Orange Bikes had a never-seen-before prototype 29er downhill bike here in Friedrichschafen at the Eurobike Show 2017.
Pete swung round to have a look at the Orange Bikes downhill 29er prototype at Eurobike 2017.
29″ downhill bikes aren’t anything new, they seem to be all the rage for 2017. Gee Atherton arrived with his Trek Session 29er at the Fort William BDS, shortly followed by Danny Hart on his Mondraker Summum. Dean Lucas of Intense Factory Racing arrived at the Fort William World Cup with his alloy prototype 29er.
Not everyone stuck with the big wheels though, with the likes of Danny Hart publicly making the move back to 27.5″. There are those, like Greg Minnaar who have ridden nothing but 29″ wheels all year…
Orange Mountain Bikes have joined the fray with this STRANGE DH29 prototype 29er downhill bike. While the single pivot, monocoque design is classic Orange, there’s the usual refinements that come with all Orange prototypes. ‘Strange’ of course is the term that Orange use to refer to all of their pre-production, prototype, experimental bikes.
A gently curved top tube meets a 64.5 degree head angle and rear triangle are new, as are the lighter dropouts. Rear travel is set at 180mm kept solid with a 150 x 12mm rear axle. A metric shock keeps the back wheel tracking the deck.
