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To summarise, this thread will feature:
- A bit of waffle.
- A chronological photo dredge of previous upgrades and DIY developments.
- How I ended up with the ones I currently own, and their respective histories since leaving the factory.
- (... And only then...) Continuing present day updates as per every other CP thread ever.
- A bit of waffle.
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Dibs if they ever will go for sell.
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• #6
These are all dope
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So, after starting this thread a year ago and delivering on precisely none of the pledges made in post #2, it's time for an update.
Timewarp photo chronology, hopefully, will occur one day, but not sure when because I find it difficult enough to remember to take photos as it is (let alone writing about stuff that happened three years ago). If it does happen, I promise it will be concise!
However, a few changes are afoot, so this week I snapped each build's current state before modifications. -
First up: my polished one, or '#01'.
Raced TT on this last year, but the need to keep clean/dry, re-polish & wax to maintain that finish meant it was becoming too labour intensive to ride/train/race on a weekly basis.
Instead, it became my 'fair weather-only' track and fixed crit machine.
It hasn't visited the boards yet (not been myself in about three years), but it got me to the 'A' Final at Thundercrit (finished 54th), and won a York crit in April.Black vinyl has been applied to the top tube, which mirrors the paint job of another frame, and protects the polished aluminum from abrasion by gritty/crystalline/sweaty knees (which would otherwise scuff the metal perpendicular to the direction it's polished in and look crap).
Wheels pictured are borrowed from my TT setup, but I'm planning on using them at an event this weekend. Apart from switching wheels, this bike is pretty much staying as it is for the rest of the summer.
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Additional bit history on the above frame while the thread is still 'fresh'/because I've not done the chronodredge yet:
The frame was originally given away as first prize for the (then) last ever Hell Of the North West (edition V) alleycat, here in Manchester. It was won by Vin (then of Harry Hall's, now working for Rapha MCR), but as he's a horse of a man, the frame was of course too small. He also owned a Cervelo T1 at the time, so...
Blog post from the event here: https://cgsfortommy.wordpress.com/racing/2010-the-hell-of-the-north-west-v/Vinny promptly sold it to a local dude/rider/collector named Sean (or maybe Shaun?), who actually fit the frame, and whom I still regularly bump into at Popup Bikes.
@craignasty, Godfather of our local fixed scene and organiser of the original HOTNW alleycats, later told me he was not best pleased with this sale, because he'd invested a reasonable chunk of his own cash trying to secure a seatpost for the frame (which I believe was sitting around at Dolan in Ormskirk, without a post, unable to sell). Nasty can probably clear this up but I believe around that time he was working at Planet-X, whose original aluminium 'Stealth' track frame shared the same seat tube/clamp and seatpost assembly (along with a handful of other frames, Hed Aerolab V.0X, Blue TR250, etc...). At a guess, Nasty got the frame for cheap from Dolan, then bought a new spare seatpost, at considerable cost, from the manufacturer, through his work.Long story short, Sean used the bike as his nice day fast fixed for several years, rolling on Ellipses, stickering it up and generally knocking it abound a bit in the process, before I asked him if he wanted to sell it in early 2017. I dearly wanted another one (having used the grey one - more on that later - for racing over the previous 18 months), and after having miraculously stumbled on a NOS (HED branded) full length seatpost at the NCC winter jumble that year, for £5 (!!!), I finally had excuse to approach him for it. The stickers were haggard, the factory powder coat had been touched up with rattlecan several times, and the bike generally looked a bit crap, so, as the plan was for it to be my 'race' bike, and being inspired by that Bikeradar polished fixed hill climb bike video, there was only one way to go!
Link to that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb6pLWmdbxA
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Next up: the black one, which I for some reason refer to as '#02'.
After buying #01 and polishing it, and with the grey one being grey, I swore to myself in spring 2017 that if I ever spotted a Pursuit Champ for sale in its original livery, I'd buy it.
