The Orange bikes stand was well worth visiting at this year’s The Bike Place trade show. Not only did the British brand have a new bike on display, but it also showed the thoroughly revised Segment model and confirmed the return of its legendary P7 hardtail for 2016.
What’s the score with the Four?
The swingarm strongly resembles that of Orange's longer-travel Alpine 160Anyone scanning can certainly be excused for thinking this is the current Five. It’s not, by the way – what you’re actually looking at is an all-new model, the Four. The Four plugs a short-travel, 650b sized gap in Orange’s range and by doing so slots itself nicely below the 140mm Five. Specifically, there’s 120mm of suspension at the rear and the Four has been optimised around a 130mm fork.
Should you get a protractor out then you’d be confronted by a 67 degree head angle figure for the Four, that’s a single degree steeper than the longer travel Five, yet half a degree slacker than that of the 110mm Segment 29er. A 74-degree effective seat angle is shared across all three of these bikes.The Four also gets a (6mm) shorter swingarm than the Five and a bottom bracket that sits 1cm closer to the ground at 330mm - the same as the Segment 29er.
With 120mm of travel, the Orange Four is a touch steeper and lighter than the company's popular Five trail bike
Just like the Five, the four will be sold in sizes ranging from S-XL. In fact; sizing in terms of reach will be identical to that of the current Five.
Glance at the boost 148 swingarm of the Four and you’ll notice it’s a very different component to the parts used in the Segment and Five frames – actually it bears a strong resemblance to the one used for Orange’s Alpine 160. The use of thinner gauge alloy tubing along with material being shaved from the dropouts, shock mounts and head tube area mean the Four saves 1lb (453g) from the frame weight of the Five.
The Four will be available in three builds, starting with a £2,800 Pro spec bike (no international pricing was avaiable for any of the bikes mentioned here) and topping out at the £4,600 factory build – all of which can be customised via Orange's online configurator. The Four will be sold as a frame complete with a Fox Float DPS performance rear shock for £1,600.
A lighter, wider Segment
The 2016 Segment frame drops an impressive 400g over the 2015 modelThe Segment is Orange’s short-travel 29er, and it’s been thoroughly revamped for 2016. The swingarm now sits on a pivot that’s 6mm wider than the 2015 bike – this, combined with a new Boost spacing out back means that a 2.8in 27.5+ setup will work – it’s tight, but it’ll work.
Elsewhere, the front triangle is now 1x specific, and gets ISCG05 tabs for those that want to make use of them. Impressively, around 400g of frame weight has been removed from this model compared with its predecessor.
The 2016 Segment is sold as a frame for £1,500 or in one of three build kids, starting at £2,700
P7 makes a comeback
The Orange P7 is back after four years away from the company's line-up
Following a four-year sabbatical, Orange has reintroduced its P7 model in all-new Reynolds 525 form. Available in two build kits starting at £1,450 or as a £450 frame, the P7 gets an ultra-slack 65-degree head angle angle, a 142x12mm rear end and sizing that mimics that of the firm’s popular Crush alloy hardtail. The purists may be saddened to hear that it won’t be made in the UK, but did you really expect so at that price?
