Hey there! While driving around with my bike on the rack, I have my abus cable lock around my frame and rack. Unknown to me, the rubber cable has been rubbing into my frame and with it my lovely paint. any ideas how best to fix this? It's only a month old and I've been really careful otherwise!

Cheers,

Kieran

I would very lightly smooth it out with some very fine grit sandpaper, clean with rubbing alcohol, and then apply clear nail polish.

That's what I would do too. for touch ups there's "perfect match" and there's "not exactly". "Not exactly" draws your eye looks worse than the untreated blemish.

Yep, especially in this case: the paint is still covering most of the blemish, so when he/she smooths it out, and applies clear, it will probably look very good.

i would avoid sandpaper and use rubbing compound instead. just using rubbing compound can reduce the appearance to the point where you wont need to do anything else, though clear nail polish is fine. I only use clear nail polish on bare metal.

btw OP, bikes get scratched and marked up.. try not to stress over every blemish

Indeed - I would also purchase some decent quality 'Helicopter Tape', like the 3M stuff. It's not cheap, but it does a bang-up job of protecting paint from damage from cable rub etc..

You can all get thick clear vinyl from some car places that'll do the job.

No prima donnas in my stable, only workhorses...

No tears shed for any damage that's only cosmetic.

Cause with a bike, the function is the form.

Thanks for all the responses! I suppose I'm overreacting a little, but I still wanna try and sort it out! Picked up some clear nail polish there! Think some t-cut would help the paint before I apply the nail polish?I'll need to get some rubbing compound!
cheers!
kieran

I don't think you're overreacting. It's like when someone dings your brand-new car. It's a natural response.

You'll hear many people saying "it's a tool, not a jewel". While I generally agree, I think it somewhat misses the point. For me, if I chose to ignore small blemishes (no touch up), or allow the bike to get fairly dirty, I would start to ignore more important functional components. It's psychological. Secondarily, taking care of the paint, and "cosmetic" issues, helps me inspect areas I would normally pass over - like looking closely at the frame for cracks/issues.

I think the rubbing compound is overkill. I just had a paint chip off my bike; the sandpaper (again, very fine, lightly) worked fine - all you are trying to do is smooth the rough paint I see in your picture. But if you decide to go ahead with rubbing compound, make sure you clean the residue off very well before applying the nail polish.

+1

Consider it baptized and move on. If you ride at all seriously, this will soon be the smallest blemish on your frame.

If it bothers you you can polish it out a bit with automotive rubbing compound which will camouflage it a bit. If it's through to bare metal you could use a bit of touch up paint, or nail polish to protect the exposed metal.

Odds are you'll continue to see abrasion from your lock, and since you now know where it'll be, you can protect the area from further cosmetic damage with clear protective tape. They sell clear film with a low tack adhesive, for things like chainstays (gets clobbered by the chain) and head tubes where flexing cables rub.

Or you can be like Kimmo and myself and proudly ride a bike with character lines. (what a woman whose lived a full life calls wrinkles).

Do you ride the bike or sleep with it?

Think of the ding as giving your bike character, it will soon see many more.

If that is a common area for the cable to contact the frame, get some clear tubing from the hardware store, slit with a razor blade and place it over the tube in that spot to protect/pad frame.