Orange have a reputation for building strong bikes that can take a hard time because Steve Wade is concerned with designing reliable bikes that don’t need regular maintenance. Look at all the guides that use them in the alps. The latest fad someone like Specialized come up with is only around until their profit pays for tooling, then out comes a new design with the marketing to tell you it’s better than the old.

Yeah the 5 is hyped, just as much as the first Specialized Enduro was, both aren’t ideal for every type of riding but then no bike is.

…” And while we’re at it, P7. Laughably overweight and overpriced… If it said On One on the side it’d cost £150″.

A P7 is made from reynolds 631. An On-one is made from 4130 chromoly steel, there’s a difference.

“If you are a trail centre mincer then the 5 will be wasted on you, ride the Lakes, Peaks and Alps and you will enjoy it lots”. – Agreed, it’s designed for tougher trails than the average UK trail centre has. Comparing it next to a Giant Trance X – please… You’d rattle one of those to death on a decent lakeland trail.

That’s brilliant thanks a lot! Just one question – where abouts is the rubber sleeve thing meant to be on the spring? Should it sit high up or in the middle or something else? Is it the large black thing in the middle of the spring in this pic? http://www.jejamescycles.com/pike-u-turn-spring-assembly-soft-id48178.html

Or is it more like a small O’ ring. Also I heard that you can apply a little heat with a lighter to it to shrink it so that it doesn’t fall down the spring again – wonder if that’s a good idea?

Thanks again!

Thanks all, yeah I’m not happy about the idea of 71 degree head angle! I’ll give it ago running a 140 fork wound down to 130. It was a bargain second hand but… kinda wish I’d just gone for a Heckler maybe.

MacBook Pro – no messin’!

Cheers but I don’t seem to have an email from you.

Thanks for the info. Yeah I have a raceface stem that has a 35mm stack height but it’s a little long so something like a Sunline or the on-one would be good. Cheers.

Can get everything I need into a pretty small Dakine bag. Generally mountainbikers are looking more and more silly these days, the whole motorcross influence doesn’t really help with people ambling around trail centres all padded up for a day in the alps.

Will be very noisey on a mtb tyre I’m told, although I’ve not used a mtb on one before, personally.
I’d put a slick on.

Yup 50 quid extra for rims they powder coat.

Kona Stab – Passportes du Soleil – jeeze!

Well Essex has some areas of riding that aren't bad – woodland singletrack near Chelmsford, Danbury is quite good. There's some races in nearby areas during the summer and a few decent bike shops around too that have club rides. It's all very tame compared to decent northern trails but it beats living in London! It's 45 mins to Liverpool St – can walk it to Faringdon from there.

Used to ride Kona Coiler everywhere – 34 pounds. Now ride Orange Subzero 32 and Cove Handjob at 28. Whenever I ride a really light bike it just feels flimsy. Of course it all depends where you wanna ride.

Seems a little pricey to me – but not too crazy. A bike shop will often charge £10 to fix a puncture, if a Brompton takes twice as long and you do go to Evans – then it's not going to be cheap.

It's a shame but no surprise that Evans have no local bike shop mentality at all.

Highly recommend an Orange Subzero if you can get hold of one of the frames – awesome geometry, reasonably light and will easily take a big fork like a 36 no probs.

If you do want an Evil Sov, I know someone selling a silver one in excellent condition, but personally I much prefer the sturdiness and feel of a subzero.

Right cheers everyone, looks like Cane Creek are doing a good job of making things more simple.

Interesting handle bar choice on the Altitude!

Would have thought a 150 or 160 would be spot on for the BFe and give it a good point of difference over your Soul. Either way it's gonna be a sweet ride.

Don't have a pic, but I've one of these http://orangebikes.co.uk/2005bikes/bikes.php?bike=subzero

How do I get a pic to appear in the post?

Looks good! Are those Fox forks 140mm?

"too much technical pedal intensive rocky climbing" – not really, not compared to decent trails in the Lakes.

I'd say its good, I enjoy it but it's pretty tame – depends what you are after really but none of it's that challenging.(inless you want to hit the big double jumps hidden away in the woods on a long decent!).

Do it on a hard tail if you have the choice. There's some nice swoopy sections in the woods.

Yup, Canon do know better than to keep on increasing pixel counts – the newer models don't suffer from the same noise problems as the now relatively old 50D. The 7D is in a different league, it also uses a different type of sensor – I think it may be slightly bigger too.

The 40D was a better camera for the money than the 50D. 50D never got glowing reviews and it came out around the time that Nikon were making cameras that coped with noise far better which didn't help.

I'm hoping Canon ditch the 50D and bring out something else to compete with Nikon in that price band.

That tandem S-WORKS is nuts!

Also if you like the computer editing side digital photography, get hold of adobe lightroom, aperture etc and photoshop. You can then shoot in RAW mode and edit the pics far better than those you take in JPEG. Really will make a big difference 🙂

It's a great camera for the money it was back when it first came out. I got one in 2005 I think it was – 600ish quid back then. So long as it's in good condition – it's gotta be worth it. I've used mine a lot over the years – took it travelling around the world where I used it almost every day for a year and it held up fine.

Advantage over more expensive models is it doesn't weigh as much. Main disadvantage is general pic quality (although for the £ it's good!) but this can be improved by a better quality lens – quality of lens can have more effect than number of mega pixels.
Also in ISOs over 400, pics can get a bit grainy (refered to as 'noise') with the cheaper Canons but you'll only really notice this in low light conditions, over all you can't go wrong with the canon and nikons at the cheaper end of the market.

(Only Canon I'd avoid is the 50d – too many mega pixels crammed into the sensor creating too much noise – hence grainy pics).

Orange Subzero BH with knackered manitou shemans, but once I replace them it'll be flying again. Such a capable, confidence inspiring bike.

I was umming and arrhhing a while back on whether to fork out for the proper Wacom or the cheaper Bamboo – opted for the Bamboo in the end – it's not as sensitive and you do notice it slightly with airbrushing in photoshop etc but I'm happy to have saved the money with the Bamboo – for 90% of stuff it's fine.

Teetosugars – are you still interested in selling your Heckler frame?

Someone who enthuses about trails more than bikes!

Just stay clear of the cheaper FSA ones

Depends on what you want from sport. I think it's dull and often dictated by a ref's poor decision.
Footballers as sportman are some of the worst. Compare overpaid footballers rolling along the ground looking for a free kick to tour riders who have to ride on with broken collar bones and ribs.

I used to live in Saltaire (between Bingley and Shipley) It's nice there – good cafe stop for cakes! Ridden Bingley – Leeds section, mostly pretty nice. Get a lot of walkers with dogs and kids at the weekends and I mean a lot. I'd try and ride those areas early in the day or mid week.

All terrain cycles in Saltaire are good too.

Right, KMC it is then, thanks for the advice!

AH OK thanks for that.

Right thanks, also forgive me for being thick but I have no knowledge of road components – can you use a KMC or Sram chain with Campag gears?

I was wondering whether they make much difference too but got them as they are a fair bit stronger and thicker than the standard Hope black ones which to me are too thin especially compared to my old Hayes ones. I'm sure they'd make a difference in long descents.

So true what they say in the vid about a better bike being one that evolves with improved suspension and components rather than one produced by a company that changes it's frame design every three years once the tooling has paid for itself then scraping it and making a new one (Specialized etc).

They used to make them a few years back with a coil shock as an option – older frame design obviously.

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/2005bikes/bikes.php?bike=five#

I'd give Orange a bell/email and see what they suggest.