Paul Donohue Appreciation Society

Sadly I found some tinworm on my Graham Weigh 853 a few weeks back. It's now on eBay. Pretty sure its a Paul Donohue. Link here should anyone be interested.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Graham-Weigh-Racing-Bike-Framseset-Reynolds-853-Paul-Donohue/233668618014

Is anyone after any Paul Donohue decals? I've got some coloured sticker ones I bought off eBay to trace & then some larger black & white waterglide ones a friend made me. They're not of much use to me now, but they looked good on the frame Bob Jackson resprayed before it cracked. Happy to some go for the cost of postage & a beer/forum donation.

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Yes please, I'd love a couple of headtube badges - will PM

Dem fades 😍

Would say get yours redone, but no more respraying at BJ :(

Gratuitous shit phone photo of my Donohue. It's been hugely neglected recently! Going to give it some TLC and set it up as road fixed when the weather is nicer and I don't just want to ride my All City with 32mm tyres and full guards. Need to see if my nicer but knackered fixed wheelset is salvageable, if not will be looking for a new (secondhand) set.

Bonus pic of Crumpet wondering why I'm taking a photo of anything other than her.

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🐀 vs 🐕

Always loved seeing this locked up around Leeds. Makes me miss The Angel!

I’m really tempted to buy a new wheelset for mine. Despite the fact I’ve not used it for about 9 months. I wanted to have a wheelset for track and a wheelset for road. Seems slightly ridiculous in current circumstances.

God I miss The Angel. Best pub in the world.

I guess no velodromes are open at the minute? Do you use yours on the road for anything other than transport to and from the velodrome? It's the nice red one isn't it?

Newport was open for a bit but to locals only I think. I’ve not been since just before pandemic hit. I do use it on the road (I drive to the velodrome though. Bristol to Newport is a little far!), but only in the dry. I swap the tyres over every time I take it to the track, which is a little faffy.

I reckon 2 sets of wheels is justifiable in that case!

Tiny Donohue road frame with a monostay on eBay.

Shame - just a bit too tiny for my wife!

Considered it for my partner too, but I'm already building a fifth bike for her, think we'll run out of room!

I put a bid in for my suitably small girlfriend but it shot up at the last minute! Someone got an absolute bargain at £155. Shame we're both skint this month or I'd have happily paid more than that.

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me decide what to do with my Donohue...

It was set up singlespeed when I bought it, but came with the original Dura Ace groupset (minus brakes) ready to reinstall if necessary - apart from someone had ground off the downtube shifter bosses, which is really annoying. I'm quite keen to try it geared, but to do it properly would mean having bosses brazed back on. There's a guy locally who will do this - and I think used to work with Paul Donohue perhaps - but then it'd need repainting, so it's a potential money pit.

So, I have a few options:
(a) keep as is, maybe swap the rear wheel out for a fixed/free one I have sitting around, and ride it singlespeed / fixed;
(b) convert back to geared, get the bosses rebrazed, get the frame repainted, install the DA groupset;
(c) convert back to geared as above, but sell the DA and instead install a more modern groupset;
(d) forget the whole enterprise and sell!

The DA groupset is fine but the chrome on the brifters is pretty flaky.
There's some surface rust on parts of the frame which restoring and painting would help to sort out.

I really love it, even though I'm not sure it's totally practical, with max tolerances of 25mm or so - I'm pretty much over skinny tyres. But it's super light, fast, the colour is great, the forks are sublime...

oh and my other question: does anyone have any clue what model it'd be? It's a bit of an enigma to me as it features the thin straight forks that I assumed were more common on PD track frames, yet has regular dropouts - and it has standard round-section tubing rather than ovalised. It's 853 throughout (I assume - there's nothing to indicate the forks are any different).

Pics should be here. Excuse the weird angle of both garden and saddle.

thanks, Adam

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(e) down tube adapter

lucky for you as yours doesn't have a tear drop down tube found on many 853 PDs

^ this is assuming your DA groupset has STI
if it has downtube shifters you'll need a clamp on dowtube shifter mount
https://www.bricklanebikes.co.uk/via-downtube-shifter-mount
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/origin8-down-tube-shift-adapter-286318mm/

thanks for the links - I've come across those and they are a solution, but they are bit on the ugly side. Would work for the time being, I guess, to test things out.

^ it's STI, yes - early DA brifters.

If you can find an old-school steel band version they're miles more elegant and can be painted to suit ....

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That’s a better solution, thanks. Could work...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183991157767 Here’s one