Were there not differences in bearings as in the move to stainless steal? I believe as above you can convert a Pro2 to an evo, could be wrong though

I have been a salesman, sales manager, business manager in a dealership. Still in the industry now but from a different aspect. Rather not share exactly who I work with directly but always happy to help a singletrack forum member with industry tips.

The truth is nowadays margins are very poor for dealerships both new and used cars. The auction market is very busy and prices currently are at their seasonal high NickJb I am guessing you were at Manheim Colchester which is 4 lanes and europes largest car auction.

The retail car market has changed massively over the
Last few years and is set to change further. Very few bad cars or proper franchised dealer groups so pick a car and set your budget, don’t expect massive discounts anymore as if you are getting one the likelihood is the car was overpriced in the first place!

I road my friends large Dude and it felt absolutely spot on size wise. I am only 5’9 with a 30″ inside leg and did not notice any standover issues at all. The longer reach of the large felt fantastic. It’s a bloody great bike, when I buy a replacement fatty at the end of the year I’m going for a rigid Dude. Amazing value and a genuinely very good bike.

The reality of ‘real rider’ use is that smaller chainrings with 1x setups are what people need to enjoy their ride and not worry about pushing up steeper or longer climbs. I would rather be slower and ride up than have internet bravado and a bit chainring only to push up a hill. As for too end speeds, to be honest it’s only an issue on fireroad descents and I try and stay off them. Doubt many normal people are pedalling 80rpm at around 20mph on a technical or even long descent.

I do like the fact that you can choose your gear ratios fairly easily now. When my current rings wear out I’m going up a chainring size and swapping out to a sunrace 11 speed cassette for better spread of gears

So I butchered an old set of 26″ recon golds my mate gave me. Different airshaft but it fits and seems to be working perfectly!

Well i actually have a set of older 26″ Golds my friend gave me to canabalise for parts. I have taken the airshaft out and it should fit but obviously the leg length is different! Balls will give it a go whats the worse that could happen

I have Sixc’s and they have been great so far. Light, stiff and seem strong. But there are loads of reports of failures. To my mind one of the issues is that Race Face do not torque the arms up correctly in the factory and you need a whooping 16mm Allen key to donthis yourself. I did mine out of the box, the drive side crank was loose. No problems at all. They replaced a set of Hope cranks. Which were without doubt the worse cranks I have ever owned . At the time you could only buy a hope chain ring (expensive) they creaked constantly. Overly complicated with a preload ring made of cheese and a very poor design, slots cut into the axle create a weak spot and funnily my crank axle snapped, Hope said they had never seen another like it. My lbs had already replaced 4! Sure they look sweet, but for a produce that took hope years to ‘develop’ they are woefully poor and actually bloody heavy!

I must say, I have had one eye on one of these shocks for a while now. I used to love my old CC coil shock, but its weight and lack of pedal function limited it for my type of riding. I would be fitting it to my new Orange Five, so would love to hear experiences from anyone thats fitted one. Especially the climb switch.

I have a used once tin of putoline if anyone fancies trying it. Its not for me!

No, it feel absolutely fine. Happy to share a picture if needs be. The whole setup looks like it was “meant to be” and not cobbled together at all.

Can you not take your current Non-drive side end cap to a local engineering fir and get them to make a replica but slightly longer. Then buy one of the disc spacers off ebay and re-dish your wheel? I purchased a boostinator kit and had my rear re-dished on my XM1501’s no real hassle to be honest. My LBS charged me £5 to re-dish the wheel (took all of 5 minutes)

My converted rear hub is great, The wheels are only 6 months old and I like them so it didnt seem worth the hassle of buying a new boost specific set. Same with my forks, which again were fairly recent set of 36’s. Really happy with the whole setup to be honest and see no need to change short of smashing the rear wheel to bits.

Mine seized solid after about a month of use, stripped them to regrease but the axles were pitted and in a sort state. I binned them. Buy cheap buy twice came to mind. I would buy the plastic nukeproofs if I was after a budget pedal again

Once off the fireroads it’s good fun. I love a good climb but, the seemingly endless fire roads numbed the ride for me a little I wouldn’t rush back to be honest

Autotrader is now completely driven by price. You need to be the cheapest in your area and have to be on the top of the searches to even get a proper enquiry nowadays. Try and pitch the price around £50 cheaper than others within 100 mile radius of your address. Take lots of photos and good quality ones. Take the car to a nice, well lit location. I always took photos of cars I sold next to either a neutral background or in the local park. Just try and present the car in the best possible way.

Just remember the cheapest comparative car with the best photos, is he car that gets the most clicks. Sad, but true.

