Orange's Alpine 160 is a pretty simple bike to get your head around. As the name suggests, it’s got 160mm of travel at either end and it’s designed to get you up and down the biggest, wildest mountain terrain you can find.
The Orange recipe is to take a simple single-pivot suspension layout, a frame made from folded alloy sheet and then weld it all together in the North of England. Season with long, low and slack geometry, a durable selection of kit and serve. It’s uncomplicated but does the job very well.
Alloy origami
When you look at the highly complex folded shapes and intricate welding involved in fabricating the frame, you start to realise that calling the Alpine simple actually does it a disservice; the swingarm in particular is a work of art.
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Orange's heavy-duty swingarm looms over our test ride's GX transmission
The suspension design may be uncomplicated, but it’s taken Orange years to perfect that single pivot's placement. The swingarm rotates on decently large bearings to help stiffen the connection between the two ends of the bike – past experience has shown the design to be hugely durable.
Pick and mix
Making all the right shapes
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