-
Nice story about your dolan. Looking forward to see pics of the Orlowski. Did you buy a steel fork as well?
£438?! Jeez that's such a good price! Assume this did not include fork?!
Nah no steel fork, I'm using the carbon Alpina road fork from the Dolan. Still a very good price I think for a beautiful frame. Have put in about 300 miles and got everything dialed in just about, thoroughly enjoying riding it, how it feels planted yet fast.
-
Have put in 400miles this week, and it's been beautiful! I can definitely feel it but just in tired legs rather than aching wrists, ass and back.
Apologies for the awful photos, I'll take some nice ones and soon, promise
Above, is the day-to-day set up, it will be this way (give or take future changes) for 99% of the miles I do.
Please excuse the mess, here we have it minus brake, levers and bottle cage ready for last weeks velodrome session.
-
And that brings me to.....changes:
- silver chainring (when this one wears out)
- a new saddle (I've ridden literally thousands of miles on this one and never really gotten on with it, need to get measured up / try and few out and find one that really works)
- bar tape (I originally built it up with Fizik soft touch but was not at all impressed, it was ripped up and uncomfortable within a few days. Had this in the parts box so threw it on and although the colour doesn't match the decals I quite like it)
- new rear rim (maybe...one day...I've had this Phil to H+Son for about three years and it's never missed a beat, absolutely bomb-proof wheel and I'm loathe to make amendments to something that works so well, but...I would like a matching wheelset and have been impressed by the handling improvements offered by the wider profile Archetype)
Needed:
bars (for the velodrome) Ideally another set of 3T Ergonovas, but really anything 31.8 clamp and reasonably slim (40 or 42 wide) I cannot be untaping bars, removing brake levers, retaping bars, going to HH, untaping bars......ect every week.
stem - 120 or 130, 31.8 clamps, +/- 6
if anyone has either going for cheapz let me know
- silver chainring (when this one wears out)
-
relace the phil to an archetype? shouldnt cost too much!
Oh yeah that'd be the action plan for sure, it's just the idea of ripping apart something that works admirably and spending £70 just so that I have a nice matching wheelset that grates on me a bit
Probably come summer when I'll be touring again, I'll make the decision on performance grounds (need a rear brake for mountain descents) rather than aesthetic, which should be much easier to justify to myself
-
That's even better than I expected, very nice! How is the stiffness of the frame compared to the Dolan?
Funny you should ask as this was something I was worried about. I said to Jacek when we were discussing what I wanted that I was worried a big steel frame would feel noodly compared to the Alu Dolan, to which he basically replied "it won't be a problem, don't worry"
...and he was right!
It feels a hell of a lot stiffer in the BB than the Dolan, which had a springy feeling when sprinting that translated to a rather unnerving sway at high speeds. The Orlowski however feels rock solid in the BB, like I've got a proper platform to push against and when I'm spinning fast it feels super stable. That said the frame as a whole is far from being bone-shaking, it soaks road vibrations up wonderfully, I think Jacek got it spot on with tube choice.
-
my previous steel frame (reynolds 531) was very noodly in 63c-t so I didn't know if steel was the right choice..
There's an engineering solution for that, and it's right here.
I can understand why it hasn't become popular amongst people under the age of 80 though. -
There's an engineering solution for that, and it's right here.
I can understand why it hasn't become popular amongst people under the age of 80 though.Ha! that's not what I was expecting to see
The rack in the Dolan is a Tubus Fly?
No, it isn't, it's a Tortec Ultralight:
I kind of wanted the Fly (as it looks nicer) when I bought this one but the Tortec wins on all other criteria. I think it costs about a third of the price of the Fly, is easy to fit and will solidly carry 25kg (which tbh is way more than you'd want strapped to the back of your bike). -
It's a bit retrospective now, but still was part of the "Current Project" and felt it may (or not) be of interest.
The braking surface on my old front wheel (Navigator clincher x Formula) wore out and so I had to rebuild it to a new rim. Wanted to make the switch to a wider rim and also wanted a silver hub to match the rear Phil. Considered buying a new Hub but at the time had minimal available funds and this one's done me well for thousands of miles so it felt kind of sad to retire it.
I bought an Archetype rim and Sapim stainless spokes from Kinoko and had myself a crafty afternoon.
The old wheel and new bits.
Removed the axel and bearings then started cutting the spokes (nipples were old and knackered so this was the only option really)
Popped the hub into an old (not be used for cooking again) pan filled with a fairly strong sodium hydroxide solution.
After about 30mins (checking and turning regularly) the anodising was removed.
This leaves a pretty ugly aluminium oxide finish.
I sanded back the tarnished layer with 400 grit (the finest grade available in walking distance from my house) wet and dry paper. Then I hand polished it with Brasso for as long as I felt it was worth doing and reassembled the axel and bearings.
I gave the spokes a quick polish then began lacing the wheel up. It all went pretty smoothly considering I hadn't built a wheel in about 8 years and even then I'd only done a few BMX wheels way back when they were so over-built and had so many spokes that it didn't really matter how well they were built. -
Saw this flash by me today. The yellow on black looks awesome in the sun.
Josh
kjlem
rogan
Mr_B
madman
Thoma
jnns
cheekysnaker-
Post a reply
About
Custom Orlowski Workhorse
Posted by
@Skant
£438?! Jeez that's such a good price! Assume this did not include fork?!