Hand brazed British Steel: Orbit 531 circa '90

Now finished:


Read on for the story!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This has come to me filthy! Looks to be fairly original with Mavic M6 Oxygen rims and the matching lugged unicrown rigid forks. What attracted me was the dropped top tube and fillet joins.



(Un)fortunately the silver splatter over yellow paintjob has seen better days.

This has original looking 300LX and Exage Country groupset, & probably dates it to 1990. the frame clearly deserves better components, and appears to be the same frame as the one Mr Kawasaki had: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/mai ... emId=58211

I'll probably get it powder coated and improve the spec sheet somewhat. Hopefully it will end up looking almost as lovely as mynchiboy's 653: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=204213

What's your plans for it; colour, components etc or haven't you decided yet?

Orbit

That will make a stunning build up, when it's done, not enough British frames on here!

Welcome to the Orbit club

That's looking very cool although I may be a bit biased, you won't regret the ride once it's finished though! It's good to see that you have it's original fork as well...

Out of interest what size is it? It certainly looks a bit larger than my 18" I also am curious how these 531 frames compare weight wise to the 653. Personally I would try to recreate the paint job, add some DX and/or M735 and love it

raidan73":2nd5bb9a said:

What's your plans for it; colour, components etc or haven't you decided yet?

Click to expand...

I think I will ride it about first as it is, see if it fits and and I like it. I need to research Orbit a bit, I admired them in magazines BITD.

I'll probably go for white, grey or the brightest colour the powder coater has. I have a load of M900 but its a bit late for this frame, I like M730 but thats a bit early...

Anyone got a magazine ad or catalogue showing colour schemes?

mynchiboy":8xk8o9ac said:

Out of interest what size is it? It certainly looks a bit larger than my 18" I also am curious how these 531 frames compare weight wise to the 653.

Click to expand...

Its a 20" with ~22.5" top tube. I will weigh it once stripped - the bike feels pretty light despite the components.

I'm not sure I remember Orbit, but I am a big fan of anything British made and fillet brazed, so I'm looking forward to seeing how you build works out.

NeilM":2ml8md4b said:

I'm not sure I remember Orbit, but I am a big fan of anything British made and fillet brazed, so I'm looking forward to seeing how you build works out.

Click to expand...

They were a bit of a "beardy" handmade touring bike company, and had (have) a good reputation for touring frames, and dipped their toes into MTBs like other road bike builders like Overburys, Bromwich and Donahue etc.

They have moved around a bit, originally Sheffield, this was apparently made in Coventry but now they are in Sheffield again. I think they contracted out some or most of the actual frame building.

Out of interest do you know the frame number?

was8v":32uaw7yd said:

NeilM":32uaw7yd said:

I'm not sure I remember Orbit, but I am a big fan of anything British made and fillet brazed, so I'm looking forward to seeing how you build works out.

Click to expand...

They were a bit of a "beardy" handmade touring bike company, and had (have) a good reputation for touring frames, and dipped their toes into MTBs like other road bike builders like Overburys, Bromwich and Donahue etc.

They have moved around a bit, originally Sheffield, this was apparently made in Coventry but now they are in Sheffield again. I think they contracted out some or most of the actual frame building.

Click to expand...

Unless they advertised in the mtb comics, then I probably wouldn't have known about them. I have to confess I don't remember Overbury's either, and they are only 25 miles away!

That said, financial constrains meant my sights were set a lot lower than the lofty heights of 'hand made' British frames back then, probably why I have so many now, as I consider them such amazing bargains.

If you are going to get the frame powder coated, may I suggest a couple of RAL codes? Have a look at 1018 or 1026