'Barn find' bike - what to do with it?

[N Dentressangle]

My dad has dug this out of his garage and passed it onto me to dispose of:



along with a handwritten spec sheet of it which I think deciphers to something like:

Orange Aluminium Hardtail 1996-7
Frame 17" from centre of bottom bracket to top of tube
Suspension Manitou
Brakes: Shimano Deore XT 739
Frame material: Easton (?) Elite Program Taperwall (?) 7005 aluminium
Crankset and gears: Deore XT 739
Wheels: Mavic 221 & X517
Stem: Thomson Elite
Bars: X LITE Cross Country Specific Xpert Heat Treated 6000 cold drawn alloy
Group set (?): Deore 739
Hubs: Deore XT 737

I know nothing about bicycles, so please forgive any howlers - all the above is meaningless to me.

Apparently his local bike shop reckon it's worth £150 'cleaned up', whatever that implies. It looks hardly used to me, so I'd have thought a wipe with a damp rag would sort that out.

I'm inclined to put proper pedals on it and leave it in the shed for if I or visitors ever need a bike. I can't find anything similar on Ebay to compare with it.

Worth keeping / selling / using to hang Xmas ornaments off?

[2volvos]

I'm no expert on that era of mountain bike but

a) I think it looks really cool
b) Would want to keep it, and
c) There is a market and interest for that era of bike. For a shop to quote £150 for it means it is probably worth double that maybe?

The usual signpost is to explore on here

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/

Cheers

[Dammit]

That was an expensive bike when new - I couldn't afford one back in the 90's.

Nowadays it depends on finding someone who wanted one then but lacked the means, but who has them now - and as the previous poster said, Retrobike is the best place for that.

For me it was always the Klein Adroit and Pace RC100 that were my dream bikes, find someone who lusted after an alloy Orange and you should be in business.

[technodup]

Dammit said:

For me it was always the Klein Adroit and Pace RC100 that were my dream bikes, find someone who lusted after an alloy Orange and you should be in business.

Mmm, Pace.

Stick it on Ebay, it's not iconic like a Clockwork or the preceding Formula (megarare) but XT is almost the best kit and it will find a buyer. For me the alu framed bikes were all much of a muchness (to the extent many came out the same factory and were badged differently) and sit in the unloved period after the original steel stuff a la Retrobike and before the carbon full sus, 29er modern stuff. Orange is a British brand with a strong following but that frame will be made in the Far East.

Ride it or sell it. You'll almost certainly get more for it if you part it out. And I think it's the seatpost that is Thomson rather than the stem.

[anonymous-user]

It looks like an Orange Aluminium "O", the cabling on the top tube is quite distinctive. £150 is on the low side, I'd expect it to go for closer to £250 somewhere like retrobike or singletrackworld as it looks like its in good condition, original paint, decals, right period components etc. Yes alu of that period doesnt have the same cache as steel but then its just a case of holding out till the right buyer comes along.

[Gareth1974]

It looks very much like my Orange O2, which cost me nearly £1200 in 1997. Mine Is matt black though.

[N Dentressangle]

Thanks for all your thoughts - really useful.

I think it can go in the shed and come out if I fancy a go on it at some point. £200 isn't going to change my life, and it sounds like it was a decent enough bike to start with, so probably worth keeping.

[chrisga]

Don't throw it away for £150. It looks really clean.

There is a whole "scene" around bikes like this. As others said, stick a post on http://www.retrobike.co.uk/ and see what they have to say. There are retro bike shows. That bike wasn't entry level when it was new by any means, it has XT gears, one down from the XTR flagship groupset. It should still be a decent ride. Maybe not as plush as some of the latest full sus offerings but there's nothing wrong with it. And the colour is ace!

[nerd] The XT V-brakes are really cool too. When i was about 15 I think i sold everything i owned to buy a set of those as they had the parallelogram movement so the pads go on and off the rims in almost a straight line rather than arcing. They were a huge step forward over the bog standard cantilevers that preceeded them.[/nerd]

Edited by chrisga on Wednesday 30th September 08:08

[lufbramatt]

That is very cool

My commuter bike is an Orange Evo2, the successor to that bike. With a decent rigid fork and some fat slick tyres they are really good for hacking round town. It does look like it's not really designed for that length of suspension fork though (my Evo2 sat a bit high like that when I changed from a 80mm to 100mm travel fork and rode a bit weird) so would probably ride better with a shorter fork.

[Gareth1974]

I've found a 1999 range Orange catalogue, your bike looks like an E4, their top of the range hardtail, the only such model with Easton tubing. Price was £1299.95 with XT, or £2299.95 (!) with XTR.