Orange Clockwork 1989?

Orange Clockwork Pre 1991

I collected this Orange Clockwork last night from up near Penrith, as I’d recently acquired it on Ebay. I had spotted the bike and having not got an early black one in the fleet kept my eye on it and won it.
When I picked it up the guy I had won it from said that it had come from Lester himself, and that he used to ride with him. The previous owner had bought the bike from Lester in 1990 for his wife who hadn’t really used it. The images of the chainstay and the bearing probably support this.
The pictures below show the bike as received, and also a few pictures after tonights strip down. One thing I did notice is that there is a bit of orange paint in the steerer and also in one of the cable stops.So may have been re painted before 1990? The frame number also looks like it may be quite early? also note that the forks are stamped 90 04, maybe a paint and rebuild in 1990 before Lester sold it?

My plans are to remove the SRP sticker, and the later Orange sticker on the seat tube, buff up the paint to see how things look, and build up with XT M732 and a Stalk Stem of the right period.

Another little racing beast to ad to the line up.

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Very nice, my favourite citrus fruit, with my favourite rims

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Sweet project and well rescued.

I know that they had flaking paint problems with Alu O's in the orange and white scheme (a pal's bike had it BITD) . They were repainted under warranty in black.

It may be that yours was also a victim.

That is really rather cool.... signing in for updates

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Quick update:

Following a light going over with T-cut to remove any marks from the frame it looks in good shape, the previous owner had said that it had seen very little use, which shows when you look at the condition of the chainstay.

I have also fitted a UN54 Bottom Bracket, an XT M732 Front Mech, and the cranks that came with the bike, but with period correct XT-II Biopace Rings. The stem is an early Orange Stalk Stem, which will be spayed black to match the frame.








I have some of the other parts required for this build in stock, but some work will need to be done to get them cleaned up to the required standard.

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Very nice to see another early classic Orange here – looks like an 89/90 vintage, going by the frame architecture and shape. Is there some red/orange paint hiding underneath the black? Also looks like the down tube has Orange decals from an early Prestige too.

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groovyblueshed":1ezn2n1v said:

Very nice to see another early classic Orange here – looks like an 89/90 vintage, going by the frame architecture and shape. Is there some red/orange paint hiding underneath the black? Also looks like the down tube has Orange decals from an early Prestige too.

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based on the serial number it may be one of the 1st ones A809A0644 (middle A may be a 4), as this would put it as Sept '88. Yes there is some orange paint, but the previous owner bought it from Lester Noble in 1990 and it was black at that point and the 90 on the forks indicate that they were paired in 1990. I'd guess that it was probabbly re sprayed around 1990 before it was sold by Lester. I guess there is a chance it was an early race/demo bike that was painted up and sold on afterwards

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Looks nice Martin. When did they start building Clockworks? Can't have been many built before '89?