Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Aaron Gwins program will be on specialized or a French frame moving forward.....
Thetruth has spoken
Well then the team will fold. It’s SRAM’s program so if they leave there isn’t much of a team left.
Ronan was on Conti/Nukeproof so the team could continue with a different bike sponsor. Sam Hill was Nukeproof Factory so would be more effected.
We've all knew it was coming, Jess Blewitt has also posted official goodbye to GTFR
There's not much big MTB french brand nowadays. In fact, there's only Lapierre and they don't make a DH frame and won't be for quite some time. Maybe you're refering of Commencal...which is an andorran brand
Dim Tordo's comment under Thomas Lemoine's Canyon Farewell instagram post. Maybe he is off Canyon as well?
Troy giving some solid hints that this is the last year on Canyon and he is moving on.
Its a farwell video from lemoine not brosnan...
Yeah think you’re right watching it a second time.
Windrock bikepark becomes a Commencal park and Gwin runs a Supreme
Luck of the Irish replaced by a British bulldog riding a land mass of good times
The amount of grinding to get this shock to fit is funny lol
Continental GT has got ultimate "marriage of convenience" vibes. Continental lose their bike partner and need a new one, GT don't want to have a Factory status team any more but still have product, 🤝.
This summer has been garbage. Skii village seems pretty appealing right now
It's pretty clear that Luca and Henry Kerr Must be out testing something specific. Cos neither Dante, Mille or Troy are with them. The chances of Troy being off that team are slim. Although that team does need an up and coming rider that can actually fight for wins.
Madison Saracen?
wtf mate, been 30+ here in Sydney every day for weeks, coopers brewery sent me a signed thankyou + christmas card I've been going that hard!
T-minus 4 days till I'm off doing F&*k all for a month!
Seems like Sam Hill might be taking a break from racing/retiring. Sad if its true.
Respect to the Hills, wish them nothing but the best! Even if Sam was to decide to step away from racing for good…. he has nothing to prove, he’s done all that already, put his stamp of DH/Enduro racing and inspired a lot of people along the way. Given the current state of the mountain bike scene and racing I can’t blame them for taken this time out, given the kids a life that will help massively in the future if they want to pursue the Moto racing full time.
yeah feels like with the demise of nukeproof he probably tells himself it's not really worth all the effort anymore? He's been pretty supportive of his kids moto ''careers'' in the last years too...
Hopefully Bam Hill and Eli Tomac to start a bike brand together sometime after they retire from motocross.
just why??!
Orange Factory Racing goes on hold for 2024... :
---------------------------------------------
Announcement from: Orange Bikes
30 years of racing pedigree. A roster stacked with iconic names. Front-and-centre throughout downhill and enduro history. Orange Mountain Bikes has racing in its DNA and Orange Factory Racing is the latest chapter in that story.
Way back in the late 80’s, our founders started Orange because they loved racing bikes. The rigid machines of the time weren’t quite right for their needs, so they made their own. Roll forward to 2023 and there’s been a whole load of evolution and innovation since those early bone-shakers, but the passion for riding bikes fast, against the clock hasn’t changed.
In 2020 we launched Orange Factory Racing - a formal name for what we’d spent 3 decades doing, supporting talent and going fast between the tapes at the top of mountain bike competition.
It was our way of bringing racing full in-house, under our own control and 100% on our terms. Run by Orange staff, partnering with brands that we trust and all to help our bikes and our riders go fast. It was run by the people that design and build the bikes with every hard-learned lesson going straight back to source to help Orange bikes evolve.
For year one we recruited Scotsman Joe Connell, Lachlan Blair and longstanding Orange rider Tom Wilson. The Orange Stage 6 Evo was the team’s flagship bike - showing the world that single pivot and British-made could cut it on the World Stage.
The team raced the full Enduro World Series, select Downhill World Cups and a few one-offs such as Trans Madeira and a whole heap of domestic British events.
Good times and good results followed, spreading the good word of Orange around the globe.
For 2021 the roster didn’t change but the tools of the trade developed.
A Factory team isn’t simply about racing. It’s also about R&D, testing prototypes and proving our bike designs are ready for the world - and the team’s greatest success for 2021 was the Orange Switch 7.
Our hard-charging, World-stage-ready superbike, the Switch 7 was made for the demands of Factory-level riders and tested, refined and developed by the team.
For 2023 the team wished a fond farewell to Joe and Lachlan, and welcomed Becky Cook and Christo Gallagher to the family.
The racing evolved from Enduro World Series to Enduro World Cup, but, our commitment to round-the-world racing continued. Full EDR, a whole load of British and a few other bits and bobs in between.
Becky scored the Switch 7’s first-ever race win in the Welsh hills early in the year, and went on to a season of solid results with wins at Tweed Love and the UK’s prestigious Southern Enduro Championships and also a 3rd place at German National Enduro in Winterberg.
Christo added more gold to the team trophy cabinet. First at the famously technical Dunkeld enduro and again at the British Downhill National at Glencoe, the South West Enduro Series Event at Minehead and Tweedlove Vallelujah race.
And let’s not forget Tom Wilson. Gold medal at Tweedlove, gold medal at the IXS DH Cup in Winterberg, gold medal at Gisburn PMBA Enduro. Rock solid.
But - all that good news comes with a bittersweet note.
Whilst we’re celebrating the successes of the team, we’re also drawing a line under this particular chapter of Orange’s history. Orange Factory Racing won’t return for 2024.
With so much uncertainty in the bike industry, challenges around the future of the Enduro World Cup Series and the sheer cost of running a competitive Factory-level team, we’re pressing pause.
We’ll return when the time is right. But for now, we’re ending on a high and will take a break to focus on our main goal of creating world-class bikes.
All that said, our passion for racing isn’t going anywhere and neither is Orange Bikes. We’ll continue to support a number of talented athletes around the World - look out for more news on that in the new year.
Orange Mountain Bikes would like to thank everyone that has supported Orange Factory Racing through its 3-year tenure. That includes our staff, our athletes, our partner brands, race organisers, media and our customers and fans.
The Orange Factory Racing Roster:
Riders:
Tom Wilson
Lachlan Blair
Joe Connell
Becky Cook
Christo Gallagher
Staff:
Kelvin Lawton
Alex Desmond
Dan Greenwood
Photography:
Kike Abelleira
You can learn more about Orange Mountain Bikes at https://www.orangebikes.co.uk.
A company that makes their own frames. Hate that I've never gotten to buy their product. Love supporting companies like Orange.
Family is moving to Florida and gonna buy a track/home combo in that moto subdivision that my boy 402MX/aka B-Rad built.
the Sam got his Aussie CDL so that it will transfer to the US & he can drive the Star Racing truck to outdoor Nationals.
I would venture to guess that Eli saw how his dad's bike brand went and decide it is probably not the best place to hang his investment after he retires from racing.
CamBal off of Comencal?
Post a reply to: 2024 TEAM RUMORS