Orange Five Pro, feat. Ghetto tubeless and SRAMano shifting

Madmax1993

Orange 🍊 Fan
Feedback
View
A couple of years ago, I bought a NOS Voodoo Canzo 2010 frame and swapped most of the parts from my hardtail at the time, apart from the fox RP23 shock and a set of 2009 Rockshox Pike 454 U-Turn forks. The following year I used my cycle to work scheme to get an SLX 1x10 groupset including brakes. This being my first full suss frame and not having anything to compare it to, I was pretty happy with it.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I came across a 2009 Orange Five Pro frame on gumtree, at a price I couldn't resist. I should point out that as a teenager, I coveted the Five as a dream bike, so this was a dream come true. Being an older frame, it has QR dropouts, and uses an external cup, straight steerer headset, meaning that everything from the Canzo was a straight swap. Having run it for a couple of trips to glentress and the like, I was thrilled, but started getting ideas at the same time.

1. 11-36 is an inadequate ratio for a 1x drivetrain
2. Orange frames need fox forks. My pikes are fine and all, but Orange/fox/hope are meant to go together.
3. Orange frames need Hope brakes/hubs. Same logic as point 2.
4. I've wanted to go tubeless for a while, so why not now?

Rather than spend £50~ on a Shimano cassette, I thought I'd give an eBay special 'zitto' cassette a go: 11-42 ratio, bit on the heavy side, but pretty functional. However, I didn't swP in the longer B screw provided with the cassette, which lead to the tiniest of twigs ruining my rear mech, which in turn meant I had to get a newer slx rear mech before I could continue with the rest of the project.

Next I began shopping around for 140mm fox forks, and realised that ones matching my 20mm thru axle pikes were pretty unusual, so it would be worth procuring some Hope Pro II hubs which are super easy to change between QR, 15mm and 20mm on the front, and between QR, 10mm and 12mm thru axle rear. I chose to set my sights on Pro II as Evos and Pro 4s are just too expensive for me just now.
I found a front Pro II hub laced onto a Stan's rim, set up with my favoured Mountain king tyre, running tubeless on eBay, and bought it. Tubeless was now halfway done, and I was on the hunt for a fork. When researching hope hubs, I came across the 10mm thru axle format, and the idea of using them with a big beefy skewer on QR dropouts seemed like a good way to maximise the capability of my frame, so I picked up a Pro II rear hub laced onto a WTB rim, a 10mm thru axle kit, and a vision 10mm axle skewer, and decided to give 'ghetto' tubeless ago.
I had previously tried ghetto tubeless on my Mavic 321 rim with used Mountain king tyres, but could never get the tyre to seat. I tried home made bottle bombs, schwalbe air shot canisters, compressors, the works, but no joy. This time round was no different, until I swapped out the used tyre for a new one, and it popped into place first go, at a much lower canister pressure than I had been using.
*Conclusion* My old tyres were past it (for tubeless), and way too porous to work. I finished the rear wheel setup with 2/3 of a bottle of sealant, and topped up the front wheel with the other third.
The method I used was gorilla tape on the rim, and a removable core presta valve cut out from a tube, in case anyone else wants to try, or has any questions about the process.

During this time, I picked up a Fox Float 32 RL from Timoth27 on here, who kindly replied to my wanted ad. I got that fitted, and now the bike is done, at least until some more funds have gathered, when I may reconsider the option of Hope brakes. That said, I can't fault my SLX M675s, they've always been excellent and never let me done, so we'll see how we go.

The final spec is as follows

Frame: 18" Orange Five Pro
Headset: onza mongo (red)
Fork: fox float RL 140mm travel, 15mm thru axle, straight steerer
Shock: fox float RP23 boost valve
Seat post: Xfusion 27.2mm dropper
Saddle: charge spoon
Stem: Raceface 60mm long, 31.8mm oversize
Bars: RSP carbon DH riser
Shifter: SLX 10 speed (675?)
Rear mech: SLX 7000 10spd
Chainset: SLX 1X, RSP narrow wide 34t chainring
Brakes: SLX 675, 180mm icetech floating rotors
Hubs: hope Pro II
front rim: Stan's ZTR355 26"
Rear rim: WTB laserdisc 26"
Front tyre: conti MK 26X2.4
Rear tyre: conti MK 26x2.2

2009 may be considered retro by today's standards, but this is way more bike than I strictly need, and I love it. So that's my long winded story to date.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20170424_145559_1542759976731.jpg
    IMG_20170424_145559_1542759976731.jpg
    297 KB · Views: 2,522
  • IMG_25112018_103835_(1080_x_608_pixel).jpg
    IMG_25112018_103835_(1080_x_608_pixel).jpg
    123.2 KB · Views: 2,520
Re:

Great bit of history there max, thanks for the email with the pics it was actually nice to see where they ended up, looks really good by the way. As for the brakes I have to be honest all my bikes have hope brakes, I’m a big hope fan (just counted up an I have half a dozen sets) I love them and even my 96 c2 is still going on my heckler. (Really must get round to doing a few build threads) I’ve got c2s, mono minis, monos, techs and tech 3s mixed with 2 and 4 piston callipers. They do come up on here so keep an eye out.

