And I was worried it’d look too much like a Cotic! Its really hard to try keep it unique when really the only thing to make it individual is the paint job. All steel hardtails look similar in one way or another! I’ve always liked the white band and this frame is my own personal one so I went for it :-)

Hey all its Adrian here from Swarf, I’m usually a lurker on here but thought I add a bit of info to this. Cheers for the comments!!

Chainstay length on the red frame is 435, top tube 585, SA 75 and head angle 67.5 degrees (angles are based on it sagged 25%) Its built around 120mm fork and so far seems to go really nicely. I’ll probably spend a few weeks razzing it about and when I’m happy its good I’ll make this available with this geometry.

The adventure frame is very similar but is built around a 100mm fork and has a 70 degree head angle with 74 degree seat angle….

Both use 853 front ends and columbus rear ends.

Adrian

Edit! dropouts and geometry are all be easy to change if required!

[Wear gloves whilst doing it (infact wear 2 pairs, you’ll stick your fingers together and pull them apart at least once!), and do it outside, it’s very easy to become sensitised to epoxy then you’ll be alergic to it for life. If you do get it on your skin, acetone nail polish remover will disolve it as long as it’s still liquid.]

I dont normally post on here but seeing stuff that is way off the mark gets my goat…

The chances of becoming sensitised from one use of an adhesive epoxy to re-bond a seatpost shim back into a carbon frame are almost zero! As long as you dont eat the stuff you’ll be fine indoors and without gloves.

If you do get it on your skin simply wash it off with soap and water. Using acetone is the worst possible thing to do, it dilutes the epoxy and all the nasty stuff is absorbed much easier into the skin.

Got to love the internet for miss leading information!

A

Hi all Adrian here from Swarf, I’m a singletrack lurker, I rarely get involved so go easy on me!

Ok so a bit more info as there seems to be a reasonable level of interest.
The guards on geetee’s bike are 35mm wide internally and weigh 200g, we’re also working on a slightly wider version and a slightly narrower version.

We are also developing a mounting kit which will include carbon stays and we have come up with a method for fitting to race bikes without rack mounts. The prototype stays with fittings were 30g each.

We want to make sure things work well and are as light and strong as possible before we start selling these properly. I’ll keep the Swarf Facebook page up to date with all progress…..

And finally the main thing you all care about, price….. Well until we have finalised all the details we don’t yet know how much they will retail for. I can say that they will be more costly than mass produced products! Composites are relatively expensive and very labour intensive. We will be making by hand one pair at a time rather than churned out……

Hope that helps

Adrian

Hey WL

I use to run some on my five. unless they have changed the mounting hardware I’d get two, one will make sod all difference. What’s the offset on the ones you are looking at? I made mine and from memory I had 1.5mm, so that’s 3mm total. The leverage ratio on a five is around 2.7 to 1 so the rear wheel ended up sitting 8.1mm higher up (2.7 x 3). This equates to about 5mm bb drop and less than half a degree on the head angle. There’s no way in the world to achieve 1.5-2 degree change in head angle with bushes!

loose bb? check chainring bolts are tight. doesn’t sound like bushes/bearings on the back end as you’d not notice these when on the bike.

I too cant wait to see some decent light weight gearboxes, I’m dead keen to build a high pivot frame with the geabox built into the frame (like the Zerode and Lahar) but without the bulk of the currently available hub gears. The pinion system looks interesting.

Loco, ref the Swarf frame above, there is a small link that connects the lowest point of the rocker to the seat tube.

I’m running a 2.35 Hans Damph in an old set of Pikes as a trial and I get around 1mm clearance! Only ridden it in the dry for obvious reasons. 8mm sounds good to me!

Hey Will, its Adrian here from BV last year!

I love Alligator dual compound ceramic pads.I get mine from eBay, 20 quid for 4 Pairs.I was getting 6 weeks out of a pair in Verbier last summer. great stopping power and last forever.

Get some!

Ignore my post above! had it in my head we were on about rigid forks! apologies

I’ve got a pair of 93/94 project 2 forks that i want to get rid of. they are 1″ threaded steerer. I’ve also got a 1″ salsa steel quill stem to go with them. drop me an email if you are interested mrbedfo at googlemail.com

No worries, yeah nothing better than trying one. I reckon the CCDB will just about fit!

