Turning an Orange P7 into a drop-bar ‘gravel’ bike

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

The History Man":1x2qnr6u said:

Travelcontacts have a slik centre with light knobbles each side. Good compromise.

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Good shout, though Contis aren’t quite skinwall enough for my liking! Good ‘Plan B’ though. You’ve always got to have a Plan B.

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

legrandefromage":2wtdfz69 said:

10 speeds

10!

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I know. What times we live in!

Ive tried bar end shifters on my father’s Thorn, and never really got on with them. I’m going to persevere with the STIs for now...

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

legrandefromage":26hf6co2 said:

the levers are fine for cantis

use a 105 triple 9spd mech from the same series as the shifters otherwise the indexing will be all over the place for the front

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Checked out the parts bin and I have 105 5500, which is 9 speed. Hopefully that’ll make the build easier, partly as I already have a 9 speed cassette of the right size.

For the front, I was just going to use the middle and outer rings on the triple crankset. Unless there are some weird pull ratios going on, I think that should work with the double chainring 105 shifters. Maybe it’ll take a bit of faffing with the limiter screws, but how much can go wrong?

Bar wise, I think some nice alu Nitto touring bars should do the trick. Cheap too! Topped off with some nice brown leather tape. Of course, then I’ll want a brown suede Turbo saddle to match...

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

Pretty much the only thing I don’t have are suitable gravel/touring drop bars.

I’ll probably use my Orange stem, so need a 25.4mm bar. Really want the alu look to go with the nickel frame and other alu bits. Which leads naturally to Nitto!

Anyone with experience any thoughts on these? I’m guessing a bit of flare and not too deep a drop is the order of the day...

• Nitto B132
• Nitto B136
• Nitto B135

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I have a pair of Nitto moustache touring bars and a Nitto stem PM me if interested

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

Another option is a classic randonneur bar in 25.4 . I tried some bars that were modern shapes and of a width that might suit my shoulders but it wasnt so and i ended up going much narrower. I settled on some Sakae road champion randonneur bars. They are something like 38cm at the hoods and 42cm at the drops. Reqch is 100ish mm and the drop about 130mm. They do curve upwards from the stem area so the drop is less if you get what i mean.

Offroad is absolutely tickety boo and on road it feels compact and tidy. I does depend on what you are used to regarding bar width but i was quite suprised how going narrow felt way more comfortable.

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

Started gathering my parts together. A few things might need a bit of fettling. This is a 96 or 97 (I think) frame, so no rear canti hanger. Might swap this with my P7 single speed frame, and use a rear v on that.

The F7 forks have a fair amount of surface rust and a shagged crown race. Oh, and the Hope rear hub flange is cracked



Stem looks nice though,



And here are the rest of the bits. A nice pair of M739 XT derailleurs, a really nice SRAM 9 speed cassette. Think I need to butcher another cassette to get a bigger than 26 rear sprocket (to go with the out of shot 32 chain ring). The 105 shifters are slightly ratty. Some bad corrosion on the alu levers, one trim cap is missing, and the other broken. But, the biggest problem is that I seem to have two left hand Suntour Self Energizing cantis. :facepalm: Don’t know how that happened...



I do have another set of no name cantis (and some Chill Pills) to match the ones in the photos.

So, saddle (brown suede Turbo?), bars & tape, and tyres is pretty much all I need. Oh, and another rear hub :cry:

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kermitgreenkona88":2d0qb45u said:

I have a pair of Nitto moustache touring bars and a Nitto stem PM me if interested

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Cheers fella, but I think a moustache bar is just a bit too radical for me. A Nitto Randonneur looks the best bet right now.

Re: Considering building an Orange P7 drop-bar gravel bike?

Since the last post I’ve been slowly refurbing it’s. Basically a lot of Gunk, sanding and Autosol. Slow progress as I’ve been fairly busy with other stuff.

Plenty of the dreaded alu worms on the Shimano shifters...



Some 150 grit followed by 600 and 1200 wet’n’dry has given it a nice matte finish to match the Nitto bars.

Bolted together a few bits, and it’s beginning to take shape:



The top headset race was a complete bitch to get in. My ghetto headset press was not doing the trick (some washers and a long coach bolt!), even after freezing the race. In the end, I had to resort to Jeremy, my large hammer. Now sorted!

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That's actually looking rather nice, although I fear that stem might be a little long?
I still think you should take the Pace forks holiday to Cornwall though...