Loved my old inbred 29er, was one of my favourite ever bikes. I have been toying with buying another frame and building one up as a winter bike. But have been always stopped myself mainly because of On Ones pricing, it would do my head in if they dropped them by 50% the week i ordered one. But also because I remember the ball ache of trying to find straight steerer 29er forks of descent quality. I would also like to fit a dropper nowadays and the choice is very limited with 27.2

That Airdrop Edit V2 is a nice looking frame. Glad they have now made a stealth routed option as the original, which seemed crazy to me,

Can’t you go for one of the droppers with the shorter collars? Was it the Bikeyoke dropper that had a slim top collar?

Report him to pinkbike, the. Post the story on their scammers thread here:

http://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=17388&pagenum=655

I have a brand new boxed 30.9 Reverb 150mm B1. Which is now my second warranty replacement. First after 5 rides started to sag. Second after 10 rides developed some kind of resistance whilst dropping when raised back up the stanchion was scored and it would barely move. Both replaced.

I bought a brand X dropper which was £110 and has been faultless albeit with only 125mm of drop. I am not fitting the replacement and will be selling it… Such a shame as when they are working they are a great post.

Been looking at the fox transfer, which i will likely buy but waiting another month or so for some slightly longer term reviews.

Recently made the switch from an Andreani tuned pick rct3 to a Fox 36 RC2 factory 2016. The difference is staggering. Fork has better small bump sensitivity sits in the mid travel better feels endless without feeling harsh. I owed. Ever to buy a Fox product again after their 2013 tripe, glad I changed my mind after trying the 36

Actually deviant we are on the same page here. Like I have said earlier in this post. I wouldn’t buy a full build orange. Adding hope parts to something a charging a premium is short sighted to me. I prefer to spec my own bike. Perhaps I am one of the few orange owners who does not rate hope products. But to me it’s no selling point. In fact the only parts I would keep on that build are the forks, shock, seat post and groupset. All of which I would find cheaper online.

I kind of guess this emphasise my point. I would only buy an orange frame, as actually they are priced inline with everything else. I like how they ride and they work for the amount and places I ride. Full build…forget it!

Im really not sure why people get so annoyed around what others spend their money on. I mean its not like they built an Ebike or anything……

Wait, what? Aren’t we comparing to:

https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bikes/stage-5-le

The Canyon you linked you has £1000 groupset, that Orange has a £300 one. The wheels on the Canyon are double the price. Not to mention it’s carbon.

No, I was comparing to the £2500-2900 sort of models. Aluminium, GX instead of XT. Admittedly those Lyric RC are only £700 to the £850 Fox, that’s about it though? Tragically I’d bet money the Canyons frame would be a good chunk lighter.

The main difference is you’re spending £3000 for some guy to weld it together and a distributor to shift it around. I still think they’d be more competitive if they sold direct.

Well to be honest we are both wrong, so you are not comparing apples with apples or oranges with Canyons to be brutally honest.

The spec on the Orange is as follows:
Fox 36 RC2 Boost £1059
X2 Rear shock £619
Fox Fctory Transfer £370
XT Groupset £300
Hope Cranks £250
Hope Brakes £300
Renthal carbon bars and stem £200
Hope Hubs on Easton Arc 30’s – £500 (guess)

The model strive i linked has:
Same Forks
Cheaper Rear shock
Cheaper Dropper
Comparable wheels (i actually have 1501’s and replaced Easton arcs with them so i prefer the canyon option They are certainly not double the price and not carbon)
YEs it has Eagle – but i personally would pay extra to remove all SRAM from my bike
Guide brakes – See above.

If you look at the two bikes side by side you can see that the spec on the Orange is superior. All bar the groupset and arguably the wheels.

Now this is where it gets interesting and i counter my arugment….

I actually have an Orange five built to the spec of the Stage 5…. I got rid of all the hope stuff as its overrated in my opinion (cranks and brakes) I replaced my wheels with XM1501’s But I would not run SRAM kit on a bike again. The point is you cannot buy a 2 x Canyons for the price of that Orange new. In fact it isnt as far away in price as you would think. Especially if you upgraded the shock on the Canyon to the Orange spec, Brakes and other bits to match.

Buy a spare then. You can buy 2 Canyons with similar level kit for the same money.

No you can’t, you can buy two canyons but not the same spec the same spec is

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/strive/2017/strive-cf-9-0-race.html

By the way want to do a frame only canyon build. The frame is £2600. Orange will start around £1600. That said who the hell would buy a canyon frame only to build up at that price!?!?

Are filing cabinets not pressed steel? If so surely more accurate description of a cotic ?

Upper middle class….Wow, I am not sure if thats a compliment or a kick in the nuts.

FWIW my family background is hardly that. My father worked hard in UK engineering and manufacturing, from apprentice through to directorships. I myself am hardly middle class, no university education here. Just someone that works hard and has different appreciations to you. I like UK built things, its not the be all and end all. But its something I value. Especially when in comparison the frames are the same price as most other manufacturers.

