Intruduction from an oldie newbie
I'm 65 in three months - my two sons got me back into cycling four years ago after a 40-year distraction with fast bikes and even faster cars. There was no way I was keeping up with them on an analogue bike, so I bought an EMTB. Both sons had Orange Stages, so I was 'persuaded' to stick with the brand and I bought an early Orange Surge. Shimano E8000 (70nm) with a 500wh battery. Yes, its a chunky beast, but it came with Factory Fox 28 up front and an Ohlins TTX coil on the rear, so after some experimentation, it's pretty plush for my old bones, but still handles decently as well.
I'm very aware of the 'Marmite' reputation for Orange's EMTB's (and even their analogues), but I've always liked to do things a little differently rather than follow the crowd. So anyway - lets get the 'girder' puns out of the way now - my skin is thick enough...
The bike is great fun on my local trails (I'm lucky to live within 10 minutes cycling time of Cannock Chase). Despite getting ready to receive my bus pass, I'm half-decent on the trails - top 10% on many sectors on Strava (regardless of age group) it's quite nice to be humbling some 'youngsters' on some of the downhill bits where technique counts for more than stength.
As I've got fitter, my rides are now longer, and I'm having issues with battery range, so I'm upgrading - I'm about to collect a secondhand Orange Patriot with a Bosch CX Gen 5 - only done about 500 miles but critically it comes with a 750wh battery, so I'll be able to go a lot further on a charge.
However (and the main reason I've registered here) - even on the trails at Cannock Chase, I was running into the 25kmh limiter dozens of times per ride on the Surge. Thankfully, it was a doddle to derestrict (STUnlocker) - it's now set to US (32kmh) and I've dropped the wheel circumference a bit - it probably maxes out at 22-23mph now - nothing radical. The Patriot is going to have WAY more power (I believe its had the May '26 update to 120nm), but with the extra power, I'm clearly going to hit the 25kmh limiter even more readily. I don't need 45+kmh - mid 30s will be fine, which is probably USA with a 10%-15% circumference reduction. However, I'd still like to use the Flow app, but I don't want to get into limp mode. So many questions....
I've done a LOT of reading on this forum and there's a LOT of differing opinions. I'd happily fit a tuning device if I could be confident of the motor not throwing an error, but it desn't look like that can be guaranteed. I don't fancy the idea of riding the thing for 90 minutes un-powered to reset it...
Anyway - apologies for the long waffly intro - I have much more reading to do....
I'm 65 in three months - my two sons got me back into cycling four years ago after a 40-year distraction with fast bikes and even faster cars. There was no way I was keeping up with them on an analogue bike, so I bought an EMTB. Both sons had Orange Stages, so I was 'persuaded' to stick with the brand and I bought an early Orange Surge. Shimano E8000 (70nm) with a 500wh battery. Yes, its a chunky beast, but it came with Factory Fox 28 up front and an Ohlins TTX coil on the rear, so after some experimentation, it's pretty plush for my old bones, but still handles decently as well.
I'm very aware of the 'Marmite' reputation for Orange's EMTB's (and even their analogues), but I've always liked to do things a little differently rather than follow the crowd. So anyway - lets get the 'girder' puns out of the way now - my skin is thick enough...
The bike is great fun on my local trails (I'm lucky to live within 10 minutes cycling time of Cannock Chase). Despite getting ready to receive my bus pass, I'm half-decent on the trails - top 10% on many sectors on Strava (regardless of age group) it's quite nice to be humbling some 'youngsters' on some of the downhill bits where technique counts for more than stength.
As I've got fitter, my rides are now longer, and I'm having issues with battery range, so I'm upgrading - I'm about to collect a secondhand Orange Patriot with a Bosch CX Gen 5 - only done about 500 miles but critically it comes with a 750wh battery, so I'll be able to go a lot further on a charge.
However (and the main reason I've registered here) - even on the trails at Cannock Chase, I was running into the 25kmh limiter dozens of times per ride on the Surge. Thankfully, it was a doddle to derestrict (STUnlocker) - it's now set to US (32kmh) and I've dropped the wheel circumference a bit - it probably maxes out at 22-23mph now - nothing radical. The Patriot is going to have WAY more power (I believe its had the May '26 update to 120nm), but with the extra power, I'm clearly going to hit the 25kmh limiter even more readily. I don't need 45+kmh - mid 30s will be fine, which is probably USA with a 10%-15% circumference reduction. However, I'd still like to use the Flow app, but I don't want to get into limp mode. So many questions....
I've done a LOT of reading on this forum and there's a LOT of differing opinions. I'd happily fit a tuning device if I could be confident of the motor not throwing an error, but it desn't look like that can be guaranteed. I don't fancy the idea of riding the thing for 90 minutes un-powered to reset it...
Anyway - apologies for the long waffly intro - I have much more reading to do....
