With their mixture of man-made and natural features we all know that trails aren’t what they used to be, but if you’re lucky enough to ride a Blood, that’s no bad thing. The first of our bigger-hitting bikes to feature a tough but neat rocker link, the Blood delivers a stiff and super‑responsive ride designed to handle the most technical natural terrain as well as the gaps, drops, wall rides, ladders and berms some of us love to session. Burly construction, a carefully controlled five inches of rear wheel travel and a 66° head angle inspire confidence when the going gets rough or steep, but the Blood’s short back end, steepened seat angle and inspired suspension configuration mean the only thing you’ll push on this bike is your own technical limits.

A sweet-handling trail and slopestyle bike with a massive fun factor in the air or on the ground, and a bike you can still pedal anywhere – the Blood doesn’t rewrite the rules, it bins them altogether.

ROCKR SHOCK CONTROL

We love single-pivot simplicity at Orange, and the Blood is essentially a single pivot with a twist. Without getting too technical, the Blood’s ROCKR-Link is a way of achieving a highly durable 2.5:1 leverage ratio while carefully controlling the shock’s progression to optimise how the frame and shock work together. In practice this means a bike you can pedal, but one with a highly active and fast-reacting back end that delivers a super-supple initial stroke and a mid to end stroke which never shoots through its travel – perfect for those big hits. When it comes to actual rear wheel travel, it’s a triumph of quality over quantity. Ride one – you’ll see what we mean.