Three Nearly Identical Fixed Dolans

Haha, amazing, I feel like BigH.

Looool!

So much history, great thread.

Cool bikes. I’m amazed you’ve managed to find 3 of them!

Final bike of the three: the grey one, which is named #03.
This is the first one I acquired, sourced in mid 2015 via Gumtree, after having watched it not sell on eBay, from Chris Sherriffs, who now/currently rides for Ribble Pro Cycling (funnily enough, along with John Archibald, who's sister Katie rode the black one).
He bought the frame new in 2009, and had it powder coated blue. If you do a Google image search for 'Dolan Pursuit Champion, the frame is one of the first things to come up.

The frame had been ridden exclusively indoors, mostly at Manchester, and Chris, having trimmed the seatpost to suit his height as a junior, had outgrown it. This presented a pretty large problem for me because the seatpost was almost certainly too short. However, by this point I knew the frames were rare, and as it was the first one that cropped up after about two and a half months of daily searching, it wasn't about to be passed up.

The chronodredge should reveal some of the humorously desperate and naive efforts made in order to 'lengthen' the proprietary carbon post.

Here's the bike as it is built currently, used as my workhorse fast road fixed and sort-of-designated Hill Climb bike (with the swapping of a few parts), despite it being the heaviest of the three frames due to its finish.

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Been injured this last week (did a skid on my left side after crashing while racing), so while taking it easy and tacking on mass, I've been planning to swap parts between builds to make better use of each frame.

#01 - Is staying as it is, but might receive a paint job later in the year.
This one probably has the highest maintenance-to-usage ratio of the three bikes, as it's seldom ridden (sunny days & crit races), but the polished finish takes reasonable effort to maintain.
Last year I let the bike sit for a week following a 50 mile TT, during which time all the drops and streams of dried sweat had caused enough minor pitting and surface corrosion to warrant a full (hand) repolish. I'm paranoid about this happening again, so for the rest of the summer I'm willing to put in the effort to keep it shiny.
In future, though, it would be nice not to be so paranoid. I'm looking into applying some kind of DIY paint job to protect key areas, in 'Team Shred It!' colours, with a view to racing more for the team next year. Will still be keeping a decent amount of shiny stuff, so think something similar to a 2014 Mash Histogram, but with hot pink, white & green instead of black, grey & white, a black top tube, and obviously, current style Dolan logos.

#02 - The black factory finish (powder coated) of this frame is the most durable of the three, and also has a few chips and scrapes from its previous life, so would make most sense to use this for the workhorse build rather than #03. Should mean fewer worries about scuffing the paint when locking up/at group ride pub stops, which is currently a problem for the soft rattlecan finish of the grey one. The workhorse build also sees the most parts swaps, depending on being set up for road fixed, hill climb, etc... So doubly makes sense to have a finish that I'm not too precious about.
I have a matte black fork (same type as grey 'Alpina' branded one) ready for this, and the 105 5600 road crank and USE chainring will also go on the black frame, to facilitate fitting of a small BCD130 ring for HC gearing. May experiment with a 3/32" drivetrain and alu sprockets down the line when looking more closely at weight savings.

#03 - The grey frame will assume TT duties, taking aero parts from #02.
Not sure how the gloss carbon Oval Concepts fork, Syntace base bar and USE extensions will look on an otherwise matte build. Thinking the bars will probably look fine but I might have to rub the fork down and apply some matte lacquer to help it suit the frame.
The frame might get a bit of a touch up spray, and maybe a full matte clear coat, to mask a few imperfections that have appeared since the finish was applied last November.
The finish is a matte 1k aerosol paint (dusted on in many light coats; super powdery matte finish, but quite soft) over a grey powder coat of the same colour (which sounds silly but the original coating didn't look matte enough), so is a bit fragile, but robust enough to handle twice-weekly racing and training without the need to lock up.

TLDR Edition:
#01 (polished) = staying as is. May get paint job later in the year.
#02 (black) = from TT to workhorse build. Will get a few new bits.
#03 (grey) = from workhorse to TT build. May need to paint a few bits.

Why not just clearcoating the polished frame? Or alternatively paint fading to polished like the CAAD10 track.

Shred it paintjob? Is the team even a thing now everyone has disappeared away from manc?

Maybe.
I think it could look good with a fun paint job, but a lot of me would like to keep it looking like it does now. So yeah, hmm, clearcoat!
I'm concerned about adhesion to bare metal, though. The difficulty will be in providing enough of a key to allow the lacquer to adhere well, without putting abrasions in the metal deep enough to be visible once filled by the clear coat. Going to have to accept that it will loose some of its lustre if clearcoating, and the process itself is a balancing act.
Could practice on other pieces of polished aluminium first (with varying degrees of key abrasion before clear, to find the best appearance/adhesion/durability compromise)...
Flatting and buffing the paint is another PITA, too; Could spray on thick so it dries more glossy, but at a greater risk of runs, and will take much longer to dry/cure than many thin coats, but these will leave an orange peel surface that will need a lot of finishing.
RE actual paint job, was thinking about a darker colour around BB & stays so it looks less dirty, so I'd feel compelled to clean it less often.

