Consider that mullets are finest when it will get actually steep? Orange does too.
Gravity racers with a comfortable spot for a rugged aluminium body aesthetic and excessive chainstay rear triangles, will love Orange’s new 279.
The model’s newest downhill bike debuted in France on the first spherical of this 12 months’s UCI DH World Cup, in Lourdes. And the bikes stay proudly imagined and made in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Learn extra: the perfect mountain bikes you should purchase
The evolving Orange DH providing
Orange has been producing downhill bikes for 3 many years and the 279 is its greatest but. Actually.
This new body options an enormous wheelbase, making it for much longer than Orange’s different downhill bikes – such because the 327 and 329 sequence. It additionally mixes wheel sizes, interesting to these riders who imagine within the blended 27.5/29” set-up.
The advantage of being an organization that designs and fabricates independently means Orange isn’t beholden to exterior fabricators. And that permits for some very daring geometry numbers and shock mount choices.
Orange believes within the mullet idea
Configured as an MX bike, as an alternative of a pure 29er, the 279 goals to mix the perfect of Orange’s 327 and 329 sequence downhill bikes.
Rear journey charges at 198mm and with the beneficial 200mm 29er fork up entrance, the 279 sits a 62-degree head angle – slacker than any earlier Orange downhill bike.
The bike’s rear finish is designed for optimum stability and options huge 465mm chainstays, no matter body measurement. Attain numbers are beneficiant too, with a measurement massive 279 measuring 480mm.
The 279 is lengthy – for a purpose
A sequence of switchbacks hardly function on any downhill course. Rock gardens and rooty chutes are extra prevalent challenges to bike stability.
To reinforce stability, Orange’s designers have wished as a lot room between the 279’s wheels as potential – with the dimensions extra-large model measuring 1348mm axle-to-axle.
Body requirements? The 279 runs a 250mm metric shock sizing, 30.9mm seatpost and 150x12mm rear axle spacing. Orange’s designers have formed an uneven swingarm for the 279, enhancing longitudinal stiffness.
Orange gives the 279 as a body possibility, with Fox’s Float X2 shock, at £3200.
A full manufacturing facility spec construct is £7300, that includes Fox manufacturing facility suspension and Shimano Saint stoppers. Drivetrain is SRAM’s GX 1×7 and Stans Movement rims, laced to Hope Pro4 hubs, roll the 279 alongside.
