Paint defects.

[Jared88]

Hi. Does anybody have any paint defects on your frame that is not caused by scratching or accidents? I have brought several bike frames over the years but all of them have paint defects although they are new. Normal?

[chrisesposito]

Hi. Does anybody have any paint defects on your frame that is not caused by scratching or accidents? I have brought several bike frames over the years but all of them have paint defects although they are new. Normal?

I have been applying some paint protection film (http://www.bonkprotection.com ) to my new Cervelo frame , and as a side effect spent some time very closely examining the paint job. I have found a 2 or 3 spots, each about the size of a pinhead. If I didn't know they were there, know exactly where to look, and stand less than 2 feet from the spots in question, I would never have noticed them.

No mechanical process like this is going to be perfect 100% of the time, so I expect some low level of defects to be present if you sample enough frames.

[MHR]

I am very hard to please when it comes to paint finish. I expect the quality to come with $$ put out. I also agree that it is a good idea to use some Clear Bra material on critial areas to protect your investment going forward after the purchase. I picked up some 3M Cear Bra stuff from the shop that put it my my car.....2" wide and about 5-6 feet is all you need. Just clean the area well with alcohol, use a lot of soap and water, position the pieces, push out all the bubbles and use a hair dryer...pretty easy really. I'm sure the stuff in the link is of equal quality and works pretty much the same.

Trek Project One did a great job on my TT frame, with the clear coat pretty nice...and is a very low production bike. But after 1-year of racing it showed hair-line cracks in the clear coat (maybe 1.5"). Trek also backs their products very well offering to repaint if I wish. But then again why go through the brain damage of stripping your bike and waiting to get it back. It is a hard thing to go through for sure. All in all I guess I can live with it but I expect more.
My Madone 5.9 ltd. edition is also 100% flawless, but then again these are Project One paint efforts where only 500 were ever produced and at a MSRP cost of $7,000 it better be super nice.
I am however more impressed with my Cannondale IM 5000 which is 100% flawless in its paint finish. Even after travel to several races it is still flawless. GREAT JOB CANNONDALE!

[RoadToad]

Oh, to have just ONE bike as nice as MHR's!!! /drool/