Dolan Pre Cursa budget slave bike

Been itching to build something like this since the HHSB thread appeared and I had started a budget faux pro project but as that's gone on hold, I've emptied my paypal account on a Dolan Pre Cursa frame. They only had blue in the size I wanted but I think it's kinda cool as not many people seem to have the blue ones.

As the frame has taken up pretty much all my budget, I've got to make do and mend, beg, borrow and steal. Whatever I can really to keep costs down.

One of the guys I work with has kindly donated the original forks from his Pre Cursa and I've got a few other bits kicking around that just need a good tidy up.

Wheels, chainset and pedals will be from this

Rims are a pair of old Open Pros I had kickin around, front hub is from my old Sunn Bmix and the rear is a cheap old front disc hub from somewhere. All will be disassembled, refurbed and then probably powder coated along with the chainset.

Had this old Selle Vetta SL saddle kicking around for ages doing nothng so I'm gonna have ago at stripping it.

Got a bontrager post that will work and some bars on the way so hopefully I should be able to get this moving pretty quickly.

What size are they short of in black ATM?

Damn, that's one nice conversion you've got there.

What size are they short of in black ATM?

Think they're out of 52, 54 and 56 in black and 56 in blue.

Damn, that's one nice conversion you've got there.

Cheers, it's been a good hack but I think the frame deserves better so it's going on the wall till I can afford to rebuild it properly.

Frame arrived yesterday and I'm lovin the blue. Got a cheeky Lovenskate sticker on there already. Probably wind up with a few more on there before the build is done.

Stripped down my old ghetto wheelset. Done pretty well for the first wheels I built from scratch but need a tidy up really for this project.

Rims and hubs will both be getting the powder coat treatment but first the hubs are getting bored out to take some sealed cartridge bearings. If I'm lucky I may also be able to persuade the old man to knock me up a set of custom axles and spacers too.

I always enjoy your projects. good luck with this one.

^^ Lovenskate sticker is sickness!

Cheers. Hopefully have more updates soon.

So the Selle Vetta didn't work out. When I stripped it and cutaway the raised edges, I realised it was pretty poor quality and the shape wasn't really right. Didn't really want to do this but I'm glad I have now. Selle Itallia Flite stripped and ready for sanding.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a half decent finish on it.

I have thought of stripping my old flite as well. My plan would be to wet-sand it if needed, but otherwise just polish it using a mixture of acid free oil and aluminium oxide. I have really great experiences polishing acrylics using this mixture. You might give it a clear coat afterwards, but I think you might be able to keep it nice looking without so.

How about drilling the Flite like the saddle below...

Yes ;-)

Yeah, I did contemplate drilling the saddle but I don't know that it would work with the rest of the build. Reckon it would be epic win on a BMX race bike tho.

Made me think of those folks that drill their exhaust pipes.

Or a strainer.

Love that blue Dolan frame. Cambridge is overflowing with black and white ones.

Been doing some drawing today. Figured out in my head how I wanted this to go together and now I’ve put pencil to paper, it looks like it might work. Using the four low profile bearings was more dictated by availability than anything but I think they should work okay.

It’s only the first draft and already I’m thinking the steel axle (red) is going to need to be a larger diameter so as not to damage the inside of the aluminium axle ends (blue), which could also do with some slimming down round the middle.

what, inner diameter?
looks quite thin already..

Hopefully this makes sense. First revision of the original design and I think this is pretty much there. Slightly larger diameter axle and slimmed down axle ends with a couple of additional mods to better distribute the loads through the hub.

Since putting Vittorias on my Pompetamine, I’ve been loving the way their compound skids so I figured I’d try a Zaffiro on the back of the Dolan.

Really wanted gumwalls for this build but Vittoria don’t make em so I thought I’d have a go at making my own. I have done some ghetto gumwalls before with an emulsion tester pot that was kickin around. They worked out okay but just didn’t last long so I figured I’d give some acrylic a go.

Rubbed the tyre down with some meths to make sure I had a clean matte surface then mounted it on a spare wheel in a workmate.

Tried spinning the wheel and holding the brush on like I did last time but it didn’t work out so well with the acrylic.

In the end, I just cracked on and painted it freehand.

Left it to dry but when I let the air out and tried to take it off the rim, the paint just cracked and peeled.

Bit gutted it didn't work out but not entirely surprised. Might try mixing the paint with some kind of vulcanizing solution but I’ll probably just go for a pair of Paselas.

Also picked up this little beauty on eBay. Less than £8 posted.

Sharpie took care of a couple of tiny scuff marks and I painted the bolts black. Think it’s gonna look pretty good with a pair of chopped risers.

This is gonna look sweet.

Good effort on they tyre, looked mint, shame it didn't survive.

Looks like a great project! Nice to see some custom fab' work going on!

Nath

nice man, I just got the frameset and don't need the Alpina seat post. Hit me up if you want to take it off my hands for a small fee.

Cheers but I ended up upgrading my purchase to the frameset (which I thought was pretty cool of Dolan to do after I'd paid for the frame and had it delivered) but anyway, I've got the post too.

Is this project finished...?