Hand brazed British Steel: Orbit 531 circa '90

Hi!

Randomly the brochure doesn't have a date on it but the price list is from September 1991.

Cheers
Stu
 
Never heard of this brand before. The unfilled brazed joins make it look unfinished but I really like the frame details, unicrown fork and dropped tube tube especially.

Will keep an eye on this build! :cool:
 
Awesome to see the brochure Stu, thanks for sharing..I even bent my head sideways to see it properly :D

So it looks like I may have an 'Ecstasy' or 'Grafitti' and the yellow one is a 'Cliffhanger'...

Any news on this by the way? I'll be out on mine tomorrow ;)
 
Fantastic Stu! Love this forum :cool:

I never knew they had a range of bikes back then, I thought they (as now) produced frames to be specced up yourself.

Tantalisingly you missed the description and spec for the Cliffhanger off!!!

Seems they had a 501, 531 and 653 frames with different specs to suit price points.

My Cliffhanger is the middle spec 531 frame with 'low' spec components. Encouraging that they fitted LX to the same frame (Destiny).

My plan is to strip it and weigh it.... if its decent weight I will invest in it and have it powder coated, and fit LX/XT parts with earlier thumbies and brakes.

I don't want the standard decals (as they aren't very inspiring), I'm going to make my own.

NB Who are Roger and Glen!?
 
No worries!

Here is the back page, forgot to post this on here earlier :oops:

img019_zpsd69e4f13.jpg


I believe Roger is Roger Hammond who used to ride an Orbit cyclo cross bike...pretty sure the 1992 Junior cyclo cross worlds was won on it :)

Not sure who Glen is but someone else on here might know...

Cheers
Stu
 
I used Stu's mag scan, loaded into gimp, desaturate, adjust levels to b+w, then fired up inkscape and used the trace function to turn the graphic into a vector. Then I made the dot of the i (which is missing from the brochure, but on the bike).

Now I have a scale-able vector of the Orbit logo and I can recolour and create my stickers as I wish.

If anyone wants the file to make their own give me a shout.
 
stu":1npfato9 said:
Hi Neil,

They did some great stuff, would love a 653 Cyclocross frame & fork....

Erm, stripped it down but haven't done anything yet, spent a few hours today wrestling with my Genesis CdF and some SKS mudguards :?

Cheers
Stu
Click to expand...

I've got one of them. It may be surplus in the near future.......
 
dan_bo":3bwdxq1h said:
stu":3bwdxq1h said:
Hi Neil,

They did some great stuff, would love a 653 Cyclocross frame & fork....

Erm, stripped it down but haven't done anything yet, spent a few hours today wrestling with my Genesis CdF and some SKS mudguards :?

Cheers
Stu
Click to expand...

I've got one of them. It may be surplus in the near future.......
Click to expand...

Oooooooh, Is it a 52cm?

Cheers
Stu
 
Got a chance to pull this apart. all came apart too easily, however fixed BB cup required Sheldon's nut and bolt method with a 6ft pipe for leverage.

I can't believe it - the BB grease was dried up but the bearings and races were immaculate. The headset lower race was spotless, no grime just clean grease!

Weighed the frame (with headset cups) = 2.54KG
Fork (with crown race) = 1.11KG

Seems OK, bear in mind its a 20". For reference to modern metal a 21" inbred is 2.52kg, a smaller medium cotic soul is 2kg.
1kfZwl.jpg
 
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