RetroJIM's Orange C-16R

[retroJIM]

I've been looking for a 21" steel Orange for years and finally found one a couple of weeks ago. The paint work was in pretty bad shape with large sections over sprayed with grey paint and lots of rust but for just over £50 I thought it was worth saving.

It's a bit cold for wet paint so I decided to get it powder coated. It's come out quite well, I just need to spend some time finishing the bottom bracket shell, headtube and brakes bosses.

The decals were from dnfive and seem to have gone on OK.

 

[retroJIM]

I've had a bit of time over Christmas so I've been gradually building this up. I decided to try something a bit different. People keep saying Gravel Bikes are just drop bar mountain bikes from the 90's so I thought that's what I'd build.

The biggest problem has been finding a suitable 22.2mm high rise stem. At the moment I'm using a Profile Design quill adapter and a cheapo UNO threadless stem which I hate.

I've also run out of white cable housing so I can't do the front mech or wrap left hand side of bars.

 

[retroJIM]

Regarding the stem, I had originally bought a Tioga T bone which would be much nicer but sadly I can't get the drop bars to fit through the clamp. I wonder if I could get it converted to a removable faceplate

 

[markoc]

Looks great - but then I love an Orange

Presume you’ve tried the penny trick in the stem? We were putting all in one “bullmoose” bars through stems like that BITD so I’d have thought it was do-able. A bit of electrician tape and Vaseline on the tighter bits to stop scratches.

 

[retroJIM]

Yeah, I tried the penny trick as much as I'd dare. I've tried 3 different drop bars and couldn't get any of them to fit. The T bone has quite a wide clamp so any bar with a bend is problematic.

 

[CTK]

Looks like they did a good job on the powdercoat

 

[retroJIM]

Yeah it's not bad at all but in hindsight I should have gone for matt finish rather than satin.

 

[retroJIM]

Oh and I suspect the Gravel experiment will be short lived and I'll go back to flat bars, but we'll see

 

[CTK]

Oh and I suspect the Gravel experiment will be short lived and I'll go back to flat bars, but we'll see

I'm not a fan of those midge bars the ends should be longer imo. I think yours need to be rotated forward aswell.