Road Cycling - ?? how to uglify my street bike...

soooo, now that i have my snazzy new Viner Comp i want to make my GT Force be a city bike for getting around town in DC. the thing is it's bright red and i'm thinking it maybe stands out a bit too much - like it looks a bit fancier than it really is.

i've seen folks wrap their tubes in electrical tape but i'd imagine that would get kinda cruddy after it got rained on a few times.

i think what i'd like to do is strip it down to bare alum, but i don't know how to do that and i don't know enough about bike mechanics to take mine apart i don't think (no money for tools or a stand either now that the new bike is bought).

I took a different approach to the problem of worrying that the new bike would be damaged or ripped off while in public...I bought a second bike - a foul weather commuter as I called it. It was then that I realized I was afflicted.

Don't wreck the new beauty.

55/Rad

soooo, now that i have my snazzy new Viner Comp i want to make my GT Force be a city bike for getting around town in DC. the thing is it's bright red and i'm thinking it maybe stands out a bit too much - like it looks a bit fancier than it really is.

i've seen folks wrap their tubes in electrical tape but i'd imagine that would get kinda cruddy after it got rained on a few times.

i think what i'd like to do is strip it down to bare alum, but i don't know how to do that and i don't know enough about bike mechanics to take mine apart i don't think (no money for tools or a stand either now that the new bike is bought).

Spray paint it gray and then splatter paint it. Get some black decal letter and put HUFFY on it. It will be just like my gf. No one would steal it. But to really make it like a Huffy Add a sandbag to it.

I took a different approach to the problem of worrying that the new bike would be damaged or ripped off while in public...I bought a second bike - a foul weather commuter as I called it. It was then that I realized I was afflicted.

Don't wreck the new beauty.

55/Rad

he's talking about the second bike, man.

can i spray paint a bike without taking it apart though?

maybe i should use this as an opportunity to learn how to take apart and put together a bike.

what kinda tools do you need for the crank? is the threaded headset just hex wrenches?

:: clueless ::

he's talking about the second bike, man.
Sorry - didn't realize he the GT Force was the older bike. Reminder to self - read and understand the post before replying.

Paint the badges battleship grey and stencil "Walmart" all over it.

55/Rad

You can get creative and wrap the frame in the contact paper of your choice. Should hold pretty well in bad weather and you can always change it up at a later point.

Fun things to stencil onto your downtube:

Lunchmoney
Faggio (GTA: Vice City, anyone?)
Disease
Pinto
Hufy (like a cheap Asian knockoff of Huffy)

You could try masking the bike before painting it if you don't want to take it appart. As for taking it apart, have never done it, but you definetly need a BB tool i think it is. Try the park tool site it is pretty good and my favorite word free.

Actually use plastic shopping bags and masking tape on your cranks, take the wheels off (of course) then plastic bag the brakes, then spray paint away. You want to deter theives so the paint job should not be meticulous for this feat.

gcasillo -
remind me the Vice City reference? i won that game a few years back but i can't remember any bikes apart from the motorcycle dudes who challenge you to create as much mayhem as possible (probably the most difficult challenge of the game, that one).

yeah, i feel like if i take the drive train and brakes apart i'd be unlikely to get it working again.

so in the plus column is the challenge to learn how a bike is put together, but in the minus column is the risk of making a mess of things (and i live in a studio apartment so it would have to be a very temporary mess).

thanks for the fun suggestions everybody. =)

Just put duct tape all over the bike.. Nothing looks fuglier then duct tape.:)

can i spray paint a bike without taking it apart though?

maybe i should use this as an opportunity to learn how to take apart and put together a bike.

what kinda tools do you need for the crank? is the threaded headset just hex wrenches?

:: clueless ::
get a couple of rolls of maskin tape ( it's paper based ) tape edges of what you dont want painted
and use old news-paper for large areas
paint let dry and remove tape :)
Car painting trick
they tape up the crome and paint them

I would be so tempted to paint "Yugo" on the downtube and "glx" on the toptube. I assure you anyone who knows of that car will run like hell the second they see a bike "made" by them.

Just don't name your bike the "porkchop", as I'm pretty sure someone would steal a bike with namepaint on it like that.