Regular readers of this froup will be aware that, for the past three years,
I have had a gorgeous carbon Dolan road bike which has been my pride and
joy. I have ridden it in audaxes; I have ridden it in time trials; I have
ridden it in races; I have ridden it in epics; I have ridden it just for
the pure joy of having a near perfect machine. I've even broken my back
riding it, and that's not something you can say of just any old bike.
I've referred to it over and over again on this group, casually, as 'the
Dolan', in a sort of understated one-upmanship. And now 'the Dolan' is no
more. Sic transit gloria...
Thing is, it hasn't been the bike I ride to work. It's been too precious.
It hasn't been allowed out in wet weather, and I haven't liked to leave it
locked up anywhere - besides which, a lock good enough to protect it would
be heavy enough to completely spoil the point. So I've commuted to work on
my old steel Raleigh; and I've been increasingly dissatisfied with it.
Compared to the beautiful Dolan, the Raleigh was too heavy, much too
flexible, with an insufficient range of gears (my commute now involves a
rather epic hill), and not sufficiently engaging to ride. Not enough fun.
Something had to be done.
So on Tuesday, I phoned the good Mr Dolan, and bent my plastic rather
severely. On Wednesday, I got back into the office from a long meeting at
a customer site to find a large package behind my desk. And thus 'the
Dolan' is no more. Instead it will have to be 'the carbon Dolan', or 'my
good road bike', or some such more awkward form of words...
Kitchen pr0n here:
http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/album/getting_cross/
Yes, as you see, it's a cross bike. I thought about that for a long time...
I think it may actually get raced as a cross bike this winter, just for
the fun of, hence the choice. But fundamentally it's a commuter, and thus
the build is for practicality.
Having decided to get a cross bike, of course, I realised I would need
cantilever brakes. I got Frogg Legs largely because they were cheaper than
Avids, but...
I mean the Forth Bridge is a cantilever bridge, but you don't usually
associate it with bike brakes. Until you open a box of Frogg Legs. These
are brakes which fart in the general direction of disks, and think that
dual pivot callipers smell of raspberries. These are serious brakes! You
adjust them with a 13mm spanner, no less; even the cable clamp uses a 10mm
bolt. The brake shoes are so big that if you have a mechanical you can
walk home in them.
For the rest, the wheels, saddle, handlebars, tail light and rear mech are
inherited from the Raleigh; the ergo levers and bottle cages are inherited
from the other Dolan, which now has carbon ones; the inline brake levers
were sitting in the spares box, having been bought long ago for another
bike and never used. The forks, headset and seatpost (and the brake
hangers) came free with the frame. The cassette (Centaur), chainset (Xenon
Compact) and bottom bracket (Veloce) are all new. There's a Chorus 10
speed chain ordered for it, but that's held up by the postal strike so
temporarily it has a Shimano ten speed chain. Also temporarily it has a
SRAM 3.0 front mech, because none of the three spare Campag front mechs I
had in the shed would fit.
It's had a little ride round the block just to check everything's working,
but I'm not going to take it on tomorrow's epic - you'd be a little mad to
take a brand new, untested bike. So it will get its serious shakedown on
the hill between Hamilton and East Kilbride next week.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; single speed mountain bikes: for people who cycle on flat mountains.