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I prefer the lesser spotted Icelandic green colourway of the OG C-Track to be honest though.

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Its been done a few times with SS Evo frames.

New work phone innit!

End of an era.

What the people really want to know is where on this list to end lists is Riccardo Riccò?

He’s the real people’s champ.

You should get into philanthropy or something, Neil..... Your thirst for new things is genuinely astounding!

I used to have a sirocco. Got my bike in the back with front wheel off no probs.

Got rid of it cos of the stupid big wheels/skinny tyre combo + harsh suspension resulted in a flat tyre every time you hit a pot hole of decent size. I think I even had to replace one of the wheels from memory.

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This was really good.

This was good.

TJD is one of the best Ti welders in the country, and takes on repair work still I think,

Doubt Tom Sturdy would be up for carrying out repairs on a 3rd party frame.

It will just break again eventually anyway though, so I’d just suck it up and bin it personally.

What happens when you want to sell the car?

No one in their right mind would touch a car that costs as much as yours and has had the pedals chopped up and moved around surely!?!

Nope.

I know Temple Cycles have all their bikes done by a firm in Cardiff, probably the same place. I would imagine somewhere like that will only deal with large runs though. Doubt they’d be interested in a single frame job.

I used to use a company called RPA engineering, but the particular guy who worked there that I built a relationship with and did things just how I wanted them done fell out with the owner and moved on to other things a while back. I’ve not used them since he left.

There are many, many different types of media that can be used for blasting.

Different types of media have different pros/cons.... you can select softer/harder media for the substrate just the same as you get coarser/finer grades of sandpaper/wet and dry. It works the same as sandpaper grades - the softer/finer the media (soda blasting is very soft and gentle for example), the longer it will take to get down to the substrate, but it is a lot less harsh on more delicate substrates.

A good media blaster will know what type of media to use depending on what the substrate is, and what the existing coating that needs to be removed. A frame that’s made of good quality thin butted tubing (853/spirit etc), but has a Powdercoat finish can be particularly tricky to deal with, as using a soft media will take forever to remove the Powdercoat, but using a harder media can damage the steel if they’re not careful. It’s a fine line.

Sometimes chemical dipping is the best option to remove certain types of coating from more delicate frames without the risk of damaging the substrate..... it’s a horrible process both for the user and the environment though, so I have always used dipping as a last option.

And re: powder over raw steel - yes, it is way more durable than wet paint over raw steel, and will hold up pretty well, but no clear coat on raw steel process that I’ve come across (and I’ve done a lot of R&D on this!) will fully protect the steel from rust ingress... it will happen eventually, even with powder.

Saying that it will take an awful long time for any rust ingress to get to the stage where it’s gonna effect the integrity of the frame..... it’s purely surface rust, so if you don’t really give a shit about how it looks, I wouldn’t worry about it too much!

I have a steel GT edge frame with a raw steel and clear powder finish that I’ve had as my shopper bike for almost 3 years now, and is now covered in rust ‘worms’.... it’s nothing a light media blast and re-coat wouldn’t get rid of.

Powdercoaters who know how to do a bike frame well are fairly hard to find, as most powdercoaters are more used to doing more agricultural/furniture type stuff that doesn’t really have a lot of specific masking requirements like dropouts and the like on bike frames that have close tolerance requirements for fitting parts.... so coaters who know what they’re doing with bike frames are few and far between!
It took me best part of a year to find someone in Bristol that would adhere to my specific masking requests with frames. It was especially important for my needs as I was painting graphics and then clear coating with wet paint on top of the powder, so paint build up was a real issue in low tolerance spots like dropouts and BB faces.

Have never met Steve from Aurum, but chatted with they Stayer guys a fair bit, and he deffo seems like the only man for the job in London! He’s the only powdercoater I’m aware of in the UK that has successfully done a two colour fade with powder - something I couldn’t get anyone in the South West to do.

His pricing seems very reasonable too.... powder is waaaay less labour intensive than full wet paint, but doing it well requires more attention to detail, which equates to more time, and with all types of finishing, you very much get what you pay for, so if you want o good finish, avoid the cheapest option at all costs!

The drivers door on my landy sometimes doesnt lock quite properly with the central locking. I regularly install an update to the system by kicking the door, or sometimes if i have my hands full giving it a firm jab with my knee. Does the trick every time. No iPhone needed.

I think it will be a while until i'm at your level of being in the future.

This trend is just plain wrong.
There. I said it.

Crazy talk.

After stealing various different MTB's from work over the last few months (Including a Moterra Neo E-MTB which was hilarious), and with my interest in any form of tarmac based cycling dwindling rapidly, I decided to just suck it up and build a keeper. Looking forward to getting it dirty at the weekend!

There are some fun trails in the woods about 5 min from my house I've become fairly familiar with, so need to get a decent light so I can ride there after work in the winter months.

Really like the new direction LeMond bikes are going. Well thought out classy looking commuter e-bikes are definitely something the market is lacking currently. £4350 price tag is far from 'affordable' for the mass market though.

Just give them your wallet and tell them to hang on to it for the next 25k miles. Probably easier.

Fabio.