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How is your paint holding up?

3K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  froze 
#1 ·
I am considering a very subdued paint scheme to add some color to the bike by painting portions of selected components; the idea is not to hide the basic material but rather to accent it. I have noticed, Seven edges the transition between painted and unpainted Ti with a very thin striping tape. How is this tape and the rest of the paint job holding up for you?
Of course, plan B is to keep the Ti nude which is also appealing.
 
#2 ·
I don't have a ti I painted bike but I can take a pretty educated guess as to how it holds up with 35 years in auto paint business. It's all about the quality of paint and preparation. If you want durability, you'll pay. Stripes will chip easier than complete paint because of the edge being a weak point.
 
#5 ·
Decals without a clearcoat from Seven, as well as the edging tape are easy casualties of ham handed wrenches and bike racks/stands. My paint is holding up fines, as are the decals under clearcoat.
 
#6 ·
The paint on my well used 5 year old elium-Race which has the front half painted over a mix of CF and Ti looks as good as the day it was new. No chips and only one or two very light scratches. The edging tape has held up perfectly too. A couple of the decals on the rear CF seat stays chipped slightly within months of the frame being new. But otherwise the decals on both my Seven's have also held up perfectly.
 
#7 ·
Thank you all for your replies. I am really on the fence on this. On one hand, some paint is good to wake up the Ti, on the other the utilitarian look of the nude Ti is elegant due to its simplicity. The guys at Seven really liked the paint scheme I sent them (or maybe they were politically correct about it).
I think I'll keep flipping the coin until it stays edge up...........
 
#8 ·
i have mine painted.

so far, it has been to a couple fo countries and been ridden in multiple conditions, and the only paint issue i have had, is when i have taken the rear wheel out to change a flat and the disc rubbed against the frame. I have since put a lizard skin chain stay proctector on that side to stop me doing it again.

the paint job looks awesome. when i get time, i will put photo's up
 
#9 · (Edited)
I have a bike I bought in 84 while living in California and the sun after 18 or 19 years living there with the bike ate the decals, the decals went from yellow to white and parts of the decals would come off just washing. The sun damaged the red paint on the bike too, I think the sun ate most of the clear coat off because the decals were clear coated over when it was new. Red is the worst color to have for a bike when it comes to the sun damaging a color, for some reason the sun damages red, followed by silver the most. So when I bought a new bike in 07 I put the clear plastic Lizard Skin protectors on my chain stay then I placed some over decals and other places that typically get marred. Not sure if Lizard Skins will work or not until at least 20 years go by though, but I thought I would experiment and see what happens. I had the 07 bike painted with two coats of clear coat (over the decals and paint of course) instead of their normal one coat.
 
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