Bought this off LGF...





took it home and tarted it up for a few test rides





Excuse the red tyres

XT Cranks tapers had gone so they had to go and whilst sourcing replacements, I decided it was time to start again.

Armourtex (brilliant guys) dipped it and stripped it with a gentle glass blasting. Apparently under the purple was some patchy red anodising





for the briefest and i mean briefest moment i considered deep polish.......

what to do?

i was the prior owner to pickle , i picked it up of the bay, it was red, and the owner had done some rattle can job on it. really awful.

Too late now but I think it looked fantastic in the purple. And then maybe blinged up a bit with a nice contrast colour.

The naked finish is similar to my old GT Tempest.

If you want to maintain that finish, get some decals and laquer over.

i think it looks good as is .

if you polish i would avoid laquer (sorry pickle)

the problem with lacquer is that it is brittle and eventually part of it will crack. moisture will then get to the alloy and tarnish it. trouble is the only way to rectify the situation is another strip and polish. for an example of this look at some car alloys with polished oiuter lips, particularly bmw m3,s and mercs.

if you want a polished bike you neede to be prepared to put the effort in to keep it polished

It was me that got it painted. God knows it cost me enough!

Shame its gone really, it was nice to be different to all the ball burnished ones.

Agree with lewis1641 (sorry Pickle)... I wouldn't laquer it if you polish it. See this alot in the car care world where people want a polished finish without having to maintain and it always dulls / goes milky or flakes off. I'd paint or if you want the polished finish without the maintenance, spectrachrome the frame (hi-tech chrome type paint system rather than actual chroming).

nice input chaps - thanks

cheers and hi to matt for buying it off the bay - was my childhood catalogue 'never own' - so nice to get my hands on one finally

rightio - some definite food for thought...

- polished - i think i'm going to avoid. 1. pickle's right - lots of them around and 2. lewis is right. i don't have the time or inclination to keep this a work of art. it's going to be used and loved and chucked about. I have too many kids to get decent 'shed time' with a dremel every other weekend - got to be honest with myself

- as is - the pictures tell a bit of a lie. the finish is good but alloy is really dirty and it looks different shades all over. plus without lacquer it'll oxidize really badly the powdercoater told me. Lots of issues with lacquering that Alex spells out very nicely

- purple - had to go. not because it was different, but after a couple of rides and some transportation it was chipped all over with red coming through underneath - bicycle measles is the best description i can come up with

- so i'm leaning towards another high quality powdercoat by armourtex. hard wearing. will look smart. i don't have to buy a dremel.

but what colour?

hmmmmmm.

A deep anodised red type finish would be nice...

Edit: Might be worth your while looking through this thread:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=23743&page=8

wow - thanks HB - that is one rainbow collection
big food for thought

Im glad your repainting it, it was a horrific build before. hopefully build this time will have taste,

looking forward to the outcome.

So after a night's thought my shortlist is:

- black (no - too dull for this)
- some kind of glossy gunmetal grey (maybe - a bit too modern? Could have a sparkle finish?)
- a Ferrari red. Not seen any older zaskars in that colour.
- White! That could b cool. Pearlescent, shiny white.
-silver. Might just look like a lazy polished excuse. Either polish it or don't.


Thoughts?

I wonder if they could do a transparent anodizing. Polish it then trans anodize it. That might be a cool look.

red white green fade like a klein

or straight flouro grellow

still think it needs to be polished alloy tho

British Racing Green and blinged with green anno