Stronger rims for flat landings

grantway

Sorry guys no idea what section to put it under.

I have an Orange 5 AM at the moment I am told that I can only
land flat on 4 ft drop/jumps and wondering if I put stronger rims
on the wheels I should be able to do higher flat landings.

If this is true what type of rim do I need and what size of flat landing
could I do.

I have WTB speed disc rims

Thanx for you help.

nicklouse

Well you dont land to flat as it is not a good idea on any bike.

Anonymous

is the bike designed to be used for your intentions? sounds like a free ride bike might be more suitable.

grantway

No the 5 is a strong bike just that I have come up at some points and
wondering be nice to continue going straight.

Just that droping off onto flat I wondered that if I had a stronger rim
it could maybe take another foot or two drop onto flat stuff.

Maybe Il get the rims changed to the ones on the Patriot.
The patriot was just too big and heavier bike.

Very true Nicklouse

Anonymous

the patriot might have been too big and heavy, but it sounds like it is designed to do what you are planning, are you sure an rp23 is a suitable rear shock for doing 6 foot drops on?

if orange had intended you to use a 5 for drops it would have specced it differently surely, oh yeah, they did:

grantway

I see the Patriot has WTB Dual FR rims so I know thats for harder hitting
So what if I stuck these on the 5?

Yes that Patiot is huge in the monoque down tube.

Anonymous

stronger rims will toughen up any bike (as well as add some considerable weight), the fork on the AM is well regarded as a tough bit of kit and the frame looks very strong, i would be concerned about the rp23 as a big hitting shock though.

grantway

I see your point regarding the shock but maybe stronger rims first
and leave the shock on fully open going down.
Yep the fork will suck about everthing below it but its no good if
your rims collapse under you.

hucking_fell

I weigh between 10 and 10.5 stone and do a road gap that is about 10 ft out and 6 ft down on my 5 AM. The landing is very short, not even 2 bike lengths, after which it is flat. I've over-shot it a few times and the WTB speedisc rims are still fine.

I would never land the bike to flat on purpose though.

I also put more air in the rear shock for mucking about on stuff like this.

As I'm not heavy I chose the 5 AM over the Pariot XCEL but realise that the bike's not a full on downhill machine.

Still got the Bighit for that.

Remy_98

try Alex Rims Supra-D's, quality rims, often overlooked

grantway

Hucking listening to how far you go out then maybe I am
worrying about nothing but I am 13 stone.

I did talk to Orange and they said the Orange 5 AM can do all the
riding in there chart even the Downhills and the Freeriding
But do not do big offs or Large drops.

So maybe ok, be nice to see someone else do it mind.

Looks like a trip to Whales dont see many Orange 5's or
Patroit's in Epping Forest (London)

Big Red S

There's no way anyone can look at your bike and tell you what size drops you can do.

For a startm any size drop will break your bike eventually if you do it enough times. How long it takes depends on which batch the various bits came out of, how tightly the bolts are done up, what you're landing on, what tyre pressure you're running, how well the wheels were built, how good you are at landing and what you regard as 'not coping'.

Fitting a stronger wheelset will make the wheels better able to take the punishment of flat landings, but you may well find that some other component is weaker than the current wheels anyway.

That bike is not designed for drops to flat - precious few bike are any more, and the DH Orange mention is well-ridden DH where you're pretty smooth.

richslaney

I weigh 95kg and the DT 6.1D have held up well on my Santa Cruz VP-Free DH/Freeride bike.

I run Totem Coil Forks and a Push Tuned DHX 5.0 Coil shock with a Ti Spring.
Feels bottomless and brilliantly damped.

Rich

ride_whenever

Quite simply, bikes aren't really designed for large drops to flat. If I were you, i'd consider getting some handbuilt wheels done by someone who knows what they're doing, The mavic ex721 should be strong enough or the 823 if you fancy tubeless.

If you are looking at doing 6foot+ to flat then be very careful how you set the bike up because you're much more likely to have a failure and seriously injure yourself.

Transition landings are a much better plan, where are you planning on doing this drop?

tj7794

you will need to know a good wheel builder because a bad builder with top range parts will end up as a bad wheelset. im running on some sun s-type rims on hope pro 2 hubs. very strong. overshot and cased big jumps but not even bucled by a mm. landed 4 ish drop to flat and still good as new. nearly bottled my forks but they took it in. worth tryng to get your hands on. an install and forget set of wheels.