Dolan Pre Cursa / PreCursa / Track Champion

@edscoble

yesterday I ordered Dolan frameset in limited edition color, I will show photos of the finished project soon, I put the wheels on DT Swiss 370 hubs and DT Swiss R460 rims, there will be fire

This is rad btw

The raw one? Interested to see photos

Yep, the raw one in gloss finish

Oi, anyone selling a DB1, DB2 or DB3?

Hello, I'm thinking about getting a pre cursa but unsure about sizing. If anyone is looking to sell a 56 or 58, I'd be interested to test ride, ideally south London. Needs a rear brake too.

Cheers

Pc’s don’t have a drilled rear brake bridge as standard FYI. Does the FXE?

Sure does!

Thank you, that's good to know and suppose it puts me in the market for an FXE too

Anyone know if the Dolan or Alpina (or any other make for that matter) forks, fit the FXE and have clearance for say 32 or 35 rubber?

I’d like to size up a little but previously found that a 32mm marathon struggled to fit the standard FXE fork

I have the Dolan fork. A 30mm tyre on a 17mm wide (internal) rim is tight.

Yeah, 32mm marathons on 19mm internal rims wouldn’t fit - the tyre was just brushing on one side as the wheel dishing was slightly off. I was thinking there’s a chance that if I dished the wheel correctly then I’d manage with 30s. But not certain and I’d rather not go to the effort and cost to find it doesn’t work.

The alternative is to swap the fork - salsa do a steel calliper fork with clearance, but I don’t have any specs for the alpina fork the fxe came with to compare it with the salsa.

I think the Alpina track fork is far tighter. It’s shorter axle-crown.

Do you have a spoke key? Unless the front wheel is at very high tension (or the nipples have seized or something) then it should be quite simple to dish the wheel yourself. Just go round doing quarter turns with the key.

I had loads on fun on my precursa with a cheap cross fork from ebay, obviously it was longer so changed the handling but I don't remember thinking it was too slow or felt crap.
Someone on here put a steamroller fork on theirs so that's another option too.

It’s the (older I think) alpina winter fork with eyelets, rather than the track fork. The Dolan winter fork looks identical- I’m guessing they’re the same with different badges

And yeah, I built the wheels ages ago - didn’t have a truing stand but the front is perfectly true, just offset a couple of mm. Hasn’t caused any problems with 25mm tyres and guards for, dunno, 4/5 years of commuting. Shouldn’t be too big a deal to centre, but it’s a pain to get perfect without some kind of stand (hokey matchsticks, elastic bands and upturned forks get me so far....)

Yes - that’s what I was thinking of - surly not salsa. I’ll have a search, be interested to see the result

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13775370/

Pretty good I reckon

Thanks! Yeah looks fine - seems pretty tight with 32s though in the pics. Surly say their fork is good for 38s so maybe an older version or something.

Will have a think but seems like the easiest approach.

I’ve thought about the Thorn audax fork for mine. It keeps the geo identical and has a little more clearance and all the eyelets.

Cheaper too, which I like. Not massively keen on the front pannier mounts.

What offset would you go for? I can’t find the numbers for the alpina or Dolan forks

Probably 45mm ... but if you’ve got a fork with geo you like you could measure that. I think officially 31mm is the largest tyre size. I suspect a 32 will fit (but be tight)?

Low riders are pretty handy. Nicer to ride with a load there than on a front rack in my experience.

Just thinking - could i stick a CX type fork on there and swap the front calliper out for some canti/ v type thing? I know nothing about these though - assume braking is ok and works with a drop bar (I’ve the cane crake levers) but not as great as standard callipers.

I’d then be able to get a carbon fork with decent clearance. It’d look better and save >1/2 kg

What I want to get to is something that I can still commute on, can lock outside relatively safely (otherwise I’d just go buy a gravely type thing) and takes wide enough rubber for occasional off road. This will take the form of kids cycling mainly, but would like to manage a little north of London green lane stuff.

I’ve no interest in rocks or mud so thinking 35mm would be well wide enough. Someone with some balance (which I lack) would prob be fine on 28s