Dolan ADX-Disc Shimano 105
tonybanham
Posts: 64
Just posted this spotted a spelling mistake, tried to edit and then it vanished!!!
Try again, as my winter/bad weather bike I have been running a Claud Butler Roubaix I got a couple of years ago for £100 off Gumtree. I have upgraded a few things on it such as going to 105 11 speed but was not a nice ride and despite a carbon fork had a lifeless aluminum frame.
After not being able to persuade my boss about the Cycle to Work scheme (long story) and wanting a traditional road bike (this gravel thing is not for me) I decided to go with the Dolan ADX on interest free credit. I am going over to the darkside as this is my first disc brake bike but these should be a better option on the grubby Yorkshire roads!
I was not sure of the size I am 5'8" and took the dimensions from my Specialissima and went for the small 52.5cm frame with 120mm stem. Glad I did as the medium would have been too big. Need to fine tune the fit and once OK I will remove the chimney.
Bike arrived yesterday evening, it was well packaged and I soon had it bolted together and checked over. Managed a quick 20 mile ride and first impressions are excellent. Very smooth ride, could be the frame or the 28mm tyres. 105 is an great groupset and indexing was spot on straight out of the box. All the cables are internal making it a very neat bike which will be easy to keep clean. It is different to the Bianchi not as good, I was expecting that but is a million times better than the CB.
The slight downside is that there are no assembly instructions in the box. OK for me as I have built a few bikes in the past but for someone who is inexperienced some guidance would be useful.
I will update further once I have a few more miles on the clock, photos below:
Cheers
Try again, as my winter/bad weather bike I have been running a Claud Butler Roubaix I got a couple of years ago for £100 off Gumtree. I have upgraded a few things on it such as going to 105 11 speed but was not a nice ride and despite a carbon fork had a lifeless aluminum frame.
After not being able to persuade my boss about the Cycle to Work scheme (long story) and wanting a traditional road bike (this gravel thing is not for me) I decided to go with the Dolan ADX on interest free credit. I am going over to the darkside as this is my first disc brake bike but these should be a better option on the grubby Yorkshire roads!
I was not sure of the size I am 5'8" and took the dimensions from my Specialissima and went for the small 52.5cm frame with 120mm stem. Glad I did as the medium would have been too big. Need to fine tune the fit and once OK I will remove the chimney.
Bike arrived yesterday evening, it was well packaged and I soon had it bolted together and checked over. Managed a quick 20 mile ride and first impressions are excellent. Very smooth ride, could be the frame or the 28mm tyres. 105 is an great groupset and indexing was spot on straight out of the box. All the cables are internal making it a very neat bike which will be easy to keep clean. It is different to the Bianchi not as good, I was expecting that but is a million times better than the CB.
The slight downside is that there are no assembly instructions in the box. OK for me as I have built a few bikes in the past but for someone who is inexperienced some guidance would be useful.
I will update further once I have a few more miles on the clock, photos below:
Cheers
2
Comments
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This looks great. Proper winter bike!
Ben
Bikes: Donhou DSS4 Custom | Condor Italia RC | Gios Megalite | Dolan Preffisio | Giant Bowery '76
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ben_h_ppcc/
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143173475@N05/0 -
That looks fantastic! I look forward to reading more about how it rides.0
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Hi,
Quick update on how the Dolan is going for anyone who is interested.
Stem is now cut, fitted a couple of Aliexpress carbon bottle cages and I have also added some new pedals as a bearing failed in the old ones. Staying with Time as I really like the way they work and other bikes have them on as well.
Just over 1300 miles on the clock and a lot of them on poor quality wet roads.
The good things, smooth comfortable ride, frame really does soak up the road buzz and bumps etc. Slighty taller head tube helps with this so not going to take out anymore spacers. The raw Ti is great not having to worry about the paint work. The 105 is performing well despite taking some hammer over the past few weeks. Love the disc brakes, I have ridden rim brakes for a long long time and know how they perform but for winter conditions the disk are much better. I do not have to listen to the rims being ground down eveytime you pull the levers! So good in fact I have moved over to discs on my best bike, more on that to follow. Internal routing is also good especially when cleaning the bike.
Not so good: Frame is not a responsive as my carbon bikes, feels a tiny bit sluggish but I can live with this. Frame is on the heavy side and so are the wheels not a problem on the flat but you do feel it on the longer climbs. Might swap for some carbon rims when funds allow. Slighty twitchy at the front end on the fast decsents but I think that is the mudguards getting caught in the wind. That said I will still keep the mudguards on as I would not do the riding I do without them.
All in all really please with how it is going, it is a great winter work horse.
If anyone has any questions please ask and I will try to answer as best I can.
#mudguradsaregreat1 -
I really like this. Inspiring photos (and winter mileage(!)). And thank you for the review - am always interested in reading a thoughtful/informative review.0
