Descending This bike is one fun loving animal. It accelerates like a bat out hell, holds lines straight, even through disgusting choppy ground, and has enough mid-stroke and bottom out resistance to provide an excellently precise and speedy cornering experience without reaching the end of its travel too hastily on big, harsh hits. The suspension is composed and supple enough to absorb bumps you weren't necessarily planning on hitting, and the geometry helps make the bike rewarding to ride at speed while retaining plenty of pop and fizz when the trail slows down and tightens up.
Thanks to the relatively high single pivot, the Orange loves to be pumped and worked hard. Ridden like this, you'll get the most from the bike and I was surprised at the amount of speed you can generate on flatter sections of trail. The accelerating forces you can make from the bike and terrain could be in part created by the bike's small amount of chain growth as it compresses through its travel and in part thanks to its supportive suspension. It's much easier to generate speed on a bike that isn't wallowing around and absorbing all of your effort.
I've heard people talking about other Orange bikes with kickback that's pronounced enough to be felt through the pedals, blowing feet off and interrupting the suspension's movement, but in my experience, the Orange doesn't suffer from ride-ruining kickback, and the small amount that is there can only really be felt if you're riding unsympathetically. For example, if you hit a compression that has additional bumps the bike needs to absorb, it can feel reluctant to smooth them out. This normally results in the wheels making a dull thudding sound as they comply with the ground's form, but there are no dramatic foot-flying-off-pedals or kickback-induced moments.
On tight, technical sections the bike's shock and fork helps it stay higher in its travel compared to inherently less supportive competitors. This makes it much easier to turn quickly and maneuver where you want it to go - less of your energy is sapped up by compressing into its travel. The lengthy chainstays don't seem to affect the bike's impressive agility, either. The centering effect of the longer rear end means you don't need to pitch your body fore and aft as much to get the bike to move where you want it.
When hitting higher speeds I felt like the bike was stable and managed to absorb holes and compressions in its path no matter how aggressively they were taken. Once again, the fork and shock's fantastic damping coupled with the bikes inherent predictability kept position-correcting and energy-sapping body movements to an absolute minimum. Okay, so I'll admit this isn't the smoothest riding bike out there and trail chatter isn't ironed out totally, but that feedback is a welcome reminder that you're riding your bike on awesome trails rather than hooning it down a tarmac road. I wasn't left yearning for more suppleness or better suspension, and the bike performed precisely as you'd expect it should.
Under braking through rough or steep sections, the suspension wasn't as compliant, but this didn't result in the bike becoming unwieldy. It was perfectly manageable with technique - drop your heels, look where you want to go and get on with it. Admittedly, this is an inherent problem with the single pivot design, but the Stage's brake jack isn't bad enough to leave me thinking the bike should have a floating brake arm (remember these?) or make me want to stop riding.
This is one fantastic bike to ride no matter where you're going or how hard you're riding. It's just as comfortable cruising as it is hammering down the trail pushing your limits. The predictability of how the bike is going to react means that you can get away with being a bit wild or careless with your line choices without being punished or losing too much speed. The bike loves to accelerate and rewards involved and active riders with brisk increases of pace that are easy to manage and enjoy. You don't need to be in with a chance of getting on the EWS podium to have fun, and riders of all abilities will be able to get a buzz with the Stage between their legs.
*copyright singletrack forum
Maybe even an old Weyless XP?
Way more storage for phone, Keys, bar and water ans you dont feel it at all.
Finishing is not what you expect from a bike in this price range.
Seriously interested.
As orange are built for muddy UK winters, surely a gearbox would be how this brand can evolve and still keep the gate/filo looks!
Good geo and suspension make up for that.
Cuz' IMO it's not that this bike is better or not, it's expensive simply because it's not made oversea.
Taxes, health insurance, decent salary for the employees, etc, this is what makes this price.
I mean, this may be the actual "real" price of an aluminium bike. It's not that this one is expensive, it's the bikes made oversea that are way too cheap. Make a carbon frame in Europe and you have a Unno, now that's the real price of a carbon bike made in Europe. We're all spoiled kid because oil allows an unfair concurrency from oversea, then when we realise the "real price" of things, what we would all have to pay if we could only buy a bike made locally, we think it's expensive, but it's not.
Please elaborate more on this one. I see no connection between high pivot and pumping, please enlight me.
BTW I'm happy for him he does not need something smaller than a 32t with Eagle. But for me, with Maxxis DD tyres on long and mostly very steep climbs this is too much and I am better with a 28t. On such a bike that would give simply too much kickback.
There was a pretty good review on it here
www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/bikes/mountain-bikes/full-suspension/product/review-empire-cycles-mx6-evo-15-custom-build-49455
Btw, antisuquat and kickback are very related to each other in a single pivot design.
Ugly!
But my water bottle
Single pivot sucks
Better than 4 bar
Reviewer should have compared to [X]
#26aintdead
Looks like a Session
Looks like a Jeffsy
Already tiresome Randy throwback
Did I get them all?
Would I judge all single pivots based on my Kona? Probably. Would it stop me from buying another single pivot without a demo/rental option? Trail bike, yes and DH no.
A few of my old oranges certainly did
Im also here to see the all the Brits just pine over this shitty bike.
It's quite interesting to see over they years that the influence of braking and high cadence to suspension performance has just magically disappeared ;>
This is an embarrassment, classic rose tinted thinking, it's the equivalent of a leaf-sprung Land Rover and it's time to move on.
How does the frame do with side loading of the shock?
This color even.
aventuron.com/products/diamondback-atroz-2
you enthusiastically report, review and swoon over EVERY annual re-release of plastic bicycle on the market...Santa Cruz can barely sneeze without it being news here. EACH and every incantation of every hideously over coloured new bike and its 29-er counterpart is meticulously tested at nausium. So please do us a solid and review the Liteville 601 mk 4 ( it has been out since 2017)
This is the longest stint I’ve ever had without considering a new bike.
Not sure if there has been any other brand out there which has supported so many legends in gravity mtb. Peaty, Minnaar, Tracey Hannah, Bryceland, Fairclough... Sure Cannondale, BeOne (B1) and Sunn have also placed their stamp on the sport. But considering Orange has been around for this long and in the mean time may have supported some less high profile WC but still well performing teams (Dirt magazine, MTB Cut with Cathro) there really is something legendary about that big closed swingarm.
And stop giving people the shitty excuse of "less pivots is better for bad weather". If orange cared about mud riding resistance they would put bigger bearings and the entire bike wouldn't be designed as a giant mud trap. And none of these excuses justify the ugly welds...
I've never tried an orange, but single pivots require different braking technique and more brake control than other designs. Hence the comparison with hardtails. If your local trails are muddy and soft, I guess it's not as big of a problem as if you trails are full of roots and braking bumps.
@jimmythehat: yeah, I brake too much, I'm not gwin, and neither are you.
> @Konyp: True, a hardtail rider will smash you
Yes, this is why all the top DH and enduro guys do so much training on rigid bikes.
/s
Thing is, if you have a lot of pedal kickback and brake induced suspension stiffening, things can feel pretty shit IMO.
If you own a single pivot bike you learn to deal with this. As in careful brake modulation. Which is learned through experience on riding a single pivot bike.
Thank god I have VPP and Horste link suspensions.
Seriously, who would dare to buy that thing nowadays?
Not me.
Give us a spotlight and a test of a british bike that produces excitment: a review about the Stanton Switch9er for instance!!!....
I'm 99% sure it does as all of their RS models feature rockshox suspension and always have
Free BI for orange
geometrygeeks.bike/bike/orange-stage-6-2017-2
why buy horse if you can buy a car...