The decision to paint or not to paint the frame has been a tough one. My personal preference is to paint the frame since I don’t really like the unbroken metal of bare titanium bikes. However, I do want to leave some of the bike bare and that would really be in the chainstays.

Here’s where my inspiration came from, although I have no intention of matching it. This bike is owned by “terry b” over on the roadbikereview.com message boards.

I also had this poll posted on the same discussion boards and so far the votes are 50/50% for painting the frame versus not. I’ll probably end up painting it as it doesn’t seem terribly sacrilegious to paint it. I’ll post the actual design once I have it.

My poll basically seems to be showing almost an even split. Half don’t like painted Ti, the other half is good with it. Since it’s my decision, I guess I’m painting.

I’ve had ongoing conversations with Carl over the last few weeks, and after some deep thought, I’ve decided to have a completely different inspiration for the paint job. Several factors come into play:

1. Carl was quite insistent that it was not important if the welds were painted over so long as the customer was pleased with the way the bike looked in the end. He did mention in the same conversation that it’s nice if the welds are not covered as it shows his workmanship. Fair enough.
2. My wife though another white bike was plain. I always have white bikes.
3. I saw something on the Spectrum website that really caught my eye.

For a brief fleeting moment, I considered a bit of etching on the bike, but that didn’t last too long.  It’s a cool idea, but if I did any etching, it would be much more minor and less detailed that the Kish below.  Perhaps just straight panels or something like that.

I’ve been chatting with Liz over at Spectrum (they did the DeSalvo above as well as Terry B’s Strong above – I don’t know if they did the Kish, but they do etchings). Basically the paint specs are as follows:

• Design of the panels on the De Salvo is fine to duplicate. (minus the stays) 3 Main Tubes only – leaving the chain and seat stays nude titanium.
• Color on the Orange DeSalvo is fine. I really didn’t want to make it exactly the same, but in my indecision about color, I decided what had already been done to that De Salvo was pretty darn flawless. Whoever’s De Salvo that is, sorry for copying it.
• You’ll notice a bit of gold accenting at the end of each orange panel. That’s going on as well.

I also had to make some decisions around decals. In the end, I decided that I didn’t necessarily want a clear coat over the frame. Not only does it add weight, but I thought that it might make the orange a bit too glossy. However, this meant that I’d have to figure out a solution for the decals. One thing that I hate about decals is that if they don’t have a clear coat, they often peel or can get a bit of tearing. Turns out that Spectrum airbrushed the De Salvo logos, so I won’t be worrying about decals.

• I don’t need a decal for the head tube – I’ll be getting that cast head badge from Carl.
• “STRONG” will be airbrushed onto the down tube.
• “Hammer Guy” (the Carl Strong head tube logo) will be airbrushed onto the seat tube.
• The Carl Strong signature on the top tube will also be airbrushed.

This entry was posted on April 1, 2007 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Bicycle, Bicycling, Bike, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.