Project Unbreakable | Part One – A tough bike for a tough guy

Not all bike testers are created equally, when we want to know if something breaks or not, we simply give it to Jim. With an unnerving ability to sniff out weakness and expose poor construction, Jim is our resident bike breaker, he sprinkles shattered carbon on his cornflakes, and can bend a DH bar with his bare hands. When riding he pulls no punches, he floats like a buffalo and stings like a 12 gauge. After spending a season watching him systematically break carbon parts we cooked up a cool new project, Project Unbreakable. What kind of bike would you buy if your main concerns were strength, reliability and durability. What bike would you choose to withstand the rigors of a harsh UK winter, under the heels of ENDURO magazines toughest test rider. This is no place for the latest in ultralight, nano tech nonsense, this is a test for true grit and courage under fire. Welcome to Part One of Project Unbreakable, where Jim chooses his ride for the winter season. Over to Jim:

It’s coming up to winter time, the Long Term Test of the Intense is over, so we decided it’s time for something a bit different. The Intense was a bit like a Ferrari, it had looks and performance to die for, but when it came to strength and reliability, the thing took some looking after. We decided we wanted something that could be classed as a ‘winter low-maintenance, tough test bike’. It had to be something that could take the pace of the shitty UK weather, lots of winter skills-training uplifts, Mini-DH races, long trail rides and lots of jet-wash cleaning, the only question was ‘what to choose!’

I like to act on the experience of others, so I did a very modern-day version of a rider questionnaire. I went onto the UKGE Facebook page and asked the question “so what is the ultimate bike to choose for a reliable low-maintenance winter test bike folks?” I had around fifty replies from different racers, none holding back, the result was virtually unanimous with around 80% saying Orange. So Orange it would be! I then had to make a choice on what model, and after scouring the website, I chose the 160 over the 5, because I planed to do lots of DH type riding and really fancied trying a nice long bike. I have to admit I was definitely not a fan of UK based Orange bikes, originally considering them a dated in design and almost stubborn in the attitude of ‘we wont do a linkage, you only need single pivot’. Personally I don’t like to be stubborn, so with a mindset of ‘lets give it a go’ a call was made and the 160 was ordered after choosing my favorite colour, one of the standout comments of the conversation being “you wont break one of these”

SHED TESTS

Upon arrival the bike was removed from the big cardboard box with anticipation, bars whacked on and pedals attached, I had three immediate thoughts as soon as it was built, One – It looks a lot nicer in the flesh, Two – Jees it’s long, Three – How heavy, eek! It was time to perform my usual standard tests, the shed test, one hand on seat, the other on the back wheel and give her the rear flex ‘side-to-side’ test; impressively stiff! Next was the chain-line test, this thing can be put right up onto the biggest cog of the cassette and spun backwards flat-out without any fouling of the chain, perfect!

On looking at the 160 Alpine you can see it’s built with strength and high speed in mind, to say this thing is long and low is an understatement. With a very lengthy top-tube, mega long wheel-base, slack head angle, huge 800mm bars and 35mm stem this thing screams high speed stability. The stand-over height of the seat is fantastically low, so much so I would have definitely preferred a 150mm dropper to the stock 125mm.

Inspecting the components of this, the 160 Alpine RS £3,800 build (as opposed to the more budget £3,000 AM build) the array of parts is pretty impressive for such a good price. The bars and stem are taken care of by Core, Race Face cranks, the brilliant Shimano XT brakes and Rockshox Reverb dropper. Cane Creek headset (hmm will that last the winter!?) Wheels are Hope Pro 2 hubs with Mavic 319 rims. A Shimano XT 10 speed shifter moves the compact little Zee mech, powered by a 30-tooth narrow/wide chain-ring and a rather substantial MRP chain device. Suspension is looked after by the mega-reliable Pike 160 fronts and the 160mm of rear travel is taken care of by the brilliant Monarch Plus.

Before riding the bike it had, what I now class as essential upgrades for any bike I’m keeping for a while, mud guard and frame guard by Rockguardz (I know there’s others, but these are carbon!) and the full bike protecting wrap by Invisiframe. Now ready to ride, it was time for the final shed test and one feared by the industry, the bullshit-busting digital scales test (pedals fitted), this was a bit of a shock, it came in at 35lbs (15.9kg), oh my god, that’s tank territory! I thought I’ve got this for the whole of winter, big rides included, have I made a massive mistake?

Join us for Part Two where Jim takes the Alpine 160 out for its first ride, can this hefty rig cut it as an all round reliable race bike?

Words: Jim Buchanan Photos: DOC Ward