Laserblueexige
Dirt Disciple
One of a number of good things to come out of the lock-down, for me personally, was to start a long over-due project to restore my much loved and recently very beleaguered Orange P7. Something I have been mulling over for a number of years, with numerous periodic guest visits to this forum where I have sat in awe at some of the completed member’s restoration projects.
I had actually taken her down to the local bike shop, at the beginning of the lock-down on the pretext of having a quick service. I thought riding her was the best way to spend my daily, hourly exercise entitlement offered to us by our politicians. The immediacy of the bike shop’s servicing outweighed getting-my-hands-dirty as I knew if I did it myself, it wouldn’t stop until a complete restoration had been achieved.
What flipped me into ‘full restoration mode’ was the reaction I had after releasing the bike from the confines of my garden shed; the whole servicing crew at the bike shop came front-of-house to look her over, two pedestrians stopped and even a car driver pulled over to admire what they knew to be an iconic MTB. To be honest, I was surprised by the interest and equally embarrassed that I had allowed her to get into such a state, so the restoration project went from red to green in a heartbeat and the work started.
With an August 1994 frame build, I bought her from 2XS in West Wittering. I had been married for three years, with a second child on the way, huge mortgage (I thought it was) and recently, at the time, sole family bread winner. Regardless of my predicament, I was still determined to buy into the Orange P7 line up, albeit on the first rung of the ladder, as the LX Group set variant was all I could afford. To be honest, NOT afford would be a more accurate description. To this day, I don’t how I persuaded my other half to allow me to make such an extravagant purchase.
Over the next 15 years the P7 was worked hard and saw a lot of this countries great riding locations. New shinny bits were inevitably purchased; Girvin Vector forks which were later updated with ODS (all my mates in the early years were riding Proflex’s and I had always admired the quirkiness of its design); Proflex Stem (recently reminded by this forum it was the same as the Orange in its day), XT Quick Fire Shifters, a set of the first V brakes to be shipped to the UK (purchased at the show at Olympia which came in with XT markings), Middleburn Cranks, Mavic Rims (M231 on the Front and 217 for the rear), Yeti grips and Orange cow horns. As is always the way, the imaginary shopping list went on and on but the funds unfortunately never kept pace.
If I had the money back then the XT Variant would have been my sweet spot, I love shiny, a Hope BB and Pace RC36 forks (loved their combination of CF and shiny). Orange and Pace were always the ‘Morecombe and Wise’ combination in my view, but the forks were just so damn expensive.
Thankfully I am a few clicks above being brassic today, so a set of ‘as new’ RC36’s have been sourced (along with a 1” steerer and reducer crown shim) and I have on my radar a M737 cassette, chainrings and front and rear derailleurs. Still need to track down the front and rear hubs (FH & HB M737’s I believe), a period Hope BB in good working order and a SO M730 if I can find one. The headset is perplexing me at the moment as I believe the part number is HP-742 but all I can find is a threaded variant and I need a 1” threadless one. Perhaps I have got the wrong part number…..Finally a full set of decals supplied by Gil for the frame, forks, handlebars and rims which look absolutely stunning. (I couldn’t work out where the F7 one went until I realised, they were applied to the rigid front forks which, along with the original stem, have long since been lost in the mists of time.
As for the frame itself, I don’t have the patience nor stoicism that other forum members have in restoring the frame to its forma glory by hand, so I have decided to have the nickel re-plated at Ashford Chroming Services in Kent. Realistically, I think the rust spots around the top section of the bottom backet are a bit too-far-gone to guarantee a perfect finish if I were to do it myself, but I must confess I did gasp at the price. The frame has now been fully stripped and cleaned and readied for shipment to Kent, just waiting for a suitably sized shipping carton to arrive. I will decide on whether a lacquer coating / protective film is required when the frame returns from ACS. What I have seen of raw Nickel plating is it can be quite bright and that faint orange hue is very important to me.