I'm pretty sure it is. We have an EU base now! Have chatted a little to Goat about a final decision on colours & refining designs for proper kit. Early stages. Was going to paint a helmet so I wanted to order/buy paint that was going to match when the kit is complete. Haven't done yet, though.
Being FKW is probably an argument for not putting colour on the frame; would be too much colour otherwise.

In an ideal world I'd probably have the frame clear anodised after a proper machine polish (with vinyl decals and another black vinyl top tube pad) assuming it retained a similar lustre to a good clearcoat job. Maybe I should be looking into that over winter instead!

Not sure if already mentioned. But how about a ceramic coating on the polished one to help with maintainence?

This is a great read Lukas, fantastic to see and learn some history and stories behind these great frames. The frame also caught my imagination and so I felt very lucky to pickup one up, it's probably the only other one that's come up for sale that you've missed out on!

As the owner of Pursuit Champion (#04) I can't help but feel the need to get them all prepped for a team pursuiting session at Manchester!

Wonder if there are any others out there in LFGSS?

Just googled a few images of that sort of thing, and could actually be a pretty good shout. May investigate as there are a few car tuning firms near me that do it.

Thank you, and (laughs) I didn't mean for the numbering system to be a forum-wide thing, ha, just within my own stable.
Would certainly be a fun session!
@Ptown has one, and we're the only active users on here that I'm aware of.

Ideal frame#:discipline numbering system logic:
Track>TT>HC>Road
So track would be #01, TT bike = #02 etc...
However, the grey one actually has #03 painted on the top tube, so by using it for TT, amusingly, I'm screwing my own system.
Might paint over this and replace with '#02' vinyl decals or spray stenciled graphics, if it gets a repaint at the end of the season. IMO spray stencils (with a little bleed or overspray) look much better; a little militaristic and befitting of what is quite a coarse and 'uncompromising' frame, compared to the crisp clean look of cut vinyl.

Swapped parts for the aforementioned #02/03 build changes last night (pics tonight). Everything will ride fine but a few issues I want to highlight.
Also building the black one with a 'hill climb'-ish setup made me realise I need another... Changing between my road and HC setups involves a switch of wheels, bar/stem and chainring, and if going the whole hog, would involve fitting a slightly longer 'grind friendly' crank, a minimalist carbon saddle, then dropping the post by the appropriate amount (which, non PC owners, is more of a faff than it sounds, due to the twin chainring bolt clamp arrangement, especially if you're like me and have to have the invisible line through the 'teeth' of the female chainring bolts sitting parallel to the ground! Then, due to its design, the seatpost has a habit of loosening so swapping saddles usually means needing to threadlock everything.). For the same reason as already selfishly/excessively owning three, another one, set up for HC, in order to save time faffing about changing parts, would make a lot of sense.
Wish I'd continued bidding on this (most recent one to appear for sale) now, but space and funds didn't allow at the time. I'm due to sell my Pomp soon, so will soon be down to only four bikes, so think there's space for one more, particularly as there would be no need to buy any additinal parts to get it rolling.

If (god forbid) I found a fourth, the frame in best condition would become the #03 HC beast, while the other would become the road workhorse machine #04. There are a few minor indentations on the black one (I romantically presume from being hurriedly clamped in a workstand at a City of Edinburgh Racing Club track session) in addition to a few chips and scrapes, so this one is the prime candidate for more beater-ish use, despite its track pedigree.

Thinking more about a potential fourth one and using one as a daily... Bit silly isn't it!? Might as well get a Pre Cursa again.

Proud owner here! I think the important thing to remember is that a Pre Cursa/TC1 doesn't have a tarty, hens-teeth seatpost. And that's what it's all about really, isn't it?

Glad you're slowly getting round to the chronodredge - excited to see the rest of this!

Exactly!
Also, the rear end tubing on the older Track/Pursuit Champ frames isn't as sculpted/ornate as the current TC1 (which on appearances uses very similar stays as the Pre Cursa)...
There's just no comparison :-)

A few snaps post parts swap.
First up, #02 with a new fork, swapped chainset, and HC bar & brake setup:

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In general, I like the straight bladed legs of the fork (one of these, currently on offer for about £35, same mould (possibly same manufacturer) as the 'Essor' full carbon fork found on the old State Undefeated), but I think it looks a bit too bulky, heavy, and not quite agile enough for something on the front of a hill climb race setup. Fortunately, I have a solution lined up already, although it will require a little work in order to match the frame.

Next, #03 in its new TT guise:

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Those spoke cards must be worth a couple of watts.

Fanned training wheels :-)
Got some slightly lighter hoops for more serious riding.

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