[Closed] The Orange 5 creak

Rear QR needs tightening up

Deffo grease & tighten rear QR

+1 grease QR

Yeah... I started hating my bike until I put some grease on the rear QR...

I never expected a STW consensus.

Ive sent the guy a link to this thread

One thought, it's not a Thompson Elite Seatpost is it? They seemed to be common on 5s at one bit.

I've nearly gone bald tracking down a creak on my old Zaskar, even thought it was that final fatal new frame time. In the end got shut of the Thompson Creakpost.

No idea where the creak came from but doesn't happen with an Easton post.

..If qr doesn't work have a really good look at the pivot bearings i had a hairline crack in one, which was virtually impossible to see, but it caused a creak that near drove me mento's trying to fettle it..

Worst case - check the welds around the little stub axles the pivot bearings sit on. I had three crack here (first one I bought, 2nd and 3rd where warranty replacements) I sold the 3rd one before I'd even ridden it as Orange refused to give me my money back. Then it went on the guy I sold it too, luckily the lbs sorted him out another brand as we had a good relationship with them. I think they got another replacement and sold it in the shop.

Won't be buying another bike made by Orange. Though ironically my 1993 clockwork lx is still going strong, so they used to build good bikes at one time. 🙂

Also worth checking the BB shell, if it;s from around 2010- don't know why but I've seen a couple crack right across the bottom.

Can maxles cause a creak too? My 2012/13 Five is creaking rather alarmingly now.

The pivot bolts stretch over time. Sorting creaking on my Five needed them replacing.

I thought my 2015 Mk1 Five was losing a drawer runner at BPW on Sat but it was just the pivot bolt needed nipping up.

That's when changing the bolts is s good idea.

Nip them up a couple of times and then they snap. With a torque wrench. Well below the recommended torque.

They aren't slackening - they're stretching.

bubs - Member
Can maxles cause a creak too? My 2012/13 Five is creaking rather alarmingly now.
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

Yup just the same. Wheel out, clean the hub, clean the frame, clean the Maxle, grease and assemble, win at life.

igm, got a spec for the bolts?

Tell him to get a renthal duo stem, that will stop him noticing any creak from the rest of the bike!

Same as billy. 3 sub 5 failures, all at the pivot welds. I'll never have another orange. They were utter shit to deal with.

Was about to buy 2nd hand one and this has put me right off arrrrrgh 😯

This all hold true for Alpines too? Mine's got a nice creak under power. Seems to disappear if the bike gets wet though...

Got a new Orange 5 great bike. No creaking though.

I just got some (free) bolts from my local Orange dealer. When you offered them up new against old only the thread wouldn't mesh because of the stretching. Both bolts snapped t almost exactly the same place - within a quarter turn of the thread.

Got a [b]new[/b] Orange 5 great bike. No creaking though.

Yet

They were utter shit to deal with

Yep, useless bar stewards they are, I'd never have another Orange.
Was the QR on mine.

Scienceofficer - Member
Same as billy. 3 sub 5 failures, all at the pivot welds. I'll never have another orange. They were utter shit to deal with.

POSTED 2 DAYS AGO # REPORT-POST

To be fair the sub 5 is 10 year old and was a bad design...now Orange have definitely got it right..
I ride with a big group have done for years, plenty Orange riders, and the most frame failures come from lappiere and nukeproof..Orange are pretty much bombproof nowadays.
Oh yeah and the creek will most deffo be the rear axle that wants greasing

As far as I know, orange use the same stub axle design to this day.

TBH, it's the totally crap attitude to their equipment failing that put me off. Every body's product fails at some point, but it's how you look after the people that have bought into the product that counts. Orange utterly failed on all counts and I will never trust them ever again.

Scienceofficer - Member
As far as I know, orange use the same stub axle design to this day.

No they don't.

No one should be put off buying an Orange, even *if* they had bad service. Why?

Their failure rate over the last 12 months was 0.47%.

Compare that to Mondraker or Trek.

All bikes creak. Its either frame or parts. Orange has two bearings that could creak, cost £10 to replace with hammers, and that's pretty much it.

All bikes are great and can also fail, but a thread that appears to be going the way of "Orange bikes are poorly built" isn't justified.

Not Orange bashing (I ride an Alpine and love it), but where does that figure come from? Genuinely curious.

Someone 'in' the industry whose opinion I generally trust told me Orange try to keep their frame failure rate pretty much under wraps...

I've hammered the hell out of my five and it's never even whispered at me.
As above there all just ally bike frames and not made out of unobtanium.
Found orange have been great with me.Just to even it out like.
Saying that mine will probably snap now. 😀

orange warrantied my mates second hand five frame.

They helicoiled a thread I'd stripped through hamfistedness free of charge too

well despite popular opinion, it wasnt the rear qr needing a tidy up.
turns out there was a little grit/grime between the rear mech hangar and the frame, cleaned, copaslipped and apparently now silent.

thanks

will remember this thread* for other potential issues in the future.

*will mention the bolt stretch bit.

Just to add to this as I've stopped my Orange Five 29'er from creaking also. Was starting to drive me mad so did some searching and found all the suggestions and set about the bike the other day. Regressed the Maxel, took off the hanger cleaned and copper slipped, retorqued the cassette, pit it all back together. Went out for a few hours today and it was nice and quiet 🙂 Not sure which one of those did it but I couldn't be bother to do one at a time.

Ok, so not quite a total success yet. The general creaking occasionally comes back but a clean and regrease of the maxale and surrounding area sorts that. What I have now is a clunking noise that seems to come from the BB area under power. I can make it happen if I stand and exaggerate the bike going from side to side under peddle strokes. I'm thinking it's possibly the pivot bolts? Does this sound likely?

I had this on my Alpine recently, stripped everything, regressed everything, rebuilt everything, screamed at everything.

Turned out it was the bearings for the swing arm. The only thing I didn't think about.

Us Orange owners tend to talk about how low maintenance our bikes are cos of the lack of bearings and complicated suspension then forget they need replacing.

I got some Katec bearings from eBay and they're doing well

Tom KP.

BB might be done, usually clicks under load when they are on the way out

BB is new, replaced both this and headset with Hope a few months ago so they should be ok.

Thanks Tom, was thinking I might as well replace the bearings to make sure. As said, simple and often over looked due to this.

Chainring bolts.

You lot are all weird getting uptight about a bit of creaking. It's just your bike communicating with you. My bikes creak and groan constantly.

I changed my bearings, greased my BB everything....still had a creak......then I got a flat undid my rear QR, fixed the flat popped the wheel back in no creak!!!!

So rear QR+(Another)1

had my Five since 2009 and its always been the rear mech hanger needing a bit of lube on the screws or the rear wheel QR needing clealing and a bit of lube

a few months ago a proper crazy creak started and would not stop

did the normal stuff and also cleaned and lubed anything with a thread and still it was there

in the end I took a gamble and got a BT Swiss thru bolt and a couple of new caps for the hope rear hub

not a peep out of it since

the bike has never been so quiet

think it cost me about £30 to £35 for all the bits

deffo worth thinking about or just try a QR off another bike

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/dt-swiss-rws-thru-bolt-alloy/rp-prod81162