Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Totally off topic but I had to tell you...

...the funniest **** I saw happen on Saturday. As you know, I was in the city with my wife and cousin on Saturday. We were in Times Square on our way to TGIF's as I had about $50 in gift certificates burning a hole in my pocket. No, alcohol was excluded from the gift certificate! :( Anyhoo, as we were waiting at one of the lights there was this guy drinking a coke from a can. There were also 2 cops talking the **** and just as one of them turned around to walk down the street the guy with the coke spit out a mouthful of coke all over the face and cheset of the cop closer to him and some on the other one! I've never seen someone so scared in my life! The cop who got it in the face looked like he was gonna beat this guy down but the guy desperately tried to explain that he had choked. Meanwhile everyone who was there, plus the other cop, were laughing our asses off! You could still here people talking about it 2 blocks down. That's all.

Bike content: I may get my frame powdercoated matte black, unless the powdercoating company I found has shades of orange available. Turnaround time of a day or 2 after their scheduled 2 week summer break at the beginning of July. Cost to me: Around $75 if I strip the frame myself or add another $75 or so for them to sandblast it for me. Should I or should I DIY? Decisions, decisions...

Bike content: I may get my frame powdercoated matte black, unless the powdercoating company I found has shades of orange available. Turnaround time of a day or 2 after their scheduled 2 week summer break at the beginning of July. Cost to me: Around $75 if I strip the frame myself or add another $75 or so for them to sandblast it for me. Should I or should I DIY? Decisions, decisions...[/QUOTE]

I stripped and repainted my frame myself last fall during a spell of unemployment. Beats tweaking a resume for the zillionth time! I used a paint stripper from an auto paint shop. The stuff was ghastly--think oven cleaner on steroids. It was a foaming mess involving lots of newspaper, rubber gloves and a couple throwaway plastic spatulas. And a back yard that smelled like a toxic waste site for a day.

Here's the mistake I made: after going through the above, then grinding off the cable stops and derailleur hanger and steel wooling it til my fingers bled, I RATTLE CANNED IT. Granted I did the best I could, used a primer etc., but after all that effort to get the frame clean, why did I put the cheapest finish in the world on it? Eight months later, it looks worse than before I started. The moral: if the frame is worth it, get the paint job done right.

I may be doing that next winter, too. Do you know how to strip a frame?

try harsh chemicals. i really never understood why anyone would mix paper thin steel and abrasion. :rolleyes:

Do you know how to strip a frame?

Buy it a couple drinks, then take it back to your place.

The paint shop should sand blast and powder coast for $75- 80 flat, fork included.

The paint shop should sand blast and powder coast for $75- 80 flat, fork included.

Perhaps a bit of my fine negotiation skills are in need when I bring the frame in. The only thing though with the place I found is they normally do metal railings, shelves etc so their selection of colours ranges from different shades, mattes and glosses of black, as well as some blue and a safety yellow. I was hoping for something more like the KHS orange. I may go with a flat black, depending on how bright the yellow is.

Safety Yellow with black accenting.

Buy it a couple drinks, then take it back to your place.

Wow! And I get to have my way, too? Cool!



No, seriously. How do you strip a frame?