Orange Formula

[michael@orange]

John asked me to get photos of Orange Formulas so i started doing a bit of digging to try and find a bike. I've worked at Orange since the early nineties but the Formula wasn't in production when i started. I knew of it, custom made by Steve, Colombus and Tange tubing mix, ultra light ( a lot of road tubing used) and rare but I didn't appreciate how rare until today when i asked Steve how many were made.

He can't recall exactly but thinks it may only be 6 or 7 of them !!!


We don't have one in the factory, there is a road bike made using the same tubing by Steve, painted black but we don't have a mountain bike and given the tubing used its unlikely one would have survived if it was in regular use I'm pretty sure I know one person who had one and will try and contact him to see if he's still got it.

 

[gump]

Hi Michael, I think John was referring to the road bike Formula as there is one on here..

I was interested in the black formula as I used to ride a lot with a guy who had one. Custom made matt black. Had one piece bar/stem too. I remember he broke it (can't remember where now), and was offered an Aluminium elite as a replacement, which wasn't 'quite' the same!

Didn't realise they were quite that rare though. Guy was called Dan Gay. Had a clockwork too if its any help. Back in 91 think it was.

Lovely bike though. It spurred me on to my Alu O.

Pics would be good...but sounds like you have a bit of digging to do. I have some video I think, will try and dig it out.

 

[mrkawasaki]

According to our very own Retrobike archive, the 91 Orange catalogue shows an Orange 'Formula Orange' - a black hand made MTB frame option - as Michael described.

The Orange 'Formula' is the road bike made from 753 steel in classic Clockwork colourways - I cannot find out the year(s) of build for this frame - the only road frame featured in the archive is the 93/94 raw aluminium 7005 'Dynamo', which I have never seen in the flesh.

I would love to know who made the road frames and how many were made. At the end of the day, you'd wait a long time to see any of the above go by today...!

Neil

 

[gump]

damn I forget how good this site is

 

[scant]

wow, I didnt appreciate they were that rare either. doing the old mountain bike club of wales races in the late 80s, early 90s (remeber those Tim I used to see the same 1 at every race. nice looking bike

 

[john]

Hi Michael, I think John was referring to the road bike Formula as there is one on here..

I was interested in the black formula as I used to ride a lot with a guy who had one. Custom made matt black. Had one piece bar/stem too. I remember he broke it (can't remember where now), and was offered an Aluminium elite as a replacement, which wasn't 'quite' the same!

Was after pics of the mtb actually. Something I've been aware of but not sure if I've ever actually seen one.

6 or 7 made does make it rare though. Could be the holy grail of the uk mtb scene

 

[gump]

my mistake John

Scant, that may have been Dan, I raced in that series with him. Beddgelert is hell of way from Torquay...

 

[Russell]

6 or 7 made does make it rare though. Could be the holy grail of the uk mtb scene

And so the race begins!

Who's going to be first to get one then?

 

[kona kid]

ah, but is it rarer than a green pace?!
(given how long it took to find a photo of one!)

 

[michael@orange]

According to our very own Retrobike archive, the 91 Orange catalogue shows an Orange 'Formula Orange' - a black hand made MTB frame option - as Michael described.

The Orange 'Formula' is the road bike made from 753 steel in classic Clockwork colourways - I cannot find out the year(s) of build for this frame - the only road frame featured in the archive is the 93/94 raw aluminium 7005 'Dynamo', which I have never seen in the flesh.

I would love to know who made the road frames and how many were made. At the end of the day, you'd wait a long time to see any of the above go by today...!

Neil

All (!) the Formulas were MTB, the one road frame is Steve's own road bike made from the same Formula tubing and welded by him.

Dynamo was a 7005 alloy frame, most were anodised grey or purple, some painted ( usually where the anodising wasn't perfect) I'm not certain on this but i think the sizes were 50, 53, 57 and 60 and less than 100 were made. Dynamo has twin seat stays not a mono stay. I have one of these in the garage and will post photos.

D2 replaced Dynamo in about 94, it has the monostay and is still 7005, sizes were 50, 54 and 57 once again less than 100 units. Jonny Clay and Adrian Timmis used D2's when they represented Orange on the road.

There are also 2 Ti Dy's these were titanium road frames, mono stay, similar construction to a T2 MTB. We still have 1, i think Jonny might have the other.