Bikes of 2023: The Dorado Sherpa

It's another December here on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2023. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  

As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up. 

This late 80's Dorado Sherpa has become one of my main commuter bikes.

Late into 2022 I picked up a rare, weird mountain bike from the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. It was from a brand known as "Dorado", which turned up in my searching as a brand sold through Costco stores in the late 1980's. 

This model, the "Sherpa", is a very good representation of mid-to late 1980's mountain bike design. Many consumer brands hadn't caught up with the leaders in the field yet and were making MTB's with much the same geometry as they had from the late 70's/early 80's. Essentially, the copy of a Schwinn "balloon" style cruiser geometry, which was the basis of the first popularized mountain bikes emanating out of California.

This bicycle also features a trendy set of brakes which represents the short time span of their popularity in 1987-88. These are "roller cam brakes", so called due to the use of a flat plate cam and rollers affixed to the ends of each cantilever arm. This design morphed into the common "U" brake, most often seen on BMX bikes these days. 

Another quirk of those times is the mounting of the U brake or roller cam brake underneath the chain stays. This was done because the U brake and roller cam have so much leverage and power that they can easily flex and twist seat stays. The beefier chain stays were a preferred mounting spot to enhance these brake's characteristics. 

I can tell you that a proper set up on a good pair of roller cams is going to out-brake about anything you can name outside of the best hydraulic disc brake set ups. They are that good. It's very ironic that this bike, and many others of its day, were set up with brake levers that get their inspiration from motorcycle brake levers. Those were used on the earliest MTB set ups back when steel rims were the norm. Longer levers meant more brake power, and you were going to need that with steel rims and typical touring cantilever brakes. But with aluminum rims, those goofy "four-finger" levers are simply not necessary with these roller cam brakes on the Dorado. 

I completely overhauled this bike with new bearings in the rear wheel and a new bottom bracket. I added a rack, fenders, bags, and my old Brooks B-17 Special. It's rolling on Bontrager 26" tires presently, but I may switch those out to studded 26" tires for Winter ice situations soon. 

I do have to do some clearancing on the fenders at the brakes to gain a bit more clearance with these fenders. Other than those things, this bike is set to roll on into 2024. I plan on using it frequently for commuting and errands. 

This is the bike that took over commute duties from my old Schwinn High Sierra. I was afraid I might miss that bike, but this bike has done well and I do not regret the switch one bit now. It rides every bit as sweetly and this set of roller cams works far better than the Schwinn's did and the drive train, a full 3 X 6 set of gears, has come in handy and works perfectly. The scratched and rusted patches of the frame add to the "urban camouflage" keeping many from wanting to lift this bike from me, but I do appreciate the bolt-on wheels and locking the bike up is easier since I can carry a decent lock in the bags.

So, a great addition to the stable and I suspect it will be used for years.