This naturally pissed my girlfriend off, because having three of the same bike is obviously a quite excessive. However, the time that was being spent swapping parts between bikes to suit whichever social ride/time trial/hill climb/street sprint event, that I'd otherwise be spending with her, meant she eventually warmed to the idea. It should be pointed out that at this time, she also owned three track bikes (A Pre Cursa, a Condor Pista, and an NJS Panasonic)!I was mortified to find that I'd just missed out on this frame for sale by @allister, https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/303311/#comment13587198, after neglecting to carry out my fairly frequent forum and eBay searches. I PM'd him in desperation, and mercifully, given that he holds a fairly esteemed position within the UK's 'proper' track cycling community, he told me he had access to another frame, which was to become available shortly after its then owner upgraded to a fancier machine. Two weeks later, it arrived.
(Photo of the black bike in post #01 shows how it was built it up on arrival.)
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The frame, as it turned out, had been used mainly as a 500TT and pursuit bike ridden by some fairly acclaimed riders under the tutelage of @allister, and seen some success on the track. These riders include, Eileen Roe, Jenny Davis, Louise Haston, and was the personal bike of Katie Archibald, ridden on during her rise from the junior ranks to the top of the sport, including being ridden to victory in the 2012 Junior National Track Championships in the pursuit.
He also tells me that Callum Skinner tried it out but it was a bit too small.
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As you may have noticed, I had a bit of a play the other day with @dangeek 's LFGSS & DBAD stickers. A small statement of protest because I've become fed up with how the vast majority of CP threads on this 'fixed gear and single speed' forum concern multiple-geared bikes.
For the sake of balance, however, I currently race CTT open events for LFGSS.CC, but I'm not from, and don't often ride anywhere near, London, so make of that what you will...
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I rode fixed on Wednesday, it wasn't as good as gears
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The black bike was also used at Red Bull Timelaps in October 2017, where our team (Premium Bush) came 31st overall, and won the 'special' prize jerseys, as the only team racing entirely fixed.
Will probably waffle about this a bit later (mid-chronodredge), regarding wheels, lights, setup etc...
That's me on the right :-)
http://www.racetecresults.com/Results.aspx?CId=16574&RId=146
We've entered this again this year (same riders, all fixed), under the name Premium Bush II: Harder, Faster, Hairier.
Judging by the above photo, I ought to pull my finger out; need to get my beard-on!
Alas, 3.5 months is probably not enough time. -
Was good fun. I chatted to the chap on the Mash Work in the dead of night.
Proposed Aerocoach fixed team this year but there was no interest :(
tc
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Ptown
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tbc
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About
Three Nearly Identical Fixed Dolans
Posted by
@Lukas
A few years ago I joined a local club (Manchester Wheelers) and started riding the Monday night club 10 with a few mates from the local fixed scene. I quickly got 'the bug', and after a winter spent getting familiar with the indoor track, gaining accreditation, and circling with the club's Masters Team Pursuit riders when they were a man down during club sessions, I discovered the need for something a little lower than the bike I was on at the time (more on that later).
That's when I heard about these mystical frames.
In early 2015, an innocuous meeting with a friend at a Metrolink stop (to trade some P-Clips), and a quick chat about the kind riding we were doing, led him to mention this obscure frame I hadn't heard of before, that he used to own and use on track and for fixed time trialling fixed, stating that it was the 'only frame he ever regretted selling'. It was a rare variant of the popular Dolan Track Champion, named the Pursuit Champion.
After cycling home, an online search led to zero official information, although through various forums I discovered the following:
That's all I knew about it, but with my saddle at the UCI '50mm behind BB' limit on my existing frame (with 565mm top tube) and with a head tube that would clearly accommodate the drop in bar height I wished for, combined with the 'sleeper factor' of appearing to the untrained eye like 'just another Dolan' while being this rare unicorn, I had to have one.
Or eventually two.
Or maybe even three if another one came up...