Saffron Frameworks Dream Bike

This seems eminently sensible, thanks so much for the info @hoops : )

I've never actually seen the spectracoat in real life (only in photos) so it's difficult to imagine how / if it'll work. Billy suggested candy paint (which is easier to imagine working) but I'm not sure if it's possible to get that kind of baby pink / softer yellow in candy paint?

Another alternative might be to use some kind of masked / graphic transition to avoid having a sprayed fade. Matthew recently did a gravel bike for himself that shows what I mean. The drawback to this is expense - Saffron more or less charge by the hour for graphic design and paint so the further I can get on my own, the better:

1 Attachment

Thanks man - and yes, you appear to have a firm grasp on the situation!

Two stage paints (spectracoat, chromacoat, candy etc) can do weird unexpected things when you fade them into other solid colours

Cycliste wanted a dark blue/purple chromacoat over a silver base. I did a test, and it looked awful. So I sprayed it over a black base, with silver lettering, and it looks awesome. Not that she's ever actually ridden the bike, of course.

Cheers!
It'll almost certainly not have an ISP now...

Billy's worried about the difference in flex between the steel and the carbon causing longer-term instability in the paint. I'm also still having to make minor saddle adjustments every now and again because of my broken leg, so normal seatposts are probably more sensible anyway.

I don't suppose you took a photo of it when it looked awful?
I think I know what you're talking about but struggling to visualise it!

Fraid not. But it went from a dull salmon pink to an uninspiring pale blue. Looks much better with a black base coat.

I did a test spray on an old car bonnet, decided it looked shite, and sprayed the whole thing black. Except the silver decals. And then did the Chromacoat.

This is what it looks like now. As ever, it's hard to photograph a Chromacoat paint job from a single standpoint. Especially when it's covered in many, many years of dust...

1 Attachment

Doing the transition from spectra to yellow as a hard mask line would be more straightforward if you’re set on those two colours….. or you could just use the yellow as the base colour underneath the spectracoat, as this would give a smooth transition without it going weird over the bit where the undercoat colour transitions into yellow, but spectracoat over a yellow undercoat would come out as a horrible glittery lime green I think (never done it tho, so that’s just a guess)…. It deffo wouldn’t be the super sparkly silver that you are probably aiming for.

TBH, I’d wait for Billy’s feedback on your design ideas, and see what he says. Being a little bit flexible with this kind of thing always helps. He knows what he is doing.

Also, if you want the pink to be more apparent, bring it further up the tubes from the BB, and up the fork a bit more, as most of it will be hidden by the crankset once the bike is built as it is in your mock up currently.

Re: carbon seat tube - I’d personally leave it as raw carbon, as it looks sick IMO, and avoids any of the mentioned concerns about paint cracking.

FWIW, My Talbot has a carbon ISP, and was built in 2014, and I’ve not had any issues. (I have repainted it 3 times now tho!)

Was just thinking about a masked transition and it might be an opportunity to pick up on the little zigzag / sun ray lines from the groupset:

1 Attachment

I think Billy likes the aesthetics so far - he wasn't sure about the green hubs (hence the current poll) but seemed fairly excited about the paint. He's never done this silvery prismatic effect before so it might be a bit of a learning curve. Any advice from people who have used it is really helpful : )

I do keep asking for suggestions from Billy and Matthew (I want that Saffron magic!) but tbh I think they're both so busy atm they don't have any time to think about it without charging for it. Which totally makes sense (you can imagine how much time-wasting they'd have to tolerate if they didn't), but the upshot is that it's incentivising me to do as much as possible myself... (by which I mean asking you lot!)

Looks good!
Velocity's too; keeping it oldskool : )

Silver hubs.

Still not sure what ISPs bring to the party outside of TT/tri bikes, where I can see the 'aero' thinking. But in general, bit of a solution looking for a problem?

Admittedly, I am biased having had to play around with saddle height in the last year to accommodate a hamstring injury (dropped seat 1cm) and a hip flexor injury (increased 1cm), but that might have been a struggle with an ISP.

Super rare 650c Velocities too. With CX-Ray spokes.

@RecoveryRide ISP was mainly bringing less weight to the party... and I thought it looked marginally better than the normal seatpost when I was playing around on photoshop.

@Brommers Now you're just bragging!

Now you're just bragging!

If anyone had actually ridden the bike, maybe...

In other news, these arrived!

1 Attachment

Oh yes!

Outrageous purchase !! Many jealous.
Did you get the magic merlin
1% discount

wait, they dont even include pads??

I know!
Although different pads for different rims these days so you'd probably go straight in the parts bin anyway.

Could come with a pad for every type of rim at their cost!

Lovely brakes tho, will look fab and glad to see you’re going through with the bike you wanted

They could come with a bloody bike at that cost!

Yess!!