J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I am stripping the paint off my Mountain Bike to repaint it, quite like the idea of having it in bare aluminium, polished and then laquered, is that the way to do it, any tips ?

yoza

If you have gone to the effort of stripping the bike to the frame, I would suggest anodising....there are a massive choice of colours and effects.



LB Parkes - anodising, alocom, iridite, chromate phosphate, colour anodising, metal finishing, wire drawing, architectural anodising, walsall, west midlands

Dedrater

You are going to get halfway through and wish you had never started, trust me.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Yep

Nearly all off now.

Its only a Halford's "Carrera" but it was looking scabby and I wanted some occupational therapy after a hard week, quite a nice frame really.

Will look into the anodising.

Dieseldog

I stripped and polished the frame on my cannondale about 12 years ago, leaving it bare. It still looks fine today -never turned white or powdery.

My only concern was that the wall thickness of some of the tubes was so thin that I thought the mop would polish right through it...

yoza

I have a Carrera Banshee X , best bike Ive ever owned.

And I ve had some more well known makes, and they were more expensive to buy.

I wasnt going to buy another MTB but work did a special offer "ride to work" type effort, were they took the money direct from my wages, and I didnt pay tax on it.

Halfords also gave me a free £150 voucher for accessories because the bike was over a certain price.

All in all I thought I got a good deal...

The down side is that I have done 26 miles since last September, because Im too lazy.

j4ckos mate

like this

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Go, on, I will give to £50 for it !


It does amaze me how many nice bikes spend so much time cluttering garages, go out on it in the morning, to be honest, I think for most things a hardtail or a rigid bike is easier, that on road I would imagine is a bit of a spacehopper and would only come into its own properly off road and then eventually it would betray its origins if ridden hard.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

buff it up to a nice shine and get some polish on it, I did a set of alloys years back, spent a day on each one, polishing, polishing, didn't lacquer them, just kept them clean.

Try it !

DunxC

yoza

The rear suspension locks out solid from a small red lever on the shock.

Your right though, if your doing a bit of road work with the rear on soft you look a bit like CoCo the clown.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Thats the multicolored suit you wear !

sa1tnpepper

........................

LanCat

Agreed, couple of coats of polish is the way to go.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Dedrater was right......

I am now covered in Nitromors splats and have a hunched back from bending over, I am the Hunchback of Nitro-Dame.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I've got a bit of a thing about bare aluminium, especially when it's brushed. The same goes for brushed stainless. Urgh, it makes me cringe REALLY BADLY

I've gone all funny just thinking about it

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I have a theory about this, I have seen it before,
























Its cos you are female and therefore irrational about most things

Leslie

I have seen a few motor bikes all polished up, even a Vincent with its alloy forks all polished.

It looks very good but I would think that lacquering afterwards would be a mistake. When the lacquer gets chipped it seems to be impossible to make it look as good as it did in the first place. Easier to leave it just as polished alloy and give it a polish up with Brasso when it needs it.

Les