Because they can get away with it??? Really??? Are orange owners really that limited in choice that they are forced to spend £££ on a bike….come one have a word with yourself. Price vs value is different between person. What I perceive as value is very different to the next person. I find Orange frames good value, I find their complete build prices too much and as such poor value. I would not buy SRAM groupsets as I find the price vs the shoddiness poor value. Everyone is different and the nice thing about the mtb industry is there is so much variety and options available we can all make purchasing decisions based on our own perceptions of value vs cost.

If you like single pivot bikes built for the uk conditions then they are great.

Grease ports in my linkages, keeps everything nice and smooth. The single pivot low UK maintenance is a myth, good design gets round the multi pivot problem

Who said I was talking about the single pivot being the part suited to uk conditions? It’s not just about the pivot is it? Good old threaded Bb’s, thought around cable routing, a durable finish.

Better shapes, less manufacturing constraints etc. stiffness and flex where you want it.

Are you saying that’s not possible with alloy frames then? Sure there are benefits to carbon but there are also disadvantages. Is it not nice to have a choice nowadays?

How are Orange still surviving…

You not go to many local MTB spots do you? They are everywhere! Probably second only to YT Capras

Who is to say that carbon is better than alloy anyway?
Like I have said compare orange frame pricing to many other manufacturers and it’s there or there abouts. If you like single pivot bikes built for the uk conditions then they are great. Price wise completely comparable to other small brands full build prices pissed I have to admit.

As to weight my 2017 Five weights in at 28lbs with heavy tyres. Which is lighter than many of my friends carbon bikes. Thing is with Orange is its fashionable to hate them so people either sit in one of two camps – haters and fanbois.

I sure they will. My point is the frame only options are pretty much on a track with most other smaller manufacturers. Given that orange are hand built in the uk, I think the pricing is pretty good when you consider they have to pay their staff UK rates. Comparing a frame only purchase to a discounted entry level Whyte is unfair. There are many bikes cheaper than your Whyte. Different people see value at different levels, which is fine and great that we have the variety.

I think £2000 with an x2 is pretty par for the course. You will no doubt be able to buy a frame with a slightly lower spec shock for £1600 like every other orange full suspension in the range. Sunset cycles will then chuck in a hope headset and customs colour option as always.

For comparison a Cotic Rocket is £1500 with an x-fusion shock. So the Orange is priced pretty fairly in comparison. That said I just can’t see why anyone would want to spend £5500 on the full build!

I suspect like every other orange you can buy it frame only. In which case it will be priced similarly to virtually every other FS frame about £1500-£1600. I would never buy a full build orange as they are too expensive and generally I would want to change things. I have a
2017 Orange Five, purchased frame only. It is light years ahead of previous model fives. Rides like
An absolute dream

Russyh – get some SRAM Guides…. or the older M785 XTs that were more reliable

I’m tempted by some 785’s apart from the pikey chrome levers. Wouldn’t touch SRAM kit again I’m afraid. If my 8000’s are bad it’s nothing compared to the shit I have owned from Sram over the years.

I owned a set of hope e4’s. Very underwhelmed by them. They just never felt right and were always disappointing given how much they cost. I sold them and bought some m8000’s. Frankly in hindsight that was a mistake. Shimano have not fixed the issues with them. So far I have had two calliper seals fail and my rear brake biting point is all over the place. These are fresh brakes as well not something that’s old stock. Very disappointing.

Been using them for a while and happy with them I prefer the slimmer version despite having fairly substantial hands

I have been running a boostinator kit on my DT Swiss 1501’s in 650b flavour for over a month now. Including 2 trips to BPW and Afan as well as DH trails at FOD . I have neither died year nor had any issues whatsoever. The only issue I have had in fact was the crappy handle on my maxle snapping off. But that’s SRAM crap and not related in anyway

I wouldn’t worry about Carbon, we have been using it in boats for years. Left out in the sun all year, frost used in salt water and sand. Put under huge static and shock tensions. Holes drilled all over it. A bit of mic off ain’t going to damage anything. That said make sure you wash it off properly or you may affect the finish.

I would say you are really pushing your luck. My wife had one and with the rear seats folded and wheels removed you may just squeeze it in. But it will depend on bike size bar width etc. We just upgraded my wife’s mini to the Countryman model as with two kids we had outgrown the old mini. The Countryman is a great car but bloody massive in comparison! Would easily take a bike with just the front removed I would say!

Got to be honest I love my gamut podiums. super light, look cool nice size. But I have absolutely battered them and the pins are made of cheese. When they eventually die I will replace with plastic nukes. Bang for buck I don’t think you can beat them. Certainly much better than the Nano’s nowadays! They seem to of gone backwards since production was moved back in house