Orange Bikes have become iconic in the UK for building reliable and elegantly simple single pivot mountain bikes, gaining an almost cultish following within the hardcore riding community. At yesterday’s Bike Place trade show in Silverstone Orange had a surprise for all of us, an almost ‘ready-for-sale’ E-MTB wearing their ‘Strange’ prototype badges.

Boasting 160 mm of travel front and back, the 22.2 kg bike looks purposeful and aggressive

As yet, nothing is officially being confirmed. But what we do know is that the bike will have a Shimano drive unit and should ride as well as it looks. Geometry is based on their well loved Alpine 6 enduro bike, so expect a 64.5-degree head angle, 461 mm reach in size Large and a 1231 mm wheelbase. The designers at Orange were keen to stress that they wanted to maintain the ride quality that defines their bikes, and have managed to keep the chainstays of the E-MTB the same as their conventional bikes at 430 mm.

The pivot location has allowed Orange to keep the chainstays the same length as thier conventional bikes.
The bike has already been well ridden by the Orange team, and they are super happy with the ride.
The Shimano powerplant has allowed Orange to keep the Q-Factor low.
Specification is still to be confirmed but we can expect to see a FOX Float X2 Factory.
Being designed and built in the UK, mud clearance is high.

While still ‘officially’ a prototype, gentle probing revealed that this project will happen, and quite soon. We expect to see the bike being launched officially in July 2017, and pricing will be between £6000 – £7500 depending on specification. We can imagine riders looking for a potent and aggressive E-MTB will be getting very excited, and the fact that it’s designed and built in the UK will also be attractive for many. We will bring you an exclusive ride review very soon.


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