Another 1989/90 Orange Clockwork - Lemon flavoured.

Andy T

Orange 🍊 Fan
[url=https://postimg.cc/N9d4c7Wd][/URL]

Apologies for the photo dump and ramblings from the outset, another long post, two years ish in the making.

There are more images to add once my Internet providor pulls its pants out of the gutter, my upload speed at the minute is utter garbage!

For the TLDR Brigade –

1989/90 Yellow Fade Orange Clockwork, Restored with period correct bits.

This was the follow-on build from the ‘Tushinham XT’ from here -

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/what-if-tushingham-b-52-build-huge-post-grab-a-cuppa.411551/

I picked up this ‘89/90 frame/forks from Clockwork davo in March of 2020 during the first Lockdown, it has had a couple of owners on here, I hoped for it to be a quick ‘in-between projects’ project, it turned out it wasn’t, loads of excuses.. It was painted fairly quickly, reassembling, not so!

Some history -

Fluorescent Yellow/white fade was an option for the Clockwork in late ’89, early ’90, those I have spoken to that were in the trade or worked in the bike shops back then that stocked Orange, have said that they were a poor seller, seen as the ‘poor-man’s’ Orange, some have said they did not know that there was an option to have a Yellow/White fade Clockwork and only stocked the Orange/White fade models, everyone wanted an Orange /White fade Orange Clockwork.

The ‘Lemons’, as the ‘Oranges’ were built in two flavours of tubing,

  1. Tange Cr-Mo Double-Butted
  2. Tange Infinity Cr-Mo Tapered Double-Butted.
Mine is the latter flavour tubing,

Original decals in place.
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Tange Infinity tubing built ‘Lemons’ appear to be rarer than the Cr-Mo Double-Butted ones, I’ve come to this conclusion looking at all the photos I can find of the Lemon Clockworks that a tubing decal can be seen..sad eh?

It wasn’t in too bad a condition for a 31 year old bike, however there were some fairly deep chips/scrapes/chain rash/corrosion in the finish, so after some humming-and-haring and asking other folks opinions.. I ignored all that and decided to restore back to as close as OEM as I could.

As I received it.






As I had just completed a ‘what-if Tushingham’ build using M730 XT, I didn’t want another XT build despite it being an option for the Clockwork when it was first assembled in the UK.

So I decided on the mid-range groupset. Groupset decided, the rummage/hunt commenced for Deore DX bits.

Deore DX is a Groupset of many families, it has components of M650, MT62/63 to M730 XT in the Group, it’s a bit of a mess..so having said that, if it said Deore DX or equivalent, it was used.

1990 was the year to see the introduction to the DX Groupset of Rapidfire Shifters, although it appears all Lemon Clockworks (Known photos) were fitted with Deore DX ‘Thumbies’ as these were still part of the Deore DX range, anyway, Clockworks have to have ‘Thumbies’ its written somewhere!

There isn’t much of a build story, I had some parts in the stash, parts appeared here-and-there around the globe and attempts to purchase were either successful or not. Good Deore DX appears to be quite rare, and as such, quite expensive.

I stripped the frame and dropped it with Kevin Winters, Kevin built some of the very first Oranges BITD before they were imported on-mass, his work is exceptional! It’s always a good nostalgic chat when dropping off/picking-up frames from him.

Discussions were had with a couple of decal manufactures concerning producing a set of early 1989/90 decals, there are several early Clockwork sets on the market, however none (when I was restoring this bike) were 100% accurate and would need modifying to produce a correct early set.

Before I get hung…I agree, no reproduced set are going to be 100% accurate to the original sets produced BITD, however, isn’t there always a ‘however’?

My frame and forks had a complete set of original decals in place, including the ‘Made in Britain’ foil decal on the seat tube – held on by Sellotape as its adhesive was failing after 31 years.

Original decals on the frame.






