On Tue, 2009-10-13 at 12:37 -0700, Ken Yokanovich wrote: > The ability to pick a color for a small upcharge is REALLY a nice > option. > > As far as paint quality is concerned... I believe that the production > frames are coming in to Rivendell painted already. The "extra" $200 > to choose a custom color is amazingly inexpensive. I suspect that > Rivendell doesn't make ANY money on that, considering the cost to have > the bicycle stripped and re-painted. I suspect the quality is "good > enough" for a rider.... Probably as good of a paint job as one would > get as a "factory paint." Custom paint it is not.
Then I must have gotten one super fantastic deal with my Saluki. I got the color of my choice for a fifty dollar upcharge. As it happens, the color was the standard color for one of the 650B mixtes, Fairway Green Metallic, but it was a custom color as far as I was concerned. It was a very nice job, too -- not that I went over it with a scanning electron microscope looking for flaws -- and I'm extremely happy with it. It's held up very well, too. > > I'm extremely picky when it comes to paint quality too, but I also > understand how difficult a good paint job is to do well. Having > worked in a shop for about 15 years, I've seen LOTS of bicycles. > Almost all of them have flaws somewhere in the paint. Obviously the > bicycle is made up of many small tubes with lots of inside/outside > surfaces and ample opportunity for over/under-spray. > > If you want show-quality paint, save up for the Joe Bell, or skip the > $200 extra and have the frame sent directly to Joe Bell. I suspect > you'll wait another 6 months or so and probably expect to pay close to > an additional $500 for paint work. For a more durable option, you > could go with custom powdercoat through Spectrum, but I believe a one- > color job will run you $400 or so. OK, maybe it makes sense to worry about show-quality paint if the bike is intended to be a show bike and a wall-hanger; but as far as I'm concerned, not so much if you actually intend to ride the bike -- because chips, scratches, dirt and abrasion will surely break your heart. > Find a color you like somewhere as a color chip, paint book, color of > car. Make note of year, make, model and the paint code can be looked > up. Give your painter some liberty because not every color can be > matched 100%. It's a bike after all, yer' spose to ride 'em, when you > do, they get scratched and dirty anyhow. Dirt washes off. Pretty paint gives you incentive to keep the bike clean. But don't go getting all morose if a perfect paint job gets marred: it will happen. It can't not happen. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
