News in from the BDS in Fort William about a new member of the Dirt team and a new bike from Orange, the 324. Here’s what the team have to say:

“For reasons we cannot discuss, unfortunately Alex Bond will not continue racing for The Orange Dirt World Team this season. In his place however we now have on-board Norwegian National Champion and nac-nac king Isak Leivsson ready and raring to give the Orange a good ripping.
Aboard the brand new Orange 324, Isak will be joining the team for the remainder of the season.”

“Orange will be launching their new downhill bike at Fort William World Cup in just a few weeks time rebranded as the ‘324’. Visually the bike is very similar to the 322, but when you’ve come this far with a design its the small changes that make the big differences.

The photos you are looking at are custom versions of the bikes that will go into production and these have been built to the team riders specifications, the production bikes should be very similar to these if not the same, 63 degree head angle, 445mm chain stays, 150mm axle, 83mm BB, lower BB at 13.35″, 27.5″ wheels, the pivot points have been adjusted to make the suspension slightly less linear and more senstive off the top.

As well as these tweeks to the already proven design, Orange will be offering two new sizes with longer top tubes than the current bikes. These are only some of the features of Oranges new 324 and no doubt Orange will give us the full low down after they launch the bike in a few weeks time. Also shown in these photos is a new spring sponsor of the team ‘sa-springs.com’ these are some of the highest quality springs on the market today, they are as light as titanium but are within 1.5% accuracy… better than any other springs on the market and offering .25lbs weight increments.

Also on the bike is mk2 of a new prototype Vector rear shock from X-Fusion’s R and D department that the guys have just recieved before this weekends BDS in Fort William, the shock hosts some new technology with a low and a high pressure air chamber which makes for a minimal break away feel and an adjustable ramp up platform.”