Kevin offered to make the artwork for the decals as part of the re-paint, so he patiently mapped the decals, printed them, overlaid them on the originals, corrected any errors, re-drew and printed a new set, overlaid these and repeated the process until the finished artwork is, as accurate to an original decal as you can get, you can judge for yourself, if you spot something we have missed, please let me know.

The recreated decals.






Another Lemon Clockwork turned up on Ebay and I noticed the DX decal on the seat tube, chatting with the seller and several other folks on various forums, it was established that these decals were added to the frames to identify their groupset builds, they have been seen in LX, DX and XT versions on Clockworks and Prestige’s.

Ebay Lemon with DX Decal.



Prestige DX Decal


So, with dozens of photos and measurements from various folks, Kevin also recreated the Orange DX decal.



The ‘Made in Britain’ foil decal was sent off to be recreated.

All the decals have been printed by Steve at H Lloyd, he holds them on file if you want a set printing, Kevin has allowed Steve to hold the files and produce sets upon request, Kevin does not receive any monies from any sets purchased.

Collections – H Lloyd Cycles (h-lloyd-cycles.myshopify.com

Parts.

Trying to rediscover some mojo during Lockdown, a ropey set of DX pedals were purchased on the off-chance they could be resurrected, and they restored quite nicely.



I couldn’t find a fluro set of toe-straps for a sensible amount of money, so I made my own from a set of Mt. Christopher’s and some webbing from a pet suppliers. 10 mtr of webbing for less than £5! I might make some more, I can see a Cricut machine in the future to make stencils!




I had a NOS set of Deore DX thumbies.


A Couple of NOS DX seat posts were purchased, as when measuring the seatpost diameter with Kevin it was a little ambiguous as to what would fit..it’s 26.8mm in this frame.


Front and Rear Cantis I had, and they just needed a strip down and clean.

NOS BL MT-63 Brake Levers I had, which seem to have been earmarked for a Saracen Killi’ that is in the stash, will have to find some more now.


M650 cranks (which was the DX groupset cranks at the time) from the stash.


Araya RM20’s on DX hubs were from the..yup..stash. Ideally a set on Mavic rims would be more appropriate, however these are period correct.

Headset, Deore DX NOS, from Hungary if I remember correctly.

Stem, coming clean here…is not an original ‘Orange Stalk’ OEM supplied one, it is however the correct type/design for an ‘89/90 Clockwork. This one was actually seized into an absolutely trashed Muddyfox Sorcerer Pro, it fought to the bitter end to stay with the Sorcerer! Because of this I suspect it was the OEM stem for that frame and as such, was fabricated in the same factory as the OEM stems that were supplied with the Clockworks and decaled as Stalks.





The Sorcerer will be restored at some point in time – they have a fantastic splatter paint finish and it deserves better.

Bars, unused spare from a Tushingham that was given a Prestige bar, so again period correct.

Grips Mountain Grab-on’s (reproduction).

Seat/saddle, originally these came with a couple of seats/saddle’s (presumably what was available at the time of build or specified by a customer), original plan was for a Velo (VL195) OrangeGel, I couldn’t find a good one. I tried a reproduction Turbo and it did not look correct. There are lots of Clockworks with these on and they look good, it just didn’t look right on the Lemon. Then a scan turned up on the Retro Orange Owner FB page of one of the original 1989 advertisements for the Orange Clockwork and it was sporting a San Marco Rolls. Off hunting I went for a SM Rolls, I found a couple of NOS ones, even a 1990 stamped one…however, I could have bought another complete Clockwork for the asking price..had it been going on to a complete NOS equipped bike, then I may have bit, not this time, reproduction San Marco Rolls for the minute.

Advertisement for the new Orange Clockwork with the San Marco Rolls and also confirming the rear wheel disc colour for the next Clockwork build (Satin/Matt) Solid Orange, the one with the odd serial number..




Final part to go on..

The contentious ‘Hand Built in the UK’ decal.



Original paint found on the Fork Steerer.












