abr303
Retro Guru
Oh not another Elite …. 
Yep, there seem to be a couple of other ones currently having some magic injected back into them on here at the moment and all looking like they are going to turn out to be great builds too I hope I can do mine some justice hopefully but bare with me as the build thread may get a little pic heavy as things progress
So, to cut a long story short, finding time on my hands currently as I've been furloughed, I made an impulse offer to a seller who had a couple of Orange Elite frames knocking about plus he had a complete bike and ended up going with this frame at a very reasonable price.....
A 1992 17" Aluminium Elite (frame no. A2033) early batch
It's seen some use but the welds are all good, no cracks or nasty dings and was apparently used to tour South America back in the 90's by the original owner. Often on many Elites these days, the lacquer is shot with the usual oxidisation getting in underneath so it needs to go and sadly so will the original decals as they are pretty gone in places... a full strip back will be in order. With this in mind I've already sourced a set of new decals from Gil so once the frames stripped and polished, on they'll go
The build will be periodish XT, thumbies as opposed to under bar Sti's and a set of RC35K's (which are currently going through a full makeover and rebuild) but haven't decided on wheels and finishing kit yet etc. Will see what turns up and how the build progresses but what I do know, there's going to be a lot of polishing going on.... my arms ache simply thinking about it all
Couldn't help myself in the meantime though and had a little go at the thumbies…. polished the aluminium up and treated the black plastic on the levers with some permanent trim restorer and blackened the mounting brackets
Also made a start on the XT BR-M734 canti's…….
I've started working on the frame so will update when I get the chance and get some images up when time allows. Cheers
Yep, there seem to be a couple of other ones currently having some magic injected back into them on here at the moment and all looking like they are going to turn out to be great builds too I hope I can do mine some justice hopefully but bare with me as the build thread may get a little pic heavy as things progress So, to cut a long story short, finding time on my hands currently as I've been furloughed, I made an impulse offer to a seller who had a couple of Orange Elite frames knocking about plus he had a complete bike and ended up going with this frame at a very reasonable price.....
A 1992 17" Aluminium Elite (frame no. A2033) early batch
It's seen some use but the welds are all good, no cracks or nasty dings and was apparently used to tour South America back in the 90's by the original owner. Often on many Elites these days, the lacquer is shot with the usual oxidisation getting in underneath so it needs to go and sadly so will the original decals as they are pretty gone in places... a full strip back will be in order. With this in mind I've already sourced a set of new decals from Gil so once the frames stripped and polished, on they'll go
The build will be periodish XT, thumbies as opposed to under bar Sti's and a set of RC35K's (which are currently going through a full makeover and rebuild) but haven't decided on wheels and finishing kit yet etc. Will see what turns up and how the build progresses but what I do know, there's going to be a lot of polishing going on.... my arms ache simply thinking about it all
Couldn't help myself in the meantime though and had a little go at the thumbies…. polished the aluminium up and treated the black plastic on the levers with some permanent trim restorer and blackened the mounting brackets
Also made a start on the XT BR-M734 canti's…….
I've started working on the frame so will update when I get the chance and get some images up when time allows. Cheers
