Paint. Can so quickly and so drastically change a bike’s personality, altering both the owner’s and the viewing public’s perception from one of merely annoyed disgust to unadulterated adulation, turning steely eyed missile men into blathering idiots fawning like a pre teen girl over Justin Bieber. Or something like that.

But it can also go so cruelly, wickedly sideways so quickly your head will spin and not from the delicious fumes it ruthlessly emits, assaulting your senses and dulling your wits. Good thing this is the lobotomy project; I clearly don’t need all those brain cells anyway!

Wait, did I seriously just paint this thing CRANBERRY?!?!



Oh my, looks like I did:



But not all of it. I really liked the idea of gold lettering to accent all that cranberry, so I initially laid down an undercoat of gold where the lettering will be:



So I found some stick on letters in an over the top “elegant” font in my long-suffering wife’s craft room and applied them adhering to my 10 foot rule. The intention is to pull the letters when the paint has cured, revealing the gold underneath. We’ll see how that goes.

Remember, I’m hoping for a result somewhere between annoyed disgust and blathering pre-teen girl. And just maybe I can elevate this bikes lowly status to solid middle class citizen. The chrome fork and stem should help a lot.

For now, here’s a couple 10 foot shots to whet your appetite:




Not too bad so far…. Maybe there’s hope yet!