and SDG Bell Air saddle

I think that’s it…

Ezzy, did I ride with you yesterday?

“asked him if I should reciprocate”. That’s classic, how very polite (although I’m sure your eyes said something different). I think this is where a GoPro makes sense. I wonder how they would have responded if you calmly informed them that (a) yes, he had assaulted you and (b) you had video evidence of deliberate obstruction and the following assault and (c) you were fed up with arseholes like him and would report the insident to the authorities.

That would be quite fun 👿

I think you did the right thing but you’ll spend the next week thinking up every better retorts you could have used. Always the way…

What a lovely bed time story. F*****s the lot of them, and selling openly on the web. Problem is the government can’t afford prisons anymore so they’ll probably get a slap on the wrist and sent home to mummy…

I’ve always thought that cold, barren, wet and remote islands offered a perfect holiday retreat for some people.

That’s-not-my-name I’ll keep an eye out too. We usually ride Saturdays and hit the top of Gibbet around 0830, stopping for tea at the cafe around 1030 after a few up and downs. Off to Pitch Hill next week to ride with a few mates who know Pitch, Holmbury and Leith like the back of their hand. Should be a lot of fun 😀

Mojo5pro I tested two five pro’s, a 18″ and a 17″. Obviously loved them but the build on mine is very different. The RP23 and Float 140 RLC’s feel much smoother and offer a plusher ride. The brakes (XT 203/180) are unbelievably powerful and not even bedded in, but I think the biggest difference are the wheels / tyres. I have Mavic Crossmax ST with Specialzed tubeless at low pressure. Compared to the bikes I tested it just feels faster, more agile with better grip and feel.

I’ve taken a week off leading into Christmas to spend time with wife and kids. Somehow I think much time will also be spent flying around the hills. Added a Fender Bender 2.1 today and went for a quick spin down the road just for the hell of it, nearly kept going…

That’s-not-my-name, I ride the punch bowl almost every week but only collected my five this last Friday. I rode the bowl a few weeks ago on an orange one but that was a demo bike.

I just bought a five, went for 17″ and I’m a smidgen over 6′. I’m weirdly shaped though, short legs and long torso… Tried both 18″ and 17″, couldn’t really tell much difference and my 17″ feels spot on.

Wildly, I recon that Velcro you found would work – maybe go for 3cm though. Needs to cover the base and extend a couple of cm up the inside. Lots on Amazon.

Here are some images of a Velco solution on a nice new Orange 5.

Close up of underside

Length of swing arm

Inside of swingarm

Cheers.

Wildly, as promised here are some photos. I’ll pop them in the thread you started as well for others to find. Apologies for the blue tint to the images I had to enhance the shadows to better detail the Velcro, had a knock on effect…

Close up of underside

Length of swing arm

Inside of swingarm

Cheers.

Wildly, the chain only hits the bottom and inside as you know. The ‘loop’ side of velcro provides plenty of protection and sticks nicely to the swingarm. Use Velcro an inch thick or so and start from the outer edge of the bottom and wrap round and inside. If you look closely at the pic you can see a black strip running up the length of the swingarm.

I’ll post some pics later.