Anyone got one yet? Looks interesting... curious to hear.
29er and P7 seem the oddest of combinations. Something with the agility and all-round capability of a P7 morphed into a lumbering clown bike. Unless you're 7ft tall, why?
Completely disagree, riotous fun 29r hardtail sounds great, be interested in reviews when available
Erm. Steel 29er with good geometry
Never had more fun on a hardtail...
P7 29er ..YES !
Steel frame ..good
Boost all round ..good
Transfer all parts from my plus bike ...
Boom P7 650b+ long slack steel Halifax Happy !
Nothing wrong with a steel 29er love my solaris, although i agree that it isnt really a P7. The p7 name has been used on a pretty broad range of bikes by now. If you compare the rigid 26 inch wheeled xc bike of the nineties to its various incarnations. They may wish to splash out on a new name!
I must declare to being a serial orange fs owner but never a ht/rigid.
I'm thinking of selling my Solaris frame and building a P7 29 frame up from the bits i have.
Looks spot on to me. Im interested in reviews when available
I guess it won't appeal to people who know nothing about 29ers but otherwise looks pretty interesting
...and most importantly for an extra tenner you can get custom colour decals.
As a point of order the p7 was never a xc bike. It was always meant to be ridden hard and other Orange bikes filled the xc position.
Has anyone got one of these yet?
Any sign of these yet?
Surrey Hills Cycleworks had one in stock, looks very pretty in the flesh.
Hi Guys,
Had mine delivered and built up a week ago (by Rob 'Box' Cooksley at Bad Ass Bikes) but have only had a chance to get out on two rides (3rd today!). Transferred all the old parts from my Salsa El Mariachi. Initial impression are that it instantly handles way better than the old bike as you would expect from the modern geo, with the length of the front end really helping here. Its surprisingly agile given the length of the chain stays too. I couldn't get the El M to pop off anything where as this thing encourages you to boost off the smallest trail bump which is fun. Stability at speed is very good.
It doesn't ride harsh although I'm running some carbon hoops on my 29 wheels rather than the ally ones on my 27.5 wheels and plus tyres which does make a difference in trail communication. In all this effing mud its fine as the soft ground helps (showing my age as comfort is a consideration for me ;-)the 29 tyres cut down to the traction, the plus tyres would be next to useless in this cr+p until it freezes or dries up.
Talking of wheels, Rob was able to use a kit to adapt the non-boost wheels to the boost rear end of the frame and along with a little re-dish of the wheels it runs a treat. Fantastic!
Only slight negative is that I'm currently running a 120mm fork so head and seat angles are a little steeper than I would like. Maybe Santa will help out with this...
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Bootsy
chestrockwell - Member
As a point of order the p7 was never a xc bike. It was always meant to be ridden hard and other Orange bikes filled the xc position.
Surprised to read this. They were incredibly popular in the xc scene back in the 90s. Regularly seen at xc events along with the Clockwork.
From memory the Clockwork was obviously the first (1988) and was designed as a do it all at a time when XC was basically what you had. The Prestige was then released (1989 or 90?)as a premium Clockwork, same geometry just lighter and more expensive.
By the time the P7 was released (1993) Orange had the XC market covered with the Elite and Vit-T so the P7 was described as a 'harder' Clockwork. Not built to be a super light XC bike but built tough to stand up to anything at a time when race bikes were getting silly light and only meant to last a season. Many did race them as they were strong, dependable and relatively affordable for the average Joe but they were all rounders rather than XC bikes.
Just as the Prestige had been the P7 was a Clockwork+ but just better in different areas. It evolved over the years but never really became Oranges XC model and if you go back to the first one I think the current version fits perfectly in to the original thinking.
Bit of a thread resurrection but are there any reviews out there yet? Or first hand experiences? Looking to get a frame and build it up with some spares but interested in how people are finding it first.
There are some comments about it on the recent solaris max thread.
Yup. I've been riding mine for about 5 months now and it's been brilliant!
I came from a Dialled Alpine, so a resonably 'hardcore' hardtail of its time, but this is like cheating. The big wheels roll really well but its still playful in corners, jumps etc and not cumbersome like some of the early 29ers mates bought. The only thing that took a little getting used to was the higher front end than i was used to.
No idea how to embed an instagram pic but there is a couple here
Got the 650b and that's mint - had it two years and it does everything. Orange know what they're doing, so my guess is that the 29er will be mint too, if 29ers are your thing.
The geometry of the p7 has progressefly become more aggressive over the years.
I have a Stanton Sherpa 29er, great fun bike.
Looks great to me, my idea of good geometry. It's £550 for a cromo frame, which gets a big wtf from me, and the weight seems to be secret but... somewhere between 6 and 7 lbs? But I wouldn't kick it out of hte garage.
In Fizzy Orange pls
I weighed a medium frame at Soho Bikes last year and it was 3.0kg.
Was the 27.5 but I guess will be about the same.
Every ride on this I like it a little bit more, have got plus wheels for it too but not tried them yet. About a 1lb lighter than the P7