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After several failed attempts, torrential rain and a motorway closure later I am the happy owner of this belter! I have been unable to get to the serial number yet but it is a very early Orange Clockwork, either 88 or 89, purchased in the summer of 89 by the person that sold it to me.
He is a long time member of the Penrith cycling community and is friends with Lester Noble as well as plenty of other familiar Orange faces from the past. He told me he went to the shop with the intention of buying a Marin Pine Mountain but was convinced to go for this new brand instead! He still has the original bill of sale along with plenty of other retro Orange content and it was a pleasure to chat for a couple of hours. There's the possibility of a Penrith retro ride so I'll update in due course.
Where this fits in to the cross over between Tushingham and Orange is open to debate but the original owner told me it was one of the first 100 Orange bikes and as can be seen by the features, it shares more with the Muddy Fox of the time than the more regular 89 Clockwork's, especially the cable stops. It is also sized differently to usual Orange's with a 17.5 inch seat tube c to t and a shorter top tube. Interestingly the head tube is longer than the 89 norm for the size so it seems they went from this to a racier position before changing again around 91.
I was told that the bike is pretty much original with only a few worn out parts replaced. I noted that the Ground Control was a replacement so this differed from the usual 89's by having Panaracer tyres, an Avocet saddle (rather than the OEM), Araya rims instead of Mavic and a different style stem to the Stalk that is more often seen.
Plans for this go no further than a full strip down and clean, possibly new cables, grips and removal of the bar ends. It has plenty of patina but the colour and decals are still bright and not faded so it should clean up well. Well pleased with this one, let's see how it turns out!
He is a long time member of the Penrith cycling community and is friends with Lester Noble as well as plenty of other familiar Orange faces from the past. He told me he went to the shop with the intention of buying a Marin Pine Mountain but was convinced to go for this new brand instead! He still has the original bill of sale along with plenty of other retro Orange content and it was a pleasure to chat for a couple of hours. There's the possibility of a Penrith retro ride so I'll update in due course.
Where this fits in to the cross over between Tushingham and Orange is open to debate but the original owner told me it was one of the first 100 Orange bikes and as can be seen by the features, it shares more with the Muddy Fox of the time than the more regular 89 Clockwork's, especially the cable stops. It is also sized differently to usual Orange's with a 17.5 inch seat tube c to t and a shorter top tube. Interestingly the head tube is longer than the 89 norm for the size so it seems they went from this to a racier position before changing again around 91.
I was told that the bike is pretty much original with only a few worn out parts replaced. I noted that the Ground Control was a replacement so this differed from the usual 89's by having Panaracer tyres, an Avocet saddle (rather than the OEM), Araya rims instead of Mavic and a different style stem to the Stalk that is more often seen.
Plans for this go no further than a full strip down and clean, possibly new cables, grips and removal of the bar ends. It has plenty of patina but the colour and decals are still bright and not faded so it should clean up well. Well pleased with this one, let's see how it turns out!
