Dolan CX refurb

[T4tomo]

Posting this as a commitment to get it done.

I bought this frame 2nd a few years back for the OH as she only had a road bike and we were off for a cycling weekend in the new forest.
The frames were allegedly built by Dolan for a junior / youth GB CX team at some point, something I havent been able to confirm, other than they were custom built in Italy, some time ago.

When I bought it had been flat bar converted 3x9 and fitted with mini Vs, but set of drop bars came with it.

I converted it back to drops, fitted CX50 Canti's converted to 2x10 speed with a 46-36 crank set, 11-34 cassette and microshift brifters. Oh and I donated a spare set of RS10s to replace a mismatched set it came with.

The OH is struggling at bit with Athritis in her fingers, and the bars were a bit odd shape and "never as comfy as road bike" sooooo.

I have fitted Dura-Ace bar end shifters and a set of flared compact gravel bars. It's going to get a test out on the turbo, to see if she gets on with the bar ends and flared bars, and then phase two...
... Strip down, respray with spray.bike and rebuild.

If the bar ends are no good then may be looking at an expensive Di2-ification. Hoping to avoid that, the shifting system will be worth more than the bike. 🤣

Not quite before, but just before fitting the Dura-ace bar cons. Picture quality hides that fact that the paintwork is tatty, but not the fact that the decals are battered!

 

[T4tomo]

Paint chosen and ordered, a deep red with multi coloured keirin flake top coat!

I think that dictates black cables and replacement decals, and I might treat the old girl to a new black seat post.

 

[T4tomo]

So we're almost stripped down, just need to grab my crank / BB tools and we've ready to go. Heading out to France next week to a family holiday gite so I think I'll take it with me and spray it out there. More room and time to get it sorted.

Edit..... And crank and BB out. Ready to clean up and spray.

 

[T4tomo]

So I started spraying this when out in France in October, unfortunately had a reaction between spray.bike paint and some non spray.bike lacquer and then was waiting for s.b keirin flakes lacquer to come back in stock and then it was winter etc etc
Anyway, respraying has commenced......

 

[fossyant]

Come on, close up's

 

[T4tomo]

Come on, close up's

Pissing with rain today so more painting and photos will have to wait.

I got a couple of coats of keirin flake varnish on the forks, the frame is still plain red at the moment as did a couple more runs on a couple of tubes to get happy with being an even base.
It dries so quickly which is helpful.
It's a lovely deep red.

 

[T4tomo]

Come on, close up's

Quite hard to see the keirin flakes on the forks whether in light or shade🤣

 

[T4tomo]

Reassembly has started. Had a little bit of time last night so got everything bolted / screwed back on. Just needs cables and chain, new bar tape and then the fine tuning.

 

[T4tomo]

Just needs bar tape and a test ride to make sure madam is happy with it. Will be first time with bar ends, but hopefully kinder to authritic fingers.

 

[T4tomo]

The sharp eyed may have spotted a couple of inline adjusters, on the rear brake to make it easier to release the canti's to get the wheel out (the front has one on the up hanger) and one on the FD cable just to make set up easier.

Also being a race frame, it was bottle cage mount free. I use to have a topeak band on thing but it stuck out quite a way into the "triangle" (see post#1) and being a diddy frame, it limited it to a small bottle with tricky access, so a couple of DMR hinged clamps now fulfill that role much more neatly.

I have a "bolt to seat tube" mudguard that come out in the wet and no mudguard mounts. The OH is pleased it has no rack mounts as lack of luggage keeps it lighter, she normally hands any luggage over for me to carry in my frame bags.

The seatpost is new as the old one was a tatty silver one, its a prime orro gravel, allegedly has shock absorption built in, there is a rubbery elastometer ring doodah in the clamp which should reduce road buzz and vibration. It also has almost no visible branding which is good.

Debating whether to put some black Dolan decals on the bike. The OH likes the un-logo'd look, I sort of think it should keep a bit of its Dolan heritage, defo a "D" head badge transfer and maybe the smallest "Dolan" on either side of downtube or top tube.

 

[T4tomo]

A very subtle red dots under black for the bar tape.

 

[T4tomo]

Finishing touches

went for smallest supplied logo's. Pretty pleased with the final look, the more modern Dolan typeface looks very smart in plain black against the sparkling red.