My 1989 Formula Orange....

brocklanders023":2f0l9lye said:

I beleive they were hand built by Lester Noble to order out of Prestige tubes John.

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brocklanders023":2rfr7zh9 said:

Interesting to see the design differences between bedazzled's and the mag one, especially the seat stays.

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michael@orange":3l0aj3bm said:

Formulas are super rare and TBH even I have never seen one with that stay arrangement, I'll speak to Lester and see if he can recall how many were made like that, original B52's, Ali O's, Vit T's and Dynamo (mk1) didn't have the monostay so its not like every frame has used it but I'm actually looking at that wondering what is is, i think it might be something a bit more rare than even a Formula is . Can you let me know the exact date you bought it please?

There are a number of different versions of Formula, Steve (Wade, Orange owner) made a number, I'm pretty sure Dave Yates also made a few for us as did Paul Donohue, its hard to know exact numbers, no-one kept a record, my best guess, less than 20 made, most went to mates of Lester. Top Mark were one of the original Orange dealers as Bill Nixon the owner was one of Lester's windsurfing friends.

I dont think we have decals, we've got very little left from the original days as the business was about selling stuff not hoarding no first catalogue, few decals and even the artwork files got stored on floppy discs now degraded or old 11cx macs long since dead will look next time I'm at the barn but dont hold out much hope.

We dont have a Formula in the factory museum, I've traced a couple over the years and one day might get someone to loan us one to display, a lot did go to friends of Lester, I know Graham Longstaff, former NEMBA chairman has one as do a couple of his sailing friends.

We do have a Formula road bike, built by Steve circa 89/90 with compact geometry and max tubing, a few years ahead of compact geometry ever becoming commonplace on the road

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