Been injured this last week (did a skid on my left side after crashing while racing), so while taking it easy and tacking on mass, I've been planning to swap parts between builds to make better use of each frame.
#01 - Is staying as it is, but might receive a paint job later in the year.
This one probably has the highest maintenance-to-usage ratio of the three bikes, as it's seldom ridden (sunny days & crit races), but the polished finish takes reasonable effort to maintain.
Last year I let the bike sit for a week following a 50 mile TT, during which time all the drops and streams of dried sweat had caused enough minor pitting and surface corrosion to warrant a full (hand) repolish. I'm paranoid about this happening again, so for the rest of the summer I'm willing to put in the effort to keep it shiny.
In future, though, it would be nice not to be so paranoid. I'm looking into applying some kind of DIY paint job to protect key areas, in 'Team Shred It!' colours, with a view to racing more for the team next year. Will still be keeping a decent amount of shiny stuff, so think something similar to a 2014 Mash Histogram, but with hot pink, white & green instead of black, grey & white, a black top tube, and obviously, current style Dolan logos.
#02 - The black factory finish (powder coated) of this frame is the most durable of the three, and also has a few chips and scrapes from its previous life, so would make most sense to use this for the workhorse build rather than #03. Should mean fewer worries about scuffing the paint when locking up/at group ride pub stops, which is currently a problem for the soft rattlecan finish of the grey one. The workhorse build also sees the most parts swaps, depending on being set up for road fixed, hill climb, etc... So doubly makes sense to have a finish that I'm not too precious about.
I have a matte black fork (same type as grey 'Alpina' branded one) ready for this, and the 105 5600 road crank and USE chainring will also go on the black frame, to facilitate fitting of a small BCD130 ring for HC gearing. May experiment with a 3/32" drivetrain and alu sprockets down the line when looking more closely at weight savings.
#03 - The grey frame will assume TT duties, taking aero parts from #02.
Not sure how the gloss carbon Oval Concepts fork, Syntace base bar and USE extensions will look on an otherwise matte build. Thinking the bars will probably look fine but I might have to rub the fork down and apply some matte lacquer to help it suit the frame.
The frame might get a bit of a touch up spray, and maybe a full matte clear coat, to mask a few imperfections that have appeared since the finish was applied last November.
The finish is a matte 1k aerosol paint (dusted on in many light coats; super powdery matte finish, but quite soft) over a grey powder coat of the same colour (which sounds silly but the original coating didn't look matte enough), so is a bit fragile, but robust enough to handle twice-weekly racing and training without the need to lock up.
Been injured this last week (did a skid on my left side after crashing while racing), so while taking it easy and tacking on mass, I've been planning to swap parts between builds to make better use of each frame.
#01 - Is staying as it is, but might receive a paint job later in the year.
This one probably has the highest maintenance-to-usage ratio of the three bikes, as it's seldom ridden (sunny days & crit races), but the polished finish takes reasonable effort to maintain.
Last year I let the bike sit for a week following a 50 mile TT, during which time all the drops and streams of dried sweat had caused enough minor pitting and surface corrosion to warrant a full (hand) repolish. I'm paranoid about this happening again, so for the rest of the summer I'm willing to put in the effort to keep it shiny.
In future, though, it would be nice not to be so paranoid. I'm looking into applying some kind of DIY paint job to protect key areas, in 'Team Shred It!' colours, with a view to racing more for the team next year. Will still be keeping a decent amount of shiny stuff, so think something similar to a 2014 Mash Histogram, but with hot pink, white & green instead of black, grey & white, a black top tube, and obviously, current style Dolan logos.
#02 - The black factory finish (powder coated) of this frame is the most durable of the three, and also has a few chips and scrapes from its previous life, so would make most sense to use this for the workhorse build rather than #03. Should mean fewer worries about scuffing the paint when locking up/at group ride pub stops, which is currently a problem for the soft rattlecan finish of the grey one. The workhorse build also sees the most parts swaps, depending on being set up for road fixed, hill climb, etc... So doubly makes sense to have a finish that I'm not too precious about.
I have a matte black fork (same type as grey 'Alpina' branded one) ready for this, and the 105 5600 road crank and USE chainring will also go on the black frame, to facilitate fitting of a small BCD130 ring for HC gearing. May experiment with a 3/32" drivetrain and alu sprockets down the line when looking more closely at weight savings.
#03 - The grey frame will assume TT duties, taking aero parts from #02.
Not sure how the gloss carbon Oval Concepts fork, Syntace base bar and USE extensions will look on an otherwise matte build. Thinking the bars will probably look fine but I might have to rub the fork down and apply some matte lacquer to help it suit the frame.
The frame might get a bit of a touch up spray, and maybe a full matte clear coat, to mask a few imperfections that have appeared since the finish was applied last November.
The finish is a matte 1k aerosol paint (dusted on in many light coats; super powdery matte finish, but quite soft) over a grey powder coat of the same colour (which sounds silly but the original coating didn't look matte enough), so is a bit fragile, but robust enough to handle twice-weekly racing and training without the need to lock up.