Orange P7 1995??

[Kingswood]

Hey, got this today and wanted some feedback please.

i saw the P7 on ebay, and as ive just turned 30, this was the bike to have when i was young (and poor!). at £150 it seemed to cheap so i bid £162............and won!

i got it delivered to my shop and had a closer look............

hardley orginal, XT v's, shimano m440 crank, mavic deore wheels, 73mm bb in a 68mm shell, dodgy shim in the saddle post, 105 road headset. oh, and advertised as 21inch and turns out to be a 17.5.............and im 6"5'!!

apart from that what do u rekon?? could u tell me more about the frame please, prob the best bit of the deal! its magnetic so im thinking steel and its welded. the serial number is A503009810.

im thinking worse case strip it for parts and have a jumble sale!!

pics in next post!

 

[Jacqueslemac]

Some pictures would be handy.

At that time Orange sold a lot of frames, as well as built-up bikes, so the groupset could be anything (mine's a complete mish-mash with whatever I had at the time and have added since).

The frame is Prestige (mine is called an Orange Prestige, instead of P7, as it was the model before). From memory it's a Columbus tubing, but no doubt someone much more knowledgeable will be along soon. My information is all from a gradually receding memory!

 

[Elev12k]

Hey, got this today and wanted some feedback please.

i saw the P7 on ebay, and as ive just turned 30, this was the bike to have when i was young (and poor!). at £150 it seemed to cheap so i bid £162............and won!

i got it delivered to my shop and had a closer look............

hardley orginal, XT v's, shimano m440 crank, mavic deore wheels, 73mm bb in a 68mm shell, dodgy shim in the saddle post, 105 road headset. oh, and advertised as 21inch and turns out to be a 17.5.............and im 6"5'!!

apart from that what do u rekon?? could u tell me more about the frame please, prob the best bit of the deal! its magnetic so im thinking steel and its welded. the serial number is A503009810.

im thinking worse case strip it for parts and have a jumble sale!!

pics are 2big so hope this link works. sorry they were tuk in the dark under spot lights

http://s846.photobucket.com/albums/ab25/F_Bear/

Copy/pasted this from the other thread (incl pics) and deleted the other

Welcome Kingswood !

 

[raymondluxuryyacht]

Nice frame !
Yes I think you have the date about right. It looks to be in very good condition.

The frame on the prestige was obviously tange prestige (cromo-steel), the frame on the clockwork was tange infinity, the frame on the p7 is "series 8 microbutted cromoly" but I have no idea what company produced this tubing. They are very good frames though.
At the time I think they were available as complete bikes in several different specificaitions. I know shimano stx-rc was one option for 94/95. There may also have have been a suntour option (e.g. xc comp) and a higher spec shimano option (e.g. dx/xt).
At the time the majority of bikes produced by orange were cromo-steel, with the exception of the aluminium o (which later become the aluminium elite, then evo).

 

[otherself]

Looking at the serial number it could be a '98 model. They still made the nikel finish version in that year afaik.

 

[raymondluxuryyacht]

The first three digits in Orange codes usually describe month and year. I think the code in this case means March '95 (5 and 03) but perhaps one of the other experts out there can comment.

 

[raymondluxuryyacht]

p.s. a quick way to check if its pre-1998 or not is to look at the slot in the seat tube. Rear facing slot=pre-1998.

 

[hydorah]

Cool

I bought an Orange O2 which had next to no decals left and the Orange afficianados of RB had it identified and dated no problem!

I think you've done alright, looks very tasty in terms of frame!

Top tube looks pretty long so with a real long seat post and long reach stem you'll probably be well away headtube looks reasonably high, too

Though I dunno why some people seem to find it so hard to measure bikes!

 

[clownfish]

I don't think that style of decal dates from '95; on the other hand, the 'dodgy' seatpost shim is probably original!

 

[raymondluxuryyacht]

Unfortunately decals are not particularly useful for analysing date as Orange constantly changed them, even within a year. My 1995 p7 orignally had the so-called "later" block rather than script logos. Yet I have seen 96 and 97s with both script and block logos. However I think they did change the colour of the logos around 97 or 98. I believe early ones had a mix or orange and purple logos, or were all orange. Some the later ones had red logos, but not sure about other colours that were around.

Having looked at the pics now the bike is definitely pre 1998 and post 1994. From the colour of the logos my guess is its not a 97 or 98 model. Shame the original fork isn't on there as I think ahead versions of the f7 fork appeared around 97 (where as threaded forks were fitted before). Must see if I can find some more about dating that serial number....

Found it....see dating info in this thread:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... e&start=30

So this was definitely built in 95. It might have had 95 or 96 model stickers depending on when it was assembled and sent to shops for sale.