Carbon road bikes mainstream or custom made

[Leodis]

Not sure

They may have spent 40 minutes measuring you, but they're still going to give you the frame from their range which fits you best. These may be small volume, but they're still off the shelf, not tailored for each individual. Its a real stretch of the word 'custom'.

PS, I'm nevertheless sure they are still very nice.

Off the shelf bikes are generally rolled off the line, cheap finishing kit and tyres and mostly cheap wheelsets to recover advertising and R&D costs and you generally don't get the full groupset just part of it. If someone is measured they are get the right stem, bar width, crank length and groupset to suit them, to me thats a custom fitting plus getting a bike fit always helps.

 

[Cyclone1]

Well said "our Connor".

What do people expect "custom" to be at £800-£2k??? A hand built frame to each individuals dimensions? With bespoke groupset and finishing kit?

What you get at Dolan if you visit with regards to fit, selection and customer service is far superior to buying an "off the peg" Giant, Cube, Specialized etc, where your choice is limited to colour scheme and frame size. This alone gives you more reassurance that you have bought a bike you can ride from the off that "feels" right.

My experience at Dolan was great. I picked which frame, was measured for size, so had a specific seat post, seat position, stem length, bar width etc etc.

I have a friend who has just spent £4k on a road bike, he had a choice of only frame size and groupset.....6 weeks later he is still saying "I don't feel right", "should I try a shorter stem", "should I move my seat back a bit?" Etc etc etc...........

His frame is off the shelf, his groupset also, albeit SRAM Red........


Enjoy your bike and welcome to the Dolan club....

 

[Drago]

It's small volume but nevertheless 'off the shelf'. The frames are produced in a range of standard sizes and are not individually built to suit buyers.

I'm sure they're very nice, the service is excellent etc, but they're still mass produced frames, albeit on a much smaller scale. The only 'custom' thing about it is the finishing kit, but that's someone else's off the shelf stuff.

I'm sure they very nice (they look great) but all.this guff about 'custom' to justify the ticket is a bit misleading.

It nothing like buying a bespoke frame especially built to order individually by a master frame builder.

Btw, your £4k mate is an idiot - that's his fault, not the bikes.

 

[vickster]

To justify the ticket, do you mean price? But Dolan bikes aren't expensive when you compare the spec to the likes of Specialized or trek. As a tall woman, yes I ride men's / unisex frames but I need adjustments to bar width, stem length, potentially cranks, and saddle versus a man with the same dimensions as me...hence the likes of dolan are great, especially as they also offer sram on their frames unlike ribble and pretty much every 'off the peg' manufacturer. Planet X have sram options but no other facility to alter the size of components

I don't get on with shimano, so I'm not going to buy a bike and then spend £500 swapping to sram as well as switching the bars, stem, saddle, not to mention the black bar tape! For my genesis, because I wanted sram etc, I went the frame plus build route, cost me more versus the stock bike but I have the right sized bits and what I wanted...no need to upgrade wheels for example

So no, Dolan aren't bespoke but they are customisable, more so than every mainstream manufacturer