Dolan RDX - new winter/commuter/do it all bike

super_davo

My new steed for winter club runs - tired of wearing out rims and the narrow tyres on my Ribble so thought i'd go disk.
Dolan RDX seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

Its a 54cm frame with the following kit:
- Black 105 5800 groupset with BR505 hydraulic brakes, 140mm rotors, 52-36 chainset and 11-28 cassette
- Prime Pro disk wheels
- Michelin Pro 4 Service Course in 25mm (come up well over 28 on the Primes with their 19mm internal diameter)
- Deda Zero 1 finishing kit, 110mm stem, 38cm bars
- Fizik Arione R7 saddle
- Flinger mudguards
- M520 pedals

Weight is 9.6kgs as in photo - it's a winter bike not a weight weenie, so that's perfectly acceptable to me. I haven't done much to it since it came; I've really just cut the steerer and changed the wheels, tyres and saddle. It will get new bar tape shortly just haven't got round to fitting it.

The good points:

Really nice hydroformed tubes, look indistinguishable from Carbon.


Full carbon steerer, with neat internal cabling, plus the mudguard mounts. Prime pro disk wheels look great, plump up the tyres well and have a decent depth and profile plus a 1500g weight for the set.

The bad:
The Aksium disk wheels it came with were horrendous. 2100g and they really felt it, just made the bike feel sluggish. not keen on the 140mm disks; think it will be simple to change the flat mount adaptor on the front and fit 160s, and I'll upgrade to CL at the same time rather than using a 6 bolt adaptor.
Its got internal cabling throughout, so why did they have to put this mess under the BB:

I suppose it is more weather proof than a traditional cable guide, just think it looks a bit ugly. Though I think I can make it look a lot better just by tidying up the routing and cutting the cables a bit shorter.

All in all - pretty happy. Sneaks under the C2W limit plus a few hundred chipped in for decent wheels - if it lasts me as long as the 8 years I've been using my Ribble I will be very happy indeed.

Garry H

What's your opinion of the105 hydraulic brakes?

super_davo

Garry H wrote:

What's your opinion of the105 hydraulic brakes?

Work well, pleased with them. I don't think they have any more outright power than the Ultegra rim brakes on my best bike but the modulation is much better, you feel more confident in making small speed adjustments into corners. The hoods look massive, but you don't notice that at all when riding.

sloppyschleckonds

Nice looking bike, but as you say, that cabling around the BB looks a dogs dinner

Wilf Roberts

Looks great super_davo. What do you not like about the 140 rotors? Cabling under the BB looks fairly simple to fix, they've just been conservative with the outers' length by the look of it? Thinking of going for a v similar setup to this, had been thinking about some Hunt Mason X wheels as an upgrade but the prime discs look a good option too. That welding at the head tube puts to shame some of the boutique alu frames that you see going for more than double the cost of the RDX frameset!

super_davo

Wilf Roberts wrote:

Looks great super_davo. What do you not like about the 140 rotors? Cabling under the BB looks fairly simple to fix, they've just been conservative with the outers' length by the look of it? Thinking of going for a v similar setup to this, had been thinking about some Hunt Mason X wheels as an upgrade but the prime discs look a good option too. That welding at the head tube puts to shame some of the boutique alu frames that you see going for more than double the cost of the RDX frameset!

Main thing I don't like about 140mm rotors is that it costs a fortune to get CL rotors; they are £35+, whereas there is loads of choice for 160mm at the £17+ mark. I suppose you'd get marginally better stopping power with the larger rotors but there is enough power as is.

I did look at the Hunts; they were coming in at £70 more than the Primes and the weight was marginally more. The Primes come with spare spokes, tubeless tape and valves - and most importantly take me back up to Platinum at Wiggle!
I was able to desticker the Primes easily which was good as I wasn't keen on the decals; rhe Hunts look great as is.

I've had another look at the cables under the BB - its only the front derailleur cable that's really long so a little snip and some cable ties and problem should be solved.

stilleh

The bike looks great, I'm thinking about getting the grey one. I've had a look on the Dolan site for the frame measurements. I usually ride a medium (56), but looking at the RDX frame it looks as if I would need a 54. Did you have to buy smaller than usual with this bike?

super_davo

Stilleh wrote:

The bike looks great, I'm thinking about getting the grey one. I've had a look on the Dolan site for the frame measurements. I usually ride a medium (56), but looking at the RDX frame it looks as if I would need a 54. Did you have to buy smaller than usual with this bike?

I didn't get a smaller frame but I probably should have. The headtube is quite long, reflecting the gravel/endurance target usage. When I looked at the geo chart the headtube length matched my other bikes so looked OK but when it came with a whacking great headset cap I couldn't get the bars low enough.

I fixed that with a headset cap from Grafix by Jorj (see Slamthatstem UK alternatives thread for details); but really thinking that rather than a 54 with a 110 stem I'd have been better off with a 52 with a 130.

Lowering the bars made quite a bit of difference though probably more psychological than aerodynamic. I took it out for a 70 mile blast yesterday for the first ride since doing it and the bike felt racier, so I was more confident, and my average speed was up significantly as a result.

stilleh

Brilliant good to know, thanks for the reply.

mattp2017

Any idea what max tyre size you can actually get on if you take the mudguards off? Spec says 32mm but interested to know if you could get some 33mm CX nobblies on with any room for mud?

trickytree1984

Hi. I'm looking at the Ultegra version. Can you move the calibers up to allow for 160mm rotors?

agentorange88

trickytree1984 wrote:

Hi. I'm looking at the Ultegra version. Can you move the calibers up to allow for 160mm rotors?

usually will need to replace the mounting bracket with a diferent one rather than adjust the position of the caliper its self

super_davo

mattp2017 wrote:

Any idea what max tyre size you can actually get on if you take the mudguards off? Spec says 32mm but interested to know if you could get some 33mm CX nobblies on with any room for mud?

I've got 28mm on 19mm internal width rims and mudguards and there is bags of room - could easily fit 30mm G-ones and I will probably do so at some point. I've never attempted to fit knobblies yet, but I'm fairly confident you could fit CX tyres especially without guards.

super_davo

agentorange88 wrote:

trickytree1984 wrote:

Hi. I'm looking at the Ultegra version. Can you move the calibers up to allow for 160mm rotors?

usually will need to replace the mounting bracket with a diferent one rather than adjust the position of the caliper its self

Yeah, I looked at this and e-mailed Dolan. They told me you'd need a different mount for the front but you should just be able to move the rear. Didn't do it in the end but may look again when its time to change rotors. The stopping power and modulation is fine for me on 140s (but I am fairly light at 65kgs).

Matthewfalle

sorry - that cabling is gopping - a right cluster.

is that how they sent it out?

Garry H

There's a bloke on another thread that's pally with Terry Dolan. Have a word with him, he might be able to pull in a few favours regarding that cabling. Put me right off my tea that did.

super_davo

Garry H wrote:

There's a bloke on another thread that's pally with Terry Dolan. Have a word with him, he might be able to pull in a few favours regarding that cabling. Put me right off my tea that did.

The cabling was how they sent it out, but was very easy to sort.

A few snips to each of the gear cables and a few tie wraps and it's tucked away neatly out of sight.

Fortunately I didn't have to chop the hydraulic cable for the brakes as that would have been a different proposition altogether.