Orange Five

*AJ*

Retro Guru
New project for me, treated myself to an Orange Five for my 30th.



The parts from the Mega will be transferred over to this.

Need to nip it down to the bike shop to get the Hope headset pressed in and then I'll get going on the build.
 
Got it built today!

Nipped to my mates bike shop first to use his headset press, then came home and set about taking the nukeproof apart.



15 mins and got it to this stage lol!





Then started on the Five



Took a bit longer to rebuild, but not too long. Took the opportunity to clean most if the bits whilst it was apart.

As the old chain device wouldn't fit I thought I'd give a hope retainer ring a try.

This was it when it was first built, the gold didn't look as offensive as I first thought.







Then I changed the stem as I still had the black 50mm Thomson one knocking around in the garage, which I think looks better.

 
amazing OrangeFive!
probably, all that gold anodized components that were great on the NPmega frame couldn't have the same good "visual impact" on the Fluo-yellow frame, but you have assembled one of my favourite (with 2003-2007ed SC Heckler and other 3 or four...) "Trail-AllMountain" frame of ever!
 
That is absolutely awesome, I first I didn't like the 5's but they've grown on my, wish I'd bought one instead of my 575.
 
You won't misplace that easily! I love fluro colours and wish I'd been brave enough to opt for the yellow instead of black.

How come you've moved away from the Mega? Was it to do with the bike / ride or a just because thing.

The narrow wide rings are ace. Mines been great even at places like Antur.
 
The Mega was a very very good bike. The only reason I got rid of it was because it was too small for me. It was a 17” frame, which is about what I like to ride, but on the 2012 Mega the top tubes were very short. They had a long wheelbase, but the length was all behind the rider in the chain stays, which made the bike hard to pop onto the back wheel.

I'm 6 foot 1(ish) but only have 31” legs, so my length is all in my body which didn’t work too well with a short top tube and steep seat angle. I always felt like I was sitting very far forward on the bike rather than comfortably in the natural position (even with a lay back seat post).

I do believe that the newer Mega (TR) has a longer top tube and shorter chainstays with a more relaxed seat angle so im pretty sure they ironed out everything I didn’t like about mine so I had every intention of replacing it with a newer mega, but I didn’t want the monarch shock again.

However, a friend of mine came out on his Five the other week and I had a quick blast. I instantly felt much more at home on the bike and it just fitted right (mainly down to the longer top tube and shorter stays). So I searched for one and came across this on pinkbike. With it being a maxle/tapered headtube model I jumped at it as it meant I didn’t have to buy a load of new parts.
 
Re:

Got to love a 5. :cool:

Had a 2006 and 2009 but now on to the 5 29 which is just as ace although about to go up for sale to pay for the last few months of my gf's maternity leave. :roll:

5, Alpine 5 or Segment coming in the new year though. :mrgreen:
 
*AJ*":1z7apevs said:
The Mega was a very very good bike. The only reason I got rid of it was because it was too small for me. It was a 17” frame, which is about what I like to ride, but on the 2012 Mega the top tubes were very short. They had a long wheelbase, but the length was all behind the rider in the chain stays, which made the bike hard to pop onto the back wheel.

I'm 6 foot 1(ish) but only have 31” legs, so my length is all in my body which didn’t work too well with a short top tube and steep seat angle. I always felt like I was sitting very far forward on the bike rather than comfortably in the natural position (even with a lay back seat post).

I do believe that the newer Mega (TR) has a longer top tube and shorter chainstays with a more relaxed seat angle so im pretty sure they ironed out everything I didn’t like about mine so I had every intention of replacing it with a newer mega, but I didn’t want the monarch shock again.

However, a friend of mine came out on his Five the other week and I had a quick blast. I instantly felt much more at home on the bike and it just fitted right (mainly down to the longer top tube and shorter stays). So I searched for one and came across this on pinkbike. With it being a maxle/tapered headtube model I jumped at it as it meant I didn’t have to buy a load of new parts.

Fair enough. I was just being nosey really!

Short top tubes are a real bug bear of mine these days now that I've drunk the modern geometry kool aid! Santa Cruz were one of the worst offenders. The steep seat angles make sense with a slack head angle to try and keep weight forward for climbing etc but you need a long top tube or it's cramped.

A few reviews have mentioned that the Mega geometry almost feels like two bikes in one.
 
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