Thanks

Tim
 
Re:

So for its first outing with the new kit, I decided to try out night riding at glentress after work on Sunday last week. This was a bit of a baptism of fire, as you really don't want to be dealing with mechanical gremlins traliside, in the dark, in winter. Luckily the bike performed faultlessly, and it was an amazing experience.

If anyone's interested, I've written a little review of the light I used, a Bikehut (of all brands) 1600 lumen usb rechargeable number, which only cost £35 thanks to black Friday deals, but even at £50 the usual price, it's a bit of a bargain.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_25112018_104108_(1080_x_608_pixel).jpg
    IMG_25112018_104108_(1080_x_608_pixel).jpg
    72.3 KB · Views: 2,517
Re: Voodoo Canzo / Orange Five Pro, with Ghetto tubeless saga

Madmax1993":3ocxe8od said:
2. Orange frames need fox forks. My pikes are fine and all, but Orange/fox/hope are meant to go together.
3. Orange frames need Hope brakes/hubs. Same logic as point 2.

:D :D

Great bike! Still see plenty old Fives knocking around. I got a 2013 last of the 26'ers a few months back. My first full susser. Loving it.
 
Re: Voodoo Canzo / Orange Five Pro, with Ghetto tubeless saga

I had a 2011 Canzo. Horrible thing compared to a 2002 Orange Sub 5 that I had at the same time. Yours looks a dream!
 
Re:

Great stuff, the frame is a spitting image of my old one. That was a 2009 5 AM so came with 160mm Fox 36 Floats as standard! Oh, and Hope brakes. ;)
 
Re: Voodoo Canzo / Orange Five Pro, with Ghetto tubeless saga

Duxuk":j4buch07 said:
I had a 2011 Canzo. Horrible thing compared to a 2002 Orange Sub 5 that I had at the same time. Yours looks a dream!

I think the Voodoo's changed from US imported products, to Halfords owned between 2010 and 2011, which may have affected the overall quality of the bikes.
The other thing is that I built this from the frame up, so I wasn't tied to any Bobby basic spec from a shop.
I also fitted offset bushings to lower the bottom bracket which was a common complaint levelled at these bikes.

It was my first full suss, and with nothing to compare it to, it was a pretty good bike, but the orange does feel much more 'premium', and was the 'bike to have' when I was a teenager, so it's a dream come true to own.
 
Re: Voodoo Canzo / Orange Five Pro, with Ghetto tubeless saga

Yes, my Canzo was from Halfords, who have a new version now. The components were quite good. Much better than just about any £1000 bike. It just felt sluggish from day one. The Orange, on the other hand, was a hooligan tool, always encouraging me to go faster!
Well I like to blame the bike but it could have been my own fault.
 
Re:

Update for the new year:

I'm not getting on with my 10 speed set up, I suspect due to the zitto cassette. I've decided to try the 1x9 set up from my voodoo Wanga, with an old XTR (pre clutch) mech, a sunrace 11-40t cassette and a narrow wide chainring. As it's lacking a clutch mech, I'm also running a roller style chain guide and a bash guard, which wasn't necessary on the Wanga, but I'm a little concerned that the rear suspension may lead to chain dropping without it. I'll review the situation after a few rides and then decide.
I found a pair of Hope Tech M4 brakes at a good price on eBay, and couldn't resist buying them, thus completing the holy trinity of Orange/Fox/Hope on this build.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_31012019_093521_(1200_x_675_pixel).jpg
    IMG_31012019_093521_(1200_x_675_pixel).jpg
    104.7 KB · Views: 1,770
  • IMG_31012019_093549_(750_x_1333_pixel).jpg
    IMG_31012019_093549_(750_x_1333_pixel).jpg
    120.2 KB · Views: 1,770
  • IMG_31012019_093610_(750_x_1333_pixel).jpg
    IMG_31012019_093610_(750_x_1333_pixel).jpg
    115.2 KB · Views: 1,770
Back
Top