New boy and his old bike...

Max P

Senior Retro Guru
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[EDIT - I sold this some time ago but leaving it up if of interest!]

Hi everyone, recently joined the forum here - pleased to find so many like-minded people nostalgic for the old days, thought I would share a few pics and words.

Like many here I guess, I came from BMX - converted Grifter in ‘79, then a Diamond Back Silver Streak, PK Ripper etc - my last, a Haro Freestyler is still in the garden - fully built and rusting away - and as I left it in the mid 80’s. BMX was our life then - endless summers, ROM skate park every Sunday - very happy days.

MTB’s followed, first was a crackle finish Muddy Fox Courier Comp in ‘89 closely followed by probably my favourite bike ever - an ‘89 Stumpjumper in pink/green with Deore DX components(and 150mm stem...) Great times then, riding lots, the inaugural Cheddar Challenge, Eastway Summer series etc. Revolution MTB’s in Romford was the centre of bike exotica for us - Seeing the very first Pace, Cannondales and Konas. Revolution started out as a Windsurfing business and they even had an old Tushingham (pre Orange). Anyway, a succession of bikes were bought and sold but never anything too exotic - an Orange Prestige in pink/white with early Campag Centaur MTB components and matching pink Pace RC30s - gorgeous; a Stumpjumper front suspension and SJ Comp with the lovely made in Japan Prestige frame, Proflex (850 perhaps? - grey and green), a custom ‘RFD’ (rumour was these were built by Fuquay?) with the very flexy Mavic MTB cranks, an Alpinestars Cro-Mega DX (still owned by a friend), a Giant carbon fibre with the just launched XTR, Marin Eldridge etc. I have built up a few newer frames since - a couple of Gary Fisher Sugars, another Stumpy M4 and a Stumpy FSR, a Cannondale and a Cove Handjob but all have gone and the one bike I have always kept and never changed much is the Clockwork I built up in ‘92.

Still with most of it’s original parts (and period stickers...) as pictured below: These were the last Orange frames before they updated the decals and style quite a lot - for the ‘92 Clockworks they also increased the mud clearance a great deal over earlier Oranges but kept with the 1â€
 
Sweet!, the decals have lasted well. Got some midge bars on my commuter / hack bike and they feel pretty comfortable - theres a picture in the works bikes thread.
 
Mmmmm, sweet orange...

I think the black was an awesome look, I had the 1989 orange and white clockwork...still sadly missed, and yes, I put a 150 90 degree stem on it... :LOL:

Rich
 
Thanks for the comments. Adamgent - you are indeed a gentleman - don't know though, compared to some of the Premiership stuff I have seen in the current BOTM my old Orange is definitely much more Pub League, I could never afford any US exotica and I still can't...

:LOL:

Just wish I could find the right size Salsa 'rasta' decal cro-mo stem though.

I like the black but the old orange/white fade was the classic colour I think. I remember ordering this one in pink but they dropped the colour and when I opened the box out popped the new design - thin stays, better mud clearance etc as here...and a free 'Orange' t-shirt for the delay which I still wear...

:oops:
 
Hi and welcome!

Never saw an Orange in real live. The old ones look like pretty plain and functional bikes to me. I think I like them. Do have 1 catalogue at my place. I think it is '95. I already checked with the Orange catalogue scan source through mtb-kataloge, but mine is not up there.

You are looking for DirtDrops I understand. I am not familiar with the on one's, but I can tell Nitto did decent DirtDrops. Rivendell used to market them.

- Melvin
 
You're right, the risers are terrible. Left 'em on until I can find that confounded 'Rasta' stem to mount the Salsa bars to.

What's worse is the stem - the Bontrager stickers are covering up Saracen logos...

:LOL:

I've got quite a few old Orange catalogues, along with Marin, Kona, Rocky Mountain, stacks of mags etc, etc - all from 1989 onwards but stuck in storage somewhere.
 
Thats a really tidy orange. Very nice. :D


Bin the bars and stem and you will have a beauty. How the hell you managed to keep a Ritchey headset going is beyond me though.
 
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