Five Factory - 2017

The hardworking Five has been a stalwart of the Orange range for a long time. It’s tough, reliable and capable. The harder you push it the happier it seems to be. So we better make sure we don’t mess with it right?

It was last updated a year and a half ago, it was time to see what we could do for the new Five. We liked the way the Four rode, and how it’s suspension action had a really active feel to it, we set about seeing how we could bring this same element to the Five’s set-up. To add the new compact rear suspension layout to the Five would be ideal, but where would we fit the shock? In theory lower in the frame, in practice, not so easy. But if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing, and the guys in the frame department came up with the goods. Like the solving of a complex engineering puzzle we worked out a way to lower the shock by adding a new pressing in the fabrication of the downtube, leading the way to the compact rear on the Five and improving the shock’s ramp-up at the same time.

That isn’t all, we’ve added extra strength-forming features to all the major frame assemblies, improving resistance to lateral flex and twisting forces. Boost sizing at the rear hub and an extra 6mm in the pivot spacing helps here too, enabling us to add more tyre clearance.

And if that’s not enough, the CNC department found weight savings in the billet machined parts to build up the lightest Five we’ve ever produced.

Geometry is optimised for a 150mm travel fork, while the rear sits at the 140mm trail bike sweet spot.

We love the ride of the new Five, it’s lively ‘pop’ has to be experienced, and when pushed hard the bike gives back to the rider. Grip, feel and a lively ride all there in abundance.