Orange Clockwork 1989 w. Campagnolo Centaur

[MatBH5]

Hello, After catching the RetroBike bug big time this year, and as an Orange fan, when this popped up on eBay in the late Summer (also outed on here), I was very keen and ultimately won the auction. This has spent a month or so in a friends basement until a courier finally dropped this off today.
It needs a really good clean, but I wanted to post a few pre-breakdown photos as I'm sure some isn't original and your knowledge will no doubt help me build this back up with a few more period correct parts.

Frame: Orange Clockwork 19" (1989?), Yellow/White fade.
Frame no. is stamped down the side of the seat tube, not on the bb, and starts A891...
Has a Tange Double Butted sticker (not the more common Infinity).
Has an Orange 'Individually Selected Tubes by Orange'
Has a dealer sticker 'Supplied by Sail Sports (09284) 293'
Unusual (for Orange) cable routing under bottom bracket

Fork: Orange cro-mo (unusually for Orange, no mudguard eyes)

Headset: Deore DX (likely replacement?) 1"
Stem: plain black unbranded with some rise (replacement)
Handlebar: to my eyes more modern anodised orange, HotRod.
Grips: non-branded
Barends: n/a

Brakes: Campagnolo Cantis (Centaur)
Brake Pads: Campagnolo
Brake Cables: ?
Cantilever cable hangers: Rear is a nice Campy one, front plain Shimano
Brake Levers: Dia Compe SS5

Shifters: Deore XT thumbies
Front Derailleur: Campagnolo (Euclid/Centaur)
Rear Derailleur: Campagnolo (Euclid/Centaur)
Derailleur Cables: ?
Cassette: Shimano Hyperglide 7sp
Chain: ?
Cranks: Campagnolo (Euclid/Centaur)
Crank Bolts:
Chainrings: Campagnolo 26-36-46
Chainring bolts: Campagnolo
Bottom Bracket: Campagnolo (as far as I can tell)
Pedals: Campagnolo (really nice, with metal toe clips and original grey leather branded straps)

Hub Skewers: Mixed Shimano
Rims: Rear is a Mavic M7CD Energy, front is a M6CD Oxygen, both 36h
Hubs: Rear is XT732, Front XT730
Nipples: ?
Spokes: ?
Tyres: Front is a Specialized Hardpack 1.5", rear a Groundcontrol 1.95"
Tubes: ?

Saddle: Nit nice... Velo gel
Seatpost: Kalloy (badly scored) 26.8
Seatpost Binder: Shimano

This is in pretty good condition, and the seller said she bought it new for her husband who didn't ride it much, and that all parts are original. I'm sure it hasn't been well used, at least in recent years, based on the brake blocks and tyres, as well as the chainrings.

Would Orange have supplied this with a Campy / xt mix?

Is it possible this came with mismatched rims? Back in the day might there have been a reason to have M6 and M7 on the same bike. This also has the wider tyre on the rear, which I always recall as having been the other way around.

I wonder whether the stem / bars might have been changed in the mid-90's [edit, view is '91/'92ish]? I've got an old white Stalk where the brake cable drops through the stem, which I think might work well.

If anyone can shed light on the frame number placement, Sail Sports shop and any of the components, I'd be very grateful.

Cheers, Mat

 

[xxnick1975]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Is this the one from merseyside area. Some interesting info there. The shop sticker could be interesting too.

One of the experts will be along soon, and can probably give more background.

I would say it is possible that it's largely original and the xt and campag got mixed. The yellow colour is already rare, so maybe it was a bit of a "use everything we have left over" bike.

Get some pictures up! Great score, this ones a belter!

 

[xxnick1975]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Oh yes, loving the photos. You've done very well there, some lovely parts on that bike.

What are your plans? A strip, clean and rebuild and this would be blinding

 

[MatBH5]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Yes, definitely nothing too drastic. Seatpost, saddle, stem, bars will be about it, I think. Maybe keep these tyres for 'best' too. I'll even keep the matching yellow bottle cage.
Just noticed that it doesn't have the front mech cable noodle above the bb shell (as on my later Prestige and the other recent yellow/white on here), instead there's a Kona-style under bb plastic fitting, and the rear mech cable also runs on the downtube and through this. Curious...

 

[CTK]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Lovely stuff. If you could find an original Orange saddle with logo intact the bike would be perfect!

(Keep the bars!)

 

[Grumpy farmer]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

I would say the rear rim is a replacement as I think m6s were fitted at the time. I think it is unlikely that orange would have mixed shimano and campag as the campag was supplied as complete group sets with levers and thumbless. The dia comp levers were fitted to bikes with xt thumbies but with 986 cantis. The hot rods are definitely later 91ish and it should have an orange stalk stem with the brake cable routed through the stem. I suspect it had some modifications a couple of years after it was bought, I reckon it's a 1989 that's had a front end rejig in 1991. The campag levers and thumbies were quite bulky affairs from what I remember and the original bars would not have been over light. Alternatively it may have had the custom bar and stem option, which was a 1 piece bar and stem, light, but had a tendency to crack round the cable routing hole in the stem. I had one until I cut the bars down so much there wasn't room for the controls!

 

[makster]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Good work Mat!

 

[MatBH5]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Thank you for the advice GumpyFarmer, I'll certainly swap the stem, maybe look for a plain bar (that HotRod will go nicely on my Prestige).
As for the levers / shifters, it would be nice to have a matching groupset, so will keep my eyes open. On the other hand, these sound like fairly sensible period mods, so perhaps there is no rush...

Cheers Mark, you won't be so pleased when I've prattled on about it all the way to Corfe!

 

[brocklanders023]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Just taken delivery of a yellow/white frame myself. Like buses they are!

I don't see any reason why the thumbies are not original as one of the selling points of Orange bitd was that you could choose any groupset combo you wanted. As mentioned, the hot rods are defo later. My 1991 Presige still has no name jobs so they date from 1992/3ish. My old 1989 Clockwork had a no name bar that weighed a ton. I swapped it for the one on my Saracen Tufftrax as a kid because the Saracen one was lighter. It was white, same as the stalk stem although I have seen 89's with black stems like yours. My 89 had Mavic Oxygen M6 rims with different decals to yours. The original tyres on mine were Ground Controls. The saddle on my original one was a no name leather one. The Orange saddles came later.

The frame I've just got has the bb noodle, just like the other 89's I've had. Wonder if that makes yours quite an early version? What is the seat post size out of interest? I always thought 89's had 26.8 but the one I've just got has a 26.6 fitted. :?

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

 

[lrh]

Re: Orange Clockwork 1989 (?) w. Campagnolo

Groupset looks more Centaur than Euclid but there's big overlaps in the groups. The 89 brochures don't show canti's though, only U-brakes.

Possibly some bits trashed or stolen (wheels, front end) and replaced by cheaper Shimano parts?

But Campag and Shimano shifters/cassettes/rear mechs aren't strictly compatible so you'll have to splash out on Campag hubs, freewheel, shifters