We’ve had demo bikes from orange in the past (old st4 and a five) and they both came fitted with the bigest fork they’d take, so with any luck it’ll have the 36 up front!

Good luck with it!

My other half has a Five Diva long, 2011 frame. She runs it with a pike for uk and a 36 van for the alps and DH. The bigger fork does change the feel of it a fair bit and makes it a bit much for general use, however it’s awesome for the alps/uplifting. In general its a great bike, really confidence inspiring.

I have a fox van rc that fits the frame just, (piggy back facing down and mounted at the swingarm) if you fancy to measuring up the CCDB and let me know the dimensions, I should be able to tell you how it compares?

+1 it’ll be too short, my other half is 5’3″ ish and is on a 14 long, she also gets on fine on my 16″ with 50mm stem. I seem to remember there only being 10mm difference in TT length between the 14L Diva and normal 16″ frame.

I bought a 2008 ST4 frame on a discount from Rutlands for £800, it broke after 4 months. When it went back for warranty replacement I asked Rutlands to find out if I could upgrade to a Five. I was expecting to have to pay the extra for the upgrade. But no, Orange sorted me out with a 2010 five frame for nothing and it turned up in a week. They were going to send me a 2011 frame but it would have had to wait for paint, they had the 2010 knocking about and offered me the choice…

Brilliant service!

Hi Greg and Mike bit of a verbier renuion here eh!

Edd, how was Whistler? Jay and Gen are on top form at the moment….

Just want to add that Sarah and I had the most awesome 2 weeks biking of our lives out in Verbier, the second week for me was the most memorable as we had a better group, more filthy banter! (although the triple entendre from the first week will stay with me forever!).

Amazing trails, great people, great food, it’s all there….

2 weeks, 320 miles on the bike, 50,000m descending, No rain, 2 flats, a couple of little crashes, 1 dirty burger on the way home! Perfect. And best of all the bike survived!!

A

I have a Transit connect SWB (the lower one) and I can fit 3 bikes fully built easily. I have no idea what thomthumb is on about, there is loads of clearance to the roof. I have had full on DH bikes in mine and they go in fine with space to spare.

Great little van

Well just thought i'd finish this thread off now that everything has been sorted.

The frame went back to Rutlands and Orange have been amazing. I decided I didnt want another ST4 as although they ride brilliantly they just are not up to what I was asking of it. Orange took my 08 ST4 and replaced it with a 2010 Five for no extra cost! I didnt really weant a five but it does seem to be the only 140mm frame out there that can take a bit of stick. I'll learn to love I I reckon.

Just building it up tonight, Orange service is top!

Paint does not just crack, that is on its way out, i've got almost identical pics from my old meta frames.

You dont need to scrape/burn/nitromors the paint off for a better look, that is a classic fatigue crack, right on the base of the weld.

How long have you had it? If its got warranty, send it back, if not keep an eye on it whilst you look for a new frame.

Mattstreet, I'm not sure I could get the crack to show up on a photo as it currently is, its tiny. I'm off to Verbier for a week at the end of the month, I imagine that'll open it up a bit! Will get some pics and get it back to Orange then, will keep you all posted on how I get on…..

Bigbob, Sorry every warranty replacement I had was an entire frame and I flogged the last one. So I have no Spare commencal parts.

j_me yeah I bought it new. Rutlands cycles had a batch of small 08 frames that they were selling at a discounted price. I'm assured I have the standard warranty on it.

Its not just the paint, it is running through the weld. I am an aerospace engineer and have a fair idea of a crack when I see one, paint on a weld does not just crack! Most people wouldnt even notice it but I have become pretty good at spotting these little cracks after so many commencals!

I think there probably have been a few issues with the original frames, I have noticed that on the newer models the weld has been brought round the top of the rocker mount slightly.

Rubberneck, thanks for the usefull advice… I rode a 5 and ST4 (demo bikes sent from Orange) together for a day on the DH trails at the forest of dean, in comparison to the ST4 the 5 felt like a bag of spanners, just didnt get on with it. In my book the ST4 is a better bike, I wont be exchanging it for a 5!