Right at the start of the great weather last summer, my lovely Orange Four cracked and had to be sent back for a warranty replacement. In total, it took about 3 months before I got my bike back. Not Orange’s fault, I lay the blame squarely at the door of my LBS.

Anyway, during that time I was forced back onto my 2010/11 steel, Orange P7 hardtail. I’ve always used my hardtails as winter bikes, for slogging through Stirlingshire’s winter grot and grinding paste, so it’s always been treated as a second bike. It’s never had new kit on it, some of which is truly antiquated now. However, last summer, even though it was hampered with worn out and malfunctioning parts, I had an awesome time blasting through the trails….at least for as long as my lower back would allow! The bike just felt so fast, responsive and connected to the trail, it was brilliant to ride.

Over the winter, alongside a few very kind donations of barely used kit, I’ve gone on a slow but sure spending spree and now have everything to rebuild Penelope. New triple chainset, with fancy-pants external BB to replace the old Octalink one….if it’ll come out! New shifters, mechs, chain and 9sp cassette. New Shimano deore brakes, to replace my much loved and venerable (2001/2?) Hope Mono Mini brakes with custom ‘Beagleboy’ laser etched levers (They are truly gorgeous but only any good for going on show on my garage shelf now), and finally, a new to me, 26in wheelset.

My plan is to build the bike this weekend. I’m wondering about one wee thing though. I’m sticking with my 2004/5 Rockshok Revelation, 130mm fork as it’s solid, dependable and works as good as it did out the box. However, I’m also sticking, (for the moment), with my 90mm stem and 620mm bars. These are the only parts I’m not sure about. I love the feel of the Raceface cockpit on my Four with what I think is a 30mm stem and 760-80mm bars and I’d kind of like to replicate that feel on the P7. I’m just musing at the moment, but I assume that modern geometry bikes have had the top tube lengthened to allow for shorter stems? Or do the wider bars cancel out the shortening effect of the stem? I’m worried that if I splurge on a new short stem / wide bar combo for my older geometry P7, I’m going to fit it and feel like I’m riding in front of the bike!

Beagy

p.s. What happened to the ‘Preview’ button? I liked that for proof reading and checking that pics were formatted properly!

I have a 2010 P7, mine has had a 50mm stem & 730mm bar since I got it.
I can’t afford to worry about modern geometry. ha.
Great bike though.
🙂

Could you put the stem / bars from the four on there to try it?

In answer to your question, yes top tubes have gotten longer to accommodate the stem.

Pinkbike did an interesting article recently on effective stem lengths

https://m.pinkbike.com/news/exploring-the-relationship-between-handlebar-vs-stem-length.html

good to hear beagy, hope to see you out on it soon !

I did similar with my Soul a few years back and it did help….then I sold it and bought the Bird 🙂 – there was a rule of thumb along the lines of every 10mm shorter on the stem should have 20mm more on the bar width. I think i came down from 90mm stem and 680 bars to 70mm stem and 720 bars. You can go too short though on older geo bikes though I think…

I have a 35mm stem if your interested? Kore repute