I am very much an amateur in the world of MTB restoration so I would welcome any of your thoughts or feedback. For a standpoint of historical record, I have attached some photos
I had actually taken her down to the local bike shop, at the beginning of the lock-down on the pretext of having a quick service. I thought riding her was the best way to spend my daily, hourly exercise entitlement offered to us by our politicians. The immediacy of the bike shop’s servicing outweighed getting-my-hands-dirty as I knew if I did it myself, it wouldn’t stop until a complete restoration had been achieved.
What flipped me into ‘full restoration mode’ was the reaction I had after releasing the bike from the confines of my garden shed; the whole servicing crew at the bike shop came front-of-house to look her over, two pedestrians stopped and even a car driver pulled over to admire what they knew to be an iconic MTB. To be honest, I was surprised by the interest and equally embarrassed that I had allowed her to get into such a state, so the restoration project went from red to green in a heartbeat and the work started.
With an August 1994 frame build, I bought her from 2XS in West Wittering. I had been married for three years, with a second child on the way, huge mortgage (I thought it was) and recently, at the time, sole family bread winner. Regardless of my predicament, I was still determined to buy into the Orange P7 line up, albeit on the first rung of the ladder, as the LX Group set variant was all I could afford. To be honest, NOT afford would be a more accurate description. To this day, I don’t how I persuaded my other half to allow me to make such an extravagant purchase.
Over the next 15 years the P7 was worked hard and saw a lot of this countries great riding locations. New shinny bits were inevitably purchased; Girvin Vector forks which were later updated with ODS (all my mates in the early years were riding Proflex’s and I had always admired the quirkiness of its design); Proflex Stem (recently reminded by this forum it was the same as the Orange in its day), XT Quick Fire Shifters, a set of the first V brakes to be shipped to the UK (purchased at the show at Olympia which came in with XT markings), Middleburn Cranks, Mavic Rims (M231 on the Front and 217 for the rear), Yeti grips and Orange cow horns. As is always the way, the imaginary shopping list went on and on but the funds unfortunately never kept pace.
If I had the money back then the XT Variant would have been my sweet spot, I love shiny, a Hope BB and Pace RC36 forks (loved their combination of CF and shiny). Orange and Pace were always the ‘Morecombe and Wise’ combination in my view, but the forks were just so damn expensive.
Thankfully I am a few clicks above being brassic today, so a set of ‘as new’ RC36’s have been sourced (along with a 1” steerer and reducer crown shim) and I have on my radar a M737 cassette, chainrings and front and rear derailleurs. Still need to track down the front and rear hubs (FH & HB M737’s I believe), a period Hope BB in good working order and a SO M730 if I can find one. The headset is perplexing me at the moment as I believe the part number is HP-742 but all I can find is a threaded variant and I need a 1” threadless one. Perhaps I have got the wrong part number…..Finally a full set of decals supplied by Gil for the frame, forks, handlebars and rims which look absolutely stunning. (I couldn’t work out where the F7 one went until I realised, they were applied to the rigid front forks which, along with the original stem, have long since been lost in the mists of time.
As for the frame itself, I don’t have the patience nor stoicism that other forum members have in restoring the frame to its forma glory by hand, so I have decided to have the nickel re-plated at Ashford Chroming Services in Kent. Realistically, I think the rust spots around the top section of the bottom backet are a bit too-far-gone to guarantee a perfect finish if I were to do it myself, but I must confess I did gasp at the price. The frame has now been fully stripped and cleaned and readied for shipment to Kent, just waiting for a suitably sized shipping carton to arrive. I will decide on whether a lacquer coating / protective film is required when the frame returns from ACS. What I have seen of raw Nickel plating is it can be quite bright and that faint orange hue is very important to me.
I am very much an amateur in the world of MTB restoration so I would welcome any of your thoughts or feedback. For a standpoint of historical record, I have attached some photos
art top adaptor.
