My Orange P7

A 19" P7 in Metallic Black, with Pace RC36 Forks, Ringle bits including a Zooka stem, Xlite, USE, Middleburn rings, XT Group, handbuilt wheels by me. Many many years of trail riding in the Kent and Surrey hills and then North Yorks.

I met Lester Noble of Orange once at one the Bike shows in Olympia and asked him about why I'd never seen any Mett black ones anywhere and he said he wasn't sure how many they painted but "you could count them on one hand".

The forks are the elastomer versions, but I fitted Eibach springs for the later version to them which required a tiny bit of lathe work to the tubes





Or are they RC-35s and the 36's were the metal spring ones, hmm.

RC35's from around 95 I think mate :?

Nice bike. Really like Orange's in black with that style silver decals Needs an amberwall rear tyre though.

Ah yeah, I think they are my winter tyres, I still have two all amber tyres, possibly Psycho IIs in the shed for summer use.

Some nice finishing kit there, all mid 90's and mostly British

Looks alot like my old Prestige (which is currently in bits at the back of the garage )

Forks are 1995 RC35 MXCD (65mm, adjustable damper). The '95 fork had the classy silver foil 'welder' sticker. The '96 fork had an 'interesting' blue and orange sticker which fell off almost immediately.

Always nice to see an old Orange still being used, must get mine sorted for spring...

nodding dog":1z20brio said:

Some nice finishing kit there, all mid 90's and mostly British

Always nice to see an old Orange still being used, must get mine sorted for spring...

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That's when I bought the stuff.

I only ride to the shop and back on it now, and even then I take the car and leave it indoors.

Having read more, I became inspired to clean up, polish and generally service the old girl, including repacking all the bearings, lubing up the cables and getting it all running sweet.
Its funny how it all comes back, like catching a thread of gear wire on the outer cable and ruining the whole cable. Also, how something like removing the cranks or cassette seemed like so much of a big deal when I were just a lad, but having worked on cars since, it all seems so easy now. Having proper tools helps though, rather than trying to do it with a multi tool.

Supratada":3o4mk0gv said:

Having read more, I became inspired to clean up, polish and generally service the old girl, including repacking all the bearings, lubing up the cables and getting it all running sweet.
Its funny how it all comes back, like catching a thread of gear wire on the outer cable and ruining the whole cable. Also, how something like removing the cranks or cassette seemed like so much of a big deal when I were just a lad, but having worked on cars since, it all seems so easy now. Having proper tools helps though, rather than trying to do it with a multi tool.

Click to expand...

Great observation there! I look back and marvel at the things I did and oughtn't to have done as a nipper with all the wrong tools and no real information!

Very nice bike, you've done a grand job of warming it over

I've got a seriously tatty old P7 which I'm going get together very soon

Cool looking P7 you got there

Question tho - what that blue contraption on the rear mech :?: :?

It is a Bullet Bros Chain Tensioner. It was supposed to stop chain slap on downhills by introducing some spring tension. It did actually work mostly, but can have a tiny effect on derailleur set-up as it can pull the cage laterally a bit.

You might also see a spring clamped to the gear cable on the seat stay, again supposed to pull the cable through to assist up-changes when it all gets gloopy. Can't remember the brand name for that though.

Updated to include 2 pics of my older bikes, the Tufftrax was stolen and the Cinelli got cannibalized for the P7. I think I made the frame back up with odds and sods and sold it in the local paper.


Saracen Tufftrax purchased in 1987


Cinelli Vertical Rampichino.