Bike and Size advice - Santa Cruz / Orange Five

Will3bike

Hi

I'm looking for a full sus 27.5 trail bike with 140 - 150mm travel, I mainly ride Llandegla, however will be riding Snowdon, Bike Park Wales, Antur Stiniog etc as well. Budget is 3k, so far I am thinking Orange Five with added Pikes and Fox CTD shock or a Santa Cruz Heckler, which do you prefer and anything else you would suggest?
The second question is what size, I was disappointed to find out I'm only 5'75 or 175cm (thought I was at least 5'9 ) but that seems to be right on the borderline between Small and Medium, my inside leg is 30" my reach is exactly the same as my height and I weight 12 stone, I'm 28 (not sure why that would matter but I thought I would through it in there) so let me know what you think?

Thanks
Will

shindig

Both good bikes. I have a Santa Cruz Nickel in size medium and it fits fine. Has approx 6" of seatpost showing. I am also 5'' 7" with a 29" inside leg.

rockmonkeysc

Five is very overpriced. Especially considering its a very old design and very low tech frame which isn't very nicely built.
Santa Cruz Heckler is very nice and theres a new one due soon. Transition Bandit or Covert would be very good or if you can stretch the budget a bit then the Intense Tracer is great.
Well under budget you could get a Nukeproof Mega AM which is a great ride.

Will3bike

The design of the five has been knocking around for ages but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it isn't that different to the Heckler and I can get a five with slx, a reverb and pikes for 3k which is a better spec than most other bikes I can find, short of a direct buy from Germany, will come down to a test ride though I think. Out of interest do you have a link to anything about this new Heckler, I can't find anything on google and I will hold off and wait if it isn't too long, the current one hasn't been out that long though?

rockmonkeysc

When I said the Fives design has been around for a long time I didn't mean that is necessarily a bad thing but it should mean that the R&D and tooling costs were paid off years ago so it should be cheap. It should be cheaper than its competitors.

Dick Scruttock

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Santa Cruz Heckler is very nice and theres a new one due soon.

No there is not, the latest one was only released last year.

ej2320

If you go for a Santa Cruz I'd suggest a custom build

When I was looking around, before I got my covert, I found a custom build Santa Cruz to the same spec was a lot cheaper than a full build

It's to do with the fact they're American and for whatever reason come out rather expensive over here
(Santa Cruz is actually reasonably priced in America, like Nukeproof here.. And Nukeproof is very expensive in America)

Will3bike

Yes I have asked Stif about a custom build. What about the Saracen Ariel, has anyone had any experience with that?

ej2320

Will3bike wrote:

Yes I have asked Stif about a custom build. What about the Saracen Ariel, has anyone had any experience with that?

Never tried it, but it's highly rated by my LBS and it does look sweet

I was very tempted by the 15x but it came out £300 more than my Covert frame after discounts

rockmonkeysc

A mate has the Ariel 14X. Wicked bike, I would buy one. He seems to be six foot in the air most of the time and enjoys chasing bigger bikes down black dh trails on it. I have to work hard to drop him on my Scalp unless it's really rocky.