Orange C16r

[donegal]

Hello All
I have an orange c16r which i bought new in around 1993,i'm sure some of you clued up chaps will correct me on that date from viewing the photo !! The bike is in origional and very good condition right down to the psycho 2's and i still have the origional pedals and straps. Now as i have started to ride alot more off road, i would like to upgrade to front shocks, but have been lead to believe that it is going to proof a very expensive move, with the forks, breaks, levers and possibly gears as the changer is attached to the break lever. If anyone could reply with a suitable option I would be most grateful, if not i'm afraid my beloved orange will have to be traded for a new model. If I do have to sell could anyone tell me if there is a market for such a bike and what would you think it would be worth ?

Many Thanks in advance

John

 

[kase1983]

id say that is 1995 same as my p7, personally id strip it to a frame/fork, give it a good degrease and clean, then build it back up depending on budget,

shocks wise try and get period, nice set off mags, just search the ebay and see what you can find,

 

[Ziggy]

Whoever said you need to change all that stuff to put some suspension forks on there is talking out of their...

Perhaps to go to some disc-brake-only modern forks yeah, but there's plenty available (on here, or ebay) that'll be a direct swap for your rigids.

 

[Russell]

I'm not too sure why you've been told that you need to replace all that. If you get the right forks, all you'll need to replace, is the forks. Unless all that other stuff is FUBAR anyway.

Changing to shocks shouldn't cost you much more than £50-£100 if you shop around for some decent 2nd hand forks.

(or, what they said above thats what happens when you walk away for a bit and come back in the middle of a reply!)

 

[Hermit]

From your pic it looks like you have a threaded headset and old cantis, so if you were to put on modern forks, as far as I know, you cannot get new ones with a threaded steerer and a brace with a stop for old cantis? So you would have to change forks, headset, stem, brakes and if you have old brake/shifter combos those brakes won't work (well) with V's so you'd have to change levers and shifters too?

Or, you keep a look out for old sus forks on ebay or here that have a threaded steerer and canti brake stop - Q21R's, Mag 21's, maybe some Pace?

Or, you could get all the bits quite cheap off ebay - forks, stem, V's, shifters - might as well upgrade to 9 sp if your going to?, levers, etc?

 

[Russell]

Hermit, even if you got modern forks without a canti stop, he could buy a cable hanger that fits around the steerer which means that he wouldn't need to replace all that lot, just the headset and stem.

If you want to keep it retro, these look in good condition and will go cheap

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rock-Shox-Mag-10- ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Retro-Answer-Mani ... dZViewItem

If this is a regular rider and you want a decent suspension set up however, you may be better off just selling up and buying a modern bike. Its your call really, are you lured by the retro ride thing or not?

 

[cannondale king]

thats gonna need a fork with a 1" steerer got one of those c16r's my self brought it off here a month ago im just fully stipped it down and rebuilt with the stx parts it came with and replaced the craped out parts with some nos stx parts i found lying around at work. yours is looking better than mine so far thow buddy

 

[mamadirt]

Hermit, even if you got modern forks without a canti stop, he could buy a cable hanger that fits around the steerer which means that he wouldn't need to replace all that lot, just the headset and stem.

Fine for rigids but sus forks would need the cable stop on the fork lowers to maintain tension if running cantis.

Keep it retro!! I made the mistake of dragging my C16R kicking and screaming into the 21st century and then promptly sold her :?

 

[Wold Ranger]

Plenty of Retro inch forks with cable hangers on here and Fleabay to suit, just make sure it is a one inch steerer first! Some were inch and an eighth, if so you could swap to Aheadset style cheaply. Modern forks would not work, as the travel/height would be too long for the non'suspension corrected frame, which would make the steering flop all over the place, unless you set it up with loads of sag and then it could still be dodgy. Look for a set of Pace etc, which have a changeable steerer, then you would have full flexibility!!
Putting a set of modern forks on a C16r would be a bit like asking Li'l Chris' to be the back up band at a 'Stones Concert, it just wouldn't work!!

 

[Anthony]

It’s difficult to advise without more information, but I have two C16Rs, a 1995 one that a pal is using, with the same rigid forks as yours, and a 1996 size 15 (yours is a 17) that I built with Marzocchi Z2s for my son when he was 10. On the basis of that experience, my advice would be:

a. don’t sell it, you’ll only get £100-150 for it and that’s not worth it - in a few years time you’d certainly regret having sold it
b. those F8 forks are among the most-fun rigids ever made and replacing them with heavy/rubbish Mag 21s would be a step backwards and make the bike worse
c. if you replace the forks, your chances of finding a pair with a threaded one-inch steerer of exactly the right length are very low, so you’d need a new aheadset and stem and even then finding a good fork with a one-inch steerer is a problem (a Pace is your best option)
d. listen to Wold Ranger on the folly of using modern forks that are hugely longer and would ruin the geometry/handling
e. the worst thing on the bike are those lethal cantis – as you rightly say, you would need new shifters and brake levers if you changed to V-brakes, but even so that is a necessary upgrade unless you are a retro fanatic
f. I can’t quite make it out, but it looks like you’ve already junked the flats/straps (which would have been the next-worse thing on the bike!)
g. if you want a suspension bike, £300-400 on eBay will get you quite a decent mid-high range bike, say 5 years old – don’t spend that on a new bike, you’ll only get a heavy pile of rubbish

Basically, you’re a lucky man. You’ve been riding around on a very classy little bike, with superb frame and forks, and you won’t find it that easy to better it without spending a lot of cash.