"Redemption Build" Orange P7

Ok, been brewing on this for many years. It started in 1998-ish when I stopped for a sandwich in Kentish Town one night on my way back from work. I was on my 1994-ish Orange P7 and I'd been rocking some swanky Spinergy wheels for a while. I got them from a magazine journo who reviewed them and had the option to send them back to the US or buy them. I ended up buying them, so they were maybe one of the earliest sets in the UK. Anyhoo, some sneaky tealeaf pinched my bike from outside the sandwich shop. And that was that. Not insured. Just gone.

I vowed to remake it one day, the "Retribution Build", and that time was 2025. Well, 2023 when I started sourcing the parts. Annoyingly, I had no photos of the bike at the time but what I remembered was "matt black Orange P7, XT, Syncros stuff, Spinergy wheels". So that was my brief.

First up was finding a decent set of wheels (thanks @Drmiles), then the Syncros Powerlites (thanks @RockiMtn), the XT groupset (thanks to the generous @Splatter Paint), bars (massive thanks @Fatboy1974), cranks (thanks @Fat Gav (Slim)), Syncros headset (@Drmiles again), Ritchie pedals (@Tsundere), Syncros skewers (thanks @Corduroyboy)... and a few bits from Ebay.

But still no frame, plenty in small. Finally found a 1997 frame (SN:A707004340) on Ebay up near Manchester so took a snowy 300 mile round trip. Slightly later than my original, I think, but it's close enough. The main deal breakers were no disc mount nonsense and it needed an 1 1/8" headset to accept some Powerlites. I think you could get them in 1", but were as rare as hens teeth. So figured I must have has an 1 1/8th bike. Seems there tales of 1994 P7s having 1 18" and 1996 P7s having 1", so I just went for a safe bet. Turns out the frame as mint! No rust, no dings.

Here's how the build went down...

First, the starter frame. Pretty much all I used was the frame, grips, cables and chain.


The frame needed dipping, stripping, shot-blasting and powder coating. It wasn't pretty at the half way stage!


Meanwhile, the Powerlites need to have some steerer surgery... longer and threadless.





Then the cranks needed some love. Wanted them black, so polished them and sent off for black anodising.

And then the lettering with white enamel paint.



The Powerlites also went off to be powder coated (with the stem) and used the classy wedge trick to get the fork legs back in.


First stuff chucked at the frame.






And cut the steer to fit with a few mm to spare.

Then brakes. Good old XT M739 kit.



Couldn't help myself so the first wave of stickers came out.





Bars, shifters and levers (I had some brifters too, but went old-skool with separates). I also had an older set of bars but went for these as the matt finish matched the bike better. Think the compromise was worth it.


The cable donuts were very important. Obviously.

Looking good

Then came the stickers part deux... Syncros edition. I'd made sure I measured the locations (forks and stem) before I sent the bits off for powdercoat, which helped a lot. Curiously, some Powerlites had the badge near the bosses, some near the crown. I just went with what mine used to have.






Interestingly, the Shimano "IG51" chain that came with the donor bike frame scrubbed and lubed up well but I'm fairly sure is a knock-off. I'll replace it soon enough, but was an interesting rabbit hole finding out about how many chains on Ebay and Amazon are actually fake. Either way, it's an ok fake and it'll do for now.


The first real faff was the seat clamp. It's stated as 31.8mm, I measured the old one at 32.9mm. The new 31.8 clamp I'd bought definitely didn't fit. So eventually found a Specialized S124700004 SBC SW Road Alloy Seatpost Clamp with Zinc Bolt 32.6mm, which fitted a treat.

To take the fork legs to the powder coaters, I had to remove the leg top caps. They weren't having it and seemed quite brittle. I eventually took the advice of @RockiMtn, drilled a hole and pulled them out. Like so...

To seal up the hole afterwards, I heated up some black 3D printing filament and jammed it in it from the back, while holding the cap against a paper / flat / non-stick surface. Not perfect, but good enough. And I can just poke them out next time. Be careful if you do this, the side flanges were REALLY brittle on mine.




Then came the tyre faff. Good lord, they are tight on these rims. Tried 5 different brands, beads and styles. All were tighter than a ducks bum.


They also needed valve extenders and whatnot. Eventually went with Panaracer Fire XC Pro in 2.1" and just bit the bullet and spent an hour cussing and fighting. With the help of 3 levers and a Kool Stop Tyre Mate tool (and a pinch flat), they were on.


So, ready for it's first outing!

Now I just have to pluck up the courage to remove the masking tape protecting the QR surfaces, add some bottle bolts, give it a ride to see if the wheels were as bad as I remembered.

Thanks to everyone who parted with their retro goodies and entertained my random ramblings on DMs. It's been 25-years in the making but I'm super pleased with the result. Hope you like it. Also, I'm not precious. If I've got something a bit wonky, do let me know.

I reckon the cables could do with a bit of shortening/tidying to make it 100%. It looks a blast and hope it brings back great memories

Frankenorange said:

I reckon the cables could do with a bit of shortening/tidying to make it 100%. It looks a blast and hope it brings back great memories

Click to expand...

Good spot. You mean the ones up front?

Very nice build mate I be definitely doing a black on black build I was a bit on the fence until seen this who did your anodising and powder coating cheers