[Closed] Orange Four - mini review

I had the opportunity to ride the new Orange Four (RS spec) today and as there aren't many reviews yet I thought I'd share my thoughts. Please bear in mind this is from a 2hr ride, not 2000 miles of testing....

In summary - it's the best bike I've ever ridden, and I've ridden quite a few.

I actually went to demo a P7 in the morning, and only rode the Four because the Five's were all booked out for the afternoon. The P7 was great, as expected and carved corners like it's on rails. Ride comfort was good but obviously the larger seat tube dia required for a dropper post makes a steel hardtail a bit more rigid.

Anyway-back to the Four. I was genuinely blown away by how good it was. I remember the old ST4 and how it never took off because the Five did everything the ST4 did but better.

I think now it's the other way round - the Four does everything the Five does but better, and if you need a bigger bike than the Four you should get the Alpine. Everyone else on the demo day seemingly came to the same conclusion.

On the ups the Four was almost as good as the P7 on smooth trails but as soon as a few ruts and rocks appeared the Four was miles better. Huge amounts of grip, hardly any pedal bob even when standing out of the saddle with the Monarch set to fully open. Technical climbs were great fun and there was no front end wander even with a slackish 67 deg HA.

On the flats it was simply a huge amount of fun; poppy, nimble, easy to get up to speed but also very stable

On the descents it was superb; very quick but also huge amounts of fun and really easy to pop off things. The back end is very stiff so even when I really leant it over in corners there was no discernible flex (I am by no means a pro downhiller!). I'd have felt very comfortable riding it down any technical descent.

The only downsides imo are the Boost rear end, which means a new rear wheel (enough with the new bl**dy standards!), and the fact Orange build kits aren't necessarily the best value.