Mystery Aluminium o , calling Orange experts !

Hi guys

Ok , i seem to have inherited this Orange Aluminium O frame !
Been kicking around the garage for ages and before that in someones garden so i decided to dig it out and not knowing anything about the brand see what it has to offer .

First off im amazed at the tube set , there is hardly a round bit of tube in it all sorts of shapes going on .
it has an 1 1/4 head tube and a press fit BB like a Fisher of this era and looking at the archive it looks like this, where that BB and also a one piece steel bar and stem are mentioned
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... 1.jpg.html

Brocklanders023 has been a great help but im still trying to find out more of its history .
As in the pics it has the remains of " ice mans o " on the tt and something i cant make out on the seat stay and finally no frame number anywhere , not even any sign one has been removed
So , test bike ? team bike ? any ideas anyone ?







Any info would be great , tried emailing Orange but nothing there .
Cheers Paul
ps i will take some pics of that one piece bar stem soon.

Interesting O, is this the same frame that was on eBay about 6 months back, I think a retrobiker on here unit22 bought it. If this is a different frame then this is a second icemens o frame, I remember the other one was posted on here and nobody really could shed any info on it..

Cheshire1980":8m9kkip2 said:

Interesting O, is this the same frame that was on eBay about 6 months back, I think a retrobiker on here unit22 bought it. If this is a different frame then this is a second icemens o frame, I remember the other one was posted on here and nobody really could shed any info on it..

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Yes thats the one , seems like it will remain a mystery

Yep probably going to remain a mystery.. ice mans O, don't remember anybody in the Orange team being called this.. But who knows, looks like an early frame, no frame number, press fit bottom bracket is also different to my 4 aluminum O's? That's obviously unusual.. Still a good find, what's your plans for it, it would be a shame to respray it in my opinion, even if the paint is past it..it still has appeal

Re:

When I emailed Orange they said they helped a lot of riders at the time but couldn't recall any ice men
I'm not sure what the writing is on the seat stay though .
As for plans , nothing yet as I have just started on a Trek 8700 in much the same state :facepalm:

The paint is worse than it looks , it's green with corrosion and badly faded and falling off but re painting in the orange fade would cost a bomb so not sure at the moment , probably keep digging in case anything comes up .
Cheers Paul

Re: Re:

shinobi":eg8v8br5 said:

I'm not sure what the writing is on the seat stay though .

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It appears to say 'Supported by T??k'. Maybe? The T could be an F or Z.

Re: Re:

kingoffootball":1gq9gwjw said:

shinobi":1gq9gwjw said:

I'm not sure what the writing is on the seat stay though .

Click to expand...

It appears to say 'Supported by T??k'. Maybe? The T could be an F or Z.

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That's what I thought as well - if you squint a bit it looks like a naughty word to me

It's a 1991 model Alu-O

Will, it is ?uck from what I can make out, but ? looks 7 to me. (uck in cursive like the rest.)


Stickers could just be a local team/bike shop/ somebody putting their own stickers on.


serial is always on the Bottom bracket and would start with A if you can see it.
Made in a factory in Taiwan (A-Pro state up their Alu frame production in 1990)

FluffyChicken":24lpa33w said:

It's a 1991 model Alu-O

Will, it is ?uck from what I can make out, but ? looks 7 to me. (uck in cursive like the rest.)


Stickers could just be a local team/bike shop/ somebody putting their own stickers on.


serial is always on the Bottom bracket and would start with A if you can see it.
Made in a factory in Taiwan (A-Pro state up their Alu frame production in 1990)

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Yes I can see where you are all coming from now !
I have carefully stripped the paint off the BB shell and there is no frame number, not even a file mark like it's been removed .
Paul

Re: Re:

kingoffootball":3bj1pqun said:

shinobi":3bj1pqun said:

I'm not sure what the writing is on the seat stay though .

Click to expand...

It appears to say 'Supported by T??k'. Maybe? The T could be an F or Z.

Click to expand...

Supported by the Fonz?

You've had my 2p mate but I'm still sure I've seen/had another iceman Orange.