The new bikes have arrived! They look unbelievably “bling”. I have been lucky enough to have this day in May for 8 years now. It’s one of the best bits of the job. This year we have a 16″ and an 18″ Orange Alpine 160.
I thought I’d pull the “prototype to this bike out of the garage and make some compare and contrast notes. Apart from the component differences there are a number of obvious frame differences.
- The rear swing-arm is bigger and beefier (it looks stiffer) with more mud clearance than the old one.
- The headangle is .75 degrees steeper than the old (it is 66.4 degrees according to my iphone)
- The bottom bracket is 1.5cm higher
- It has a maxle rear axle, should be stiffer.
- Sexy new hydroformed? tubes and a frontend that is 1 or 2cm higher than the old bike.
- It has more travel, they say 160 mm compared to 130 mm but who knows?
