All Arround MTB

Orange’s new steel trail warrior has big tyre and wheel capability and a rock-solid, damped ride feel. Its handling balance is grounded rather than giddy though, and the tyre and brake spec don’t help first impressions. The frame Unsurprisingly, the Orange’s steel frame ($825 separately) looks a lot more traditional than those of the alloy bikes here. The 44mm head tube relies on an oversize externalbearing headset cup to handle a tapered fork. Gusset plates reinforce the junctions with the stout, round down and top tubes. The tapering, swerved chainstays and straightgauge seatstays are much skinnier. Add a long 445mm back end and there’s space for 2.6in tyres in 29er format or 27.5x3.0 rubber if you go plus-size with some fresh wheels. Neat cloverleaf dropouts house a Boost rear axle. Brake and gear lines run through bolted guides under the top tube, while the dropper seatpost cable exits at the base of the seat tube and runs up alongside the down tube bottle bosses. There a

While this 29er downhill bike prototype looks a lot like Orange’s 650b-wheeled 324, the geometry has been refreshed to ensure it works with the bigger wheels. At the rear, a metric shock controls 180mm of travel. There’s 20mm extra up front, courtesy of Fox’s 29er DH fork (currently known as the ‘49’). Orange have gone for a low 335mm bottom bracket height, which features 35mm of drop to keep it corner-slammingly fast, while the 64.5-degree head angle should give a good balance of agility and stability. According to the geometry chart that Orange were displaying, there’ll only be medium, large and extra-large sizes. Quite when we’ll see this in the shops is unknown at this point, but we’re hoping to find out more soon.

Even though it sits close to the top end of our budget, the Orange is the only bike here without a dropper post. Still, on the hill there’s no getting away from the Alpine 6’s raw speed and unique feel. If you’re a ‘point and plough’ kind of rider, the Orange probably isn’t for you. Speed comes courtesy of calculated line choice and a livelier ‘hop and pop’ riding style. The singlepivot design sends a lot of feedback through your feet and this put some of our testers off. But the majority of us really enjoyed our time aboard the Alpine. Its ability to carry and generate speed as you work it through every trail undulation is really quite astounding and it’s no slouch on the climbs either. In the rough stuff it’ll rattle you about more than the plusher multilink bikes here, though upgrading the shock to a Fox Float X EVOL Performance unit (+$90) did help smooth things out a little. And as any Orange owner will tell you, the monocoque chassis isn’t exactly stealth-like when the goi

Rowan Sorrell is a former World Cup downhill racer and the main man behind Back On Track, an acclaimed trail building company based in South Wales. Designing and building trails means you have to try them out, and that means having one very versatile bike. Say hello to the machine Rowan is struggling to put away at the moment

Orange Bikes has been in business for over 25 years and they are still being made in the UK. Steve Thomas spoke to co-founder Lester Noble to see what makes them tick.

Since the 222 back in the early Noughties, Orange’s downhill bike has flown the flag for great British engineering. The 322 is the latest incarnation, and having been in the pipeline for a while, it should be a good ’un.