Drew at Milwaukee has been saying for years “we need to make a road version of the Orange One” and I always agreed with him. But where do you get it made? Taiwan? Sure, you could. It’d be cheap and you’d be able to sell them in bulk. But that’s not always the answer. With Milwaukee’s relationship with Waterford, they decided to go local. Waterford already makes Milwaukee’s Cream City so going with a road model was painless.
I received my frameset a few weeks ago and finally got around to building it up yesterday at Fast Folks. Check out more photos of my Milwaukee Bicycle Co. Orange One road below!
Like all of their other models, the Orange One has the option for polished stainless badges. Milwaukee’s been doing this since they first offered framesets and it offers a classy detail to their bikes.
You can chose from a number of locations and insignia.
I opted for fender and rack braze-ons as well as a bright neon paint job.
Like the Orange One fixed, the Orange One road has clearances for fat tires. I’ve got a 28c Panaracer Pasela on my Velocity A23 wheels (which are still kicking by the way!). It balloons out to a 32c and there’s tons of room for fenders still.
Even at the chainstays.
Little details like a pump peg further drive home the “all-rounder” nature of the bike.
A Sotto Voce Chris King and the Colossi Double Dog stem offer up great contrast to the neon paint.
Salsa Bell Lap cross bars in 46cm and a 31.8 make for one solid cockpit.
I wish the logos were blacked out though!
Remember when I was talking about how Colossi took my 73° stem angle request as a positive degree, not Italian (negative) standard used by Cinelli in their 1a road stems? Well… yeah.
To add to the cut-out aesthetics of the Double Dog, I went with a Miche Supertype.
I’ll swap out the platforms for Look pedals or my White Industries depending on use but for now, this is an all-purpose bike without fenders and racks. It’s light, rides like a road bike with fat tires and super solid.
It’s hard to judge a production bicycle’s fit, especially after riding my Geekhouse almost exclusively but Milwaukee went with a traditional Waterford geo and it feels great. It’s not a touring geo but there are some nods to the load-carrying ability such as chainstay length (425mm) and rake (43mm). Combined with a square geometry set in at 73°, it offers a very stable ride.
If you want it to be faster, put smaller tires with a higher PSI on it and crank away. It’ll also hold a rear rack and panniers, fenders or even flat bars, depending on your preference Make it what you want. True Temper Verus Tubing offers a great alternative to basic 4130. Wanna read more about Verus? Head over to Henry James’ site.
The bottom line is, there are many options to how you can build these up and honestly, that’s a good thing! How will I use it? Not sure yet. But I’m having fun dialing it in and I really wanna take it off road. Thanks to Eric Puckett at Fast Folks for building it up for me and thanks to Milwaukee for all the support over the years!
I’ll put some more miles on it, try it with a rack, smaller tires, bigger tires and let my girlfriend ride it to get some more comments on the overall ride.
Check out more detail shots at my Flickr.
