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• #2
Fluro paint naturally degrades much faster than regular paint. Something about the way it absorbs and reflects UV from sunlight. I imagine cheaper fluro paint degrades quicker and might also have something to do with the clearcoat too. Don’t think there’s any way to restore it beyond repainting.
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• #3
Helpful explanation, thanks.
I have an all-carbon bike from Go Outdoors on which the paint seems to be fading unusually rapidly. It's maybe three years old. I've always stored it either indoors or under a cover.
The forks seem especially bad, but there is a little bit of fading on the frame as well. It's supposed to be bright fluorescent yellow, but it's starting to look the colour of your average CTC member's waterproof jacket.
What it's supposed to look like (and did when I got it):
What it looks like now:
Pic coming soon
It's just cosmetic, so I don't really care, but I'm interested to know if there's anything one can do to restore the paint. The kinds of products people use on cars and vintage bikes might not be appropriate for carbon, I suppose.
And does anyone have any idea why this happened in the first place? It's a cheap bike (for the spec) so maybe the manufacturer used cheap paint? I don't think I've been over-cleaning it.