Complete, one ‘Hand Built’ (Twice) in the UK Lemon fade Orange Clockwork, should be good for another 30+ years ish.

Quick family snap with the parents..


Looking for a Velo VL 195 OrangeGel seat for it if anyone has a good one they would like to part with? Beer or other commodity tokens in hand..

Parts list for those that read such things….

Frame: Tange Infinity MTB Tubing

Headset: Shimano HP-M650 Deore DX NOS
Stem: Factory/Period correct
Handlebar: Tushingham Aluminium bar
Grips: Mountain Grab-on 1 (Re-manufactured)
Barends: Nope
Brakes: Shimano BR-MT62 Front and Rear + standard pads.
Brake Cables: Shimano XT Cable 2mm NOS
Brake Levers: Shimano BL-MT63 2 (2-Finger) NOS
Shifters: Shimano MT 62 Shifting Lever 7 Speed SIS NOS
Front Derailleur: Shimano FD-M650
Rear Derailleur: Shimano RD-M650 SGS 7 Speed SIS
Derailleur Cables: Shimano NOS
Cassette: Shimano Deore DX CS-M650 Hyperglide
Chain: Shimano CN-MT62 Hyperglide Narrow 7 speed chain NOS.
Cranks: Shimano Deore DX FC-M650 High Performance Biopace Triple
Crank Bolts: Shimano.
Chainrings: Shimano Biopace-HP
Chainring bolts: Shimano
Bottom Bracket: Shimano modern one.
Pedals: Shimano PD-M650 with M730 XT Toe cages. NOS
Hub Skewers: M650 QR Skewers NOS.
Rims: Araya RM20 Black anodised (almost) NOS
Hubs: Shimano FH-M650 Deore DX, Rear Hub Shimano HB-M650 Deore DX
Spokes: Stainless Steel.
Tyres: Panaracer Timbuk II Front & Panaracer Khartoum Rear
Tubes: Whatever was in the stash….
Saddle: San Marco Rolls (Black) Re-manufactured
Seat Pillar M650 Deore DX 26.8mm
Seatpost Binder: Shimano SQ-M650

Weight: Don't know yet..

Comments good bad indifferent?
Andy
 
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Love a lemon,

Great you got the DX decal on there too, real attention to detail 👍 , personally, I like the stem, makes it a little bit better on the old back as I'm sure most stalks were zero rise and 150mm long 🤣

2022-06-2408.48.067322808272513090127.jpg

Any chance you could you do a good scan of that orange article, it looks a lot like mine, would be cool to go back to that spec on the piccy rather than black XT.
 
Love a lemon,

Great you got the DX decal on there too, real attention to detail 👍 , personally, I like the stem, makes it a little bit better on the old back as I'm sure most stalks were zero rise and 150mm long 🤣

View attachment 638197

Any chance you could you do a good scan of that orange article, it looks a lot like mine, would be cool to go back to that spec on the piccy rather than black XT.
Yup, zero rise stems were the way, not now if I'm to ride the bike!
If one turns up, I may change it out and then hang it up LOL

The article, sadly, I don't have a copy of it, all I have is that photo that was posted on one of the socials, taken by a guy who attended the 'Blue Moon' event at Orange a couple of months ago. Perhaps drop Orange a line and ask them for a scan? I'd like a good look at that wheel disc..
 
Another excellent build you've completed, looking forward to seeing my old Clockwork come to life. 👌
Cheers Chris,
its with Kevin at the moment, along with the 3rd Tush. (which is finished), should be back with me fairly soon, then I have to decide on the build groupset.
It's being painted back to the original satin/matt Orange.
 
Still regret selling this beaut, especially since you never see another XL but you have done a superb job mate. I especially like the attention to detail on the decals as I agree that other repro's are never quite right.

Saddle is a good match too. The original's were not Orange branded but certainly similar to the Rolls. I can take a snap of mine if you want?

I now have another yellow/white (that's too small....) and that's a Tange Infinity frame too.👍
 
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