Orange 5/ST4 or Commencal Meta 4 or 5
Tom R
Posts: 10
I need a bike for everything! Most of the riding I do is local night riding. I compete in a few events each year like the Salisbury plain challenge. Mountain Mayhem, Dusk til dawn, and the occasional Megavalanche. The 2 bikes that catch my eye are the commencal Meta 4 or 5 range, and the Orange 5 and 4 inch travel range.
What would you propose? At some time I have to take the plunge and buy one
Would you buy the same again?
Many thanks for any experiences of these bikes. Tom R
What would you propose? At some time I have to take the plunge and buy one
Would you buy the same again?
Many thanks for any experiences of these bikes. Tom R
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Comments
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The Orange Five gets rave reviews wherever you go, but the Commencals and the ST4 are also excellent.
If I had to choose, I'd go for the Five for the simple reason that it's a simple bike - it's a single-pivot job where the others are all linkage driven. From personal experience, my next full squidger will be a single pivot, purely from an ease-of-maintenance point of view.0 -
If you're thinking Megavalanche rule out the Meta 4 and ST4 - in fact for Megavalanche you'll want to think more Five AM and Meta 6 or the new Orange Alpine...
Thing is, for most of your riding the Five AM and the Meta 6 will simply be too much bike.
I'd be inclined to go with a Five (not because I own one) but because it will handle a 160mm fork - but I'd buy one with a Fox 32 140mm and then if you are serious about your alpine adventures, invest in something like a Fox 36 and some chunkier wheels...
For what it's worth I simply can't fault my Five... (although part of me wishes I'd tried an ST4 as if Dirt magazine are to be believed, it's a f*cking belter!)0 -
I go with what Dave and Zero303 says
Take a few test bikes on the 5 / 5 AM or the Alpine and the ST4
and go from there all highly rated bikes, and these frames have just been
updated for 2009
Regrading the Commencal 5 as far has I know you cant put a 160 fork up front
So keep this in mind if you may prefer to put a larger fork on later0 -
zero303 wrote:If you're thinking Megavalanche rule out the Meta 4 and ST4 - in fact for Megavalanche you'll want to think more Five AM and Meta 6 or the new Orange Alpine...
Thing is, for most of your riding the Five AM and the Meta 6 will simply be too much bike.
That said if you can stretch to it a Patriot might be a better bet - they're just as capable as an all-day bike as the 5 is, if a little heavier, but my mate swears by his. He's had it 3 years now and takes it everywhere.0 -
Tom R wrote:I need a bike for everything! Most of the riding I do is local night riding. I compete in a few events each year like the Salisbury plain challenge. Mountain Mayhem, Dusk til dawn, and the occasional Megavalanche. The 2 bikes that catch my eye are the commencal Meta 4 or 5 range, and the Orange 5 and 4 inch travel range.
What would you propose? At some time I have to take the plunge and buy one
Would you buy the same again?
Many thanks for any experiences of these bikes. Tom R
What bike did you ride the megavalance on?0 -
Orange Patriot isn't available for '09, it's replaced by the Alpine 160dave_hill wrote:zero303 wrote:If you're thinking Megavalanche rule out the Meta 4 and ST4 - in fact for Megavalanche you'll want to think more Five AM and Meta 6 or the new Orange Alpine...
Thing is, for most of your riding the Five AM and the Meta 6 will simply be too much bike.
That said if you can stretch to it a Patriot might be a better bet - they're just as capable as an all-day bike as the 5 is, if a little heavier, but my mate swears by his. He's had it 3 years now and takes it everywhere.
The 5 is a very capable bike, as for the Mega, I don't know if it's up to it or not, I'd suspect not, saying that my 5 has stood up to everything I've thrown at it, I've not done a Mega, or any 'proper' DH, but the 5 isn't built for that, it's a superb AM rig, as is the Meta 5.
If you're thinking of doing a Mega, the ST4 & Meta 4 will not be the right bike (IMHO)
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Thanks all of you for your comments. very useful. things are pointing in the Orange direction.
I have done the megavalanche 2 times on a Mk1 Mount Vision 98 and 99, and 3 times on a Giant ATX 1 2000 and 2005 + Reunion 2001. I did better on the Mount Vision than the ATX! as my achilles heel is the climbs and pedalling, rather than the downhill bits. I am not a great jumper, so Big Hit ability is not my priority. safe speed is important. I am intrigued by the reference to the ST4 in Dirt, . i would like to read it if someone could tell me where to find it.
cheers
Tom R0 -
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I used to have a Mt Vision MK1!
The ST4 uses a very similar sus set up to the Metas.0 -
My Orange 5 is great, but there again I ride with a mate who rides a commencal, does everything I do but paid only £1400 from Merlin. So who had better valve for money?0
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Andy_B wrote:Orange Patriot isn't available for '09, it's replaced by the Alpine 160
Yes, but you can still get them if you sniff round a bit, and as the Alpine is taking over it's possible that a good deal can be had...0 -
I heard that the Orange Blood may be replacing the Patriot due to the Brack Jack
Regarding the strength of the 5 frame I have said before that I had contacted Orange
and basicaly you can do Freeride and Downhill on it BUT has long as you DONT
do Big Drop offs or Jumps you be fine but may want to put a coil rear shock on
When doing the Downhill
Orange say a 4 foot drop is fine on a 5 frame.
I ride my 5 AM urban downhill in central London no problem going down steep
stairs form the top of the bridges to the bottom of Embankment just adds fun if I cant
ride in the woods0 -
How about a GT Sanction?
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=31761
Looks a good bet for megavalanche duty ;-)0 -
I've got a Meta 5.5.1 and it seems pretty good to me and handled steep rocky French limestone tracks pretty damn good. I've never done the Megaavalanche but I'm sure the Meta 5 is common at it because it goes down well and doesn't do so bad on the ups either and is moderately light - mines about 27.5lbs. I've also seen a pic in one of the mags (MBUK?) of the long-term test bike with a Fox 36 fork on it.Commencal Meta 5.5.1
Scott CR10 -
How about buying a bike that serves 95% of your duties and then hiring one for the Mega?
That puts the ST4 and the Meta 4 back on the table...0 -
A good suggestion.
Where would one hire a bike for the Megavalanche? unfortunately I don't have any inactive downhilling mates near us in Cambridge0 -
How about something different? The Brodie zealot might be worth checking out, but it maybe a touch too much bike for most of the time. If so check out the Brodie Loki.
I know the guys at Progressive bikes (the importers) and they tell me someone did the megavalance on a Loki with a Marz ATA up front rather than the stock fork and it was excellent! There is a review of the loki on bikeradar somewhere too.
Here are a few pics. Also i believe they have some good offers on the 2008 Zealot and Loki.
Zealot
Loki
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"......I'd go for the Five for the simple reason that it's a simple bike - "
I found it inspired confidence - never twitchy unlike the ST4 I rode. The pro pedal works really well and the bike doesn't squish like some bikes when you are out of the saddle.
Buy it quick before the price goes up again........and again!0
