Orange C-16....??

moodyman

Retro Guru
Hi all

Recently aquired this bike as part ex for my modern Giant.
Dont know a massive amount about it other than the lad had it from the 90's and its seen little use.

Is it worth keeping?

As I said, know very little about it and you seem to be the experts on all things retro :wink:

All info appreciated, things I should change etc......


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It's a 1994 size 19 C-16R. A bit of a classic really, but only you know whether it's worth keeping. Do you enjoy riding it?

I haven't ridden the earlier Clockwork, but I would guess the early C-16Rs were an improvement, partly because the F7 fork is a classic. I used to commute on my 97 C-16R and it was actually enjoyable going to work. A C-16R is always fun.

I would say it's a very good example just from the look of it. Too colourful for my taste, but Yeti grips are great and I must admit that's quite a nice colour match. Things like the bar and the bottle cages are OTT for my taste, but what has my taste got to do with it? Clockworks and C-16Rs make amazingly little on eBay IMO, given that they're such excellent bikes, maybe £150 generally, perhaps up towards £200 for that one as it looks quite flashy.

The things I would change if it was mine would be to fit V brakes and a shorter stem, as that very long one might deaden the steering down, which would be a shame and a waste of those superb forks.

If you haven't got any other rigid bike, I would say that would be a good bike to keep as you'll surely use it whenever the mood takes you, you'll surely enjoy it when you do and you wouldn't get all that much for it if you sold it.



[Incidentally, if you do decide to sell it, take the ringle bottle cage off and sell it separately - probably worth £20 but wouldn't add £20 to the value of the Orange if sold as is.]
 
Thats great, thanks for that, think I may keep it then, especially as its the only bike I currently have :oops:

I quite like the colours bit I agree it probably is an equired taste!!
 
Anthony":367v7tb1 said:
It's a 1994 size 19 C-16R. A bit of a classic really, but only you know whether it's worth keeping. Do you enjoy riding it?

I know this is a bit off topic, but how do you date an Orange?
Did you do this one by the colour scheme :?:
 
That's a great bike. You did well there - and you got a Ringle bottle cage !!!

The only things I would change are removing the purple bottle cage and maybe change the stem (a shorter silver Ringle or syncros one would look the biz). I wouldn't change the brakes unless you really aren't happy with them. If you want to keep it correctly retro and improve the brakes you could try different brake pads and levers....or go with Maguras (like the sticker on the top tube says). If you have to go for vees then try and find something roughly the right period maybe, like stx-rc ones ?

btw - you can date most Oranges from the frame number stamped on the bottom bracket. It is only the really early ones where the frame number can be confusing.
 
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