Bike Check: Cédric’s Freaky Dolan
Why am I so happy to do this bike check? Because of this! This is the perfect mix of “let me build something fully custom” and “okay, but no more than 100 euros”. From the rattle can paint job to the part selection, everything on this bike screams: I don’t care what you think, I look sick anyway! So let’s see what this is all about.
If you were looking at the bike from a distance, you probably wouldn’t be able to recognize the frame under its Klein-like paint job. Is it steel? Is it aluminum? What the hell could it be? Well, there is one bike you can find in Europe, used or new, all year round. It’s cheap, it’s reliable, it’s a perfect beater bike but you can take it to the velodrome as well. It’s the Dolan Pre Cursa! Get rid of that Alpina fork and you can find them used for peanuts. An inexpensive frame for some gnarly tracklocross use is probably the best and most logical idea anyone would have. To allow for some bigger tire clearance, also because he just had one laying around his shop, Cédric threw an All-City Nature Boy fork into the mix, creating this beautiful monstrosity in the process.
When I went to Cédric’s shop, (a place I will cover in a later article) he had some seriously nice stuff to choose from which all warrant their own bike check. Custom painted Mash, Cannondale Track, crazy lo-pro, and the list goes on, but I wanted to focus on this! I can’t deny that a 1993 Cannondale Track looks good with the full Suntour treatment. But this! This is the stuff that gets me excited! It’s weird, it’s asymmetric and it’s far from perfect, but so attractive in its own way.
So what happens when you merge an aluminum track frame, an SSCX steel fork, and a madman like Cédric? Well, first you paint everything to make it look like it was supposed to always be that way. I was impressed by the end result achieved just with spray cans: a freaky mix between Klein, Squid Bikes, and a 90s Frankenstein movie poster. Everything was done by Cédric himself and he even painted the custom Dolan logo. It a quite tasteful font for a bike destined to see mud and dust for a while.
Everything is so good so far, but we haven’t touched the best part yet! Look down a little bit and you’ll be surprised to find a pair of Sugino Grand Mighty in their gleaming champagne color. Why use such a pair of cranks on a freak bike like this? Because he can, that’s why! Attached to that fine Japanese piece of engineering, is a completely random 44T chainring that was on a kid’s training bike at the local velodrome. Mama rolled into the shop saying that her boy was spinning too much, so Cédric was happy to swap it for something bigger. Problem solved and everyone is happy.
What about a little bit of color coordination then? Cédric couldn’t leave that red anodized chainring alone, so what do you do when you have a killer Klein paint job and some random anodized parts? You try to complete the set! Again, it’s done with perfect taste and execution. Red anodization is one of the easier ones to find since the color tends to be constant across brands. So to match his mystery chainring, Ceric added a Hope seatpost clamp and a good old Ringle stem, both following that 90s’ MTB vibe.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset Dolan Pre Cursa - All-City Nature Boy fork
Chainring and Cog 44T Mystery Chainring , 19T Sugino cog
Crank 170mm Sugino Grand Mighty
Seatpost and Saddle Selle Italia Flite, Thomson Elite Setback
Stem and Handlebar Ringle Zooka Stem, Simworks Fun 3 Bars
Wheels Rear Mavic Ellipse, Front Unknown Mavic
Tires Rear Schwalbe CX PRO 32c, Front Schwalbe All-Around 35c
Let’s follow the sweet x-biking feat track bike mood with some nice Simworks Fun 3 bars up front and a classic Thomson and Flite combo in the rear. Add to that a seriously tired and dinged up but still usable Mavic Ellipse, pair to another mystery Mavic wheel, to finish it off. (Front might be something else though, nobody could really remember) Of course, wrapped in mismatched tires.
It’s really an unusual build with its own vibe, but since the Dolan Pre Cursa can fit 32c (even 35c I heard) in the rear, you might as well get the same fitted in the front with a little bit of “help”. An old MTB fork or something similar, and you’ll get yourself shredding in the woods in no time. A cheap do-it-all bike and a lot of spices, let’s party!
